As mankind's needs expand exponentially for energy and power when are scientists finally going to look at the enormous forces at play to provide nearly unlimited power and energy for human needs?

We have learned to get power from the small chemical exchanges of combustion. We have even learned to split an atom and catch a fraction of the energy released or convert some of the sun's energy via chemical reaction, but we haven't even begun to tap the planetary forces at work all around us constantly. We have an enormous electromagnetic field that surrounds us, we have a magnetosphere that captures and holds high energy particles in belts around the earth. We have a geothermal ball of energy at our planet's core that is an endless furnace that is completely untapped as an energy source.

How long until more scientists start thinking BIGGER and BETTER and approach the problem of human energy consumption with ideas that will provide for the needs once and for all?

So many methods and potential techniques for tapping these planetary forces for energy remain to be discovered and developed and we still tinker around with coal burning plants, internal combustion engines and ideas that were "fresh" when electricity was still a brand new concept.

While nearly unlimited energy awaits taming by man, we sit in a cultural upheaval of competition, fear and shortage. The undeveloped nations and peoples are now to be the victims of western man's "social conscience" & guilt. No power plants, no more CO2 burning engines are desired. If these nations still pump water out of the ground by hand and burn kerosene or similar fuel for light - that's their tough luck. They missed the industrial revolution bandwagon while it was going gangbusters and now they must pay the ultimate price as some folks try to strip the wheels off the wagon and shut it down altogether.

A space faring species must develop methods of power conversion that tap these forces of nature which constantly surround them. The solar system is like the galaxy that spawned it, if anything, a huge dynamo. The forces and energy at work are almost incomprehensible and once we learn to tap them will provide power for spaceships on the orbiting outside of Pluto or providing electricity for every household and vehicle on Earth.

The time for games is over. The time for wasting time is over. First we must provide for mankind - then we can rest with our laurels for a bit and enjoy what we have provided. Too many mouths go hungry. Too many people live in eternal darkness. And even in our industrial centers the shortages of one thing or another are a constant wolf at the door of prosperity and keep the horn of plenty at risk of running dry.