late night reading
I fell asleep this evening around 9:30. I woke up around 1:30 and couldn't go back to sleep. Instead of tossing and turning and keeping Kragen awake, I thought I'd read. That was a bad idea. The economy exploding is a nightmare. But, there's been some even more scary events taking place that aren't getting as much coverage because of the
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Wind and solar each have their dirty little secrets. Wind requires spinning reserve to carry it through times when the wind just isn't blowing; in pretty much every wind installation built so far, that spinning reserve has been either coal or natural gas (which isn't much better, though natural gas at least doesn't spew heavy metals and sulfides into the atmosphere). All those wind farms that are going up in Germany? Backed by coal. Every last one of them.
Solar fails on physics, alas. The intensity of light at the earth's surface simply isn't enough for solar -- even 100% efficient solar -- to make a dent in the world's power needs.
I'm wondering when he's going to wake up, smell the coffee, and start advocating nuclear. It's really our only hope.
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That is unless you think the current financial fiasco should be followed up by yet another one by "backstopping" nuclear power by federal loan guarantees. And the utilities have made it clear that without the government covering their butts there will be no new nukes.
Bloomberg touched on several of the little mentioned dirty bits recently. More privatizing profits and socializing risks and losses. Half of $315 billion would only be a mere $150 billion or so.
McCain Nuclear Energy Revival May Cost $315 Billion
"Taxpayers are on the hook only if borrowers default. A 2003 Congressional Budget Office report said the default rate on nuclear construction debts might be as high as 50 percent, in part because of the projects' high costs."
As far as alternatives for electricity, wind farms supported by compressed air storage (as they are trying out in Iowa) makes a lot more sense in the near term. Not to speak of Amory Lovin's "negawatts" ( ... )
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Just because the construction of a new plant is expensive we shouldn't even think about it? But once you have your plant, power is cheap. And reliable.
And I couldn't care less for the economic crisis. If you have money for a war, you should as well have money for new power plants.
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I'd really rather NOT have my last laughs on the climate-change deniers and Christian Dominionists this way.
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The most important greenhouse gases are:
* water vapor, which causes about 36-70% of the greenhouse effect on Earth. (Note clouds typically affect climate differently from other forms of atmospheric water.)
* carbon dioxide, which causes 9-26%
* methane, which causes 4-9%
* ozone, which causes 3-7%
Note that this is a combination of the strength of the greenhouse effect of the gas and its abundance. For example, methane is a much stronger greenhouse gas than CO2-about 25 times more heat absorptive, but is present in much smaller concentrations.
2. This is horrible. The new coal plants are significantly cleaner than any other fossil fuel plant. We need to be building new coal plants and shutting down the old ones.
4. It doesn't violate that law, as far as I can tell. The act only prevents the military from doing law enforcement duties, specifically search, seizure, arrest, or other similar activity. The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 also ( ... )
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