Is ignorance bliss?  I'm feeling fiesty, so lets parse:  It can be, but not necessarily.  Many are in stark misery, often knowing the point of the sword/machete but having little realization of all that is behind it.  Or--take the misery of declining living standards/expectations in America.  Kiddies with degrees can't get jobs.  They know the point of the spear:  no jobs.  Their ignorance is in not connecting lack of jobs with bad regulations from Washington all in favor of the already too rich.  Eg--we still give tax credits to companies that relocate overseas, eg:  failure to tax fuel making imports more expensive, eg--we still allow corporations to offshore their profits to bring it all home every 10-15 years via a tax holiday, eg--voting to end inheritance taxes and maintaining the budget by cutting social services.  Ignorance causing all kinds of misery.

I don't know why that saying has such a cache.  Must be some kind of ignorance?

Is ignorance bliss?

Yes. But, only in sufficient quantity. Those you describe have insufficient bliss.

Relevant to coal burning for the efficient "no problem" status of electronic news is this item:

http://autos.yahoo.com/news/hybrids-can-be-less-polluting-than-coal-powered-evs.html

Its true of almost any issue:  there is a generally true/average level of understanding, and then you have to "drill down" to the details==always a mix of things.

Same with photo-voltaics, winde, tidal, space beams==what are the drilled down offsets?

But "on average" I think finding carbon free renewable energy sources will make 95% of todays problems/issues/challenges "go away" only to introduce a new batch of problems/issues/challenges and nay sayers saying progress always results in bigger problems.

Imagine that?

Relevant to coal burning for the efficient "no problem" status of electronic news is this item:

http://autos.yahoo.com/news/hybrids-can-be-less-polluting-than-coal-powered-evs.html

Its true of almost any issue:  there is a generally true/average level of understanding, and then you have to "drill down" to the details==always a mix of things.

Same with photo-voltaics, winde, tidal, space beams==what are the drilled down offsets?

But "on average" I think finding carbon free renewable energy sources will make 95% of todays problems/issues/challenges "go away" only to introduce a new batch of problems/issues/challenges and nay sayers saying progress always results in bigger problems.

Imagine that?

Excellent article. It's important to pay very close attention to the exact wording of such an article though. For years, studies have shown that if all cars in the U.S. were fully electric vehicles, even if all of the power in the country was from coal, we would still reduce GHGs by 30%.

This takes into account the average fuel efficiency of our current fleet.

The article you cite points out that higher mileage cars than our current fleet, such as Prii (50 MPG), hybrid civics (~43 MPG if I remember correctly), hybrid camrys (43 MPG), etc. actually are still better than EVs powered by coal.

Very interesting!

And, yes, even renewable energy technologies have downsides. Though, none come close to coal or tar sands or worst of all liquid fuel made from coal. But, the only thing I've found with nearly zero real downside is birth control, especially surgical. Nothing most of us can afford to do increases one's carbon foot to the extent of breeding. And, since our offspring are also likely to breed, it's a pollution source that keeps on polluting.

Remember, those whose parents did not breed are extremely unlikely to do so themselves.

I agree we have enough people on the planet.  Sad most of our social/industrial policies are based on the ponzi scheme of "growing" economies.

tick.....tock.

Things the Electric corps dont want..
COMPETITION
A distributed system..insted of having MAIN locations, spread them out..Some states have no facilities to MAKE POWER.

I love people who think Dams are better then solar, and dams take less space..
I suggest to them that 500 miles of water ways ISNT SMALL..and thats just the surface of the LAKE that was made.  If you want Cubics, I will look them up.
Then the thought of SHARING that water with irrigation..see who wins..

bobbo,

Continuously and perpetually growing economy as a ponzi scheme, hmm..., I hadn't thought of it as such. But, of course it is. Good point.