3 ms·

Interesting aspect about fusion power in relation to the current climate crisis and fusion technology still being decades away from mass adoption is that we do

Interesting aspect about fusion power in relation to the current climate crisis and fusion technology still being decades away from mass adoption is that we do need to electrical infrastructure. We need a robust grid, we need electric transportation vehicles, we need electric heating and cooking, etc. If we got fusion tomorrow, it would be cool, but it still wouldn’t save us from the climate crisis because we simply don’t have the infrastructure to use all that electricity. Transferring to renewable energy as we build up the infrastructure and retrofit our housing is the smart choice here. And when fusion finally becomes a reality, we’ll be ready to use all that abundant energy from day one. Maybe we could use all this extra energy for sucking carbon out of the atmosphere in a giant cleanup effort.

aussiesnack 4y ago
Yes. At least we know how to build the infrastructure. It can be done very quickly if we so choose & fund. And again, yes, fusion could conceivably help us reverse some of the damage caused in the meantime. Re fusion power, the causality is the reverse of how it's normally expressed. We don't need fusion to fix the climate crisis (it comes too late). But we do need to fix the climate crisis to be able to create usable fusion power. The scale of research & implementation it relies on depends on a well-functioning global network of nations. If we collapse into multiple wars over who will take the hundreds of millions of mid-century refugees, who will and won't quit fossil fuels, not to mention the trivialities of Great Power politicking, then fusion power just won't happen.