# effect of world with free, unlimited, clean energy?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/effect-of-world-with-free-unlimited-clean-energy/815830>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [June 10, 2018, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/effect-of-world-with-free-unlimited-clean-energy/815830 "2018-06-10T17:30:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2018, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/effect-of-world-with-free-unlimited-clean-energy/815830/21 "2018-06-11T04:00:29Z")

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> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> I’m not paying another dime for insulation. I’m never turning the heat down again. I can think of a lot more ways to waste energy, and so can everyone else.

Come to think of it, I would like to have a refrigerator in the bathroom.

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**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2018, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/effect-of-world-with-free-unlimited-clean-energy/815830/22 "2018-06-11T11:56:24Z")

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as James Burke pointed out ion one of his books/TV series (_Connections_ or _The Day the Universe Changed_), unlimited power would still leave you with the problem of all the heat generated by the use of that power – possibly more than re4sults now because people would use more of the “free” energy. There’s no such thing as a Free Lunch.

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**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2018, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/effect-of-world-with-free-unlimited-clean-energy/815830/23 "2018-06-11T15:29:20Z")

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> [@ftg](#):
>
> TNSTAAFL is my take as well. So, if energy becomes noticeably cheaper what happens?
> 
> We went thru this with food. The percentage of our resources that go to finding/growing/processing/etc. food has dropped dramatically. Some obvious changes. Went from almost all people living on farms to not that many within 50+ years.
> 
> Lots of changes from that. But we didn’t really have a major upheaval. No civil war or anything.

We did see a decrease in famine. And farming, unlike energy, is widely distributed. There is no OPEC for grain. And there are no countries supporting vast infrastructure on farming only.

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**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2018, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/effect-of-world-with-free-unlimited-clean-energy/815830/24 "2018-06-11T15:33:21Z")

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> [@Wesley\_Clark](#):
>
> Russia’s geopolitical influence would decline without fossil fuels as a form of income and leverage.
> 
> Mass employment changes as millions of jobs in the energy sector disappear.

Yeah, Putin would really be screwed.  
In the US the pain will not be evenly distributed. Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma are heavily dependent on energy, and their economies would plummet. I lived in Louisiana just before the 1980 energy decline, and things went to hell pretty quickly. And that was nothing like a free energy situation would be.  
On the bright side, fewer earthquakes in Oklahoma.

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