Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey
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ShakyJake
<Donor>
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Mudcrush Durtfeet
Hungry Ogre
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Lots of talk, some information, but I wanted to hear how MUCH the average global temperature has gone up since the late 1800s and how close we are to meltdown of ice caps. Probably didn't say those things because either no one knows for sure or it would sound low and hurt the message. I also wanted him to mention nuclear power plants as an alternative energy source, but guess not.
Yeah I was kind of surprised to see his opinion was wind/solar are the answer. All this hypothetical "If we caught all the solar power of one hour" stuff is great and all but we need an acceptable stop-gap until we figure out how to harvest solar a bit better. Nuke seems to be the best answer to that. Not to mention public opinion of wind farms are that they're a giant eye sore and most communities are against them.
Burnem Wizfyre
Log Wizard
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We have tons of those wind farms here in my area of Texas and I've never once heard of them as being mentioned as an eye sore, however most of them are in farm areas and actually gives you something to look at while traveling instead of just fields of crops. Also yes I know that is completely anecdotal, so /shrug.
Eomer
Trakanon Raider
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A lot of people really don't like the visual of them, for sure. Personally I think they look kind of neat. It's similar in Alberta, they're in the Southern part where it's basically just ranch land with huge rolling hills and mountains off in the distance.
One of the legitimate concerns is that they do kill a shit ton of birds and bats, by most accounts.
One of the seemingly illegitimate concerns is that some people complain of mysterious ailments caused by "ultra/infra-sound vibrations" or some such bullshit.
iannis
Musty Nester
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More likely caused by ridiculous amounts of electricity. You'll never convince me that living near those high tension power lines (the really immense ones, the backbones) is good for a person. You'd almost think that's why they have their own zones and right of ways.
But in this context that sure does smell like bullshit.
But in this context that sure does smell like bullshit.
Fury
Silver Knight of the Realm
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He really punched out the climate change scenario pretty bluntly in this last one. Very well done. Although it did give me a feeling that things will be pretty bleak in the near future.
I don't think there is enough world will power to do a massive shift to solar and wind (or nuke). If there was some way to build Carbon scrubbers in vehicle exhausts and factories that might work until we manage the wind and solar shift.
I don't think there is enough world will power to do a massive shift to solar and wind (or nuke). If there was some way to build Carbon scrubbers in vehicle exhausts and factories that might work until we manage the wind and solar shift.
Dandai
<WoW Guild Officer>
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My biggest problem with "climate change" has always been who is promoting it and their proposed solutions - higher taxes, stifling growing economies/demolishing established ones, and more control/restriction over individuals. He made a very compelling argument for how we're affecting the climate while also poking holes in every popular rebuttal I've ever heard against man-made global warming. I'm not ready to be baptized by Al Gore or anything, but I have to admit I went from "bullshit" to "fuck, I guess we really SHOULD do something" after watching last sunday's episode.
That being said, he reeeeaaally glossed over the technical challenges of solar and wind harvesting. It's not simply a matter of those damned greedy capitalists and their love of oil money. Harvesting solar and wind power is less efficient in general. Slow wind day? Pump up the diesel generator, boys! Solar power? Here, use these 30 4x4 panels to power your house... during the day...
It's like having an episode about the threat of overpopulation and saying, "If we would just commit to building starships to go to Alpha Centauri and colonize space we'll never have to worry about the size of our tiny blue dot."
Riiiight.
That being said, he reeeeaaally glossed over the technical challenges of solar and wind harvesting. It's not simply a matter of those damned greedy capitalists and their love of oil money. Harvesting solar and wind power is less efficient in general. Slow wind day? Pump up the diesel generator, boys! Solar power? Here, use these 30 4x4 panels to power your house... during the day...
It's like having an episode about the threat of overpopulation and saying, "If we would just commit to building starships to go to Alpha Centauri and colonize space we'll never have to worry about the size of our tiny blue dot."
Riiiight.
Alex
Still a Music Elitist
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If we focused at the same amount of time and resources into clean energy as we do/did in fossil fuels, we could solve those problems. And just because it's dark, it doesn't mean that solar energy is useless. There are energy storage units. You may or may not have heard of batteries.
Big Phoenix
Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
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iannis
Musty Nester
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Yeah, but don't overstate that case either. Batteries are limited in size and efficiency and if you want to include them in the viability of the system then you need to include them in the cost as well. Those rare earths are called that for a reason. Most problems have solutions, I'm not saying otherwise, but yeah. The battery problem is significant all by itself.
Fuck it all, if they wanna do some global warming FUD I dunno why they don't talk about Thorium. It's either a real problem or it's a marketing campaign for solar panels.
Fuck it all, if they wanna do some global warming FUD I dunno why they don't talk about Thorium. It's either a real problem or it's a marketing campaign for solar panels.
Big Phoenix
Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
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