Alternative Energy Thread

[Wadi66]

If we did that, we'd have another Dust Bowl incident.Your comment doesn't make sense.

[Madcowhunter]

The Dust Bowl was the result of a drought, overplowing, and heavy winds....

[Wadi66]

The Dust Bowl was the result of a drought, overplowing, and heavy winds....AND the farmland NOT being planted.... thank you FDR.

[rightwingxtremist]

Hi all,

I am starting to grow an interest in alternative energy, just because it's cool. I am beginning to experiment with permanent magnet generators for human power and one of these days I'd like to branch out into solar panels and White LED's.

Besides, if we're collectively so fat with potential energy in our guts, why not turn it into power and kill two birds with one stone? (C:

It's definitely greasel all the way for me - I bet there is some sweet cookin' oil ripe for the taking at the local Frito Lay plant here in CT.

- Nate

[Android]

The Dust Bowl was the result of a drought, overplowing, and heavy winds....
According to the seed potato Farmers from Idaho I have talked with, the dust bowl was from over growing and not turning fields. We have learned and moved on from this. Old news, old info. Now, imagine everyone eating non genetically altered vegetables. How much land would that take? How many forest would be bulldozed to accomodate that much farm land? Just another rambling thought, that's all. Thoughts?

[Android]

I should say, according to the farmers, it was the drought AND the over growing. So very sorry.

[Wadi66]

According to the seed potato Farmers from Idaho I have talked with, the dust bowl was from over growing and not turning fields.Your potato farmers better go back to agri school... if they ever went in the first place. Over growing does not create a dust bowl. It robs the soil of nutrients that affects crop production and the quality of the crop. Still today, most farmers disc their fields although some younger farmers are realizing that in doing so, the wind is blowing away valuable nutrients so they've stopped the practice. Also in that era, most farmers were not aware of the importance of crop rotation or planting green manure and letting the field "rest".

When I was studying Says Law, the Great Depression was a period covered in depth as it was the very early stages of the Keynesian Theory. Unfortunately history books today gloss over the reason for not only the great depression, but the side affects, the dust bowl being one. Thousands upon thousands of farmers went out of business and the fields lay dormant. FDR also initiated the concept of paying farmers not to grow food.

Now, imagine everyone eating non genetically altered vegetables. How much land would that take? How many forest would be bulldozed to accomodate that much farm land? Just another rambling thought, that's all. Thoughts?Forest being bulldozed? Zero. The farm land we currently have is quite capable of handling the demand of non genetically engineered vegetables. Using proper methods, even the poorest dirt can produce beyond your wildest expectations. I have a shelf full of organic growing gardening books. Nature is awesome, man is the idiot.

A Dairyman (a neighbor) once inspected my corn patch and accusingly proclaimed that my corn would never grow, the stalks were to close as were the rows. Weeks later he stopped by and watched me harvest the corn. He said, "if I hadn't of seen it with my own eyes, I would never have believed it". My corn went in 2 weeks after his and harvested 3 weeks before. Big, succulent bug free ears.

[HOKIEHUNTER]

Chernobyl occured b/c of bad information and rushing. the operators new they had some faulty gauges but were performing a "SCRAM" emergency shutdown practice and seeing what they could do under different situations. b/c some gauges were faulty, wrong actions were taken at wrong times and bang, disaster.

as far as three mile island, one simple valve stuck open on a coolant overflow loop and a bad valve signal caused all the coolant to be pumped out. despite 3 mile being a disaster, nothing bad happend outside the reactor.

now as far as the state of nuclear power, there are MANY different designs of nuke plants out there. different companies make different plants. it's like cars, AREVA, B&W, Westinghouse PSL, etc, all have their own designs. new plants and the more recent plants have so many redundant safety features that you could do everything wrong, have a complete and total meltdown, and no radiation would leak at all. (i know i've worked on the analysis and seen the designs / theory / calcs).

the thing that kills me about this thread is that you all are putting technology that has failed numerous design attempts above a proven, safe, clean, current design. they've been trying fusion for decades with no success. biomass has done little. solar has trivial applicatoins. europe is run on nuke power!!! 20% of AMERICA is run on a small number of nuke plants. the stuff works and our technology improves on an almost daily basis. but i'll let ya'll in on a little secret. my company is probably gonna get an order for a new american power plant in the next several months..... we'll see where we head from there...

[rightwingxtremist]

Yep,

And we have a nice new storage facility in the mountains to take care of our trash needs for a long long time!

- Nate

[Android]

Your potato farmers better go back to agri school...

Well being that's where my farming knowledge came from Wadi, I guess you know I shouldn't be the one farming corn for you then! :icon_lol:

[Oi_Ve]

Hey, look, things people agree on! nuclear energy is a great way to go, but the problem with it is that the possibilities of an accident, though incredibly small, are present at come at a high cost, and especially in this day and age, it could be difficult to protect them. there's also the extremist enviromentalists who'll stall permits and whatnot.
hydrogen fuel cells were actually first invented in the 1800's although the scientists didn't fully know what they had. regardless, it's clean and probably one of the few things green peace would go through. hydrogen is a definite thing that needs research.
in fact we probably could have had efficent hydrogen fuel and storage, but the oil companies have had more than one politician on every side and in every party in their pocket at one point or another. this is not a bash on bush or anyone in his cabinet, simply the truth.

[Argonath]

We have to many people on earth as it is. Let's pack up Iceland, and burn them for fuel. Think of all the power we could get!

[Mr. Glass]

A Dairyman (a neighbor) once inspected my corn patch and accusingly proclaimed that my corn would never grow, the stalks were to close as were the rows. Weeks later he stopped by and watched me harvest the corn. He said, "if I hadn't of seen it with my own eyes, I would never have believed it". My corn went in 2 weeks after his and harvested 3 weeks before. Big, succulent bug free ears.

Wadi, my uncle grows organic popcorn, think he calls it Bees Brothers popcorn, sells it in wine bottles (he also makes Mead, some of the best in ther country, but I'm gonna guess you dont drink :P )

Organic, non-GE corn is the best stuff in the world in my biased and slanted opinion. roasted, popped, posole (homony), corn bread... mmmmmmmm
ok now I gotta go eat...

So just to keep the conversation going... Wadi, I'm curious, what's your view on Hemp? Not Marijuana, I'm talking about Hemp, the non-drug cousin of Marijuana.

-Doug

[Mr. Glass]

but i'll let ya'll in on a little secret. my company is probably gonna get an order for a new american power plant in the next several months..... we'll see where we head from there...

WOOT! About damn time.