It's time to change the entire energy discourse -- by changing the handles.

Up until now, solar, wind, geothermal and their cohorts have passed as “sustainable” or “renewable” energy. Fossil and nuclear have been “conventional”.

Try this out instead: Wind/solar/geothermal are smart energy. Fossil and nuclear are dumb energy.

If we want to sustain the world economy in the years to come, we must do it in ways that are ecologically astute.

(Watch for my “eco-eco” treatise: ecology and economy are really bound up as one.)

We all know intuitively that solar, wind and geothermal will have the fewest adverse effects on our ecology. It's not a matter of if - it's a matter of when.

Fossil fuels aren't going to go away. But their supplies are finite, and the earth's capacity to absorb their effects is probably at its outer limits.

Nuclear? Look, we all know the waste is fiendishly toxic. And without (a) massive subsidies and (b) caps on liability, the economics are not viable. The most polite verdict I can render is that nuclear energy is a spectacularly failed experiment. It's time to move on.

So whatcha gonna go with? Smart energy? Or dumb energy?