Is Green Energy Viable?

[Old Geezer]

Windmills kill 500 million birds every month in the USA and that means there are so many bugs that will will be smothered by 100-foot-high tide of the litlle buggers before the year 2012. Solar power will be destroyed by solar flares soon after 2012 so even if we build bird-friendly windmills, we are all doomed to die in the dark.

[PershsNhpios]

Green energy?

Ba ha ha ha ha!

And I had my thread locked about Super Galatic Robots! Green energy!
I bet you want to live in a land where the sky is always blue, too!

[a completely inoffensive name]

Windmills kill 500 million birds every month in the USA and that means there are so many bugs that will will be smothered by 100-foot-high tide of the litlle buggers before the year 2012. Solar power will be destroyed by solar flares soon after 2012 so even if we build bird-friendly windmills, we are all doomed to die in the dark.

500 million every month? 6 billion every year? Just in the U.S.? You must be credible, you don't even need to site sources!

[PershsNhpios]

I have told you a hundred trillion times not to exaggerate!

[Avicenna]

Simply improving energy generation won't do.

The underlying problem is that the human population is skyrocketing, and Earth simply cannot support it.

In addition to improving/revolutionising our ways of getting energy, we have to manage to cut the human population, or our planet will do so for us. It's happening either way.

[Ramses II CP]

Simply improving energy generation won't do.

The underlying problem is that the human population is skyrocketing, and Earth simply cannot support it.

In addition to improving/revolutionising our ways of getting energy, we have to manage to cut the human population, or our planet will do so for us. It's happening either way.

Precisely right. Population control is at the heart of all the 'green' movements. If we don't figure that out everything is a short term solution.

[Centurion1]

green energy has to be the future. I personally dont care about the ozone. But we will eventually run out of oil.
Solar power- Nope
Wind Power- nope
Water power- less of a nope but still nope
Hydrogen- that's where its at baby, figure a way to produce hydrogen without using petro-chemicals and you've got the invention of the century.

[Moros]

green energy has to be the future. I personally dont care about the ozone. But we will eventually run out of oil.
Solar power- Nope
Wind Power- nope
Water power- less of a nope but still nope
Hydrogen- that's where its at baby, figure a way to produce hydrogen without using petro-chemicals and you've got the invention of the century.

You don't care about the ozone? So you don't mind getting cancer then?

[Viking]

Cancer might be battled.

There's also the prospect of the eco system in the ocean getting severely damaged due to the increased amount of UV radiation.

[gaelic cowboy]

The earth is a sphere everthing inside a sphere is finite that includes the wind and solar power there is only so much to go around the best solution is a massive depopulation of the planet but that is some way off yet.

[Crazed Rabbit]

The MIX is important because as some nay-sayers like to point out "the wind doesn't always blow, the sun doesn't always shine". But over the scale a national grid - we even have a European grid - the wind WILL be blowing somewhere, the sun WILL be shining somewhere etc, and tides are absolutely 100% reliable and predictable and incredibly powerful.

But people will need power everywhere, all the time. And distribution of power is a huge problem as well; it's not enough to generate a lot of power, you need to supply it to people, and that is not simple.

Right now, I believe the only viable non fossil fuel is nuclear power. Solar and wind aren't reliable enough, can not provide enough power, and can't match the prices. Will they be viable in the future? They may well be, but I'd support nuclear, which is more viable right now and relatively very safe.

The underlying problem is that the human population is skyrocketing, and Earth simply cannot support it.

It can and is, right now.

CR

[Jolt]

It can and is, right now.

CR

It isn't, otherwise we wouldn't have the major global warming problem, and the polar caps already melting we have today. Further, we have massive deflorestation, which is directly caused by human need for paper and wood-based resources. Further, rapid expansion in areas which were little affected by human interaction until a century ago (Sub-Saharan Africa) is now rapidly losing its wild life, as the population grows.

Humans cannot create resources. Humans exhibit a pattern of adaption close to a virus. We are the only human species which has propagated from the tropical forests in the equator to the sub-arctic tundra in significant numbers. To maintain a lifestyle that is considered good in todays standards, each human has to have access to a lot more of resources than the world can give per human. Thus has conditions improve in poverty-stricken areas, and its inhabittants begin consuming more and more resources themselves, in addition to what we already consume, like a virus, it begins multiplying and consuming the hosts resources increasingly quickly. Oil vanishes, diversived life forms vanishes, forests vanish, drinkable water vanishes, etc. What happens is that more humans take the place of the things that vanish, and in turn they need even more resources. Can you imagine if the entire African and Asian population ate as much as the average American? There is no future this way. The sollution would be to grow more food, or breed more domesticated livestock. But livestock too needs grazing, and you can only grow so much food until the lands get exhausted.

[gaelic cowboy]

We need to consume less in just about everything we do today in our daily life.

Simple measure like power factor correction in a business can be invaluable.

I know I know energy saving wont save the world but it is an awful criminal waste of resources that we really dont have to be throwing away.

I sometimes say to myself thanks be to god I live in the West and not Angola or some other poor country a farmers son does not get to go to college there I bet.

Lifestyle should be moderated and maybe should even be legislated for as regards consumption of energy. Simple things like like integrated planning of living spaces in cities to decrease the use of suburban living and therefore driving to work is reduced.

I could go on but really its self explanatory.

[Jolt]

We need to consume less in just about everything we do today in our daily life.

Simple measure like power factor correction in a business can be invaluable.

I know I know energy saving wont save the world but it is an awful criminal waste of resources that we really dont have to be throwing away.

I sometimes say to myself thanks be to god I live in the West and not Angola or some other poor country a farmers son does not get to go to college there I bet.

Lifestyle should be moderated and maybe should even be legislated for as regards consumption of energy. Simple things like like integrated planning of living spaces in cities to decrease the use of suburban living and therefore driving to work is reduced.

I could go on but really its self explanatory.

You'd find Angola to be one of the best African states to live in nowadays. :P But of course, its still very very bad compared to the rest of the other continent's best countries.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

The earth is a sphere everthing inside a sphere is finite that includes the wind and solar power there is only so much to go around the best solution is a massive depopulation of the planet but that is some way off yet.

Are you volunteering


Nuclear power works well, and solar will too once they improve the efficiency and get them to store energy. Last I heard they were working on mimicking the way plants store energy.

[Jolt]

Everyone can volunteer by having only one child.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Everyone can volunteer by having only one child.

Social security is in enough trouble already

Overpopulation is really not a concern. Most western countries would be decreasing in population without immigration. And there is far more energy available for the taking than is needed by the people.

[gaelic cowboy]

Are you volunteering

Now that I think about it none of us has a choice we will die dah dah dah

Nuclear power works well, and solar will too once they improve the efficiency and get them to store energy. Last I heard they were working on mimicking the way plants store energy.

Yet nuclear power is finite is it not

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Yet nuclear power is finite is it not

Solar power is finite.

[gaelic cowboy]

Social security is in enough trouble already

Overpopulation is really not a concern. Most western countries would be decreasing in population without immigration. And there is far more energy available for the taking than is needed by the people.

Overpopulation is not a concern here in Western countries but go to the other poorer countries and the story is a bit different.

[gaelic cowboy]

Solar power is finite.

Yes it is it come's from the Sun and thats going to stop one day billions of years into the future granted but its still finite.

Also we can only harvest so much solar power its not infinite it is of course beyond our capability to work it properly so it is effectively of little or no use.

[gaelic cowboy]

Just a thought here but has anyone ever felt like say we can only sustain our lifestyle through the input of the work of poorer people I am thinking here in a thermo dynamic sense. Work in Energy out so to speak.

This work is effectively or almost free to us because someone else put in the energy but we used the work.