The severn barage is not nonsense. It's the largest renewable energy scheme in the UK. Yes it has serious disdvantages too (which is why it hasn't been done yet), but anyone who takes a serious look at the energy and climate change situation has to admit that we need it badly. Arguing about this vs. nuclear is stupid - we need both, _and_ a lot more wind turbines, and a lot more PV and it'll still be a struggle. Go and read 'without hot air' to get a good handle on the numbers.
http://www.withouthotair.com/ (You can read it for free online as well as buy the book). The biggest problem we have is working out a way of making enough energy to live on, and preferably sutain our comfortable lives whilst emitting a tiny fraction of the current amount of CO2. And the big problem there is that coal is cheaper than most of the other energy sources (up front), and if the lights go out it's going to be difficult to avoid falling back to that.
Here's a plea from James Hansen on why we don't want to go there:
http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2009/20090215_Damocles.pdf
The problem is hugely compounded by the hoplessly complacent attitude of most people to reducing their own energy use and carbon fotprint. How many of you have made a significant inroad in the _90%_ reduction in carbon footprint you need to do? That means you need to do a lot of stuff - serious house insulation, solar thermal DHW, cycling, electric vehicles, turn everything off, PV on the roof, move closer to work, stop flying, at least within Europe, stop driving about the place quite so much - hassle work to stop leaving everything on, become a vegetarian, stop buying crap you didin't need from china and so on. OK, you may not be up for all those things, but how about doing half of them?
It's a big change and most people are still fiddling round the edges by trying to remember to turn their phone charger off - thus producing a 0.05% reduction in their overall energy use. So go and measure your home electricity usage. Most of us can halve it easily by turning things off and getting rid of some of the most egregiously waseful devices. That's a good good start. Insulation is next. Most UK houses are appallingly insulated - fix yours. (That's what I've been doing for the last 4 weekends - not very exciting but it needs to be done). If you don't fancy biking to work then get an electric moped. Under a grand and will reduce your energy use by a factor of 40 over driving to work (and carbon emissions by a factor of 20 or so). Mine will pay for itself in less than 9 months - that's a hell of a payback.
At the more expensive end of the scale, a DIY set of PV panels on the roof now returns ~6% on investment, and it's going to get much better next year, so if you have a few grand in the bank turn it into panels instead. Much better return. If I fill my roof (8 grand) it'll cover my annual electricity use (because it's already been lowered) and I get to sell the rest and make a profit of 500 quid/yr or so.
So as well as moaning at the govt to get a serious move on in putting in low-carbon power of all flavours, get your own house in order. And start yesterday. Read this to see just how f*cked we already are:
http://www.courtfool.info/en_World_Energy_and_Population.htm
Don't sit here wittering:
Do something.