making biodiesel from algae? cool.

news.com (and what's up with that .com.com thing, anyway?) and slashdot are talking about it. you can read more about it here. you can also find a plethora of other sources on google.

the oil companies fear it. but it is a must. the future. the only inevitable conclusion as to the sane path of existance for a sentient, expanding, nonsuicidal race and or species.

i'm talking (and by talking, what i really mean is _writing_) about clean(er) power. we can't ignore that we are damaging our own planet with various pollutions. whether or not it's gonna catch up with us within our lifetime is irrelevant. we're still poisoning our planet, and it's eventually going to have repercussions that _somebody_ is going to have to deal with--be it our kids or our kids' kids or whatever.

the continued profits of the oil companies is not a good enough reason to ignore the need for clean power. we already have several promising leads and ideas we already have. between biodiesel, hydropower (in its various incarnations), wind turbines, solar, fuel cell methods and nuclear reactors, the future of cleaner power seems bright at a glance.

i say cleaner because that's just what it is. cleaner. even things like solar power (which eventually renders useless solar panels) and windfarms (which take up space and create visual pollution) have certain drawbacks, certain _costs_.

but in this writer's less than humble opinion, the costs levied by several of these methods, combined with the cost of migrating from current methods, are far outweighed by the benefits we (the human race) would receive in the long run.

bottom line is someone's gonna have to do it, or it'll never get done. and even taking the long timeline, i don't want my descendents cursing my generation for what _we_ allowed to happen to their planet.

i don't drive an electric car (but i _do_ carpool, walk a lot of places, etc.) because the benefits do not outweigh the consequences. in other words, the benefit our planet would receive from me not using my car aren't enough to make it worth it to me for the changes required on my part. and i think that holds true for many of us. but maybe it shouldn't.

i simply don't have the means for an equivalent method of transportation. but if i did, i would certainly take it. if i gave up my car, it would be out of principle. the impact the lack of my one car would have on the ecosystem is practically zero, but the harm it would cause my lifestyle is not practically zero. as an american consumer, i don't have viable alternatives.

i mean i could trade the old caddy in for one of those hybrid combustion electric combination vehicles, but that's a limited effect, much like walking rather than driving when the weather's nice, or taking a carpool or public trans like the bus or train. it's not truly a solution.

even electric train systems, which in and of themselves don't produce that much toxicity, still require power, much of which comes from coal and oil.

now, earlier i mentioned nuclear as being cleaner. some of you may disagree with me on this point. i declare nuclear power as being cleaner on the grounds that while it does produce toxic waste material, that waste is in our control, rather than being sprayed incessantly into the atmosphere or dripped into our water supply.

with proper safeguards, handling, and storage facilities, nuclear waste could be contained on an indefinate basis, either on planet or off. and a nuclear reactor makes _so much_ power.

but, it certainly scares a lot of people, too.

the oil companies are finally starting to consider forward thinking a threat. in the past, every time clean power has challenged current practices, there's always been a way to shift public attention, downplay the significance, or otherwise obscure the issues. any problems they can't downplay, they just throw money at.

they've made it seem like pollution isn't our problem. and i guess we could probably treat it as such, with no immediate consequences, but is that really what we want to do? just pretend it's not happening, because it's not gonna kill us?

that seems pretty selfish.