This is mind blowing ignorance on the part of Al Gore. Gore in an 11/12/09 interview on NBC’s tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, speaking on geothermal energy, champion of slide show science, can’t even get the temperature of earth’s mantle right, claiming “several million degrees” at “2 kilometers or so down”. Oh, and the “crust of the earth is hot” too.
Temperature of the sun’s corona: 1–2 million kelvin
Temperature of the sun’s photosphere: 6,000 kelvin
Temperature of the Earths mantle, more than “2 kilometers or so down”: between 500 °C to 900 °C (773 to 1173 kelvin)
Watching Gore make a complete scientific idiot of himself on national TV: priceless
Don’t believe me? Watch the video from NBC below:
For a faster presentation, without a pre-viewing commercial, here is the same video on YouTube
Oh…and here is a graph of the vertical temperature profile with drilling depth:
And here is the temperature profile of the Earth’s crust, mantle, and core:
Source: Electropaedia (Mpower UK) page on geothermal energy
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yonason (12:05:40) :
Wow! With that turban he looks like Carnac the Magnificent on steroids!
[Carnac holds the envelope to his forehead, concentrates]
Carnac: “Algorithm!”
McMahon: “Algorithm!”
[Glaring at McMahon, Carnac opens the envelope, reads the question]
Carnac: “What’th the oppothite of a truithm?”
If geo-thermal is an efficient method of producing energy, then the market will select it over other methods.
If it is not an efficent method, then it needs salesmen to get the government to take the money from productive people, and waste it on inefficent schemes, that will benefit a few at the expense of the many.
If it is an efficient method, whether AlGore promotes it or not, makes no difference. If it isn’t, then it is a waste of money that could be spent on more efficient methods, and AlGore is advocating a method that will make us all pay higher taxes, and higher electric bills, than we otherwise would have.
I don’t mind when the rich get richer, as long as they produce something of value in the process. I don’t think AlGore, has met that requirement.
AMS Survey of Weathercasters on Climate Change
http://www.alabamawx.com/?p=24574
A survey of weathercasters’ feelings on global warming was published in this month’s edition of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. It had some interesting findings. There were 121 respondents. 94% of the respondents had at least one of the three major seals.
Television meteorologists are the official scientists for most television stations. The overwhelming majority felt comfortable in that role for their stations. The majority agreed that the role of discussing climate change did fall to them.
more…
WAG (09:43:43) :
“What did Gore’s book (Our Choice) say was the temperature of the earth’s interior? That’s the real test of whether he’s being sloppy or not.”
I have no idea what is in any of Gore’s books. I’m not interested in paying for or reading works of fiction that claim to be factual. If it is correctly listed in his book, that makes it worse.
Missing the Earth’s core temperature by a factor of a couple hundred while professing expertise on renewable energy such as geothermal says a lot about his depth of knowledge. Its like saying solar PV is only 0.1% efficient in full sunlight, or 1.5MW wind towers only need to be 2 feet tall.
Glenn, not sure what you are asking. “How about water?” In what sense?
OT – Bogus bidder loses shot at global-warming defense
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_13801439
The judge took away his martyr moment. I am certain that his lawyers will appeal on conviction. I don’t think that he wants to be acquitted at this point. He desperately wants to grandstand the AGW defense. The District Court in Denver has been eco-friendly, so I think he has a chance at getting Hansen on the stand in his defense.
We can make a lot of fun about Al Gore’s technical and scientific level but we should realise that this is probably the general level of most politicians.
For those interested in some history on the Gore family:
http://www.larouchepub.com/other/1997/2423hammer_gore.html
It has always about money and power rather than science.
Roger Sowell (13:09:23) : , I agree with your points, 24/7 availability, free source, etc but how do those countries handle the disposal of waste water loaded with heavy metals?
GT sounds great, I tried to get a new swimming complex in Canberra heated with GT energy a few years ago ,mostly to promote GT, but the Natural Gas people put in a more cost effective case.
GT seems to be very location sensitive, geologically, and for waste disposal.
Back in the mid-70’s, the city I lived in, Bountiful, Utah, was looking for alternative sources for electricity for the municipal power company. They signed a contract with a geothermal company in the Milford area which was immediately blocked by one of the large oil companies (I think it was Chevron, but I don’t remember for sure). The City backed off rather then spend millions fighting it.
I researched geothermal then and a few years ago. Yes, it can be complicated and there is risk, but it has been developed successfully at several sites. There has been some pressure from the energy industry to block it, but I am not willing to go so far as to say that they are suppressing it. I think it may be more a case of hoarding mentality. They don’t want anyone else to have it, but they don’t need it right now.
I like the idea of nuclear power, but can someone who advocates it tell me that if a terrorist crashes a plane into a nuclear power station there will not be a release of radiation? No, I thought not. Therefore nuclear power generation would be crazy – and yet that is exactly where the UK is heading for in the future. I would much prefer geothermal as it is unending and won’t be interrupted like wind and wave power. I can’t help but think that if we spent the same billions of £s on geothermal that we’re about to spend on nuclear, we’d have a viable power generation scheme going in Cornwall (apparently the only place in the UK close to being geothermally-viable).
Paddy (13:53:57) :
“Gore is obviously correct. The most cost effective solution to exploit our geo-thermal resources is to build a gigantic plant in the middle of the geyser zone at Yellowstone NP.”
If he has invested in AltaRock, then you aren’t far off:
http://www.altarockenergy.com/AltaRock_EGS_Demonstration_Project_Status_101909.pdf
Here’s a report (big file) of the supposed ins and outs of geothermal, including
what can happen in areas such as “geyser zones”:
http://geothermal.inel.gov/publications/future_of_geothermal_energy.pdf
Gary Hladik (13:56:35) :
LOL
Roger Sowell (13:09:23) :
Do you know why Costa Rica, El Salvador, Iceland, Kenya, Nicaragua and the Philippines have such a high percentage of power generated from geothermal, apart from the fact that it is easily accessible? It’s because they don’t have much else, and no means of getting it. If they did, their usage of geothermal would probably be a lot lower, even though they have access to it, which most of the USA does NOT.
And do you know the consequences of not having much of anything else? Poverty.
I don’t like poverty, and I don’t want to be an extra in the remake of “Joe Versus The Volcano.”
Like I said, where it’s feasible and economical, then by all means use it. But where it isn’t, don’t get in the way of what has served so well, and without which our economy will be ruined.
Roger Sowell (14:15:37) :
““How about water?” In what sense?”
Many hot dry rock sites are located in arid areas and will need water to inject into wells and for the cooling towers. Water that comes from geothermal wells brings significant amounts of contaminants with it so wastewater can be a complication.
Barry Foster (14:35:12) :
I like the idea of nuclear power, but can someone who advocates it
tell me that if a terrorist crashes a plane into a nuclear power station
there will not be a release of radiation? No, I thought not.
Actually Barry, the government tested for that:
Regards,
Steamboat Jack
Jon Jewett (15:14:33) :
That’s nice.
Roger Sowell (14:15:37) :
“Glenn, not sure what you are asking. “How about water?” In what sense?”
Of your claim that geothermal has no fuel costs. Water is injected into the ground, which has to come from somewhere. Water has a price, and direct and indirect costs associated with it’s consumption. Some of it is lost. Look at pictures of these plants and the pipelines that supply some of them.
Wow, Al’s discovery of the earth’s actual temperature is earth-shattering (literally). Where is his scientific transcript (appropriately peer – reviewed and published in a recognized scientific journal of course) ?
“Knowing what we know, can somebody explain why were talking about trying to scrape heat out of the ground, or scavenge a trickle of power from the wind?”Vincent
1) Environmental ignorance and paranoia.
2) Muslim paranoia.
1) is cured by abolishing the government school system.
2) is cured by removing Western troops from Muslim soil.
One million….I mean, One billion degrees!!!
Gore is an insatiably greedy snake oil salesman. His gimmick has been to promote a global warming as a byproduct of the industrial age, by presenting bogus science to ignorant people. It’s as simple as that.
Andrew Parker, and Glenn,
Water is not necessarily imported and rejected, with contaminants. Some geothermal plants are closed loop, re-injecting the same water into the wells. The hot water is used to boil a second fluid, usually a binary compound.
Also, water is not necessarily used to condense the turbine exhaust, but can be via air-cooled exchangers.
These things exist, and have existed, for decades in California, the one state with the strictest environmental laws. Does anyone actually think that California allows metal-contaminated water to be dumped?
” Roger Sowell (17:27:22) :
Andrew Parker, and Glenn,
Water is not necessarily imported and rejected, with contaminants. Some geothermal plants are closed loop, re-injecting the same water into the wells. The hot water is used to boil a second fluid, usually a binary compound.
Also, water is not necessarily used to condense the turbine exhaust, but can be via air-cooled exchangers.
These things exist, and have existed, for decades in California, the one state with the strictest environmental laws. Does anyone actually think that California allows metal-contaminated water to be dumped? ”
OK, if it is so good, why is GT production since 1997 essentially flat, with production varying between the narrow range of 12 to 13 GWH ? There must be constraints that we do not know about.
Patrick Davis (03:56:18) says to “dutch (03:31:27) :
“Are you suggesting WWI and WWII were all about energy? You should read up on your history. Were the Nazis and Stalin at war with people over energy?”
In three words, yes, kind of.
WWI: partially over colonies, and hence resources. The rest was over industrial and economic power. Germany was in the ascendancy, and thought it could be king of the hill for real. France and England were lagging behind, needed to protect their colonies, and didn’t mind taking down Fritz a notch or two.
WWII: entirely about resources (land and raw materials), not the least oil. Hitler had none, and needed it, so he looked to Baku, where Stalin had some, and defended it. But populations and land were the big ones.
That comes out in the propaganda as “We must subjugate the untermensch, and fulfill our destiny!” On the other side: “Kill the class enemies in their mothers’ wombs!”
You didn’t really think it had anything to do with ideologies, did you? Stalin and Hitler collaborated happily to divide Poland between them.
yonason,
Iceland wasn’t poor until they started buying junk paper, but now they are.
Maybe they should have stuck to cod.