[joelcolorado]

The big thing was it ruins the prairie. Well how bout those farms and silos and oil wells and power lines and fences etc. One bid subdivisionout there with the HUGE ass houses in the prettiest pasture BEFORE they build houses there. You are correct. you get used to it.

Railroad runs thru there with 10 trains a day. No one complaining bout that, or the highway or interstate. good lord.
Goofy ppl. Want to turn on their A/C but not get free energy from wind.

[Homesteader]

Somebody posted some time ago about putting a little wind turbine on top of every telephone pole and plugging it in. Local energy production tied right into the existing grid.

When the public votes that down they can just put a big 'ol wind turbine in my back yard as long as I connect for free.

People really need a bitch-slappin reality check.

[joelcolorado]

Son in laws doctoral thesis says kansas alone can provide 25% OF NATIONS entire energy needs. Good lord.Just need the WILL. One day we will wake up after its too late to save the economy and will have to rebuild that over a lot of time. Will change, just WHEN.

[xironman]

It is often mentioned in the peak oil debate why we did not attack this problem thirty years ago. The short sighted thinking I see on this thread is a case study in how that comes about. It is exactly how we get to 11:59. Enjoy your second coming.

[lorenzo]

It can be done, perhaps, with biomass as the backbone. Else, I don't see much of it happening. Non-biomass renewables have no clout: no baseloads, no peakloads, they rely on coal or gas, they're expensive, they deplete resources like copper, aluminium, rare earth elements, etc...

You can already see this with solar stocks: they have been declining for a long time now, simply because some basic materials have become too expensive.

A reality check is needed on non-biomass renewables.

[Duende]

Just read the article, the OP cited, and well... I think Gore is asking us to powerdown.

Yes, I'm reading in between the lines and I see powerdown. And to that, I'll give him a slow clap.

[f2tornado]

I've seen enough Blood and Gore, aka: Generation Investment Management. Ironic Al Gore outsourced himself to England while his party complains about jobs outsourcing. While Gore may be donating his salary to environmental concerns, this only serves as a cover for the millions he stands to make investing in the firm which will no doubt get its share of subsidy money to play with. Further, Gore gets to be the the lead actor in the AGW legion of doom in order to spook the public into supporting his act (and profit) further.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'G')ore consumes large amounts of carbon-based electricity while he trumpets a growing "global warming" crisis that drives up the value of "green" companies like the ones in which he [s]buys carbon offsets[/s] invests in their stocks.

[cube]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dohboi', '.')...
Most of the rest of you have your heads so far up your asses you think sh*t is sunshine.

I've never seen such a series of unthinking, kneejerk, brainwashed reactions. You're just spewing out the emotions that you have been carefully taught by your trainers to have toward this person. The thread is really a disgrace to the forum, and should probably be place in the hof's at this point. Not really any useful dialogue here.
....

[Pholostan]

Blah blah blah.

Gore is right. We need to conserve and stop using fossil fuels. It is really simple people. Don't shoot the messenger.

And I think people need visions and inspiration. Does it matter if we achive our goals a little late? I don't think so. The important thing is to try and eventually succeed, no matter the trials. Are you men or are you sheep?

[Twilight]

People need achievable personal goals, otherwise they switch off. No-one is going to be inspired by something every single person in the audience knows is not going to happen. That kind of message is indistinguishable from everything else they are constantly being told, and they have no particular reason to believe it over anything else.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Twilight', 'P')eople need achievable personal goals

[Shaka]

It's a nice thought, but it will take more than ten years to achieve such a thing.
However, as more and more people use solar and wind to power their own homes, the better.

[Cashmere]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Shaka', 'I')t's a nice thought, but it will take more than ten years to achieve such a thing. However, as more and more people use solar and wind to power their own homes, the better.

[joelcolorado]

Son in law is writing doctoral thesis on this. Will ask him. But he said today that if Kansas would utilize wind energy to the maximum capacity, this state can produce enough electricity for 25% of the ENTIRE USA.

So the pieces of the pie are there, but will take several pieces to make a whole pie. Solar, wind, coal, nuclear, hyrogen, passive solar homes, etc.

If every new home and business was heated with passive solar heat, in 50 years we would not need any wintertime heat. Think of THAT. But ppl are ignorant as hell about this. My buddy has to VENT his house in the winter it is TOO hot. Grows veggies in the solarium that uses the passive design.

[sciencegirl]

Is he super serial.

[Blewbird]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Kingcoal', 'A')ctually, while I disagree with Al on global warming being settled science, I agree with the idea of spending trillions on wind, solar, hydro and geothermal systems. These projects require huge capital investment and the return may take a while, but they are well worth the initial investment. For example, I doubt that the Hover Dam could have been built with the current political mentality. Huge projects such as the Apollo program, require vision, a can-do spirit and willingness to take on risk.

In order to make these systems worthwhile, we will need to update and upgrade much of the electrical grid. We have the means, using existing technology, to make electricity virtually abundant and very cheap, which would help out a great deal with maintaining civilization in lieu of PO. In other words, we need all the help we can get. Cheap, abundant electricity will make it much easier on us. Electric resistance heat, for example, would become practical.

My Utopian idea for dealing with PO involves spending all our remaining money and fuel on building a brand new electrical grid based on renewables and massive expansion of electric powered public transit. The chances of that actually happening are about zero, but it's fun to dream.

[cube]

digging up an old post:

Do you know how many windmills we'd need to supply 20% of our electricity production?
USA total: 4.062 trillion kWh (2005)
5M windmill produces 17 GWh/yr
4,062,000 GWh X 20% / 17 GWh == 47,788 windmills





//
You want 100%
multiple the above by 5
Al Gore says we can do this in 10 years!
ohh I forgot to also mention upgrades to the electric grid, battery storage, and a bunch of fancy electronics to control this power.

Is there anyone here who wishes to prove beyond ALL doubt to the rest of this forum community that they are a TROLL? Please step forward and say this plan is realistic! My fingers are starting to itch and I'm in the mood to put another TROLL on my ignore list.

[Cashmere]

The best part would be in 4 years or 10 years or whenever when some part starts to go. On all 200,000 giant ass windmills. Have fun swapping out the bearings, or whatever . . .

[yesplease]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cashmere', 't')here's no way on G-d's green earth that we can convert even 20% of the U.S.'s current electricity use to non-FF sources EVER, unless we invent fusion driven power.

What all of crazy Al's inane propositions fail to recognize is that it would be tremendously energy intensive, and therefore expensive, to put the infrastructure in place.

Anybody got a number?