Are we all so spoiled?
You are absolutely right, everyone is spoiled and entitled. This country is going to h@@@ because of our spoiled ways. When I visited England in my teens we had to walk everywhere, we stayed on homestays and those people walk because gas is so expensive and this was 1982. When the power goes out by us we play board games as a family, and do that kind of stuff. Just wait till this country runs out of fuel and coal and we have to run on wind and solar and will have to adapt. It's a country of whiners we have truly lost our gumtion to roll up our sleeves and do things. Sorry but it is a sore spot. I also work in the service industry and see a lot of privelaged people succeed as the masses work for their success.
BobRoo
Robert,
While you are correct in saying that we are a spoiled entitlement society, there is little chance that running out of fuel will change our ways. The rest of the world is now becoming more like us and consuming enormous amounts of energy per person. The amount of power we use is staggering.
The world today uses about a million years of stored solar energy each day in the form of fossilized fuels. We can't even approach anything close to getting that much energy from wind and solar. The sad reality is that we can not do without this power either, or, at least, not without sacrificing about two- thirds of the world population. We can not even feed the present populations without much of that energy.
We are also unlikely to run out of fossilized fuels for a very long time. The short side of things puts the US coal reserves at about a 200 year supply. So we will not have to rely on solar or wind for a very long time.
This may actually be a good thing, in the short haul, because, given our current levels of energy use, wind and solar would have to increase in efficiency about 2000% to get us there. The numbers just don't add up and it's unlikely that they ever will. There is a mathematical maximum energy that could be obtained from either wind or solar and we would have to exceed 100% of what would be possible. There is a limit to how much energy the sun sends us and a limit to how much of that we can safely tap. Use 100% of it and you have real global warming instantaneously! It's is called blocking out the sun.
We will, however, become more and more dependent on nuclear power. There is a lot going on in the field of nuclear research just to provide the future energy needs.
Since doing with significantly less energy would actually require doing with less people, this is an option that no one is really making strides towards. No political speech never changed anything. Action facilitated any change. Fewer people would result in less voters, so no politician is going to give this much more than lip service.
It is kind of like hydrogen fuel. It would work if there was any free hydrogen on the planet. But there isn't. It has to be made. (Water is already burnt hydrogen so think of it like a**** is not a fuel) Making hydrogen takes more energy than you get back. Where do you think they get that energy from? Most hydrogen is made from hydrocarbon fuels and is just as dirty and burning oil or coal. Bio fuels are another example. It takes oil and coal to plant, harvest and then process the corn, or what ever crop is used. Beyond that, there would not be enough land in the world to plant enough switch grass (far more productive for fuel than corn) to fuel our energy uses.
Most people would be very pissed off at the things they would have to give up to reduce our energy uses. I fear only a real world wide calamity would change this. I am not thrilled at the prospect of what that might have to be.
Nick
PS:
For the physics majors. No one seems to have caught my He2 typo in my previous reply in this post. I have corrected it to He3.
NN
While you are correct in saying that we are a spoiled entitlement society, there is little chance that running out of fuel will change our ways. The rest of the world is now becoming more like us and consuming enormous amounts of energy per person. The amount of power we use is staggering.
The world today uses about a million years of stored solar energy each day in the form of fossilized fuels. We can't even approach anything close to getting that much energy from wind and solar. The sad reality is that we can not do without this power either, or, at least, not without sacrificing about two- thirds of the world population. We can not even feed the present populations without much of that energy.
We are also unlikely to run out of fossilized fuels for a very long time. The short side of things puts the US coal reserves at about a 200 year supply. So we will not have to rely on solar or wind for a very long time.
This may actually be a good thing, in the short haul, because, given our current levels of energy use, wind and solar would have to increase in efficiency about 2000% to get us there. The numbers just don't add up and it's unlikely that they ever will. There is a mathematical maximum energy that could be obtained from either wind or solar and we would have to exceed 100% of what would be possible. There is a limit to how much energy the sun sends us and a limit to how much of that we can safely tap. Use 100% of it and you have real global warming instantaneously! It's is called blocking out the sun.
We will, however, become more and more dependent on nuclear power. There is a lot going on in the field of nuclear research just to provide the future energy needs.
Since doing with significantly less energy would actually require doing with less people, this is an option that no one is really making strides towards. No political speech never changed anything. Action facilitated any change. Fewer people would result in less voters, so no politician is going to give this much more than lip service.
It is kind of like hydrogen fuel. It would work if there was any free hydrogen on the planet. But there isn't. It has to be made. (Water is already burnt hydrogen so think of it like a**** is not a fuel) Making hydrogen takes more energy than you get back. Where do you think they get that energy from? Most hydrogen is made from hydrocarbon fuels and is just as dirty and burning oil or coal. Bio fuels are another example. It takes oil and coal to plant, harvest and then process the corn, or what ever crop is used. Beyond that, there would not be enough land in the world to plant enough switch grass (far more productive for fuel than corn) to fuel our energy uses.
Most people would be very pissed off at the things they would have to give up to reduce our energy uses. I fear only a real world wide calamity would change this. I am not thrilled at the prospect of what that might have to be.
Nick
PS:
For the physics majors. No one seems to have caught my He2 typo in my previous reply in this post. I have corrected it to He3.
NN
I'm 49 years old. For the very first time in my life, I looked at generators the other day on the internet. And $2-5000 that I don't really have is starting to look like a neccessary budget item. Not because of any external threats. But because of the stated intentions of the current resident of the WH. His insistence on using the power of the federal govt to force Americans to give up carbon based energy through cap & trade measures (an indirect tax if there ever was one) may well make anything more than running your refrigerator an expensive luxury. I'm kinda wondering what my city ordinances say about having a 1000 gallon propane tank in your back yard as well.
The free man owns himself. He can damage himself with either eating or drinking....... If he does he is certainly a damn fool, and he might possibly be a damned soul; but if he may not, he is not a free man any more than a dog.
What not converting your home to solar power? Let me see if you spend about $60,000 and install panels, inverter/controllers and batteries you might get enough power to run your home 2 or 3 hours a week. Oh, and the system might last for up to 6 years before needing replacement. OK the rest of you, don't bother telling me I don't know what I am talking about, The system at my place in Wyoming is off grid and has solar panels, a wind turbine and propane powered generators (propane generators provide about 80% of the power) . I know what it cost. Is it practical? No, not a bit, but it is the only way I could get power there. The power company wanted $150 grand to get me a power line to the property. It was a fun project to design and install and I am still working on improving it.
Nick
Nick
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