Green Energy Costs Lots of Money

A funny thing happened on the way to Earth Day- people found out that green energy costs a lot of money.  The article today in the NY Times lays out what ,many of us have long suspected- you have to be a pretty into it green cultist to build solar energy and wind energy.  Now with this cap and trade bill from the Obama administration, things will get very expensive indeed.  A quota for renewable energy will thereby raise electricity rates for everyone. 

A modern coal plant costs about 7.8 cents a kilowatt-hour.  They say a new nuke plant costs 10.8 cents, but I think it costs less.  Wind, even in the most green fantasy costs twice as much, because you need to keep the same amount of conventional plant to back up the green plant.  That is the reality in Denmark, world leader in green and wind energy.  They have built a theoretical 20-percent of their electric power in wind towers on the sea, and still have not been able to shut down ONE CONVENTIONAL PLANT.  Do you get the message?

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Green Economy and Green Dollars

If we want some green dollars for the green economy, we have to define it properly. Nuclear energy, for example as shown in the case of France, and the new High Temperature Gas Reactors, can be very clean and nice. Then we can grow trees and make everything green, with the extra energy to desalinate sea water.

Just issue that money for real infrastructure. Don't piss around, we want $1 trillion issued from the new Reconstruction Finance Commission right now. Just give us the money. For the free enterprise junkies, we can issue contracts for local construction companies to do a lot of the work. Small companies are often better than huge KBR-Halliburton companies because there is more accountability from local management and ownership. Paul Krugman the Nobel Prize winner and columnist for the New York Times, has pulled the plug on Obama. This may be a good thing for us in Harlem and Bronx, New York, because we gotta be cruel to be kind. The "zombie plan" to buy up the toxic waste is ridiculous, and is paid by the tax payers, at the tune of 97-percent, up to and including $1 trillion dollars. It makes the assumption that everything will then magically go back to normal. What a cover-up. We want Obama to succeed, otherwise the USA may be finished.

The green economy needs financing like everything else. And it is being stolen by the hedge fund operators and their agents, like Larry Summers.

Green Tech or a Waste of Money

The word is out that green tech is getting some mon-tay!!!  But is this really good for the people of the world?  I doubt it.  Let me break it gently to you brothers and sisters, wind energy and solar energy are at least in macro-economical terms, a total fraud.  That means that wind and solar will never ever ever replace nuke plants, oil, gas, and coal plants that produce electricity.  Perhaps you have been hoodwinked by the Queen of England, or her husband, the big Woof Woofy Fund head, WWF.

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Foie Gras and the Environment

This is a big issue of the animal rights people .  I don't think protecting geese and ducks from foie gras abuse is a real article of environmental concern.  This comes more from the deep structures of environmentalist rejections of man in the image of the creator.  The issue of Foie Gras production is a wedge issue pf some environmentalists who want to shut down meat production altogether.  The link in my link to the Village Voice article by Sarah DeGregorio goes through this in a straight forward (almost) manner.

environmentalist foie gras village voice animal rights

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Bottled Water- Good or Bad

I always thought that bottled water was part of being an environmentalist. I mean, it's clean, it's beautiful, it tastes nice. Often it comes from lovely springs in Maine (Poland Springs) or even from France (Perrier). Now, as with almost everything else there is a new story. Probably one reasone for this is that so much of bottled water is consumed, more and more. Perhaps are cleaning of tap water as degenerated. The years between 1997 and 2005 have seen the amount of water being consumed more than double nationwide. And then there are those plastic bottles.

Alternatives? Put filters on your tap water. Boil your water. Freeze your water.
Although the newer version of plastic bottles are made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) instead of the PVC which released chlorine into the air when it was melted for recycling processes, still, I don't know. Carry your water in a reusable bottle. And get your town a good water purification and sewage system.

Cleaning in a Green Environmental Way

Cleaning your house your car and other objects is a necessity, but there are lots of complaints that cleaners are not in-synch with environmental needs and requirements. So would you be interested in rust removers that try harder to be green? MycleaningProducts.com is a green manufacturer. For $12 you can get a product 2-lbs of product, with no harsh acids and yet can do an amazing job removing rust, and calcium deposits. The same manufacturer has a rust prevention product. It uses an organic compound that gets at rust and eliminates it using a chemical reaction. It's nice to know that an environmentally concerned manufacturer is able to formulate these products for indoor and especially outdoor use. And they are not toxic to plants, which is another great thing to know. A second rinse of affected plants is recommended to eliminate over-application. It's biodegradable and non-carcinogenic.

Cheaper Greener Mass Transit

Would you like your city to have cheaper and cleaner mass transit. Subways, as we know in New York City NY are the best, but they are expensive. Light rail is pretty good, but it is also expensive. An alternative that is pretty green, is a Bus Rapid Transit. Yes, it is a bus, but it has a dedicated lane, and you can use a bus with a hybrid electric motor. So the energy efficiency is pretty good. They just put one of these into function in Eugene Oregon, going to Springfield Oregon. Maybe this is not very fast. Maybe it is time to revive light rail. Many people have different thoughts on these subjects.

Enviromentalists and the IDUG Contest

Environmentalist brothers and sisters, check out the IDUG contest. It is a fabulous contest for XML developers.
IDUG is sponsoring a contest for developers (students, professionals and hobbyists) and the thing is you don't necessarily have to be a super nerdie computer whiz. The people at IDUG realize that there can be all sorts of innovation at all different skill levels. So what do you know about XQuery, XML and DB2? The contest has five separate tracks for individuals of varying skill levels, see what you can do, it's a groove and a cruise to fun and prizes.

What IDUG has on the contest menu includes
Video Contest: Upload a video- Try something wild. Do a video of yourself recycling your garbage in a newfangled way while you dance to the music. Get that global warming groove on and keep it hot.

Gadget Contest: --Do it for the environment. If we keep everyone busy on the internet and in virtual reality, energy usage, at least electricity use is sure to go down.

XQuery Challenge: Answer a series of questions by developing queries in XQuery. In computer program there are always new questions and many answers to one questions so that should keep everybody busy.

Port an Application: Port an existing application to use XML, XQuery or DB2. - Note, I wish someone would explain this to me, but it seems interesting. Ditto for the new application, but all you whizzes, give it a try for Mother Earth and Gaia the Goddess. Try my sponsors contest, and you can get it on and win!

Stop the War in Afghanistan for the Environment

How can we defend the environment with war raging out of control, in places like Afghanistan? It's time for a four powers agreement on Afghanistan and on a new monetary system, to get rid of the unpayable debt and derivatives, and end the role of the British Empire speculation game.

In Moscow, the SCO will focus on the "threats of drugs and terrorists originating in Afghanistan," while the U.N. Conference will have the broader agenda of stabilizing Afghanistan. In effect, the Moscow conference will represent the first step toward a Four Power collaboration, including Russia, China, India, and the U.S., as Lyndon LaRouche has called for in the context of the world economic breakdown crisis.

Yesterday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said Iran would attend this conference, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. "Afghanistan and Iran share a long border, so Afghan security and development is naturally an important priority of ours," Qashqavi said. "Iranian officials have played a constructive role in international summits on Afghanistan that were previously held in Tokyo and Bonn."

For the March 31 conference, Clinton has called for Iran to be invited, VOA reported yesterday. She called it "a big tent meeting" for "everyone who has an interest in the stability of Afghanistan to come together and determine how we're going to work toward the security and stability there." Iran "would be invited as a neighbor of Afghanistan." The Iranians, she said, "were helpful early on in our efforts in Afghanistan. ... There were almost daily contacts, a little known fact, between our Ambassador to Afghanistan and Iran's ambassador to Afghanistan... We sometimes lose track of the complex relationships that exist. So we will invite them. Whether they come is up to them. Iranian government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham responded that "Afghanistan's progress is our progress and Afghanistan's stability is ours," and therefore Tehran would consider attending. Today, apparently Tehran has decided to attend. I think that the intentions of Hillary Clinton are good, and this looks like a step for Obama towards saving civilization.

Beware of the Dangers of Boating and Boozing

While you are enjoying the environment and the sea, remember that Boating and Alcohol Don't Mix. Boating and boozing is a dangerous combination. Arizona is the Grand Canyon state and the location of lots of water recreation. People are asked to not mix boating with alcohol and to boat defensively. A video warns people that they cannot have an accident and get out and walk away, like they can with their car. Instead you could get a final giant drink of water ! The Colorado still has rapids and rocks in the water and some challenges. With the many dams in the river, the lakes are still and calm and good for recreation and also fishing. And don't forget the rainbow trout and the humpback chub, a native fish that is related to the minnow. It seems the humpback chub does not get along with the rainbow trout.

There are a lot of elements to boat safety. It may seem strange to people in the eastern United States that Arizona is a state full of water recreation, but there are all those beautiful lakes in the desert that are created by dams, like Lake Powell. Lake Powell is framed by high red rock cliffs. You can hike deep into Grand Canyon to the little Colorado River. There are fish there that the Arizona Game and Fish Dept is working hard to protect, as endangered species. The fish spawn below the Glen Canyon dam, and are sheltered in the Little Colorado river, a small branch that flows into the main Colorado River. The trout and the chub do not exist together happily on their own.

The Colorado River has 22 storage reservoirs, and one of the largest is Lake Powell, before the Glen Canyon dam. Let's look at the Humpback Chub. There is a lot of work to manage wildlife in the river, now that there are so many dams on the river.

Growing Green Forests is Good

One thing that is always good is reforestration. This goes back to U.S. programs of the Citizens Conservation Corps during the Great Depression of the 1930s. President Franklin Roosevelt had the idea that the land is a precious resource that has to be preserved and defended from erosion. Of course, back in those days there was little or no thought of problems in the carbon dioxide to oxygen cycle.

It is a good thing to remember that global warming is a complex thing. It is a function in part of the bio-feed back cycle of plants turning carbon dioxide, into water and oxygen, with the power of the sun, as channeled through the miracle of chlorophyl.

Some comments to a post on: http://www.becauseaction.com/index.php/article/can_reforestation_save_the_planet/19442 on reforestration and the planet.

Peru has already been experiencing acute environmental effects and has become the subject of climate change for researchers who are investigating why the country’s long strip of coastal desert has been getting colder while the rest of the world is heating up. Note- Back to my favorite, that if it's getting colder, blame it on man too. Blame man for everything, to better worship the earth goddess gaia.

An average of 512,820 pines, eucalyptus, pine, cypress and pepper trees are being planted in 18 Peruvian departments (states) over the course of three months and are expected to capture more than 570,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year.
Note: All and all it's a good thing.

Lower Wages and the Environment

Get ready for a bust for the green and environmental movement. No, it is not Rush Limbaugh on steroids, or the wise-use movement taking over the White House. The economic disintegration is now hitting wages. Not all companies want to shut down their operations, a lot more want to lower wages, as links on the web show. The word from Adecco is that temporary workers are way down, and the wages are down. At the bottom end that is $10-12 an hour, which is pretty low.

So, what about the environment? Well, poor people can't afford organic, or even dream about solar power or wind turbines on the roofs of their house. They just want to survive. Ever get interested in that?

UN Said the Environment Was Messed-up

The UN Report from October 2007 said that the environment was facing bad news. Since then nothing has happened. Does this make sense? It just seems like a tale of anecdotes about ice caps and polar bears, it does not seem real. The Montreal Protocol is passed on CFC and then we hear nothing. Did the CFCs all magically disappear, leaving the ozone layer to flourish and wack off? Yet, we hear nothing, maybe nothing happened and the Montreal Protocol did nothing too. It's the same on global warming. It's a giant soap opera. Instead, we could have maglev trains that are super fast and super quiet. We could have cheap nuclear power for electricity and process heat, that would be cheaper than that of France. Isn't progress more fun?