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The big difference here is that horses were nearly exclusively used for transportation. Fossil fuels currently provide something like 80% of all the energy used

The big difference here is that horses were nearly exclusively used for transportation. Fossil fuels currently provide something like 80% of all the energy used. So if you want your analogy to be accurate then you'd have to be back in 1890 saying "Ok, we're going to get rid of horses AND fossil fuels". Personally, I do think that burning oil derivatives is a waste and I would like to see it replaced where possible with a superior energy source but the only source that fits the bill for me is nuclear and the only responsible way to do it is to build the new power plants first and then phase out the old fossil fuel plants.

adrianN 4y ago
So we should pay now to have nuclear power in the future? Impossible, this lowers our prosperity! /s
- throwaway4aday 4y ago
  Investment is not the same as sacrifice. Sacrifice means to destroy something for the sake of something else. When you say we should sacrifice the prosperity of a few for the good of the many (paraphrasing, this is what I interpreted your original comment to mean) then that implies we permanently reduce the prosperity of some group of people. Spending money to build more nuclear power plants is instead a productive use of that time/effort/money that will return on that investment if not with dividends from the sale of the power then with increased productivity and economic output made possible by a larger energy supply. We know that nuclear power works, it's capable of producing massive amounts of electricity and powering whole countries anywhere we are able to build plants, output doesn't vary based on forces that are outside of our control, uranium is abundant and there are hundreds of years of estimated reserves in the ground. That is a plain and simple case for it to be a bridge to a future where we can produce excess and uninterrupted power using solar, preferably space based arrays that don't use up land, won't be affected by weather and produce power at night. Even better, it might be a bridge to fusion power, having more nuclear physicists and technicians around would surely speed up progress. I'm averse to reducing prosperity for anyone because it has a very non-zero chance of us never recovering to a position where we can continue to increase prosperity for all. Put plainly, creating energy poverty in the West has a good chance of knocking us into a dark age where little to no progress is made and even regression may happen which, to your concern, would increase CO2 output and worsen climatic effects.

adrianN 4y ago

So we should pay now to have nuclear power in the future? Impossible, this lowers our prosperity! /s

throwaway4aday 4y ago
Investment is not the same as sacrifice. Sacrifice means to destroy something for the sake of something else. When you say we should sacrifice the prosperity of a few for the good of the many (paraphrasing, this is what I interpreted your original comment to mean) then that implies we permanently reduce the prosperity of some group of people. Spending money to build more nuclear power plants is instead a productive use of that time/effort/money that will return on that investment if not with dividends from the sale of the power then with increased productivity and economic output made possible by a larger energy supply. We know that nuclear power works, it's capable of producing massive amounts of electricity and powering whole countries anywhere we are able to build plants, output doesn't vary based on forces that are outside of our control, uranium is abundant and there are hundreds of years of estimated reserves in the ground. That is a plain and simple case for it to be a bridge to a future where we can produce excess and uninterrupted power using solar, preferably space based arrays that don't use up land, won't be affected by weather and produce power at night. Even better, it might be a bridge to fusion power, having more nuclear physicists and technicians around would surely speed up progress. I'm averse to reducing prosperity for anyone because it has a very non-zero chance of us never recovering to a position where we can continue to increase prosperity for all. Put plainly, creating energy poverty in the West has a good chance of knocking us into a dark age where little to no progress is made and even regression may happen which, to your concern, would increase CO2 output and worsen climatic effects.