NASA Commander Eileen Collins said "The atmosphere almost looks like an eggshell on an egg, it's so very thin," she said. "We know that we don't have much air, we need to protect what we have."

What do you think of her statment.

...Maybe time to switch some CPU resources to ClimatePrediction, or even turn our PCs off?

The answer: Wind energy, solar energy, and geothermal energy!

The answer: Wind energy, solar energy, and geothermal energy!

& no fossil fuels.....

"I'm trying to maintain a shred of dignity in this world." - Me

We need more trees to filter and replenish the atmosphere, and less concrete to reflect heat back into the atmosphere.

We need more trees to filter and replenish the atmosphere, and less concrete to reflect heat back into the atmosphere.

And herein lies the rub. Why do trees get pulled out and concrete put in? More people. Urban sprawl. "Economic development" of both rich and poor countries by deforestation to ranch or farm. All other things being equal, if we cut pollutants by 25% per capita in 50 years, but the population is up another 33%, have we gained anything?

The answer: Wind energy, solar energy, and geothermal energy!

The answer: Wind energy, solar energy, and geothermal energy!

Here in SoCal (outside of Palm Springs) they are shutting down some of the wind generators because birds get chopped up by them. I say build more!

The answer: Wind energy, solar energy, and geothermal energy!

Here in SoCal (outside of Palm Springs) they are shutting down some of the wind generators because birds get chopped up by them. I say build more!

The answer: Wind energy, solar energy, and geothermal energy!

Here in SoCal (outside of Palm Springs) they are shutting down some of the wind generators because birds get chopped up by them. I say build more!

Here in the Western Pennsylvania area, a planned windfarm that environmentalists fought for has been facing stiff opposition now from the very same environmentalists that are using the bird example as well as the fact some trees would have to be cut down to install the windmill towers. You just can't win with enviromentalists, first they want it and then after they get their way they don't want it (of course after millions of taxpayer dollars have been sunk into the planning of the project).

The answer: Wind energy, solar energy, and geothermal energy!

Here in SoCal (outside of Palm Springs) they are shutting down some of the wind generators because birds get chopped up by them. I say build more!

It's not the wind generator's fault that some birds are stupid enough to fly into them.... >;-) Those blades do not spin fast enough that they cannot be seen. They actually spin rather slowly....

We need more trees to filter and replenish the atmosphere, and less concrete to reflect heat back into the atmosphere.

Interesting topic...

Is there really such a thing as 'clean' energy though? Regardless of fuel source... sun, wind, water, coal, oil, etc... aren't we always simply converting one form of energy into another, thereby drawing from a finite cache of energy and interrupting the natural cycle in favor of human consumption? Isn't any form of energy production we come up with going to harm the environment in some way... and equal in magnitude to the benefit we draw from it, regardless of source?

I attended an interesting lecture on wind power last fall at school, and one of the concerns raised (aside from the bird issue) was that there simply IS no such thing as 'free' energy. If we installed enough wind turbines to serve the energy needs of the entire planet, would it not have catastrophic consequences to global wind patterns and therefore the climate?

Sure it's an extreme example but I think it points to the fact that regardless of how we do this, the result is always going to be the same. To extract each and every kilowatt-hour of energy we require from the earth, we are depleting the earth of exactly one kilowatt-hour of energy that was intended to do something else (i.e. heat the earth's crust, drive climate patterns, etc).

I really don't know the answers... I'm just posing some additional questions to fuel (forgive the pun) the discussion. :)

Dig