[saxonklaxon]

>when nuclear power fails, it tends to fail catastrophically.

Nuclear fission, right? And let's not forget that coal mining accidents are equally catastrophic for the families of the victims.

>theres no clear reason why humans should be consuming so much electricity and energy

On the contrary, we have no choice but to consume more power. This isn't just a matter of wanting more things: it's about survival.

The talk is about climate change and animal extinctions right now but there's an unlimited number of additional environmental problems to solve if we and our fellow organisms are to survive. Warming, meteor strikes, supervolcanoes, the next ice age -- these are are just four of the known problems.

So we have no choice but to continue to increase our scientific knowledge, technology and wealth. This entails the efficient and safe wielding of greater and greater quantities of energy.

[lutorm]

efficient is the key. It's about outcomes. There's nothing saying we need greater quantities of energy, because very little of the things we as a civilization do are fundamentally energy-limited.

Over the long term, there is no shortage of energy. Unless you're going to argue about Dyson-sphere limits, the Sun provides an amount of energy far in excess of what we'd need. On that scale, the total energy available through fossil fuels and nuclear fission is a drop in the proverbial ocean.