The total amount of energy we use every year - from coal, oil, natural gas, hydro, nuclear, and everything else - is dwarfed by the amount of solar energy hitting the planet each year.


Ramez Naam

  Email Quote to Friends   Link to Quote   Create Short URL  Publish Text About This Quote   Share on Facebook, Twitter, and more
  See Recommended Quotes For You

Related

Jim Gibbons has maintained the status quo by supporting tax breaks for utilities to continue produci...
DINA TITUS
Electricity is derived from many non-renewable energy sources like oil, natural gas and coal.
LAMAR S. SMITH
There is an urgent need to stop subsidizing the fossil fuel industry, dramatically reduce wasted ene...
BILL MCKIBBEN
First, by 2020, North America will be energy independent by taking full advantage of our oil and coa...
MITT ROMNEY
Our nation's power plant fleet must include a mix of solar, wind, hydro, natural gas and nuclear...
LYNN GOOD
We should not just consume hydrocarbon fuel but use it to develop nuclear energy, hydro power and re...
VLADIMIR PUTIN
Burning carbon-based substances like oil, gas, and especially coal, produces billions of tons of ext...
BILL NYE
We have to slow down the emissions of carbon dioxide and methane from coal burning, oil and eventual...
RAMEZ NAAM
We must proceed with our own energy development. Exploitation of domestic petroleum and natural gas ...
GERALD R. FORD
Chinese growth will either be strong or very strong. They have a voracious demand for energy that wi...
JOHN S. WATSON
The world is full of tradeoffs, and sometimes 'renewable power' activists fail to recognize that. So...
BEN LIEBERMAN
Of course we have to use coal... the renewable energy sources will supplement the supply from coal.
PIYUSH GOYAL
Do your analysis of energy costs. Either it comes from windmills and solar or things like nuclear an...
JIM RATCLIFFE
With nuclear and hydro resources pretty much tapped out, it comes down to a debate between coal and ...
MARK MOREY
The use of solar energy has not been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun.
RALPH NADER
The bill passed by the House and Senate will increase the use of energy efficiency technologies to e...
KATERI CALLAHAN
Since 1850, burning of fossil fuels, coal, oil and natural gas has increased 100 times to produce en...
JOHN OLVER
The more traditional fuel sources we have relied on as a nation - coal, oil, and natural gas - I'...
LISA MURKOWSKI
We are already witnessing a transformation in the U.S. economy to increased production of lower carb...
MARTIN O'MALLEY
Once we have inexpensive energy, we can readily and inexpensively convert the vast amount of dirty a...
RAY KURZWEIL
I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. ...
KELLY JONES
Turkey's energy bill due to imports will fall with the increase in use of renewable energy sourc...
ALI BABACAN
Using geothermal energy instead of natural gas heating and electrical air conditioning reduces the g...
LESLIE THOMAS
You've got wind, solar, hydro, geothermal, biomass, nuclear.
CARL NELLIS
I think God has blessed this country with enormous natural resources, and we should pursue all of th...
TED CRUZ
We go through an unbelievable amount of paper targets each year. We have hundreds of kids shooting e...
BUD BOWMAN
We have more natural resources - coal, oil, wind - across the board not only to be energy independen...
RYAN ZINKE
That is why it is so important that consumers do whatever they can to reduce the amount of natural g...
DAVID GOSS
The amount of energy saved by switching off the phone charger is exactly the same as the energy used...
DAVID J. C. MACKAY
You must remember to compare benefits versus costs. For the foreseeable future, the only affordable ...
LARRY ELDER
Natural gas emits only half the carbon dioxide of coal when burned, but if methane leaks when oil co...
THOMAS FRIEDMAN
The Asian nation's oil demand is expected to grow this year by 800,000 barrels per day and repre...
GARY MILLER
Iran has every right for enrichment ... for peaceful use of nuclear energy.
ALEXANDER RUMYANTSEV
Change requires an abundant amount of energy. Once complete though, a much smaller amount of energy ...
CHARLES M FORD II
In terms of energy sectors, we need coal; we need oil; we need gas; we need uranium. And we need to ...
MATT MEAD
Coal is the core of northeast Wyoming. Natural gas and oil, in their heydays, were the most signific...
BUCK MCVEIGH
How much computation can you squeeze from a given amount of energy.
KWABENA BOAHEN
Approximately 60 percent of our energy, looking at next year, will be generated by coal. The coal wi...
KAREN KOLLMAN
America's oil and natural gas industry practices energy efficiency every day within its operations, ...
BOB GALLAGHER
~ There is an infinite amount of energy within consciousness, stop siphoning the energy through othe...
NICOLE STRANTZ
They might do photosynthesis in the ultraviolet as opposed to the visual spectrum. It's a tremendous...
DAVID GRINSPOON
Any death is stupid from the viewpoint of whoever is undergoing it, Adam One used to say, because no...
MARGARET ATWOOD
If we are serious about moving toward energy independence in a cost-effective way, we should invest ...
BERNIE SANDERS
Try everything. Do everything. Nuclear. Biomass. Coal. Solar. You name it. I support them all.
T. BOONE PICKENS
Meridian grew 400 percent last year so we had five times as much business as the year before. Much o...
CHIP WOLFE
The amount of energy the country is producing is not enough. The demand is increasing.
ANIL KAKODKAR
If you ask the average person on the street about U.S. energy and U.S. oil in particular, our situat...
REX TILLERSON
Compared to coal, which generates almost half the electricity in the United States, natural gas is i...
JEFF GOODELL
The oil rise benefits energy stocks, shares are fairly valued and we expect decent earnings this yea...
FELIX LANTERS
We live in a world bathed in 5,000 times more energy than we consume as a species in the year, in th...
PETER DIAMANDIS
The amount of power freed by telling yourself you no longer choose to put energy into something can ...
PETER MCWILLIAMS
The nation's energy needs will be hostage to politically unstable states unless the government's ene...
DEREK SIMPSON
The money we are seeking is the amount we paid in excess of a just and reasonable rate, according to...
TOM DRESSLAR
Anytime that you look up to the clear sky and see colors in it, you should be suspecting that you ar...
STEVEN MAGEE
We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using...
THOMAS A. EDISON
When coal came into the picture, it took about 50 or 60 years to displace timber. Then, crude oil wa...
REX TILLERSON
Oil and gas are limited resources, ... Wasteful use of these fuels and the burning of coal are the m...
IAN LOWE
I mean, there is amazing amount of oil and gas and other resources out beneath the sea. It's sta...
ROBERT BALLARD
the peaceful use of nuclear energy without a fuel cycle is an empty proposition.
MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD
Russian natural gas will remain the backbone of European gas supplies. But we should strive for gas ...
MARTIN BARTENSTEIN
Nuclear, ecological, chemical, economic — our arsenal of Death by Stupidity is impressive for a sp...
JEANETTE WINTERSON
The total for the year is only 19.46 inches. Of this amount, only .13 of an inch fell in December on...
STUART CHILTON
Among the many important provisions in the energy bill are the creation of an estimated half million...
PAUL GILLMOR
You're seeing the effects of an electricity pricing mechanism that's tied to the cost of natural gas...
JAMES HALLORAN
There's 20 companies that I have investments in - some batteries, some solar-thermal, one big nu...
BILL GATES
The oceans store an enormous amount of heat energy, and they act to buffer any rapid climate change....
EDWARD KEARNS
We devote a good amount of time, energy and efforts educating them about bigotry and hatred.
BARRY MORRISON
I assume we will have figured out a way to efficiently utilize solar energy and tied that to an effi...
JOHN HICKENLOOPER
Life is the gift, itself. And any other additions, are the blessings!
FLOYD WILLIAMS
In reality, studies show that investments to spur renewable energy and boost energy efficiency gener...
JEFF GOODELL
We use the same amount of salt whether we have 6 inches or 1 inch of snow on the roads. We go from s...
LEO MITKOSKI
We found unequivocally that it does not take more energy than you get out of the amount of ethanol. ...
DAN KAMMEN
Energy is going to catch the attention of the market. It's probably a force that's not going to leav...
JOHN AUGUSTINE
But China cannot be complacent, ... In the last year its GDP grew nine percent, but energy use incre...
IAN LOWE
There's a tremendous amount of speculative money going into energy futures.
JAMES CORDIER
As a member of both the energy and environment committees, I am constantly astounded by how many of ...
BERNIE SANDERS
She felt Britain should not be so dependent on coal. She was in favour of building up nuclear energy...
NIGEL LAWSON
Nearly all of our existing power sources are generators which use a heat cycle. This includes our co...
WILSON GREATBATCH
The third trend is the resurgence of clean coal. And that's being driven by two things: technologica...
JIM SIMS
The EPA could act to open the transportation-fuel market to vigorous competition from natural gas as...
ROBERT ZUBRIN
It's a renewable source of energy that's renewable every year.
ED WHITEHOUSE
We do have serious energy needs for the country, we are aware that natural gas is especially in dema...
GALE NORTON
When coal came into the picture, it took about 50 or 60 years to displace timber. Then crude oil was...
REX TILLERSON
Most of the men and women who vote in Congress each year to continue subsidies have taken campaign d...
BILL MCKIBBEN
The routes we operate have to be economically viable. With (crude oil) going from $40 to $60 (per ba...
DEAN BREEST
Vladimir Putin is leading a dying country. Vladimir Putin's regime exports three things: petrole...
OLIVER NORTH
There's enormous energy required to carry grudges - enormous energy! And I'm getting too old...
ED KOCH
Clinton understands that climate change is real, is caused by human activity and is one of the great...
BERNIE SANDERS
I think the long-term potential is very, very good. There's a large amount of energy in the ocean.
ALAN WALLACE
This merger is a cataclysmic event, second only to the Big Bang in the amount of energy it produces.
JOAN CENTRELLA
There are probably individual gas stations out there that sell more street gas in a year than all of...
JOHN HOLLAND
Nuclear power is a dangerous energy source that creates more problems than it solves. Switching from...
DAN BECKER
The greatest natural resource our country has is not oil. It's not gas. It's not coal. It...
CORY BOOKER
Each year, we thrive on the energy brought to the Association through the leadership of our Board of...
JEFF SERFASS
We haven't done an honest evaluation of the role energy efficiency can play in our economic developm...
IVAN URLAUB
We look forward to the US Congress passing the legislation to enable full civil nuclear energy coope...
SHYAM SARAN
We were looking for an opportunity to increase the size of the trust. This combination creates what ...
BILL ANDREW
Last year we gave six scholarships of $1,000 each. This year we would like to give four scholarships...
ANGIE COX
We are considering various ways of making use of our oil and gas downstream industries. This is to b...
HASSANAL BOLKIAH
Energy fields define who we are as humans.
STEVEN MAGEE

More Ramez Naam

The accumulated knowledge of materials, computing, electromagnetism, product design, and all the res...
RAMEZ NAAM
On almost every environmental issue I care about, in fact, I've been wrong at one point or anoth...
RAMEZ NAAM
AI does not keep me up at night. Almost no one is working on conscious machines. Deep learning algor...
RAMEZ NAAM
I've tried Oculus Rift; I've played with the Steam VR rig. Both are mind-blowing. In a tradi...
RAMEZ NAAM
Technology is incredibly powerful. And in many ways, the sky is the limit in terms of what you can a...
RAMEZ NAAM
I have an 'office,' technically. I never use it. I work on a couch in my living room, with m...
RAMEZ NAAM
There's a preponderance of scientists and engineers among China's rulers. New President Xi J...
RAMEZ NAAM
Orwell wasn't right about where society was in 1984. We haven't turned into that sort of sur...
RAMEZ NAAM
In a VR setting, you tilt your head up, and you really have the vertigo and the sense that it goes u...
RAMEZ NAAM
Orange juice from concentrate is labeled. Food coloring Red #5 is labeled. Fish are labeled as to wh...
RAMEZ NAAM
We have to slow down the emissions of carbon dioxide and methane from coal burning, oil and eventual...
RAMEZ NAAM
'Brave New World' dealt with a kind of proto-genetic engineering of the unborn, through real...
RAMEZ NAAM
Solar power is going to be absolutely essential to meeting growing energy demands while staving off ...
RAMEZ NAAM
We are cyborgs already. If you learn to read, it causes permanent changes to the structure of your b...
RAMEZ NAAM
In the end, our minds and their ability to create new ideas are the ultimate source of all human wea...
RAMEZ NAAM
Wild fish are under threat of extinction because they're hunted to feed us. Yet land animals tha...
RAMEZ NAAM
There are really two kinds of optimism. There's the complacent, Pollyanna optimism that says, &#...
RAMEZ NAAM
When you're managing a large number of people, you learn that incentives matter tremendously. Yo...
RAMEZ NAAM
The real use of AI in industry is generally for very narrow pattern-matchers - a better search algor...
RAMEZ NAAM
Each additional idea is a gift to the future. Each additional idea producer is a source of wealth fo...
RAMEZ NAAM
I support GMOs. And we should label them. We should label them because that is the very best thing w...
RAMEZ NAAM
We've seen over time that countries that have the best economic growth are those that have good ...
RAMEZ NAAM
I'm a computer scientist by training. I'm also the author of three books, all of which endor...
RAMEZ NAAM
Neural implants could accomplish things no external interface could: Virtual and augmented reality w...
RAMEZ NAAM
I'm a geek through and through. My last job at Microsoft was leading much of the search engine r...
RAMEZ NAAM
We must learn to set our emotions aside and embrace what science tells us. GMOs and nuclear power ar...
RAMEZ NAAM
Genetically modified organism (GMO) foods are feared and hated by environmentalists and the public a...
RAMEZ NAAM
If we fix our economic system and invest in the human capital of the poor, then we should welcome ev...
RAMEZ NAAM
The world has a very serious problem, my friend' Shiva went on. 'Poor children still die by their mi...
RAMEZ NAAM
I do a lot of speaking about energy and environment. But that's more a second job than a hobby. ...
RAMEZ NAAM
Technology is vital. We have to have development in new technology if we're going to solve these...
RAMEZ NAAM
Americans mostly now believe the climate is changing. They believe that humans are causing it, and t...
RAMEZ NAAM
Food production has affected the environment more than any other activity humans have engaged in. Hu...
RAMEZ NAAM
Ideas come mostly bottoms-up. They come when you have a free flow of ideas and you have people able ...
RAMEZ NAAM
Threats that could wipe out the bulk of life on earth abound. Planetary catastrophe could come in th...
RAMEZ NAAM
The final frontier of the digital technology is integrating into your own brain.
RAMEZ NAAM
On a large scale, people aren't going to cut back how much they use. That's a pipe dream. If...
RAMEZ NAAM
Everything good and bad about technology would be magnified by implanting it deep in brains. Is the ...
RAMEZ NAAM
I absolutely hated 'Gattaca.' I left the theater shaking my head because the science in the ...
RAMEZ NAAM
What we want to do is put a price on greenhouse gases. Because if they're more expensive, busine...
RAMEZ NAAM
Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, and others have stated that they think AI is an existential risk. I disa...
RAMEZ NAAM
You have to be able to generate usable energy without greenhouse gas emissions, and you have to be a...
RAMEZ NAAM
But Nita had always seen having a child as selfish. Why bring another soul into this world, she'd sa...
RAMEZ NAAM
Do you think that a billion people knowing your face makes you special?
It doesn't.
RAMEZ NAAM