Comments on: IBD Earth Day Editorial: The Late Great Planet Girth

By: George E. Smith

George E. Smith — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 21:20:43 +0000

“”" hotrod (14:27:43) :

John Wright (12:25:28) :

Nuclear?! Has nobody ever heard of the problems of dealing with nuclear waste? Has nobody here heard of Chernobyl? Not quite the same thing as alarmism, I think. Agree that Nuclear power plants produce no CO2, but we all agree here that CO2’s no problem – or do we?

There is no problem with storage of nuclear waste other than the green folks will not let a reasonable storage system be set up while they look for some pie in the sky perfect solution. High level waste could be used as a source of heat and energy production to make use of its dissipated energy of decay if folks would let us, right now we burn fuel to generate energy to cool the storage pools, when Sterling cycle engines could be generating energy from the warm water pools if we would just let them.

Chernobyl is an example of what happens when you go out of your way to do everything wrong, the same sort of things happen with conventional technology — ever hear of Bhopal India, Texas City Texas, Cleveland East Ohio Gas Explosion ? “”"

Hey Hotrod, I know about that Texas City shindig, since I once worked for Monsanto Chemical Central Research Labs in St Louis MO. The safety chief loved to tell the story about that ammonimum Nitrate fire and explosion ; they had while shipping that stuff.

And let’s not forget the Halifax explosion of an ammo ship in 1912 or was it 1918. Reputed to be the biggest non nuclear blast ever, that nearly levelled the city, as a result of two ships colliding in the harbor, around 8 AM in the morning.

And no I wasn’t there for that one.

George

By: Mike Bryant

Mike Bryant — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 20:13:41 +0000

“darwin (11:09:55) :
Regarding obesity causing global warming. I think of fat people as just walking carbon sequestration devices.”

Perhaps we should think of fat people as the old growth forests of humanity… They should be protected because they are so valuable to the rest of us. We definitely shouldn’t be cutting them down.
Mike

Eat more, burn your gym membership card, become a fat person, save the planet…

By: darwin

darwin — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 18:09:55 +0000

Regarding obesity causing global warming. I think of fat people as just walking carbon sequestration devices. It’s those who eat and then exercise a lot who put more CO2 into the atmosphere. Given appropriate development of cemeteries, we could develop methane recapture as an alternative to coal, and with appropriate organic technologies, harvest the rest of the cadavers for new calcium and protein sources. Call it Soylent Green, that has an environmentally friendly sound.

By: Mike Kelly

Mike Kelly — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 14:53:39 +0000

As a graduate of Lake Superior State I enjoyed your “people in Lake Superior” note. Funny stuff. Had a good chuckle.
We never go in until the 4th of July to give enough time for warm up. Even then we don’t go far out. The warm up in Superior is shallow.

By: Adolfo Giurfa

Adolfo Giurfa — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 13:00:07 +0000

John in L du B (19:05:53) :Those health problems reveal to what extremes it reaches the stupidity when stupids have power/money.
Excess democracy happens where the unfitted are allowed to take decisions which can affect sane and better fitted people. All candidates for public service should be checked for psychological disorders.

By: Boudu

Boudu — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 10:29:19 +0000

I read somewhere that all humanity could fit comfortably on an island off England’s southern coast. It got me thinking . . .

If we took as whole the population of Earth
And according to girth and their height
We measured the lot
And assigned them a slot
They would just fill the Isle of Wight

By: Nasif Nahle

Nasif Nahle — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 03:38:33 +0000

John in L du B (19:05:53) :

This today concerning the health impacts of wind farms in the Province of Ontario. Note the health impact deniers:

http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/abc/home/contentposting.aspx?isfa=1&feedname=CTV-TOPSTORIES_V3&showbyline=True&date=true&newsitemid=CTVNews%2f20090422%2fwind_farms_090422

From the article:

Ashbee says she has no problem with the concept of wind farms, but she says they simply shouldn’t be built near residences.

And the wildlife? heh!

By: Gary Pearse

Gary Pearse — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 02:55:29 +0000

WakeupMaggie,

I once calculated that 90 billion people could comforably tread water together in Lake Surperior. I also calculated (but have forgottent the figure) how long they would take to heat the Lake up 1degree C at 100kjoules/hr. I got this figure from an article that estimated 300kjoules/hr generated by a pig (for use in agricultural engineering purposes). Incidentally, don’ the quadrillions of creatures on earth and in the sea generate heat….hmmm. Lets assume equal masses generate about the same amount of heat energy as say a pig….

By: John in L du B

John in L du B — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 02:05:53 +0000

This today concerning the health impacts of wind farms in the Province of Ontario. Note the health impact deniers:

http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/abc/home/contentposting.aspx?isfa=1&feedname=CTV-TOPSTORIES_V3&showbyline=True&date=true&newsitemid=CTVNews%2f20090422%2fwind_farms_090422

Happy earth day.

By: Graeme Rodaughan

Graeme Rodaughan — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 01:40:06 +0000

hotrod (14:27:43) :

John Wright (12:25:28) :

Nuclear?! Has nobody ever heard of the problems of dealing with nuclear waste? Has nobody here heard of Chernobyl? Not quite the same thing as alarmism, I think. Agree that Nuclear power plants produce no CO2, but we all agree here that CO2’s no problem – or do we?

There is no problem with storage of nuclear waste other than the green folks will not let a reasonable storage system be set up while they look for some pie in the sky perfect solution. High level waste could be used as a source of heat and energy production to make use of its dissipated energy of decay if folks would let us, right now we burn fuel to generate energy to cool the storage pools, when Sterling cycle engines could be generating energy from the warm water pools if we would just let them.

Chernobyl is an example of what happens when you go out of your way to do everything wrong, the same sort of things happen with conventional technology — ever hear of Bhopal India, Texas City Texas, Cleveland East Ohio Gas Explosion ?

They designed a reactor with no effective containment vessel, that had an unstable design that was prone to runaway at low power levels due to a positive void coefficient and the effects of xenon posioning of the reaction compounded by the slow activation of the control rods during an emergency scram. Then in violation of good practice, they shut off safety features to run a test that never should have been run, with improper staffing and ignored warnings that they were treading on dangerous ground. Then they did not evacuate the affected region or warn neighboring areas until it was independently detected by outsiders and almost 36 hours had passed since the fatally flawed test began.

It is not an indictment of Nuclear power it is an indictment of large organizations doing things to satisfy dead lines rather than listening to the engineers who know what should be done, and disregarding standard safety measures with out regard (or understanding) of the risks involved.

Larry

Now I understand the meaning of “Hot Rod”“. – Thanks.

By: Graeme Rodaughan

Graeme Rodaughan — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 01:33:02 +0000

Ed Zuiderwijk (13:29:38) :

Erich and others:

We could of course propose a feasability study for moving the ozone hole to the Artic in order to refreeze it (something with giant windmills hanging on stratospheric balloons, powered somehow by heatpumps working on the ocean’s temperature gradient).

I bet some burocrat somewhere will find money for it since it a) will save the Polar Bears, b) will return the Arctic and Antartic to their “normal” state (for the time being) and 3) will reduce the skinburn of those Aussies (No, not transfered to us Northeners, we are not all hedonists, mind you!). I’m sure we can find a source of dosh with a proposal having enough of the right words and phrazes, and what penpusher wouldn’t love the opportunity to save mankind?

Let’s try the EU or the White House. Anyone want to join me?

Looking for dosh to fund such schemes – just print it – works for Zimbabwe.

REF: http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article7578.html
REF: http://www.dailyreckoning.com.au/us-government-spending-13-trillion-to-fix-problems/2009/04/22/
REF: http://jdereport.com.au/?p=456

By: Mike Bryant

Mike Bryant — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 01:09:02 +0000

Nasif… now you can do one in Spanish…

By: Mike Bryant

Mike Bryant — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 01:07:30 +0000

http://www.pbase.com/mortenmojo/image/75705904
Hey… look at that photo again!! Could that be the shredded rags of the Catlin Group?!?!?!
No wonder that poor bear is so forlorn, he ran out of food!!!

Thanks, Nasif

By: Nasif Nahle

Nasif Nahle — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 01:00:36 +0000

Mike Bryant (17:24:57) :

Prochlorococcus marinus,
It lives in the oceans between us,
It’s the greatest in mass,
And yet it’s so crass,
It doesn’t even care if it’s seen us.

Hahaha… Excellent rhyme!

By: Mike Bryant

Mike Bryant — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 00:55:25 +0000

Graeme Rodaughan (17:48:12) :
Mike Bryant (11:13:30) :
“David S (10:09:48) :
BTW What about all those pudgy polar bears? They’re two or three times the size of most chubby humans. Will the warmers have them moved to re-education camps where they will be taught to give up meat eating and learn to dine on the vegetation native to the region?”
Here’s a polar bear having a salad!
http://www.pbase.com/mortenmojo/image/75705904
Certainly looks like one fed-up, sad, disgusted Bear. Do I see a wistfull look in those big brown eyes, or a gleam of a dream for a lovely, fat, juicy Seal carcass.

Hey… look at that photo again!! Could that be the shredded rags of the Catlin Group?!?!?!