NON print version:
https://townhall.com/columnists/pauldriessen/2017/08/12/life-in-fossilfuelfree-utopia-n2367137
Very,very sad...IMO.
me and Mine.... we have no problem with either of these options.
We know that humans are part of nature. We are as natural as deer. Nature does not abhor us. We are at the top of the food chain despite having no claws, teeth, or even being particularly strong. If we leave a baby in the rain it will drown. And it will drown for about 2 years. As a creature, you would think that we wouldn’t make it. But here we are.
Human progress is natural. We build shelters above ground. We compartmentalize those structures for different purposes. And the windmills dotting the horizon are part of that splendor. I live in PA and we have a TON of these things. They are like Isaac Asimov stories before our very eyes.
Furthermore, I LOVED the drive down 161 through Indiana into Owensboro KY. Through the mist the nuclear powerplant quietly coalesced before us. It was a beautiful, awe-inspiring sight. The power of the human mind is truly awesome.
Then I drove into the liberal hell hole of Owensboro. Yuch.
Among the academic bloopers collected by my xgf at a NY university was this gem from 1971, before personal computers.
“Imagine a world without pollution, without resource hogging machines, without polluting factories, without hatred, without weapons, without hatred. Imagine a veritable Ethiopia.
The little darling was closer to the truth than she knew.
Coal is now cleaner and between coal, natural gas and crude oil, we have enough cheap fuel to last probably centuries.
As yet, wind and solar haven’t been proven reliable nor economical. Nuke can, but prolly won’t.
Okay - I’m a Luddite. I love petroleum and petrochemicals! I really enjoy my big Ford with 500 hp and the sound of the exhaust through it’s headers. I don’t have ABS brakes or traction control - okay, so I have to buy new rear tires frequently, it’s not so bad hanging out at the tire shop :=)
I don’t want a self driving car. I don’t want an electric car.
Fun read. Thanks for posting.
I’ll enjoy the lights, conveniences and comforts of our home a little more tonight.
“Suppose we generate just the 25 billion megawatt-hours of today’s total global electricity consumption using wind turbines. (That’s not total energy consumption, and it doesn’t include what we’d need to charge a billion electric vehicles.) We’d need more than 830 million gigantic 3-megawatt turbines! “
I double-checked the math. I think they are way off.
Can you imagine how much of the earth’s surface would have to be mined to supply the materials to build all this? In a Utopian world money grows on trees and raw materials just appear out of thin air. They ignore the reality of cause and effect.
and all that destruction and inconvenience and garbage just to go from 0.00136% CO2 in atmosphere (due directly to man) to oh i dunno- 0.00135%
Gee- what a whopping change that will bring forth on planet erff
Folks, there is NO WAY 0.00136% of the atmosphere is controlling our climate— no way no how- impossible-
Sorry, . . . We all live in Bed Rock, We haven’t got an Orbital City yet, to move to.
” and huge swaths of our remaining forest and grassland habitats would disappear”
That would have to happen to make up for all the wasted cropland taken up by wind and solar farms