If energy consumption continues exponentially we will cook ourselves.
There's plenty of land for solar, and then there are the oceans, and it's here now. In the medium term we should look at modular fission, and deep geothermal, potentially re-deploying fossil extraction technology.
I'm all for fusion as scientific research, but let's drop the pretense that using it to generate power is remotely realistic for many decades, if ever.
Once you start covering land that isn't a complete desert with solar panels you start competing with photosynthesizing organisms, even more-so with oceans. I don't think anyone expects fusion to be viable within a decade or two. Beyond that I don't know but I absolutely think it's worth funding.
There's plenty of land for solar, and then there are the oceans, and it's here now. In the medium term we should look at modular fission, and deep geothermal, potentially re-deploying fossil extraction technology.
I'm all for fusion as scientific research, but let's drop the pretense that using it to generate power is remotely realistic for many decades, if ever.