The appended article from today's Washington Post focuses on the potential environmental impact of the new Tata 1 lakh car.
The fundamental dilemma is that the price of pristine energy is infinite.
And there's no such thing as a free lunch.
Batteries, nuclear, wind, and water all have drawbacks and a vested interest that will fight change at every step.
As the world is heating up on a purely extrapolated curve, forever, based on our CO2 output, then there isn't a solution available or on the horizon that will save humanity. This is true whether one subscribes more to Lomborg or Stern.
Viewing the problem from this perspective leads to the conclusion that the only thing that will 'save' humanity is a technology INVENTION that is currently unknown, although an inkling may be in a lab or research center.
While such an invention could out of the energy labs or the car companies or the alternative power companies, the thinking underlying the invention and its implementation requires a significant mental break from what any of these companies pursue today. (And the invention won't come from a startup, which are best able to create new products -- this is why they exist tothe right of fundamentally new ideas and inventions on the s-curve )
This is truly a game of new ideas and inventions and elbow grease. So look one level back on the s-curve for the to the lab or even possibly to the 'eccentric' who's been pursuing an almost fantastic sounding idea for twenty years.
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Washington Post
It Costs Just $2,500. It's Cute as a Bug. And It Could Mean Global Disaster.
By Mira Kamdar
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/11/AR2008011101998.html
The most hotly anticipated auto show of 2008 isn't the one set to begin in Detroit next week. It's the New Delhi Auto Expo, which opened in India three days ago and managed to beat Detroit to the punch by a week -- and $2,500.
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