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Stewards of the Earth
Orkboy:
--- Quote from: Akima on 03 Feb 2015, 02:49 ---
--- Quote from: Orkboy on 02 Feb 2015, 23:33 ---Electric cars aren't actually as good for the environment as you would think.
--- End quote ---
Even if issues with the batteries can be overcome by improved manufacturing and recycling, which they probably can, the key question with electric cars is "How is the electricity that charges the batteries generated?" An EV might not have a tailpipe, but that does not mean it does not have an exhaust.
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Excellent point, and it brings us to a new environmental topic: methods of power production.
I already said what I think about nuclear power, which is a bit of a mixed bag. Everything goes right, it's good, anything goes wrong, it's bad. I think we can all agree that coal is just terrible for the environment, regardless of how cost efficient it is. Most power plants that burn something as fuel are pretty bad. I did, however, hear about some power plant that runs on old motor oil, engine grease, and other second-hand oil based products. I like the idea of putting used oil to good use, but I would imagine the smog is terrible.
Wind power. We have a lot of wind farms in Texas, mostly in all the huge stretches of mostly-uninhabited land we have. They're a good backup for an existing network, but they're stupidly expensive to build and maintain, and I think that's going to be what prevents them from being used on a larger scale. Same goes for solar power. Until a breakthrough either increases the output or decreases the costs, they're just too expensive to keep running. And environmental groups keep saying that wing turbines chop up birds. It seems ridiculous if you watch the windmill from a distance, since they don't seem to spin very fast, but when you consider the length of the blades, those suckers gotta be moving at a good clip.
I'm a fan of water power. Hydroelectric is a proven technology, it doesn't burn anything, so there's no exhaust being pumped into the sky, and in the right spot, it puts out a ludicrous amount of power. Downside, people complain that it's bad for the fishies, though the catfish that live around the bottom of dams seem to be doing fine. Those suckers get fat.
Pilchard123:
--- Quote from: Orkboy on 03 Feb 2015, 12:53 ---Wind power. We have a lot of wind farms in Texas, mostly in all the huge stretches of mostly-uninhabited land we have.
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Didn't know beans were a large crop over there.
--- Quote from: Orkboy on 03 Feb 2015, 12:53 ---I'm a fan of water power. Hydroelectric is a proven technology, it doesn't burn anything, so there's no exhaust being pumped into the sky, and in the right spot, it puts out a ludicrous amount of power.
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The concrete that's used in the construction isn't too great though.
explicit:
Dams can be horrible for river systems and wetland areas. Think about it, they have to flood a huge area for them to work. What is it? The 3 Ganges Damn in China (I think that sounds right, I don't feel like google), that did some pretty significant damage, especially to people who lived upstream.
metastasis_d:
--- Quote from: Orkboy on 03 Feb 2015, 12:53 ---I'm a fan of water power. Hydroelectric is a proven technology, it doesn't burn anything, so there's no exhaust being pumped into the sky, and in the right spot, it puts out a ludicrous amount of power. Downside, people complain that it's bad for the fishies, though the catfish that live around the bottom of dams seem to be doing fine. Those suckers get fat.
--- End quote ---
I am too, but unfortunately damming rivers can have pretty disastrous effects. Look at the Aswan High Dam in Egypt, or as explicit said, the 3 Gorges Dam. Those issues can be mitigated, of course, but aside from the problems they have with the ecosystem, they also remove silt from downriver, and they can cause slumping and other erosion-related problems in their reservoirs.
I am excited about the potential for tidal/wave power, but those also require a ton of infrastructure and likely involve some ecological damage to the ocean floor, as well.
hedgie:
IIRC, India is putting a metric-arseload of money into work on throium reactors, since it can't be potentially used as a weapon, do a Chernobl, and is easier to dispose of.
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