Law

This troubles me ...

Too often, it seems to me, diaries about highly speculative (often based on university press releases about laboratory activity) items re energy advances end up spending serious time on the recommended list. 

In my perhaps faulty conception, huge enthusiasm for such 'press release' discussions where there is (too often) downplaying (if not simply failure to note) the speculative nature of the announcement (in terms of it ever having an impact in the real world) help contribute to 'technology will save us' and 'wait for the breakthrough' mentality which is one of the (too many) serious challenges we face in fostering a shift toward a smarter energy system.

The wind power diary (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/27/1049178/-Wind-Power-Breakthrough) that has over 300 recommendations is an example of such a discussion. Look at the title:  "Wind Power Breakthrough".  Look at the first sentence:

It wasn't until the diary had made the recommended list that this was added:


The story is from 2008 and, as far as I (and others who looked) can tell at the moment, the claimed 'next steps' don't seem to have occurred.

Is this an interesting concept that might have promise?  Yes.  Is it an incredibly hard thing to accomplish?  From what I can tell, yes.  Is this anything like a near-term 'solution' that will have impact on our energy / environmental / economic challenges and opportunities?  No.

Yet, this is the type of energy story that gets boosted up to the attention of 100s/1000s that do not seem to pay attention, in detail, to energy issues and discussions.

Note that my handle is not on the 'recommended' ...

But many in this list group are ...

Thus, perspective?  Reaction?  Concepts for how to foster more robust discussions of energy while helping place speculative (even as often exciting) announcements in context?  ???

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