Solar Energy Breakthrough

For copyright considerations I won't reprint the article here. But the article states the obvious: virtually free, limitless energy. What it doesn't say is what this could mean for the global environment. Just imagine if, in ten years, this is engineered so that solar batteries collect energy to power our cars as well as our houses. For many of us, we would make the shift in lifestyle to adapt to shorter-range vehicles, perhaps leaving long-distance travel to trains or whatnot. Within ten years, global emissions could be drastically reduced as coal plants are shuttered, cars convert to zero-emission energy, and the only combustion engines would be those necessary for long-distance travel such as trucks and trains. It wouldn't eradicate all carbon emissions, since there's not really a way to substitute for airplane travel, for instance, but it could potentially slow global warming within a few decades.

As long as Exxon doesn't crush this or gain control of the technology, that is.