These figures are in millions. The source for energy R&D expenditures is from the National Council for Science and the Environment. Take a look here. Though the war in Iraq now costs about $120B a year, two authors (one a Nobel prize winner) estimates the total cost of this war exceeds 2 Trillion Dollars.

“Accrued liabilities for U.S. federal employees’ and veterans’ benefits now total $4.5 trillion. Indeed, our debt for veterans’ health and disability payments has risen by $228 billion in the past year alone…The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the interest payments on the money borrowed to finance the Iraq war will total $264 billion to $308 billion.”

That $2,000,000,000,000? Well, that amount of money could’ve built solar thermal plants here that would have provided energy for 2/3rds of our nation’s energy demand.

If you found this information eye-opening, interesting, or evocative, please throw us a bone or two (or ten). I’m a starving grad-student, Dave is just getting going selling solar in San Francisco, and we need all the support we can get to drive more traffic to the site, get more people educated about clean technology, and persuade legislators to further secure our energy independence.

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