Monday, November 5, 2007

It Could Be a Green World

The American news media is bombarding us almost daily with news reports about global warming. Scientists are paraded around on every news station, trying to prove - with facts - their side of the issue. Who politically are we supposed to side with, the Democrats or the Republicans? Whether you believe we are killing our environment or not, it seems that the American people aren't willing to go "green" unless it benefits them financially. Saving the environment could possibly be only a small benefit of utilizing green technology.

I would be willing to bet that most people buy hybrid automobiles or energy efficient home appliances, for the simple reason it keeps their wallets a little fatter. People like Al Gore look at this purely from a financial aspect. He has made millions of dollars by scaring people with false statements and producing movies with flat out lies. One example that comes to mind is when Mr. Gore inconveniently... errrr... incorrectly stated the warmest year on record. The actual warmest year on record was back in 1934. And he is leading this global warming political frenzy. So lets break it down to the bare essentials and take the politics out of it. What are we left with? The simple answer is...technology.

Our civilization has evolved technologically faster in the last 100 years than all previous human history. So why can't we find other ways to produce energy than burning oil? We can, we just won't. There is an impression out there, that leads you to believe that wanting "Green" energy means you are a liberal. Again lets take politics out of it. There are numerous ways to harness energy whether it be from nuclear, hydro-electric, solar or wind sources. These sources are probably less costly in the long run than how we are producing energy now. All that's required to capture "free" energy is to build and maintain equipment to acquire it and store it.

Oil for example is highly regulated from a global entity that can drive prices to heat our homes or fill our car's gas tank through the roof. Wouldn't it be nice to know that to heat or cool your home is going to be roughly the same price year to year? It could be. With huge fields of solar panels built in areas where the sun shines almost every day of the year, the energy could be stored in large capacitors for future use and there would always be a reserve. In areas of high wind, put up large windmills. Hydro-electric power would be constant year round. Nuclear energy even with it's high potential for disaster is a great way to produce power.

Nuclear facilities built today would undoubtedly be safer than the ones built 30 years ago. We've learned a lot the few times where reactors have failed. This might sound a little crazy, but the waste produced from nuclear facilities could be shot out into space with large rockets. We would never need to store it besides the time it sits waiting to be exported out of this world.

Our nation could be completely self sufficient and devoid of energy dependance from foreign nations if we wanted to be. I have no doubt about that. The technology is there. What frustrates me is that we aren't pursuing it. I believe the reason being, is because this has been a political issue instead of a technology issue. People get annoyed listening to Congressman and Senators whine about issues such as this. Our two major political parties are wasting hundreds of millions of dollars and years worth of time bickering back and forth instead of just doing it.