Reply #6: The human race is debating where it's going to find the next source of blubber/wood.

[originalpckelly]

Right about the time when we're about to find that blubber ain't all it's cracked up to be, because this shit called oil will do the trick without having to hunt it down like a moving whale. That or gas, or coal.

We're so about to build a Dyson ring, and move up the food chain for civilization development. It's just that no one's like, uh duh, that's what we obviously need to do.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_sphere

The ring is the simplest Dyson sphere, and doesn't require some kind of breakthrough in propulsion. We can do it with current technology. Perhaps we'd launch from high altitudes from airships.

If not that, then at least orbital solar power:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space-based_solar_power

Or use the same microwave transmission method to get solar energy from airships placed in the stratosphere:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratospheric_airship

We can use the envelop of the airship as a reflector, aiming light onto a single point, where it can be converted into electricity.

Wind power is just solar power collected a different way. Hell, even fossil fuels are solar power.