Anyways after that I had to go and puke and missed the rest of the vid. If anyone else can make it threw it and explain it to me I'd appreciate it. The oil companies need good press, too!
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
I wish I could get through this whole thing because I try to listen to multiple sides and try to have well rounded views on the world and people's opinions in order to have a greater understanding of what is going on around us. I got to about the 3:45 mark and just didn't understand the train of thought. Here is what I could understand: People advocating for green energy are bad, because if we start using green energy people in poor countries that do not have access to coal or oil have to burn what ever is around them and then they get smoke all up in their faces that shortens their lives and THAT smoke is a really environmental disaster (the CO2 we inhale everyday from cars....well....that's ok). He then suggests that we help develop ways for 3rd world countries to also burn coal and oil. Well, how about we help 3rd world countries develop ways to use wind and solar instead of burn coal and oil since YOU JUST ADMITTED THAT INHALING THAT SMOKE SHORTENS YOUR LIFE!!!! Is it just me or does this guy sound like a salesman for the coal and oil industry? "Gee guys you know, we are only raping Americans everyday and only turning billions of dollars of profit per quarter but if we could only figure out a way to start raping poor countries and stealing all of their wealth....then...then we'd be making some REAL bank!"
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4 comments:
Without going too deep into it, the guy is talking about opportunity cost- the problem with wind (solar too, to a lesser degree) is that there isn't a 100% guarantee that the units will pay for themselves before they wear out. The service factor (probability that the machine will require services equal to the value of the machine) for wind is 103%. Solar is at 90-something. So, for people who will have to trade food money for energy money, it makes no sense to use wind right now, but solar, sort of. Oil-based energy has a service factor under 20%, and that's the real killer- it really is cheap.
Since transportation and storage costs adds only 1% to the cost of oil to people who live less than 1000 kilometers from a seaport (which is more than 75% of the world), there's no advantage to living next door to a refinery, either. So while we can trade disposable income for cleaner energy, much of the world can't, living hand-to-mouth. If we can use less oil, they can use more, as the demand will drop, lowering the price (in theory), which means that they will have more money for food.
One important thing about economics is that morality, politics and corruption don't get figured into the equations- these all add to costs, and make blanket statements like the ones in the video seem even worse.
I didn't know that about the service factor and that does make sense, but I wonder if we put the time and energy into solar and wind that we put into oil if the service factor would drop? Unfortunately with the oil companies making billions it's hard to get competition. Maybe someday
Despite the recent activities in Japan (and the fear-mongering that sells media at an increased rate, making fear=profit), I still think nuclear power is the best way to deal with this- the next generation of reactors is designed to contain their own uncontrolled melt-downs if they lose cooling- there isn't the demand for new reactors to build these, though- no one has built a new one, other than Iran and other poor nations that aren't interested in new technology, in a few years.
I've never been a big fan of nuclear power. The fuel is good for less than a decade and then is dangerous for thousands of years. So where do you store that spent fuel? Do we just bury radioactive fuel rods in the ground and hope everything is ok? There is literally hundreds of tons of radioactive material in that one reactor in Japan, and now because of one freak act of nature everyone has to abandon the whole country. I still think if we put the minds and money behind reusable energy we'd be much better off.
On a silly anime side note what is going on over there immediately made me think of the Ghost in the Shell series when Japan invents micro machines to scrub radiation from your cells after a WWIII. Let's hope fiction doesn't become reality.
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