Is Green Energy Viable?

[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.