For Price Of Iraq War, US Could Power Half Country With Renewables (xpost from Veterans)

[unhappycamper]

http://cleantechnica.com/2013/04/08/for-price-of-iraq-war-us-could-power-half-country-with-renewables/



For Price Of Iraq War, US Could Power Half Country With Renewables
April 8, 2013
Zachary Shahan

Discussions of how to respond to climate change often involve Very Large Numbers — the needed investments to transition to a fully renewable energy system are in the hundreds of billions. The brain sort of shuts down when it encounters numbers like that. They are too big to fathom. The one thing that does seem true about them is that nobody’s ever going to spend that kind of money on anything. Right? It seems hopeless.

So I always enjoy it when someone comes along to provide some perspective, a comparison that can give us context and help us see the numbers afresh. Today, wind analyst Paul Gipe asks, how much renewable energy could we have gotten from what we spent on the Iraq War?

The total cost of the Iraq War, including future costs to care for veterans, is $2.2 trillion. If we include the interest we have to pay on the debt we used to finance the war, that figure rises to $3.9 trillion by 2053. (See Gipe’s article for sources and details.)

For David Roberts’ full piece, check out: For the price of the Iraq War, the U.S. could have gotten halfway to a renewable power system.

[gtar100]

1. But how much interest do our military leaders have in creating a sustainable future?

It seems they are caught in their own web of self-interest. What a powerful force they have behind them. But for the purposes they apply it to, it's such a shame how much opportunity is wasted.

[wtmusic]

2. Doctrine from the Church of Renewables

What about the peaking plants required to back it up?

"Hallelujah!"

Why is the installed cost of solar 20% lower than estimates in MIT's Technology Review?

"Praise to Mark Jacobson!"

Why is the cost of infrastructure improvements (€1 trillion for Germany, US electricity consumption is 16x Germany's) not included at all?

"Facts Satan has you in his grip...Resist, Brother!"

[pscot]

3. Criminal malfeasance

wrt appropriate allocation of scarce resources.

[Nihil]

4. People can bicker over the figures ...

... but the fact remains that every dollar wasted on wars for fossil fuel is one dollar that
should have been spent on getting people *off* fossil fuels and the more people who
realise this, including/especially military & ex-military ones, the better.