The overarching question imparting urgency to this exploration is: Can U.S.-Russian contention in cyberspace cause the two nuclear superpowers to stumble into war? In considering this question we were constantly reminded of recent comments by a prominent U.S. arms control expert: At least as dangerous as the risk of an actual cyberattack, he observed, is cyber operations’ “blurring of the line between peace and war.” Or, as Nye wrote, “in the cyber realm, the difference between a weapon and a non-weapon may come down to a single line of code, or simply the intent of a computer program’s user.”
Although many emissions scenarios assume (or hope) that biomass will contribute a large fraction of the world's primary energy in coming decades, the future for biomass remains uncertain. If biomass is to make a major dent in the use of fossil fuels, energy crops must be grown in large quantities, requiring large tracts of land. In addition, biomass energy must be economically competitive with other sources of energy and with biological sequestration of carbon. If biomass can indeed be grown at large quantities and low costs, it is possible that the research, development, and early deployment of "clean coal" technologies may help decrease the cost for converting biomass into electricity and liquid fuels. This talk will assess these potentials for biomass to play a large role in future energy scenarios.