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Energy Demand Verses Global Warming!
by Lynn Mills
Copyright by Lynn Mills all rights reserved
Class of 58,
Bountiful High, Utah


Our critical need for energy
and the absolute necessity of maintaining a livable planet seem to be diametrically opposed. How can we keep producing more energy without increasing the planets heat index and pollution levels? It is a perplexing conundrum to say the least and a dichotomy of monumental importance. The answers we come up with will mean the world lives or dies. Not just mankind but all life could be threatened. We are witnessing our world being sucked into an ever strengthening vortex or death and sterility. Do we diminish the Earths population so we use less energy? Do we hope for some alien life form to intercede and save us at the last minute? Perhaps you are a religious person like me and you place your faith in God to correct our mistakes and mitigate the damage. The religious scenario is not very comforting either, as many of the world’s religions present a picture depicting Earths last days with a burning earth, droughts, famines, pestilence, earthquakes, wars, death and destruction on an apocalyptic scale. If things continue along this line of progression we will see a destabilized world wide social structure and suffering the likes of which has never been witnessed in all the Earths history! If the Earth goes into uncontrollable thermal build up it may become blistering hot and cloud covered like it's sister planet Venus, devoid of life.
     Is there an answer? Can we find the energy we need to continue our progressive journey into the future? If we find this power source can we use it without over heating the Earth?
     Lets examine the most popular energy proposals.

  1. Wind power generation more than quadrupled between 1999 and 2005 and yet it barely supplies 1% of the world’s electricity. The down side of wind power is that the wind does not always blow. Another recent problem is that birds fly into the swiftly rotating blades. Some of the birds being killed are breeds struggling to survive extinction.
  2. Hydro Electric production from dams is a mute point. There are very few new dams being planned and some of the existing dams are likely to be dismantled because of environmental concerns.
  3. Ocean power is another form of energy that is creating a lot of interest. Power from ocean currents, breakers and tides is already being used on a small scale. This discipline looks promising to me. At the ship yard here in Bremerton, WA. USA I marvel at the thought that the tides can lift huge aircraft carriers, some times as high as fourteen feet. I wonder about all the ships in the yard and how much energy could be garnered if the combined weight of all those ships rising and falling twice a day could be used to turn a large generator. In my mind I envision two very large, man made harbors* fitted with gargantuan floats. As millions of gallons of water flow into the harbors with the incoming tide the floats would ratchet aircraft carrier sized weights or even larger high into the air. Each tide could ratchet the weights even higher. As one harbor was lifting its weight the other harbor could be letting its weight generate electricity and visa versa alternatingly cycling back and forth between lifting and generating. This would insure a constant source of uninterrupted power. There are dozens of variations of this that could be used. One of which might use water pumped by the floats high atop a cliff to generate electricity as it descended again through turbines. Tidal power generation is now being pioneered using several different methods and it is a fledgling resource that must yet prove it can successfully compete.

* The harbors need to be man made to avoid environmental issues arising from disturbing natural bays.

  1. Geothermal power is being used today all over the world. The USA is the leader as far as total mega watts generated but the Philippines and Iceland leads the world percentage wise. The Philippines generate 27% of their electricity from geothermal sources followed by Iceland with 17%. Geothermal energy is growing rapidly now that energy prices are spiraling upwards. There are still many places to be developed and with careful management this resource will be a bright spot for many countries in the future of energy production.
  2.  Photo Voltaic generation is still very much up in the air. How ever it is also becoming more attractive as the rise in energy prices accelerate. The cost to produce solar cells is expensive and the efficiency is poor 10% to 15% being average and at best and most expensive 18%. That means that the energy a solar cell generates from the light hitting is is only 10% to 18% of the total energy available to the solar cell. The picture gets brighter all the time though. At present there is a great deal of research going on and money being invested to increase the efficiency of photo voltaic cells and scientist hope to bring online cells that operate at 80% efficiency. At the same time there are promising new techniques being developed that may dramatically reduce the cost of solar cell production. I have not done the math so I don't know how the ratio to area plays out. In case you are interested in doing the math here is a starting place. The most one could expect to glean from an imaginary solar cell operating at 100% efficiency in full sunlight is about 100 watts per square meter. If you perform the calculations  to determine the area required to run an average household I would be interested in hearing about your results. Lynn@fishtackler dot net (substitute a . for dot)

Here is my proposal for an inexhaustible and unlimited source of energy. There is a source of unlimited energy and when I say, "unlimited" I mean unlimited, inexhaustible, endless, perpetual, and never ending! Like all the other possible energy sources my suggestion needs a lot of research and development before we can harvest it. Here is what it will do for earthlings if we can solve the associated problems. We will be able to provide all nations with clean cheap power. Unlimited cheap energy means manufacturing costs would plummet. It would mean that exotic materials and compounds once too expensive to produce could be made in abundance. What about all the heat produced as a by product? How can we use that much energy with out exacerbating our global warming problems? If we have unlimited energy then we have the ability to heat and cool or air condition the Earth as needed. An endless energy supply means we could desalinize all the water a thirsty Earth could use. It would mean that we could terraform places like Mars, mine mineral rich asteroids and colonize the moon, . The possibilities are almost as endless as the energy source.
Imagine our Earth the size of this period . swimming in a stream of energy. The stream this dot is immersed in would be as wide as the Pacific Ocean. This stream represents the energy released each second by the sun. The ocean rushing past that does not strike the dot represents the energy available to an advancing civilization. The Earth receives far less than a trillionth of the energy that the sun sends out in all directions to be lost in space. We are at the point of, "sink or swim," Let's choose to swim. Let’s find ways to collect the rich energy source surrounding the Earth. Let's find ways to focus that energy Earthward. Let's find out how to anchor solar collectors in space to keep the solar winds from causing them to drift. Let’s not sit back in resignation thinking it is too hard or even impossible. It is critical that we find ways to harness this energy. As Winston Churchill said during the battle for Briton, ‘’ It is not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required!"
Maybe a time will come that will bring a better and brighter future with plentiful energy for all and less inequality for the masses. I would love to hear your comments, theories, criticisms and especially your opinions. Email me at  

Lynn@fishtackler dot net (substitute a . for the word dot. This protects me from spam.)




Some of my other pages


Science




Some of my other pages


Science

Fishing


Quackery
Cartoons
By
Lynn Mills
Odds and Sods
And a little tongue in cheek

About Me
Black light UV LED
to convert a 3 or 4 cell flashlight
FishTackler®
Registered TM for sale! Click here for Info.
Cartoon 1
Strip Poker
Incredibly beautiful Drying Soap Bubbles
Make Wild Fires
Go Away!
Do Fish See Color? Cartoon 2
Left Overs
Energy Demand Verses Global Warming!
Where Does Lightning Come From? Fish the Strike Zone. Cartoon 3
Are You Asleep?
Bee Wars 200,000 Bees verses 3 men &
a dog! A true story.
Acid etching Limestone Fossils Triple spinner Bumble Bee  Cartoon 4
Panty Hose.
A long shot coincidence or Number please?
3D Through the Eyes of T Rex How to make Freeze Dried Night crawlers
or if messy isn't your thing...

Cartoon 5
Tantrums
How to Unlock Gridlock  This one earned
me the, "delightful nut" award
CJ
The Amazing World of Silica Gel
All you need is a laser pointer and silica gel.
Order Freeze Dried Night Crawlers. Cartoon 6
Bermuda Triangle
Panning for gold in western WA
What is Ultraviolet Light? Triple Blade Pop Style Fishing Spinners Cartoon 7
How Was It?
A Virgin Lost Gold Account
How to Make an Ultraviolet Light FishTackler® Home Page Cartoon 8
Rocking Egg
Grooming the Environment, a Green Thing 
Purify Your Drinking Water Triple Spinner Chartreuse Chaser Cartoon 9
Remove Your Clothes
Outdoor Survival Tips that may save your life!
Science Fair, Phone on a Wire How to Fish With GloWings™ Cartoon 10
God's Great Computer.
The amazing EZ garden
Subduction Zone Volcano Postulate.     Cartoon 11
Shear Delight
My memories of Bountiful, Utah
1947 - 2007
The Mystery Clock, how does it works?     Cartoon 12
Wet the Bed
Grow tomatoes indoors
Like SciFi? Read
Blue Dot .
    Cartoon 13
Basket Ball
Tips for your Halloween Haunted house
or spook alley
           
"Photo"
Is it real or has it been altered? Can you tell?
    Cartoon 14
Lovin the Rain
Spook Alley page 2         
"Photo"
How to erase unwanted objects
        The Camp Fire Ghost!               
How to make a barometer                      
How to make a smoke ring cannon