""For the near future we are stuck with a carbon based economy irregardless of the morality of this situation.""

And when the oil, and later the coal, run out.

Internal combustion engines run perfectly happily on hydrogen gas, producing only water vapour.

There is an unlimited supply of hydrogen in the sea, as the water vapour given off will naturally cycle back into that body.

Two things make hydrogen too expensive for current use.

1. It costs more to separate seawater than to refine oil, as it requires electrolysis, with the fossil fuel supplying the energy needed.

However, advances in solar power generation are bringing that cost down.

2. Hydrogen is murderously explosive and can shimmy through the minutest gaps.

However there is a way to use it employing zeolytes, according to NASA.

My feeling is that as oil and coal diminish, cost will become academic.

Don T.