The Environment - Page 36 - Politics and Economics

In something like 1890 just about everyone in Pasadena had a solar hot water heater. I think I must have learned that on a tour of a historic house in Pasadena.

Most people have solar hot water in Israel (and probably a lot of other places too).

When I started my business I intended to do solar water heating too (and have done a few pools) but sales never came and photovoltaic systems did.

I noticed this in 1983.

12-07-2016 , 06:21 PM

#878

Loki

binary duo

Join Date: Nov 2015 Posts: 12,772

Gas/oil nut-hugger suing the EPA expected to be the next head of the EPA.

I sure hope all the #JillNotHill and #BernieOrBusters who just couldn't bring themselves to vote for Hillary are happy. They got what they wanted: environmental destruction to make up for their feels being hurt during the primary.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...-head-the-epa/

12-07-2016 , 08:31 PM

#879

microbet

Solar Powered

Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 57,077

Quote:

Originally Posted by Noodle Wazlib

It's really your fault for voting for Hillary in the primary. Bernie would have beaten Trump.

12-07-2016 , 08:44 PM

#880

GBV

banned

Join Date: Dec 2002 Posts: 1,331

Quote:

Originally Posted by Noodle Wazlib

Hilary would have been preferable to Trump. But it is like saying cow**** is better than dog****. The insistence on foisting such a weak candidate who'd already lost once before on the public was always going to be problematic.

12-07-2016 , 10:51 PM

#881

True North

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 23,703

Quote:

Originally Posted by microbet

Changes at NASA will be a tragedy. The climate data needs a continuous record.

First order of business in an authoritarian government -- kill all the evidence.

12-08-2016 , 12:47 AM

#882

Loki

binary duo

Join Date: Nov 2015 Posts: 12,772

Quote:

Originally Posted by microbet

It's really your fault for voting for Hillary in the primary.

Except I didn't.

12-08-2016 , 09:42 AM

#883

florentinopeces

old hand

Join Date: May 2015 Posts: 1,199

Quote:

Originally Posted by microbet

It's really your fault for voting for Hillary in the primary. Bernie would have beaten Trump.

This is just delusional, and misses the point of why Trump won. He would have slaughtered Bernie. The US is a right wing utopia and has been for a long time. It's the land of segregation and patriotism and anti-communism and Jesus loves me. Christ it still has full blown colonialism (Puerto Rico).

12-08-2016 , 10:24 AM

#884

microbet

Solar Powered

Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 57,077

Can we drop that? I was trying to troll noodle for his trolling.

12-08-2016 , 10:33 AM

#885

Trolly McTrollson

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Oct 2010 Posts: 37,752

LowKey *still* throwing a tantrum over this ****? You backed a garbage candidate no one liked and you lost. Maybe try not selecting the worst candidate in modern history instead of lecturing the electorate.

12-08-2016 , 10:52 AM

#886

Loki

binary duo

Join Date: Nov 2015 Posts: 12,772

Your trolling has already been tried and failed. Better luck next time.

12-08-2016 , 11:10 AM

#887

Trolly McTrollson

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Oct 2010 Posts: 37,752

For real, can we demod the trolling clown now so everyone can put him back on ignore?

12-08-2016 , 12:26 PM

#888

O.A.F.K.1.1

Ted Patrick

Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 27,952

Environment itt has taken a hit.

12-08-2016 , 02:03 PM

#889

np1235711

old hand

Join Date: Nov 2013 Posts: 1,217

Quote:

Originally Posted by florentinopeces

You guys still don't get it living in your echo chambers:

http://nypost.com/2016/12/07/even-an...cond-thoughts/

Quote:

James, wearing a United Steelworkers jacket on a brisk afternoon, was in no way saying he’s found political religion in the Republicans. But the 57-year-old, African-American longtime Carrier employee did share the sentiment of many of his co-workers, Democrats who didn’t vote for Trump but felt their party was disconnected from their lives.

Quote:

What is astounding, post-election, is the total lack of contrition Democrats have displayed for ignoring the workingman and -woman bloc that has been the party’s horn of plenty. The only regret they display is that they lost the election, not the voters.

What Democrats, academics and pundits keep refusing to see is that the loss was never about Trump’s candidacy; it was all about how Democrats have increasingly lost touch with their voters outside of coastal America — until those voters finally hit their breaking point.

“The Democratic Party has become a coastal elitist club and if there is any decision or discussion made to broaden that within the ranks, it is squashed,” said Dane Strother, a legendary Washington, DC-based Democratic strategist.

Quote:

“We kept waiting for the white working class to just show up, but we didn’t give them any reason to,” he said, adding that Democrats can’t just be the party that simply waits for minorities to become the majority.

12-12-2016 , 12:46 PM

#890

microbet

Solar Powered

Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 57,077

Another possibility for energy storage

Liquified air stored at low pressure and then the energy can be recaptured as the warming air drives a turbine. It can use the share a generation facility with an existing biomass power plant of which there are a couple/few hundred already operating in the US.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-37902773

12-12-2016 , 12:53 PM

#891

Loki

binary duo

Join Date: Nov 2015 Posts: 12,772

Micro,

Thoughts on star in a jar as a possible future energy source?

http://www.seeker.com/star-in-a-jar-...134228965.html

12-12-2016 , 12:59 PM

#892

Trolly McTrollson

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Oct 2010 Posts: 37,752

Realistic fusion plants are still decades away at best.

12-12-2016 , 01:12 PM

#893

microbet

Solar Powered

Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 57,077

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trolly McTrollson

Realistic fusion plants are still decades away at best.

I did a research paper on fusion in high school in 1984 or 1985. The popsci magazines were talking about it being 10-20 years out back then. I remember the Shiva/Nova and Tokamak reactors. I don't think there's anyone in the science community who is guilty of this, but it seems like fusion power being right around the corner has always been used as a way to beat back renewable energy or conservation efforts.

I like to point out that Solar PV is part of a fusion power plant. The collector is just a safe distance from the fusion reaction.

12-12-2016 , 01:17 PM

#894

microbet

Solar Powered

Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 57,077

Quote:

Originally Posted by Noodle Wazlib

Micro,

Thoughts on star in a jar as a possible future energy source?

http://www.seeker.com/star-in-a-jar-...134228965.html

Eventually it seems like it would work, though depending on a lot of things it might not be necessary. Fusion reactors won't have a waste product per se, but the containment facility itself eventually becomes radioactive waste. But, if society continues to progress instead of regress, I guess it's a good possibility in several generations. We could totally do 100 years of solar, wind, biomass, hydro, tidal power in the mean time though.

12-12-2016 , 01:19 PM

#895

Trolly McTrollson

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Oct 2010 Posts: 37,752

Fusion keeps running into technical challenges that require huge sums of money to try to fix and no ones really sure if the bigger, more expensive reactors will work. The NIF is in the same boat.

01-04-2017 , 09:15 PM

#896

Shifty86

veteran

Join Date: Dec 2013 Posts: 3,168

Does this mean 97% don't agree?

http://notrickszone.com/2017/01/03/1....n6Xl4Cic.dpbs

01-05-2017 , 03:12 AM

#897

Habsfan09

old hand

Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 1,552

I just took one name and googled it.
Dr. Ball:

Quote:

Johnson's statement of defense was provided by the Calgary Herald, which stated that Ball "...never had a reputation in the scientific community as a noted climatologist and authority on global warming," and that he "...is viewed as a paid promoter of the agenda of the oil and gas industry rather than as a practicing scientist."[45] In the ensuing court case, Ball acknowledged that he had only been a professor for eight years, and that his doctorate was not in climatology but rather in geography,[39] and subsequently withdrew the lawsuit on June 8, 2007.

The next: Willie Soon

Quote:

Soon disputes the current scientific understanding of climate change, and contends that most global warming is caused by solar variation rather than by human activity.[7][8] He gained visibility in part due to scientific criticism of the methodology of a paper which he co-wrote.[9] Climate scientists such as Gavin Schmidt of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies have refuted Soon's arguments,[4] and the Smithsonian does not support his conclusions, but he is frequently cited by politicians opposed to climate-change legislation.[4][10]

Not to mention that he received lots of his money from fossil-fuel interest groups like the Koch Brothers.

01-05-2017 , 04:02 AM

#898

suzzer99

Save the Cheerleader, Save the World

Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 100,193

The great eternal mystery to me will be whether the Shifty86's of the world actually believe a plucky band of well-funded industry shills has exposed a massive conspiracy perpetrated by an overwhelming majority of the world's climate scientists, or if they just argue this stuff for the fun of it.

I suspect we will never know.

01-05-2017 , 04:57 PM

#899

Loki

binary duo

Join Date: Nov 2015 Posts: 12,772

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/...e-fuel-by-2020

Quote:

China will invest $361 billion in renewable power generation between 2016 and 2020, the National Energy Administration (NEA) said

Sure would be fun to be a leader on this kind of stuff. But I guess when you're trying to be a dictatorial petro-state like Russia, you don't mind if someone else figures out how to completely obsolete your entire economy.

Looking forward to the great depression of 2019!