"How did we get a host?" a locked thread asks? Here is the answer.

[XemaSab]

63. Protip: don't believe everything you read on the internet

I can't speak for my fellow hosts, but here's my take on it.

We need to get off fossil fuels NOW. Not in 10 years or 20 years or 50 years or whenever, but NOW.

When I came to DU, I thought that this could be accomplished with renewable energy, but after a few years of reading the discussion and debate here I realized that if we take nuclear energy out of the picture, we have that much further uphill to roll our Sisyphean stone. I also realized through discussion here that even though there are many promising renewable technologies, they're always out in the future. There is also the persistent and unsolved problem of storage. Finally, many renewable technologies such as wind require massive amounts of natural gas power, which necessitates fracking and the pollution of groundwater.

While all this was going on, I worked on several projects that would have required the destruction of massive swaths of open space. I became pretty jaded by the shadiness of some of our clients, and I became convinced that corporate solar doesn't have our best interests at heart. I also had many talks with colleagues who were in the wind industry, and while I support PROPERLY SITED wind, I don't think we will ever see a high percent penetration into the market.

I believe in renewable energy, but I think destroying our oceans and our deserts and our plains and our forests in the name of the god of capitalism is vile. I utterly reject the industrialization of open space in the name of making a dollar and feeding the machine.

I am pro-nuclear in the same way that I am pro-abortion. It's horrible and it sucks, but it's better than fossil fuels, which are killing the entire planet as we speak.

Also for the record, I think having purity tests for hosts is bullshit. I don't care what my co-hosts believe as long as they're smart, fair, and can spot a troll.