We SO need a change in leadership.

No matter what a subject, you are going to always have pros vs cons. But to just throw in the towel on any and all sources of fuel, or idea for that matter, is very naive.

If we don't utilize some of these technologies we (You) might as well go back and live in a cave! Or under one of those bridges they have so many of every where.

These minerals are being mined every day and are being transported to a loading zone in open air containers (rail cars - ships) clear across, not just the nation but the world, pick a coast for export. Then they sit off the coast of China for how long. How eco friendly do you think they are. Then they are dumped in a pile and shipped across what ever distance and off loaded agin.

By building power stations on site of largest vein, you utilze your own resources, cut cost and over-all pollution! You are never going to eliminate all particles due to the fact the wind blows every day every where.

I suggest you enjoy your Prius and way of life you know now, because if this sort of attitude (we can't do this because, we can't do that because) continues, by the time you get off your hands, every thing will have been decieded for you! We will be very limited and only the elite will have the means to survive!

And by the way, we won't have a say, they will just cram it down our throats because we won't have the means to to defend ourselves because we sat on our hands to long!

 

That wasn't politically charged at all.....

Go live in a cave? No, I would much rather reduce our consumption using new and old technologies. There are many ways to do this and they do not require a large increase in our net fuel use to implement. Once done our consumption levels will drop drastically. I am not concerned with China's procedures at this moment, I am concerned with our own. Don't go pointing fingers at other nations like so many of the Rush Limbaugh fanboys are so inclined to do. Let's fix our problems first. I don't know about you but I'm not sitting on my hands. I attend at least 1 or 2 environmental design conferences a year and promote the ideas learned there on my campus and everywhere else in my daily life.

Using poor sources of fuel because we have to is not a real argument. We have plenty of low-hanging fruit to pick in term of energy consumption reduction.

Start here:

Stanford Energy Lectures - Advanced Energy Efficiency: Concepts and Practice (hours of lecture series)

High performance Building - Persepective and Practice (video on energy efficient buildings)

 

1st of all I don't care for Rush Limbaugh.

2nd, you contradict your self by stating you want to reduce our consumption using new and old technologies. What is coal? What is not transporting coal to new or planned power stations, conservation. You should come and visit our mines. The units used to dig are run on electricity produced on site.

3rd, consumption world wide is killing us at home, World consumption is going up, so you need to pull your head out of where ever it is and see the problem for what it really is! Look at the big piture and not dwell in you own little world on campus. Doesn't have a thing to do with pointing fingers.

4th, When you get that new more efficient Prius they are talking about, (if we, or should I say the average person, can afford it when it gets here) are you going to get the electricity to juice it up when you are in a black out?

Ohh! I guess I should of looked ahead a little bit and looked at the big piture not just what is going on in my own little world. which is prettending that I am all wise and know it all.

 

I understood the field was already weakening. I was speculating about the mechanism, rather than the effects.

 

1) Could have fooled me with your almost pre-formatted diatribe and language.

2) New and old technologies = green chemistry, bioengineered substances and materials, using natural energy flows to heat and cool spaces, using reclaimed materials to produce "new" ones, planting native species and using rainwater harvesting techniques etc. Coal is not the long term answer. If we did not consume so damn much maybe every mine could be as prsitine as you claim yours is. Maybe you should go visit other mines. Shall I suggest one in the Appalachians?

3) I be willing to bet that I am more informed on global consumption issues than you are. Have you not seen the myriad of posts where I have linked to the World Watch Institute and other sources of global information? Ahh that's right, you have not been here that long. I'm 33 years old and have seen my share of life beyond the campus so please do not make assumptions based on my being a student again. I work in the real world and have many connections in nearly every industry except nuclear energy and the sex slave trade! Your assumption that I am some young, inexperienced school kid who have never experienced life outside of school is completely wrong.

4) There you go again, looking just beyond your nose and not far enough out in time. We should be pushing for a revamp of the entire transportation sector so cars are not really required for a normal life. Renewable energy in the form of solar and wind power will charge up one of those fancy new plug-in Prius' if they ever come around. Just ask Darrelldd

 

Ahh I gotcha. Your guess is as good as mine, I'm not geophysicist either.

 

Afore mentioned is fine and dandy, but not everyone is going to live in or near a city with mass transit. I agree that some of the afore mentioned practices need to be followed.

I have a few years on you so I have a a bit of real world knowledge as well as a degree in, of all things, business, minored in Aeronauticle Studies, and this probably has some bearing on how I look at things.

Not trying to be a jerk! The change process strarts with us not the politicians. They may go in with fine ideas and end up like all that went before them. Have had my share of that as well. Went to DC to lobby for foster parents and got basically "It's a bill of a fellow democrat's but doen't have my name on it response so I didn't sign it"

Change in it's self is hard for most!

I kind of see the same happening here at this site! Even though I am proud to be doing things to try and undo some of the damage done by other generations as well as my own, I feel I can and should do more.. I can be a hypocrite at times, ie.. short term solutions. The reason for this is that I am getting up there in years and have 2 young childern that need the things energy provides at a resonable cost NOW. So improving on exsisting sources until we experiment with and come up with alternatives is the only answer I have. It's not political!

My youngest was diagnosed with cancer when she was 3 1/2 yr of age. We noticed subtel things from about 1 year to then, she is now 8. We were dismissed as being hypochondriac's. My wife and mother inlaw have worked in the medical feild their whole lives and my wife found it! The whole time we went through chemo we had to keep reminding "The Professionals" how to administer drugs and do cares. We researched and suggested, only to be put off one day and then have them come up with the same ideas a day or two latter.

It was an uphill battle since, we should do this (doctor - No) next day or so doctor, we need to do that! I am not singling out just the medical field, but most if not all fields can be some what like this. We are experts there-fore do this only to find out later OOps!

We try to inform our neighbors about farm chemicals etc. and get the, you are strange response!

At times, because of the political system and the system as a whole I feel as if every-one including your's truly, is wasting time and sitting on our hands!

I'am a let's have a look at, what do you think needs to be done and lets do kind of person.

 

Sorry about the rant and spelling!

 

Clean coal?????

I could have been a fan of clean coal until I heard this and then did a bid more research. KUOW 94.9 FM - The Conversation

Dennis Hayes, former under secretary of energy is a very sharp guy.

A quick over view: Carbon can indeed be burned cleanly while getting rid of Co2 but,,,,, To do carbon sequestration requires a massive infrastructure to be built around EACH coal generating station. Electric utilities have been fighting scrubbers for years. Scrubbers are the functional equivalent of a Catalytic converter to a car. A carbon sequestration plant is the equivalent of a oil refinery built around EACH coal fired plant. Who is going to pay?

Second, the volume of carbon, that has to be stored in deep, stable geology for years, emitted EACH year from our coal plants (I confess I don't remember if it is in the US or world wide) is roughly equal to the volume of lake Erie! Where are we going to find the volume of lake Erie in deep stable geology each and EVERY year? Who is going to pay for it?

This doesn't even begin to speak about the damage done through coal mining.

My point in all these threads, is that PV solar currently comes in at about .$20 KWH. The US average cost of grid power is ~$.12 KWH. With economies of scale and the right incentives, PV solar can have a huge impact RIGHT NOW with conventional technology.

Add in the idea of plug in hybrids, selling and buying from the grid, acting as a giant solar battery in effect and you begin to solve our problem(s)

Icarus


PS I have posted the plug in hybrid idea in detail elsewhere on this forum, so I won't repeat myself. Do a search if you are interested.

 

You're welcome.

That's correct. The inner core is solid due to the increased pressure at those depths. This is inferred, again, by looking at seismic waves and their velocities.

Here's a pretty neat animation

Here's another neat one

My guess is that it's a chaotic system and stable patterns will eventual go to shite then a new pattern will emerge. I can't give you a rigorous answer. I've never actually used by degree and I graduated in '95, so it's been a while.

I think it's the only really credible theory out there, but I could be wrong about that. It makes good physical sense and is backed up with empirical data. But no one's directly measured it (for a lot of obvious reasons). The timescales are massive in human terms.

 

I like Geo and it can be done on a small scale for homes - heat pumps etc.

Carbon: News Item

 

No need to appologize. Thank you for taking the time to write out and explain post #107.

 

I like solar too! People freak out when you talk about large scale projects!

But: owner of a building with large roof area (Old or New) could get a break!

Put up Precast, Prefab concrete structres for 15 years that covered large area, would be perfect. These type of buildings are also easy to keep cool and heat.

They even have to have an area for run off so as not to overwhelm storm sewer, great place for a mini eco system.

 

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That would be to logical and the Electric company's couldn't ________ me!

It's back to transmssion, some afore mention mag problems and or usually right of ways if expanding current system to carry loads.

As far as right of ways, places in the wide open could use current interstate right of ways.

 

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post #100 "We would have to start seriously reconsidering our reliance on electronics because an increase in solar wind's charged particles pressing on a weaker magnetosphere increases the likelyhood of geomagnetic storms thus crashing power grids".

The flip.

Excess back to the grid. We are trying to get transmission for our Wind up here. People out east want the power and transmission is a sticking point as to possible futrue turbines and placement in relation to old lines that can handle vs new lines.

 

Just thinking about this, and probably wrong, but if Solar gives DC power how would you transmit this any distance?