I like Tesla, but there's nothing sustainable about cars. The plastic they're made of, the fuel they require, and the roads that they drive on are all made of hydrocarbons (read: oil). It's a step in the right direction to make hybrids, but elimination of personal automobile ownership is the only truly sustainable option.

Whoever wrote that "elimination of personal automobile ownership is the only truly sustainable option" is someone that any reasonable person would label a "fringe lunatic". There is simply no way to change this in ANY version of the future that I can forsee. Maybe I just don't have "the vision", but then again, I think THAT vision is one that was created thanks to the help of modern chemistry.

As far as I'm concerned the problem we're facing is: 1) We, as a race, want to limit CO2 emissions (forget what side of the fence you're on regarding global warming for the minute) 2) We, as a country, want to rid ourselves of dependence on foreign oil. 3) We, as a species, want to find a CLEAN energy source that has a limited potential for pollution (e.g. no more oil spills, gas explosions, etc).

I don't think ANYONE (in the US) would argue with any of those goals and most of the world won't argue with ANY of them (forget the mid-east - they can drown in their oil once we don't need it anymore, especially after they way they've treated us).

Solar Energy is definitely one that we need to use, however, as a species we should be careful not to put all our eggs in one basket. Wind energy sounds nice, but, have we REALLY done a true environmental impact on how this can affect the planet globally, or local wind patterns, or just the local impacts of erecting these structures? Please don't think I'm against it, I just want to be more confident that what we're doing is a GOOD thing and not more destructive than what we already have. Nuclear power - I DO think we should initiate a breeder reactor program. We had one back in the 70's but it was canceled, at least in part due to big oil's pressure on the gov't NOT to reduce our dependence on oil and fossil fuels!!! In fact, Nuclear power could easily solve MANY of our problems for many years to come, but again - I think we should not put all our eggs in one basket.

While the sun itself can easily provide all the energy we need, what if the earth does get hit by a decent size rock and we enter what is typically called a "nuclear winter" - that is - the sun is blocked out for an extended period of time as in potentially YEARS!!! All the solar cells in the world won't help us then. One source of energy that we'd have left to tap is one that's sitting right beneath us right now - GEOTHERMAL.

GEOTHERMAL is one energy source that can be run 24x7, day or night, rain or shine, summer or winter, wind or no wind. It doesn't pollute, doesn't have any negative connotations associated with it, doesn't have the risk of accidents that Nuclear plants do (even though they are very, very, very small)... So.... Why haven't people recognized this fact? Why don't we construct MANY MORE Geothermal plants?

In the worst of times and in the case of a real disaster, the two power sources that I don't see giving up the ghost are Geothermal and Nuclear. I believe THESE TWO should form the axis of our power distribution, and them SUPPLEMENT them with other technologies available to help with peak loads, or simply to keep extra capacity ready for emergency needs.