Thursday, September 9, 2010
Energy and Power
Energy is arguably the backbone of our modern society. Every thing we use requires it in one form or another. Electronic devices, cars, water pumps, and gas heaters all rely on energy. But where do we get it, how do we supply it, and what do these effects have on our environment. Most of our energy comes from fossil fuel sources, although some of it comes from renewables but not anywhere near the same scale. Everyone knows about fossil fuels such as gasoline, coal and natural gas. And most of us know about renewables like solar, wind, and hydro-electric. Most scientists agree that our current consumption of fossil fuels cannot be maintained and that global warming (or as I like to call it "Pollution") is a direct side effect from the massive amounts of fossil fules we burn every day. There are solutions to this problem but they won't come easy. There are many business intrests and polititians in opposition to converting to renewables due to the large amounts of money they stand to lose. One solution is solar panels and wind energy. However the technology is way behind in our ability to capture and store these virtualy unlimited resources. Also the space required to generate the same output as say a coal fired electrcal plant is vastly greater. To put a number on it only five percent of the world population lives in the United States and we consume 20% of all the worlds fossil fuels. Thats a staggering number. If everyone on this planet is to one day live like the average american we would have to build vast arrays of solar cell farms, wind farms, thousands of olympic sized swimming pools of bio fuels. Impossible by any stretch of the imagination. The "get out of jail free card" is known as fusion power. The technology is decades from being able to put power on the grid but scientists across the world are working on this problem with some surprising results. Conservitive estemates say around 2036 we sould have a working fusion reactor. Time will only tell, due in part to we would need a "Manhatten Project" scale funding, but with Germany, England, China, Japan, Russia, and the United States all working together to do it by then.
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I Like the topic that you have chosen... As there is no doubt to the issue that if we do not change the way we live, we will be the number one cause of disease, contamination, and depleation of all natural resources. Thus,allowing the human race to be the cause of the planet to be deemed unlivable. And contribute greatly to our own distruction.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with making change wont come easy and will be too expensive. There are simple things we can do to start making this change that are inevpensive, if there is even a cost. I agree that making a significant change such as solar pannels can be expensive, however, its not impossible, nor does it require a great deal of time, money, and the compliance of every other country. Making people aware of whats happining in the world, along with ways to help contribute to the problem, is more effective than telling us only a select few then giving us little to no hope. We are the united States.. we can do things without reling on other countries. Wind Turbines? They are built all over in the deserts and hills of Arizona, and i am pretty sure our contry did that alone..or am i wrong?
2036? That seems a long way off before we can have something viable like a fusion reactor. I think that at the rate technology is increasing that year might loom nearer. However, the question is will there be a need to switch. Will it be cheaper and more necessary. I acknowledge that there is a finite amount of fossil fuels on the earth, but there is more than enough, even by conservative estimates, to last us for quite some time. The question is will the psychopathic environmental lobby get in the way and not allow for a safe extraction of that fossil fuel. (Sidenote: one could argue that the recent gulf spill only happened because we are inexperienced at deep water drilling, and had the environmental people allowed more drilling nearer to shore, the accident could have been averted. Obviously there were a few more failures on the safety part of BP, Transocean and Halliburton; but, my point is that whatever the future holds, the environmental crazies must allow for technology to develop if we are going to be able sustain ourselves as humans.
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