To All of the Folks Out There Who Think that You Can Manage a Modern Industrial Economy On Solar Panels and Wind Turbines

  Ya' can't. a) The power density is a small fraction that of nuclear, hydro, and hydrocarbons (you would literally have to pave entire counties to generate the power of just a couple nuclear plants). b) The resource intensity is higher and more costly (the raw materials and energy needed to make just one wind turbine is prohibitive). c) They're simply too unreliable and intermittent to be relied upon (that and the capacity to store such energy is still woefully inadequate). And d) because of this intermittence there needs to be a fossil fuel or nuclear backup, which in the case of coal needs to be fired up constantly in order to be effective. Now, if some genius out there can alter the laws of thermodynamics............