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Home | Renewable & Alternative Energy - General


Broad-Spectrum Basics-

By: Frank Hummel

Folks who would participate in ANY sort of economic / political discussion these days about the subject of “Economic Recovery" really need to be generally aware of a number of basic realities regarding ALTERNATIVE ENERGY matters --- which SURELY enter into any comprehensive (or even casual!) discussion of that subject. I submit that all the “political” and “economic” blather notwithstanding, we will not actually begin to see the end of this recession / depression unless and until A WHOLE NEW TECHNOLOGY begins to ACTUALLY emerge and to be taken SERIOUSLY by ALL of us in general --- in a national-priority initiative comparable to THE SPACE PROGRAM OF THE 1960S --- and the now-shrinking industrial sector actually EMBRACES it and begins to re-tool all those plants that are now being shuttered and starts to actually build products that genuinely implement concepts outlined in the following:
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“Our” addictive dependency on other peoples’ oil?? After all, we in this country now KNOW FOR SURE --- originally by means of Hubbert-inspired statistical analysis of patterns of past discoveries of the stuff, now CONFIRMED by many years of rather exact explicit mapping out of reserves (applying sonographic and other techniques), that we have at this point in fact USED UP (and indeed rather profligately!) about 70% of “our OWN” Providential endowment of raw oil --- and specifically the “easy” stuff! The remainder, which the “drill, baby, drill” crowd is now hot to go after, is at this point to be found in low-capacity (only a few barrels a day) “stripper” wells, or under water, or somewhere north of the Arctic Circle, or WAY DEEP. (The largest known LIQUID oil reserve in the “lower 48”, several billion barrels up in the Dakotas, SOUNDS big, but is (1) ONLY ABOUT A HALF-YEARS’ U.S. SUPPLY, and (2) LIES FOUR MILES DOWN!) Such oil is very expensive to “produce” --- which means that it would NOT be possible to shave much (if anything) off the “price at the pump” merely by aggressively exploiting such declining resources!

Now indeed, THAT is what has ACTUALLY given rise in the first place to the whole current (ostensibly “lucrative”) “model” of AGGRESSIVE EXPROPRIATION (or very expensive ATTEMPTS thereat!) of the endowments of OTHERS elsewhere around the world --- and the subsequent (risky) transportation of the “booty” thousands of miles to be refined, distributed, and marketed over here (with, of course, endless opportunities for “profit” and “taxation” at every step along the way). All the while “we”, of course, PRETEND to each other and “our”selves --- BY ARTIFICIALLY EXCLUDING FROM EXPLICIT CONSIDERATION(!) all the “ancillary” (for example the “military”) costs, that actually DO ADD IN(!) to the overall TRUE cost --- that the end result is somehow “cheaper” than the alternatives would be. People may not WANT to “connect the dots”, but $10 BILLION A MONTH for the care and feeding of all those Sunni Militias in Iraq in order to “keep the lid on and the OIL flowing” REALLY IS A “HIDDEN” PART OF THE COST OF THAT OIL! And merely recognizing THAT, of course, does not even BEGIN to address all the IMPONDERABLE costs of about a million or so people BUTCHERED and millions more MADE REFUGEES by way of all the “collateral damage” wrought / unleashed by “us” in the course of THAT whole obscene (MISad)“venture”!

Now of course the Oil Industry is NOT going to simply go away. Its products are vitally needed as the CHEMICAL FEEDSTOCKS for MANY things that “we” manufacture and use every day --- especially various different PLASTICS and other types of basic materials --- among them ASPHALT for our roadways, and polyvinyl-chloride used in water and gas pipes and electrical conduit and all that SIDING used in building. But “we” DESPERATELY need, and have LONG needed, to QUIT BRAINLESSLY BURNING THE STUFF UP AS A MERE FUEL! So we are now STILL going to have to pursue the alternatives ANYWAY --- even AFTER having now FOOLISHLY BLOWN the economic advantages that “we” not so very long ago had enjoyed, which could have substantially EASED what will surely now be a very DIFFICULT transition --- BRILLIANT, people!!
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So what then might the alternatives for accomplishing THAT objective actually be?? Well FOR INSTANCE:

GM’s forthcoming Chevy VOLT (IF, of course, GM does not “go belly up” first!) is an ELECTRIC car with a battery that will carry it about FORTY miles. Thereafter, an INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE kicks in. But that (gasoline) engine is NOT coupled to the wheels MECHANICALLY. Rather, It drives a GENERATOR that supplies the ELECTRIC motors that power the wheels. And if you erroneously imagine that no such vehicle can get above 30 miles per hour or get out of the back yard --- well, be advised! All those MASSIVE LOCOMOTIVES on the RAILROADS, and the LARGEST SHIPS on the HIGH SEAS, are (and for MANY years now already HAVE been) propelled by ELECTRIC motors! And the speed record for ELECTRIC cars out at the Bonneville Speedway is somewhere north of 400 Miles per hour the last I heard.

Now the thing is, statistics show fully 75% of all automobile usage is “short haul” runs that would “fit” within the 40-mile “power budget” of the VOLT’s battery --- SO MOST OF THE TIME THE INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE WILL NEVER OPERATE! Ici voila!: THREE-FOURTHS of all petroleum consumption to power “our“ automobiles simply, straightforwardly ELIMINATED --- PERIOD!

The battery would be charged from the power grid, or (better yet, eventually) YOUR OWN PHOTOVOLTAIC ARRAY or WIND-POWERED-GENERATOR low-voltage auxiliary system, when the vehicle is not in use. (Using electrical power in such a way could render it PRACTICAL to DIRECTLY harness the abundant but intermittent / highly variable FREE energy that perpetually rains down on us DIRECTLY FROM THE SUN --- which “we” traditionally WASTE! For the car battery DOESN’T “CARE” if it is charged intermittently or at a variable rate as long as it ultimately gets charged up!) Or absent such FREE power, about 80 cents worth of "grid" power would “fill the tank”. (Eight such charges, or $6.40 worth, would carry the car for 320 miles --- about the equivalent of a tank of gasoline THAT COSTS ABOUT FOUR TIMES AS MUCH!) Beyond that, fuel consumption would depend on how the car is used --- but for ORDINARY usage the internal combustion engine WOULD BE AT MOST ONLY MINIMALLY ACTIVE!

And one simply DISPENSES WITH the whole elaborate TRANSMISSION and DRIVE TRAIN (!) --- utilizing simple, relatively UNbreakable MAGNETIC-force (rather than complex, fallible mechanical) drive elements. (There is NO transmission on a Diesel Electric locomotive! We could not even BEGIN to engineer a sufficiently heavy-duty clutch --- that is why the whole ELECTRIC-motor paradigm was developed for very HEAVY loads in the first place!) So now, think of all THOSE savings too!

Above all, though, note that the concept is really an adaptation to a MUCH LIGHTER application of VERY OLD, WELL-ESTABLISHED, HEAVY-DUTY technological innovations. The battery-powered car has been around since the EARLIEST days of the automobile, and the Diesel-electric LOCOMOTIVE (and similar systems --- for example, on the largest ships) have been around for ABOUT 60 YEARS NOW ALREADY. There has been no fundamental TECHNOLOGICAL reason why the adaptation to the mere AUTOMOBILE could not have been accomplished MUCH SOONER(!) --- had “we” but mustered the wisdom and the wit to do so! People really should now be thinking about the “FALSE(!) economics” reasons why the alternative was not pursued earlier, and how the rationales for not doing so now prove to have tragically MISLED “us”!

And people who are inclined to dismiss such “novelties” as the VOLT as mere “trivia” might ALSO be well advised to “read the handwriting on the wall” that is implicit in the fact that its EUROPEAN equivalent --- an initiative being jovially dubbed the AMPERE --- is NOW AHEAD in the “development derby”, having recently ACTUALLY BEEN FORMALLY UNVEILED at a major European auto show! Don’t look, Ethel, but notwithstanding smug, self-centered, Jingoistic attitudes that seem to STILL be prevalent among many foolish folk over here, “we” simply are NOT the ONLY center of technological advance in the world, and NEVER HAVE BEEN! (After all the whole “modern” automotive technological paradigm was actually initiated by a GERMAN engineer --- one Karl Benz, who INVENTED the internal combustion engine, way back in the 1880s! Today most people here do not even recognize the man’s name. But he had a beloved GRANDDAUGHTER --- who IS remembered, and revered the world over. Her name was Mercedes!)

I submit that it would now be appropriate for "Government" to fund GM (at BARELY above subsistence levels!) to sustain ONLY those "life functions" of the moribund "patient" that support RAPID, COMPELLED revolutionary progress AWAY from the currently FAILING "business model"! That assistance needs to be VERY SPECIFIC, being purposefully directed toward ACTUAL IMPLEMENTATION, BRINGING INTO PRODUCTION, and more generally PUBLIC POPULARIZATION (through EDUCATION and indirect tax-forbearance SUBSIDIZATION) of such initiatives as the VOLT and all its sure-to-soon-follow derivative progeny --- and ALSO, more broadly, such OTHER "outside-the-box" initiatives as the Toyota / Hyundai / Ford pioneering of REGENERATIVE-BRAKING ENERGY CONSERVATION technology.

Indeed, it ALSO needs to begin to dawn on people that it will be advantageous to MARRY THE "REGENERATIVE-BRAKING" AND "ELECTRIC – I.C.E. CHIMERA" concepts: doing so would about DOUBLE THE RANGE of any battery-powered system, just as it doubles the efficiency (and hence also the range) of the all-gasoline-powered Toyota Prius (which has a 21.5 miles-per-gallon-rated engine that ends up achieving around 45 mpg!). Maybe THAT is the initiative on which CHRYSLER should be funded to focus. (A little good-old-fashioned, "capitalistic" COMPETITION --- if REAL --- could be a very good thing!)

So then: eliminate perhaps FULLY SEVEN-EIGHTHS(!) of all the importation of oil to supply gasoline to fuel "our" automobiles! And by the way, while "we" are at it, lets also CONVERT all those BIG TRUCKS and other heavy motorized systems to NATURAL GAS --- which “we” have (for now) in ABUNDANT supply --- per the proposals being advanced by famed “oil”man T. Boone Pickens. Now THERE is FOREIGN OIL INDEPENDENCE for you! And it really COULD (and SHOULD!!) have been done MANY YEARS AGO NOW ALREADY!! --- which, by the way, would have simply AVOIDED bloody obscenities such as those for which “we” are now responsible, wittingly or unwittingly, over in IRAQ and elsewhere --- that are, after all, what has actually ENGENDERED the fanatical, murderous vengeance of an “al Qaida”, and which has now led to MONUMENTAL expenditures of NON-PRODUCTIVE time, effort, money, and LIVES wastefully SQUANDERED to “defend against” just A FEW (really) mere “terrorists”!

Moreover, SUCH are the sorts of initiatives now needed to ACTUALLY IGNITE A "GREEN-COLLAR ECONOMIC REVOLUTION", which if generally embraced could intelligently, CONSTRUCTIVELY RESTORE THE ECONOMIC HEALTH of this society (and which would SURELY be preferable to any cockamamie WAR like the one whereby "we" "escaped" from the so-called "Great" Depression!).

Now if my ideas come across as HERETICAL, then so be it. But you DON'T successfully treat a patient who is DYING OF LUNG CANCER (if it is indeed possible to do so at all) BY BUYING HIM OR HER MORE CIGARETTES! It appears that the OBAMA crowd (finally) is indeed smart enough to "get" that. EVIDENTLY THEIR PREDECESSORS WERE NOT!
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But what more can ultimately be done even beyond all of THAT --- as will be ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY not too far “down the road” WHEN OIL TRULY DOES RUN OUT!?? PEOPLE REALLY SHOULD KNOW!!

First of all, one can EASILY generate HYDROGEN (of which we have an INCREDIBLY ABUNDANT supply) by the simple ELECTROLYSIS OF ORDINARY WATER (with a little dissolved salt to render it electrically conductive --- or perhaps even simply using water taken from the ocean). Merely DRIVING AN ELECTRIC CURRENT THROUGH IT delivers the energy required to BREAK APART THE H2O MOLECULES, releasing the hydrogen and oxygen --- which can easily be separately collected.

OXYGEN is, of course, a major component of the Earth’s atmosphere --- ALL of which, by the way, has been BUILT UP BY LIVING THINGS over billions of years. There was NO oxygen in the air BEFORE LIFE. (This planet has been “terra-formed” since time immemorial!) HYDROGEN, in contrast, does not long survive in a FREE state in the atmosphere, as it is so light that any that may arise simply floats off into outer space! But it is one of the TWO MOST PLENTIFUL ELEMENTS IN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE, and “we” have a LOT of it --- MAINLY LOCKED UP IN WATER. Also, considerable amounts of the stuff are to be found as well in HYDROCARBON molecules that comprise all living things AND THEIR REMAINS --- including “fossil fuels” --- that retain SOLAR energy “CAPTURED” by PHOTOSYNTHETICALLY prying hydrogen loose from water, both RECENTLY and also way back in PREHISTORIC times, and have kept that SOLAR energy ”sequestered” ever since! So BIOLOGICAL systems can ALSO yield hydrogen.

But once separated, better not let gaseous hydrogen and oxygen get back together again too ABRUPTLY, though --- because the energy that was delivered and stored up GRADUALLY over a period of time in the process of separating them would then be re-released INSTANTANEOUSLY, which might well constitute an EXPLOSION (e.g. the dirigible Hindenberg!). Thankfully, though, there ARE materials that can serve as a "fire control system" (of the SAFETY variety!) for hydrogen. They are called ANHYDRIDES, and they aDsorb (NOT aBsorb!) hydrogen --- meaning that a PHYSICAL bond (not a CHEMICAL one) forms between free hydrogen molecules (H2) and the ANhydride material --- ON ITS SURFACES (only). But the stuff can be PULVERIZED, which INCREASES THE SURFACE AREA TREMENDOUSLY. It is just the principle of the old-fashioned GAS MASK!

METAL anhydrides are alloys of two different metals, one of them being either of the elements LITHIUM (which is prohibitively scarce for truly MASS applications) or NICKEL (heavier, but much more plentiful --- and hence much less susceptible to being MONOPOLIZED by a few nations and/or large multinationals). And research has ALSO been done on other, CERAMIC anhydrides, which might perhaps eventually yield something even BETTER from the standpoint of storage capacity per unit of weight of the material involved.

This material, ground up into a fine powder, is loaded into a canister --- so that THE TOTAL SURFACE AREA WITHIN A SMALL VOLUME IS HUGE. It operates rather like a SPONGE to "soak up" free hydrogen, keeping it contained. If the vessel should rupture, only a FRACTION of the “charged up” (i.e. hydride) material will be IMMEDIATELY exposed to oxygen from the air --- so that it would be susceptible to catching fire. IT WILL BURN, BUT IT DOESN'T GO BOOM! One "frees up" H2 from its ANhydride "storage matrix" at a CONTROLLED rate by simply WARMING the stuff a bit to drive off the LOOSELY-bound H2 molecules from their adsorption-effected PHYSICAL bonding. (By the way --- NOW do you get an inkling of what is actually happening in those faulty flammable Lithium-ion batteries in some laptop computers?)

The ANhydride storage matrix material IS NOT CONSUMED --- it simply operates like a sponge that is used over and over again. The stuff works at a MOLECULAR level rather like the MACROSCOPIC-scale "fire control" system used in NASCAR Auto Racing. (Ever wonder why when crashes occur during races all that volatile ethanol does not "go off", immolating drivers and spectators alike?? It is because the fuel tanks are NOT merely hollow vessels carrying liquid bombs! Actually, they are filled with a "stiff-sponge”-matrix material that "soaks up" the LIQUID fuel in the same sort of manner, greatly SLOWING the combustion if it SHOULD accidentally catch fire.)

Vehicular HYDROGEN fuel tanks must employ such anhydride materials for basic fire safety!

By the way, NONE OF THIS IS "EXOTIC NEW TECHNOLOGY". It has all been "piloted" by then Daimler-Benz, under a German Government-sponsored research project contract, being used to SUCCESSFULLY OPERATE AN ENTIRE FLEET OF CITY BUSES ON HYDROGEN --- IN FRANKFORT, GERMANY FOR A PERIOD OF A YEAR, WAY BACK IN 1979-'80!! (That's 29 YEARS AGO now already!)

It IS, however, necessary to guard against CONTAMINATION by extraneous junk that could interfere with H2 adsorption. In AUTOMOBILES, THAT consideration militates in favor of a CLOSED-CYCLE system, IN WHICH THE SAME "RAW MATERIAL" WATER IS USED OVER AND OVER IN A 2H2O < -- > 2H2 + O2 BACK-AND-FORTH REACTION --- with the hydrogen being used NOT to brainlessly BURN in an internal combustion engine (I.C.E.) (as in the German project), but rather TO SUPPLY FUEL CELLS that would RE-GENERATE ELECTRICITY once again. (Fuel cells are ALSO now OLD technology, having long been highly developed by, among others, NASA!) The PERPETUALLY RE-PURIFIED “byproduct” water from those cells would be collected and RECYCLED back over to the electrolysis cell. The hydrogen “fuel” would, in essence, be repeatedly (re-)generated --- in situ (i.e. IN the car itself) normally, allowing for a system of exchangeable cylinders at stations along roadways in order to provide for long-distance travel.

To summarize: ELECTRICITY IN - ELECTRICITY OUT, with a VERY high-energy-density, safely stored CHEMICAL fuel, synthesized IN SITU, serving as a “CARRIER” to TRANSPORT temporarily-SEQUESTERED energy!

Now even just BURNING hydrogen (produced by means of electrolysis or otherwise) in an ICE would not itself add any pollution, no CO2, and very little NOx-complex greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. But the "ASH" of burning hydrogen IS WATER --- which, THOUGH CERTAINLY NOT A POLLUTANT, IS ITSELF, TO SOME EXTENT, A GREENHOUSE GAS! It is thus better for YET ANOTHER kind of reason as well to NOT directly “combust” it, releasing the resulting large amounts of water vapor (and ALSO large amounts of WASTED energy in the form of HEAT as well!) off into the air --- but, rather, to use it CLOSED-CYCLE to energize fuel cells (at much lower temperatures!) to then drive ELECTRIC motors (much more EFFICIENTLY, incidentally).

Of course for the whole overall result to ACTUALLY be "CLEAN", the ELECTRICAL energy used to PRODUCE that hydrogen “fuel” NEEDS TO ITSELF BE GENERATED CLEANLY. But if it comes, rather, mainly from BURNING COAL DOWN AT THE POWER PLANT in the manner of our existing, “conventional” technology, then the situation becomes even worse than burning GASOLINE as we are now doing! For you ADD to the pollution generated “back at the plant” MORE THAN YOU SAVE IN THE CAR!

The unthinkable (to most people) REALITY is that NOT ONLY DO WE NEED TO WEAN “OUR“SELVES OFF OF “OUR“ ADDICTIVE DEPENDENCY ON OTHER PEOPLES' OIL --- BUT WE ALSO NEED TO GET OFF OF EVEN “OUR OWN“ COAL AND OTHER “FOSSIL“ FUELS AS WELL! And THAT, of course, bespeaks a COMPLETE AND QUITE RADICAL RECONSTITUTION OF "OUR" WHOLE energy diet, AND INDEED “OUR” ENTIRE NATIONAL ECONOMY! --- which will be EXTREMELY DISRUPTIVE to a great many "established interests"! A lot of “economic” “empires” based on the exploitation of declining “fossil” fuel resources that have grown up over the last 300 years ARE ABOUT TO GO BUST, and the next few decades will NOT be a particularly pleasant era during which to be living!

And THAT is about where things now stand.
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So then, what OTHER alternatives to “fossil fuels” exist for powering systems and generating electricity (in preference to abjectly renouncing, or at least severely scaling back, our technology and reverting to a mere “subsistence” existence)?? Well, contrary to the MISconception that seems to be generally cultivated by would-be “defenders of the status quo”, there are MANY possibilities. But the general “popular” perception of things stands really quite grossly SKEWED AND DISTORTED --- a cynic might well suspect DELIBERATELY, by many who have “interests” centered in the OLDER technology --- through “selective” encouragement / discouragement of “public awareness” of various technological concepts and initiatives.

At this point everyone pretty well understands, for example, HYDROELECTRIC power generation, which as virtually everyone must surely realize actually involves HEAVY-DUTY SOLAR energy --- since it is energy from the SUN that actually airlifts the RAIN that perpetually refills the RIVERS. Now that clearly IS, indeed, a VERY VALUABLE ADJUNCT to “fossil” fuels for the generation of electrical power --- as is certainly well-understood and accepted. (And indeed, we have by now ALREADY BUILT just about all the really large-scale hydroelectric projects that “our” rivers could support.)

But there seems to be a rather glaring VACUUM in the “general public consciousness” of OTHER “BIG-MUSCLE” solar technologies! Somehow the preponderance of people here seem to be GENERALLY INCOGNIZANT of a number of MAJOR possibilities and projects, and they have evidently been beguiled into supposing that the only alternatives to “fossil” fuels are windmills and photovoltaic panels --- which are valuable adjuncts in many limited-power applications, BUT ARE HARDLY THE "MAIN DIET"! Most folks seem to somehow have never even heard of, say, the Sandia Labs Solar Towers --- which were constructed way back in the seventies and eighties in an initiative to generate really LARGE amounts of electrical power not by means of windmills or solar photovoltaic collectors, but rather by the much less "exotic" idea of focusing the sun's rays using MIRRORS to generate STEAM to drive large turbines.

Evidently (so I hear from some of the old-time engineering people who were involved), one such system, a 25 MW (that's 25 million watts of power) unit, STILL OPERATES --- on the grid out west. But the FUNDING for such alternative energy technology that had been supported way back under Carter was CUT OFF under the MISguided MISmanagement of Ronnie Ray-gun and company --- who evidently much preferred to “divert” advanced technology off into “playing Star Wars"! And much work has also been done on developing parabolic-dish energy gathering systems in which the sun’s rays are focused to drive STIRLING ENGINES --- which convert heat energy efficiently into mechanical motion. (But such concepts only work, of course, while the sun shines!)

Today such "big-muscle" solar power (which DWARFS windmills and photovoltaic-panel technology) --- has been left to OTHERS around the world to develop. And others elsewhere in the world HAVE INDEED been busy(!) --- on SEVERAL different “fronts”. So we now have, for example, the EnviroMission "Solar Hotbox" technology, involving heat from the sun being "bottled up" inside a HUGE "GREENHOUSE", and in THE GROUND BENEATH IT. HEATED AIR then rises up inside a PYRAMIDAL structure (gathering speed), TURNING LARGE FANS which drive electric generators as it exits back to the outside. This primitive-sounding-concept system has the great merit of STORING UP ENOUGH ENERGY DURING THE DAYTIME to KEEP THE FANS RUNNING ALL NIGHT LONG! That is, the ENERGY STORAGE RESERVOIR to average out DIURNAL INTERMITTENCY AND VARIABILITY OF THE PRIMARY DRIVE POWER (SUNLIGHT) is IMPLICIT IN THE SYSTEM ITSELF --- so that no other expensive, lossy "energy storage buffers" (e.g. pumped-hydro installations elsewhere on the grid, etc.) are needed!

I understand that a 50 MW installation of that sort has operated successfully FOR A NUMBER OF YEARS already in SPAIN, and a 200MW installation is now "in the works" for northern AUSTRALIA! “We”, by comparison, have plans on the drawing boards for a number of new COAL-FIRED plants, no doubt with “sophisticated” (and very EXPENSIVE!) “modern” POLLUTION-control technology, but evidently NO meaningful CARBON SEQUESTRATION to prevent Carbon Dioxide emissions. The Environ-Mission system, of course, SIMPLY GENERATES NO SUCH EMISSIONS!

Carbon Dioxide is, to be sure, NOT a POLLUTANT --- being, after all, in effect BREATHED IN BY PLANTS as the "other half" of the "Grand Balance of Nature" Carbon Cycle whereby plants and animals provide each other with oxygen and carbon dioxide. And over the eons, “Nature” has established an at least QUASI-stable “equilibrium” at about the current level. But a LARGE POWER PLANT is NOT MERELY ANOTHER ANIMAL, and has, by comparison, a HUGE "METABOLISM". And when the “natural balance” of things is MARKEDLY SHIFTED for ANY reason the excess of CO2, which is a "greenhouse gas", acts to "trap" more of the sun's easily-INcoming LIGHT energy that ends up being converted (by quantum-mechanical interactions with the atoms comprising the Earth’s surface) to HEAT --- to which that gas is OPAQUE, so that the HEAT is “bottled up” and cannot re-radiate off freely back out into space! And so the Earth gets HOTTER --- the infamous GLOBAL WARMING that drives more intense HURRICANES and other storms, and MELTS THE POLAR ICECAPS, which by some estimates could perhaps FLOOD OUT UP TO A THIRD OF ALL HUMANITY that tends to concentrate along seacoasts.

Now the magnitude of the “human activity” contribution to that whole balance shift is debated by some. But even if there ARE indeed other, NATURAL processes afoot that ALSO contribute to the same problem, “WE” HAVE NO BUSINESS ADDING TO IT --- at ANY level! (What “we” ACTUALLY need to be doing is TO ASSUME INTELLIGENT MANAGERIAL CONTROL of the whole planetary energy input/output balance! Accomplishing THAT sort of thing would involve implementing TECHNOLOGICAL schemes to ADD “OUR” OWN OZONE to the ULTRAVIOLET shield layer (which actually consists of ONLY A FEW THOUSAND TONS OF MATERIAL world-wide) as might be needed, and/or perhaps more generally to contrive to increase the population of REFLECTIVE ICE CRYSTALS INJECTED INTO THE STRATOSPHERE by all those high-flying aircraft.)
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Finally, the OTHER sort of alternative that must now ALSO be (re-)considered is NUCLEAR technology, with all of ITS problems. But, thankfully, there are some new departures on THAT horizon as well.

First of all, we now know how to build Nuclear Fission reactors in ways that are at least INTRINSICALLY IMMUNE TO ANY POSSIBILITY OF MELTDOWN a la Chernobyl in the Ukraine or (almost) Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania.

It is AT LEAST possible to fabricate “the pile" in such a way that the fissile material density simply is not so great that if there is a loss-of-coolant accident (or maybe attack?) the temperature in the core would "go to the moon". The most promising-sounding proposals along these lines involve encasing pieces of the uranium fuel in CARBIDE spheres about the size of billiard balls, instead of in the classic "fuel rod" assemblies. These are positioned in a HORIZONTALLY ORIENTED BED. The fissile material density is then MUCH LOWER, so that the TEMPERATURES that would be attained if the heat-exchange-fluid flow were to fail for any reason would be lower, so THE CONSEQUENCES WOULD NOT BE UTTERLY DISASTROUS! And such a design ALSO has the advantage that REFUELING reactors can be accomplished on a “DISTRIBUTED” basis, by simply adding NEW "fuel balls" at the top of the bed while pulling out old ones off the bottom --- SO THAT IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO SHUT SYSTEMS DOWN COMPLETELY FOR MONTHS ON END IN ORDER TO GET THE JOB DONE!

Any NEW dinosaurs of the FISSION type that might be built should SURELY, at least, apply THESE concepts! But who here is even THINKING about --- much less seriously considering actually IMPLEMENTING --- such “esoterica”? No, “we” are FAR too busy dithering about mere “politics” --- and now about the ECONOMIC “meltdown”! (And really, in connection with THAT disaster, most people over here seem to only be FOOLISHLY trying to do nothing more than re-establish “Business as Usual”!)

What is far MORE promising, however, in the SLIGHTLY longer run is the quietly-forthcoming THERMONUCLEAR initiative --- the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) --- which is PRESENTLY UNDERWAY, with construction having begun at Cadarache, in FRANCE, in 2008. (By the way --- WHY NOT HERE, do you suppose?) It is being built by a CONSORTIUM of EIGHT MAJOR NATIONS, including France, Germany, China, Russia, India, Japan, Italy, --- and oh yes (though most here seem to have never even HEARD of it) the good old USA is ALSO participating. This beast will produce 500 Megawatts of electrical power (and yield about 150,000 French JOBS!) within about ten years.

This is accomplished NOT by the FISSION of a heavy atom like Uranium, which produces all manner of subatomic JUNK pieces in the breakup. Some of these remain radioactive for tens of thousands of years as they gradually transmute through a progression of elements, ending up eventually as LEAD --- which results in the need to try to find some way to “safely“ “dispose“ of nuclear “wastes” over that (very long) interim. THERMONUCLEAR power is, rather, accomplished by the FUSION of the very LIGHTEST atoms: HYDROGEN again (one proton and one electron) --- or better yet its isotope DEUTERIUM, which has an additional neutron thrown into the nucleus (but which is still CHEMICALLY “hydrogen” because the chemistry of an atom is determined only by its “OUTER” ELECTRONS) --- to make HELIUM: two protons, two electrons, and two neutrons (a neutron being in fact a proton tightly bound together with an electron).

But four times the MASS of a hydrogen atom (or two times the mass of a deuterium atom) is SLIGHTLY LESS than the mass of a helium atom! Hence in a reaction that converts hydrogen into helium, A SMALL FRACTION OF THE ORIGINAL MASS VANISHES from the final balance. IT IS NOT CONSERVED IN THE FORM OF MATTER! But lo and behold, E=MC**2! That tiny MASS differential M REVERTS BACK INTO THE ENERGY E from which it HAD ORIGINALLY COALESCED TO BEGIN WITH (way back at the time of THE “BIG BANG”!). And since C-squared (C being the speed of light) is a VERY LARGE number, a LOT of energy derives from only a LITTLE bit of reverted matter! Moreover, the “waste” product, helium, is NOT RADIOactive, and is not even CHEMICALLY active --- being in fact an inert gas!

Now THAT is the NUCLEAR reaction that POWERS THE SUN ITSELF! It operates (in deuterium extracted from "heavy" water THAT IS MERELY GLEANED FROM THE OCEAN!) at a temperature of about 23 Million degrees! Moreover, with a "fire" THAT hot, it might even be possible to eventually come up with a process to "incinerate" the inventory of junk left over from the URANIUM FISSION DINOSAURS! That is, this initiative could perhaps eventually lead to a way of "cleaning up" the "legacy" mess!
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Now I hope that all of this overview may help to CRYSTALLIZE SOME OF THE THINKING that is hopefully BEGINNING to take hold in the minds of at least SOME people nowadays. They can thus perhaps be somewhat less vulnerable to MISconceptions that seem to often be cultivated (wittingly or unwittingly, it makes no difference) by many who in effect "promote" agendas of various sorts that are REALLY calculated to "advance" their OWN (often MISPERCEIVED) "interests" --- rather than those of the actual overall collective general welfare!

BUT--- better GET BUSY ACTUALLY WORKING ON ALL OF THAT STUFF, people. For if "WE" don't do so, then YOU CAN BET YOUR LAST DOLLAR (and come to think of it, that IS about what “we” actually ARE getting down to!) that OTHERS ELSEWHERE (particularly the many, many folks over there in ASIA!) WILL indeed do so! So, then, think about it --- do “we” really want “our” kids and grandkids to HAVE TO learn Mandarin, or Hindi, or Katakana AS A MATTER OF PRACTICAL NECESSITY?! Hold your own!!

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