Providing decent living with minimum energy: A global scenario

[PETRUS]

4. Thanks for your comments.

For me, the main value of the paper is to emphasize that there's plenty to go around, and it's possible for everyone to lead decent lives (that include a variety of modern conveniences) without also wrecking our habitat, as long as we're reasonable and responsible.

I agree that nuclear power needs to be part of the strategy. My impression is that it's not possible to scale it up quickly enough (or even high enough) to handle rising power demands, though. And even if can find a clean solution for meeting higher energy use, that doesn't solve the problem of material throughput, which is also threatening to provoke ecological collapse. That's why I believe we need to figure out a way to scale back both energy and material use.

Finally, I want to highlight something you wrote because I think it's really important: "Next we need a society that educates and empowers women. Sex education should be realistic and practical and birth control easily available. That's how human populations are stabilized." It's true that providing women with educational opportunity and allowing them to control their own reproduction tends to lower birthrates. But even if that weren't the case, this is still the right thing to do. All humans are equally deserving of dignity, respect, and autonomy.