Climate Change
I've pretty much had enough of those damned SUV drivers.
Orbiter's Long Life Helps Scientists Track Changes on Mars
New gullies that did not exist in mid-2002 have appeared on a Martian sand dune.
That's just one of the surprising discoveries that have resulted from the extended life of NASA's Mars Global Surveyor, which this month began its ninth year in orbit around Mars. Boulders tumbling down a Martian slope left tracks that weren't there two years ago. New impact craters formed since the 1970s suggest changes to age-estimating models. And for three Mars summers in a row, deposits of frozen carbon dioxide near Mars' south pole have shrunk from the previous year's size, suggesting a climate change in progress.
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But will this obvious proof of the damaging effect the emissions from her car are having on the climate dissuade little rich Miss PrissyPants from whisking her sniveling brood from the country club to McDonalds for lunch, in an SUV or minivan? No. She'll blithely blunder about, blonde strands blinding her blue eyes from eveything but her own beauty (breeder!).
If she took the time to inform herself she'd be properly outraged. Or if she heard this sort of information in the Main Stream Media, except it's only here in these "web logs".
So ya know, heh, good luck getting the message out, with our conservative controlled media and all. Good luck with that is all I'm saying.
posted by RWBB @ 19:02
7 comments
7 Comments:
Actually, electricity generation is by far the biggest source of greehouse gases. So to be fair you should also criticize her for sitting on her fat McDonald's-laden ass in her air conditioned house watching Survivor all night.
I like talking about electricity generation. I fancy myself a bit of an electricity geek. I know I said this to you a bunch last time you were here, but the problem with pollution from electricity generation is that there's no efficient battery, or any other good way to store electric charge.
I don't care how many perfect ways you can come up with to create endless energy, if it can't be turned on and off at whim, it doesn't matter. Because we have no good way to store it, you have to monitor the amount of power being consumed by the grid and then generate electricity accordingly, on the spot. You can't turn the tides on and off and you can't make the wind blow. What you can do is call up the coal guys and tell them to start shoveling more in, or open up the valve at the hydro plant.
This wouild be a fun post. You wanna talk about electricity generation? I'd like to hear it from your perspective, and I have tons more to say.
But with wind and hydro, there's no reason to not overproduce. Run it as if it peak hours all the time. There's wind project off the coast in cape cod - wind turbines planted in the ocean. They can power 44,000 homes.
That's a fine idea RCR. But who are you going to convince to knowingly produce electricity they can't sell?
I think it's a grand idea to find the minimum usage at offpeak hours, and make 75% of it wind, solar, hydro, etc. You will only get enthusiastic support out of me on that front.
Where we need to go really isn't that hard to figure out. Solar. Period. My personal opinion is to sink federal research dollars into making rugged, efficient solar panels. Problem solved.
If plants can do it, we can.
Have you ever been to South Dakota? I got out of the car to take a piss, and I could barely make my way back, the wind was so strong. The technology may not be yet viable, but there is enough energy there to power the entire nation. My gripe is simply that we seem to lack foresight...government's role in the free market is to foster market conditions that cannot grow without subsidies from The People. I would like to see reliable alternatives before oil reached $100/barrel, and before the mountains of WV are all turned into valleys for the coal they contain.
I would like to see a 25% sales tax on coal. The tax money could routed directly into alternative energy research or subsidies for non-fossil fuel power systems.
The energy industry is too powerful to let themselves get taxed like that, unfortunately. They have too many politicians by the balls. How I wish there was a good leader out there. I like the idea RCR, but I doubt we'll ever see it happen unless oil gets ridiculously expensive.
Wind is ok, but I still think the future is solar. Wind patterns shift and windmills have got to be a maintanence nightmare. I see them more as a gimmick thing. Nice, but not the whole enchilada.
The thing that bothers me most is, all these problems are foreseeable, yet we're not doing a damn thing about it.
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