Ok ‘environmental scientist’ Lets say you get your way. Can you be honest about it?

Question

Say uncle Al has his way and for sake of a question your wish list come true.

All vehicles that run on oil stop. Cars buses, trucks, trains

All power plants that run on fossil fuels stop. Coal, Gas, oil

What are you going to replace it with? One at a time please.

Lets for the sake of argument say that you can in the next 50 years force every automobile to electric.

Electric, can not power trucks or trains, that will not happen. Neither will it power the Airline industry, so what will you do for them?

Ok were that electricity going to come from?

Hydroelectric? No, you want no more dams built, not only that some want the ones have removed

Nuclear? No, most in your camp want nothing to do with it.

Wind? No, most places that have wind farms are fighting to get them out. Not one place that has a wind farm, is not at war with its-self, from those who want the towers to those who don’t, so this on a large enough scale to replace all currant forms of power will not happen.

Solar? Please be honest, you could cover the whole of the US with panels and not have enough power to run our nation. So where is it going to come from? Today. What replacements are ready TODAY? You ant what we have to END today, so its not unreasonable to expect you to have an replacement today now is it

Answer 1

First of all you should get your facts correct.

Trains already run on electricity so your wrong

Putting solar panels on homes in parts like California and Florida will be enough to power all those homes and more.

If u put massive solar farms in the desert where it wouldn't disturb anyone it could power whole cities,

Cars can run on hydro power, or even just use less fuel with hybrid cars.

Their will always be use of fossil fuels but we dont need to use the amount we do today we have alternatives but countries like the US dont really care, so they just go dirty way and pollute more.

The people who complain about dams and wind farms have to accept that they are necessary for keeping the planet healthy.  STOP BEING SELFISH  

S E L F I S H

Answer 2

You've really got to stop using Al Gore as your archetype for environmentalists. I mean, I say this not to be offensive, but you really need to read a book rather than watching a movie.

Anyway, back to the question. First off, there is no way that we are going to stop using fossil fuels overnight. Just not possible. The idea is to use a fossil fuels to power a shift towards more renewable sources of power and a more sustainable structure for our society.

Electric motors have a higher low end torque than internal combustion engines, and have a greater energy to power ratio. Electric motors already power trains. It's a diesel electric hybrid engine. The diesel engine creates the energy, but electric motors drive the train. The same could be done in trucks, and the diesel could be replaced with bio diesel either from waste oils or from virgin soy feedstock.

Soy bean bio-diesel has a 1 to 5 energy conversion ratio, meaning that for every 1 unit of petroleum it takes to grow it, you get 5 units of bio-diesel back.

As for airlines, I am as a general rule against them. However, the airline industry is already being forced into innovation and fuel efficiency by rising fuel costs. So, they might just be able to save themselves through innovation and technology. However, I think that the idea that business people need to be jetting around constantly is being replaced with better telecommunications technology. After all, why fly to Tokyo when you can video conference with Tokyo without ever leaving Memphis?

Shipping things via container ship is already the absolutely most efficient way to move things, per unit of cargo per gallon. However, even the shipping industry is looking to be more efficient. They have started installing what are known as "sky sails" on their ships, which cut the ships fuel use dramatically.

OK, now electricity. The first step is to reduce the amount of it that we use. This means building and remodeling buildings to be more efficient. It also means that the mindset of just leaving electrical items running at all times needs to be changed. We need to reduce the total electricity that we use at the same time as we invest in more environmentally sustainable sources of electrical generation. And we need to get off of the idea that we need a power source that works equally well everywhere. Some places are better suited for different types of electrical generation, and so we need a diverse energy portfolio. We need wind turbines, photovoltaic, solar thermal generators, tidal generators, geothermal power plants, bio gas reclamation plants, etc.

Answer 3

Simple energy conservation would cut energy use in half.  10 year plan, just needs incentives.  Lower energy costs = lower production costs = competitive advantage.  We need to get on the stick now before we get left behind.

Simple solar / alternate energy plans that would cover 100% of our needs have been formulated over and over again, only to be ignored.

The latest technology, such as dc transmission, makes it even easier.

Again, we need to get on the stick because we ARE falling behind.  

The French and Germans have plans for concentrating solar plants in the Sahara, to feed Europe via long distance dc transmission.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=a-so...

So, please be honest.  

Please make a meaningful contribution to the dialog instead of repeating the same c**p and LIES that were debunked 40 years ago.