Comments on: Using the Dead to Fight AGW

By: Pamela Gray

Pamela Gray — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:33:45 +0000

My solar panels are tiny. No more than the size of a standard sheet of paper. Using solar panels for one porch light, electrical fencing, etc, is more economical than putting in a little wind turbine for each of those items or running wire out to them from the propane generator. I think you are confusing scale here. My scale is tiny. Propane runs appliances. Panels run little stuff around the place. I would not use my propane to zap the fence when I can use a point of use little solar panel. Basically, we have no difference of opinion here. I would not rely on a panel to run my oven. No one would. Not even greenies. Besides, my wood cook stove would do a better job. If I ever get my cabin built, I will be using wood, propane, solar, and possibly wind turbine if the location is windy enough. For farmers and ranchers, solar panels are an every day part of the operation. It isn’t a green thing. It isn’t a preference thing. It’s a kiss thing. It’s just simple and easy to install a single small panel at point of use. We don’t like complicated things out here.

By: David Ball

David Ball — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:18:34 +0000

Good responses to my space elevator post. This is the type of critical thinking I need to hone the ideas. Open minds solve the toughest issues. Thanks to those who replied,….

By: crosspatch

crosspatch — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 03:32:55 +0000

"We can go nuclear and dispose of the byproducts by flinging them into the sun " Actually, 95% of nuclear waste is recyclable.

By: crosspatch

crosspatch — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 03:29:00 +0000

“Try running your washing machine, electric fire, tumbler drier, electric kettle, electric iron on solar panels.”

At night, after a week of rain and fog.

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:06:23 +0000

Will Small,

If you take a 200 year old window pane out of a 200 year old window frame you will find that the glass is thicker at the bottom.

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 19:00:41 +0000

Pamela Gray ,

Try running your washing machine, electric fire, tumbler drier, electric kettle, electric iron on solar panels. When you install them on the roof, who will clean them.

By: Retired Engineer

Retired Engineer — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:10:52 +0000

Smokey: Forget the dollar, I would rather keep my house warm today. And have trucks deliver food to the grocery store. Without oil, that might be a problem. In twenty years we might have a better battery or more efficient solar cell. It would be nice to live to see it.

My 30 year-old TV finally quit. I can postpone buying another one. Can’t say the same when the pantry is empty.

When I freeze or starve, perhaps President Obama will put a solar panel on my grave…

By: Old Coach

Old Coach — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:19:10 +0000

David Ball (19:02:03) :
We can go nuclear and dispose of the byproducts by flinging them into the sun

Just a quick note:
It would be cheaper and easier to “fling” the byproducts into deep space (outside the solar system) rather than to fling them toward the sun. Tricky orbital mechanics…

By: Bruce Cobb

Bruce Cobb — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:48:49 +0000

Gary Janosz:
I’m not sure I’m too concerned about the “fight against global warming” but I am concerned about energy independence as a country and movement away from fossil fuels that are primarily concentrated in the unstable parts of the world. Solar panels to offset my own energy use seem like a good start. To that end I’ve become interested in an organization called One Block Off the Grid. 1BOG forms local cooperatives that share information and buying power to make residential solar installations affordable. http://1bog.org/

Affordable for whom? Passing 30% of the cost on to taxpayers, which will be possible beginning next year means we will all paying for that power. Of course energy independence is important, but there is no getting around the fact that solar is both expensive and unreliable. There are sources of oil offshore, and in Alaska that are currently untapped. We have plenty of coal, the cheapest way of producing power hands down, and we need to seriously re-think our decades-long moratorium on nuclear power.

By: Smokey

Smokey — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:51:40 +0000

Robert Bateman,

If that is indeed the reason for putting ANWR, etc., off limits, then let’s have a national debate about whether that is really in our best interest.

What would you rather have, a dollar in your pocket today, or wait in order to have two dollars put in your pocket twenty years from now?

Gimme the dollar today. The future will take care of itself.

By: Robert Bateman

Robert Bateman — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 05:51:08 +0000

Did it ever occur to anyone that we are NOT using our oil resources because we want to use up everyone else’s first? And the world knows this, and the pressure has to be enormous what with all the debt this country is in.

By: janama

janama — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 04:15:02 +0000

The wilkins ice shelf is melting because of volcanic activity!.

The paper ‘A recent volcanic eruption beneath the West Antarctic ice sheet’ by Hugh F Corr and David G Vaughan is published in the February edition of Nature Geosciences

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080120160720.htm

By: Philip_B

Philip_B — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 04:01:52 +0000

GC. I realize we’re in a circle here but if an advancing glacier means GC and a breaking ice shelf means GW, what’s what?

I noted in the earlier thread that the glaciers that are advancing are ‘short response’, which means they are known to respond quickly to climate change – less than 10 years. These are small glaciers. The Antarctic ice shelves are very large glaciers and respond very slowly to climate change – centuries to millenia.

Small, fast response glaciers tell what has happened to the climate over the last decade or so. Very large glaciers tell us what has happened to the climate over the last few centuries to millenia.

There is no contradiction or circle.

I’ll assume, at least for now, you genuinely want to know the answer and are not trolling.

By: Graeme Rodaughan

Graeme Rodaughan — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 03:47:11 +0000

@Will Small – new post by me on atlantic-hurricane-season-sets-records wrt to your request for “what would convince you…”.

By: Graeme Rodaughan

Graeme Rodaughan — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 03:45:36 +0000

@crosspatch (10:25:48) :

Think tsunami! how big would that be if the whole ice shelf slid into the sea at once… Now that’s alarming…

WRT the cementary – save both space and CO2! Cremate the bodies and bury the CO2 instead… (Damn the cost – turn it to dry ice and refridgerate the ground – use the solar panels to power the refridgerators).