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Let's take a look at what alternatives are available.
To replace a typical 1,000 MW power plant using large off-shore turbines of about 3.5 MW capacity would require, using the nameplate rating 1000/3.6 = 278 (rounding up) turbines. Now we have to take into account the fact that the average capacity factor of the world’s wind farms was 19.6% ( http://www.leonardo-energy.org/capacity-factor-wind-power ). We’ll round up to 20% and we find that we need some 1,388 wind turbines to replace the 1,000 MW plant.
What would this cost? Using the actual numbers from Cape Wind, a well known project whose costs are public - 2.5 billion dollars as reported by http://articles.boston.com/2010-10-10/lifestyle/29301843_1_cape-wind-renewable-energy-renewable-power for 130 3.6 MW turbines or about 19 million per turbine gives us 26 billion dollars, enough to build a dozen conventional plants or about 8 nuclear plants. This doesn’t even include the costs of the conventional, dispatchable power, for when the wind doesn’t blow, or a yet unknown way of efficiently storing vast amounts of electrical energy to back them up. Wind is insanely expensive.
Doing the same calculations for solar.
First we need to determine the capacity factor for solar and derating it is extremely complicated so we'll use NREL's PVWatts calculator for a best-cast Tucson, Az. scenario ( http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/calculators/PVWATTS/version1/US/Arizona/Tucson.html ). Using a 1 KW panel (for convenience) on a fixed tilt mount would be expected to yield 1663 KWh/year. We can now convert this into a derate factor by dividing it by the nameplate theoretical production of 1 KW * 365 * 24 = 8,760 KWh/Year. The resulting derate is .189 or, close enough to 20%, exactly the same as wind. So it will take 4,500 MW of panels to replace the plant.
What would this cost? From http://solarbythewatt.com/2009/10/16/price-dollar-per-watt-large-solar-pv/ we find that the best price so far is a bit more than $4/watt. So the 1,000 MW replacement would cost $18 billion, again without the required dispatchable backup power or storage. Again, this is insanely expensive.
This is why we won't abandon nuclear or conventional power plants, its simply not possible.
Scared the crap outta me with that "flooding of 1,014 feet".That's a lot of water -and if Nebraska had 1,014 feet of water on it, I dare say those of us in Minneapolis (not too far from Nebraska) would need to immediately flee in our canoes.
Just to be clear, they're talking number of feet above sea level. This is an uncommon way to refert to flood levels, even if it is more technically accurate. Usually, flood levels are "feet above flood stage", with flood stage defined differently in different areas.
If owners of nuclear power plants were required to live within ten miles of the plants they own, then we could be assured they were safe. If the law required anyone who owned one percent or more of a nuclear profit plant must reside within a ten mile radius of the plant they would be safe. Nuclear powered submarines and aircraftcarriers are safer because the men and women who operate them must reside on the ship. Same deal.
What do *I* think it will take to get us to abandon nuclear power? Some equivalent energy source that's as reliable, as safe, and as affordable, and which doesn't "solve" its waste-disposal problem by belching its waste products back out into the environment.
Fusion would be ideal, but it's been "just 5 years off" for about half a century now, so I'm not holding my breath.
Albert Einstein sums up eloquently the nature of exploitation in Capitalist society:
“The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of the evil. We see before us a huge community of producers the members of which are unceasingly striving to deprive each other of the fruits of their collective labor — not by force, but on the whole in faithful compliance with legally established rules. In this respect, it is important to realize that the means of production — that is to say, the entire productive capacity that is needed for producing consumer goods as well as additional capital goods — may legally be, and for the most part are, the private property of individuals.”
Indeed, Einstein saw this process very clearly, although the elites have worked tirelessly to keep all eyes off of them, in too many ways to mention here. The wheels of production in chaotic hands, and always serving selfish interests framed in extremely myopic historical spurts, will eventually be the demise of us all, including the businessmen who benefit materially in the short term. Is this the best humanity can do? I would hope not.
Enter a Truly New World
“The goal of a good society is to structure social relations and institutions so that cooperative and generous impulses are rewarded, while antisocial ones are discouraged. The problem with capitalism is that it best rewards the worst part of us: ruthless, competitive, conniving, opportunistic, acquisitive drives, giving little reward and often much punishment — or at least much handicap — to honesty, compassion, fair play, many forms of hard work, love of justice, and a concern for those in need.”
–Michael Parenti
SOCIALISM IS THE ANSWER FOR A BETTER AMERICA AND A BETTER WORLD!!!!!
Socialism is the only answer for America's future!!!
Einstein on Capitalism and Socialism
Albert Einstein of course was not commenting on Britain in 2011 but he could have been. This was the great man writing in his book “Why Socialism?” in 1949 just 6 years from the end of his illustrious and iconic life. Here is Einstein’s argument against what he calls the grave evils of Capitalism: “I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils [capitalism], namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals. In such an economy, the means of production are owned by society itself and are utilized in a planned fashion. A planned economy, which adjusts production to the needs of the community, would distribute the work to be done among all those able to work and would guarantee a livelihood to every man, woman, and child. The education of the individual, in addition to promoting his own innate abilities, would attempt to develop in him a sense of responsibility for his fellow men in place of the glorification of power and success in our present society.”
http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2007/08/24/socialism-in-america-equals-hope-for-the-world-by-paul-a-donovan/
Socialism is hope for the world!
Zero emissions is just a farce anyway, most nuke plants still burn coal to power the plant. It is a dumb technology in the way it is so extremely dangerous. And just what do you do with the waste besides make bombs or create other problems for the future.
From Gerald, a Democratic Socialist!
Socialism
http://www.disorderlyreport.com/2009/08/05/socialism-isnt-scary-anymore/
Socialism seems more acceptable today!
http://www.harikari.com/politics/taxing-the-rich-%E2%80%93-not-a-war-on-the-wealthy-%E2%80%93-not-socialism.html
Taxing the rich is not socialism!
http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2009/08/im_safe_on_board_you_can_pull.html
Matthew 25:31-46!
Please add this information to your favorite’s list!!!
http://governmentisgreat.org/
And please add this information to your favorite’s list!!!
http://www.governmentisgood.com/
Thank you sincerely, Gerald! I am hopefully on the path to being a Christian, a progressive, a Democratic socialist, a peace activist, a Jesus liberal, and I am striving to be one of Jesus’ disciples!!!
I believe that I have previously shared with you my thoughts on our young children. Whenever I see these children with their mother and/or father, I see these children as cannon fodder for our transnational corporations, for the rich, and for the politicians. Our cannon fodder will be asked to carry on our endless wars in the killing of God’s children. Our Anti-Christ nation will always be at war with some enemy to meet the needs of transnational corporations, the rich, and the politicians. We need not to forget that the manufacturing of weaponry is the United States of Mortal Sin major product and it is weaponry that sustains the Anti-Christ’s economy. War is our name and killing human beings is our game!
For the Guardians of Privilege (GOP) family values are perpetually glorified when working and ordinary children remain cannon fodder to be killed and maimed in our nation’s immoral and wrong wars.
The nuclear plant in Nebraska Is another case where private companies with access to government policy makers can gamble with the American public’s lives. The fact that nuclear plants operate on major rivers and water ways in America would make a citizen think government was keeping a close eye on the everyday operations and the structural integrity of these nuclear reactors. The people regulating the nuclear industry make it easier for nuclear plants to operate with less protective measures against things like leaks, explosions, public being exposed to radioactive waste, safety measure, corrosion, rust, cracks and other things that could directly affect the health and welfare of the public all in the name of money.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2005977/Standards-nuclear-power-plants-question-radioactive-leaks-cracked-foundations-unpunished.html
Best argument against nuclear power I’ve heard:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXCN8sY1OKQ#at=45
Thom, Nicole Foss is one of the most intelligent and wise persons I’ve had the pleasure to meet. (I include you in that category) She is an expert in energy and economics. I highly recommend that you invite her on one of your shows.
She blogs as "Stoneleigh" at: http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com
For the record, my name is Kerry
Nothing is being said yet about the wild fire buring near Sante Fe, New Mexico -
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/06/27/usa-wildfire-nuclear-idUKN1E75Q...
This is a big one! And...scary!
THOM!!!! Reagan's tax cuts were a failure by HIS OWN MEASURE
In February 1981 the Reagan admin wrote of their new economic plan
In reality, just 5 months later, the economy sank into what was then the worst recession since the 30's. Unemployment hit a peak of 10.8% by December 1982... higher than it was under Obama. The unemployment rate remained over 8% for nearly 2 years, from March 82 through January 84.
Source... you'll have to construct your own tables here: http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost?bls
As for the actual job creation numbers under Reagan? At the BLS site http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost?bls you can also run the job numbers.
In February 1981 when that White House reported predicted 13 million new jobs by 1986... the total workforce was estimated to be 108,242,000. In January 1986 the number was 116,682,000.
Where Reagan predicted 13 million jobs... it looks like a mere 8.4 million were created. That's 4.6 MILLION off Reagan's prediction... 1.5 MILLION less jobs than he predicted the old Carter policies would create.
Reagonomics was a utter failure BY HIS OWN MEASURE...yet the Orwellian Right has erased this failure from the minds of GOPers just as they are busy erasing the Bush2 failures.
So why would your guest want to deliberately have the public believe in a FAILED policy? We know the answer, don't we!
Nothing fails like prayer or dangerous nuclear power plants designed and operated by CEOs whose primary goal is to maximize profits by cutting costs to the point that safety is sacrificed. That's why privatization will only result in our eventual demise....if the meteorites don't get us the greedy capitalist pigs will. Hope they have a lot of "Witch-ita" doctors on hand for the mass destruction that could happen. After all, we constantly heard from the Japanese authorities that they had it all under control and there is nothing to worry about. Now they are sacrificing their old people as human guinea pigs to soak up all those radioisotopes....wonder if there will be many "volunteers" here in the US for when the next nuclear power plant emulates the ones in Japan?
Senate Bill 978:
"The bill was proposed by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D, Minnesota) , John Cornyn (R, Texas) and Christopher Coons (D, Delaware). "
http://www.legitreviews.com/news/10809/
Two Democrats and a Republican. The Democrats give Democrats a bad name.
Palendromedary: Why should we vote for Obama? the simple answer: he's the best game in town. what I mean is he is far far better than the alternative, which is the republicans. remember, there are 3 supreme court justices who probably will resign in the 2012-2016 term. we need a democrat at the helm to make those appointments. You think its bad now? Just imagine if Mccain had won. there would be beggars every where. The best thing you can do, if you want to take action, is get active in your local community. Its hard and takes time, but its better than sitting and complaining and putting all your eggs in the Obama basket. we have to use the tea party strategy. The repub party has been radicalizing for a long time. we as democrats and liberals need to think long term and radicalize the democratic party. If we say there is not enough difference between the two parties, then we need to make the difference by becoming active.
Also, in case you have forgotten, Obama has done a lot. Maybe not everything you want, but a lot. Here is a link to refresh your memory. http://whatthefuckhasobamadonesofar.com/
Take heart, Democrats will win if we get active now!
peace.
Here's an example of how some Democrats are not our best friends: A Democrat Senator from Minnesota is trying to amend a copyright protection bill that could get people 10 years in the slammer and/or huge fines for lip syncing on YouTube.
http://www.bobsblitz.com/2011/06/minnesota-senator-klobuchar-looks-to.html
And what is that viral youtube video all about anyway??? Obama invited a couple of cute kids into his limo....duh...I would wonder just how the Republicans are spinning that one...the look on Obama's face...the child-like enthusiastic expression....not very Presidential...makes me think..what the heck is that all about? Doesn't he have more Muslims to murder or torture and taxpayers to fleece and more empty promises of "hope we can believe in" speeches to make?
2950-10K:
Good luck...and I hope you are correct...but when, for example, the Fox channel is made available to the lower cost DISH Network packages and you have to pay more for a higher package that has MSNBC (which has some progressive programs) then it stands to reason that many more people are going to be getting Fox and not MSNBC. Devious aren't they?
"no atheists in 'fox holes'?" You mean in 'Fox News'? There are, but you are never going to hear about them because the propaganda has been so controlled by not only Fox News but by the religious institutions. We have been so bullied by both of these institutions (actually burned to the stake by the last one and both would love to do it again) that many people are scared to even question what they say to be true. One atheist soldier in Iraq kept trying to get his dog tags to say either "atheist" or at least to have no religious affiliation engraved in his dog tags. He sent them back many times and they kept after him to put some religion on them. Onward Christian soldier..going off to war...with the cross of Jesus.....killing as before. The US isn't doing so good in their Crusades...to liberate the "holy lands"(oil) from the heathens who have it.
Peace would really be fantastic, for a change, but it will never happen as long as people continue to condemn others for not believing in the same gods, the same religions, the same rites and rituals, the same diet (Muslims and Jews don't eat pork, Hindus don't eat cows, and Catholics don't eat meat on Fridays and they consider anyone else who does are committing blasphemy and will burn in hell). Such "bad karma" bestowed upon one's world neighbors is the first step toward atrocities against them. Think...US rifle scopes engraved with quotations from the bible that are used to kill Muslims. "The word of God"...is alive and well on those weapons of mass destruction....I'd say that the US has murdered a sufficient quantity of people to warrant the label "Mass Murderers". Sieg Heil!!
People who think that the problem with the world is that they don't believe in the same God, or any god at all, that the schools stopped saying the Lord's prayer, and many other inane accusations as to why the world is going to hell is part of the problem of their inability to accept concepts different than their own.
Only a comprehension and understanding of our world, our universe, in scientific terms....rather than obscure and highly subjective and emotionally-biased predilections and superstitions we often inherit from our parents and religious communities..can we unite with a belief system, based in science and not religion (otherwise known as organized superstition). Religious belief systems are not universal...they are anything but universal and all fall apart in time...which is why there are so many deviations from their original religions. Cults become mainstream established religious that shattered into other cults...and the cycle goes on.
Science is universal and the truths learned through science can be repeated, and repeatedly proven or disproven, no matter what kind of food you eat or language you speak.
"Science is an activity that consists in the explanation, prediction, and control of empirical phenomena in a rational manner. By "scientific reasoning" we mean the principles of reasoning relevant to the pursuit of this activity. They include principles governing experimental design, hypothesis testing, and the interpretation of data.
Scientific reasoning is important not just for institutional scientific research. It is true that scientists use specialized theories (e.g. quantum physics) which non-scientists do not have to use in everyday life. But many of the principles of reasoning (e.g. rules for identifying causes) are applicable also to everyday life. Even if we are not scientists, we need to make use of good reasoning to explain, predict, and control the events around us. When we want to jump-start our career, protect our investments, improve our health, we need to gather evidence to find an effective way which is likely to achieve our aims. In all these cases, good scientific thinking skills help."
http://philosophy.hku.hk/think/sci/
If we did not have science, empirical reasoning, we would all be hacking each other to death with swords, and imagining dragons, and still believing in flying carpets, burning "witches" and "heretics" to the stake.
Yes, with science, we can wipe out every life-form on the earth many times over....true...but it wouldn't science that did it...it would be irrationally inspired people (religious people) who misused science for their stupidity. But at least the good parts are that we no long die of plagues, can travel around to the other side of the world in just hours, and given enough time solve the questions of the universe that we have not yet answered. With science, the door to freethought questioning is possible. With religion, you are imprisoned in "a priori dogma" that would keep you from solving problems that need to be answered.
As one of Dan Barker's songs goes...."Beware of Dogma, it takes a bite...Beware of Dogma, it's such a fright" and "Dogma kills", and "Nothing fails like prayer"...they've tried to prove that prayer works using science and, of course, they failed. But I suppose some people might think you can disprove science by using religion...they keep trying anyway. That's right, no better than 50/50 chance which means randomness...which means that prayer does not work. It might make you feel better psychologically but that's all it does. I could get better results from listening to my hemi-sync CDs and meditating for a while. And there is nothing wrong with that either as long as you don't make a pain in the ass of yourself trying to convince everyone else that they are going to go to hell unless they meditate and listen to hemi-sync CDs.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Ditching-Grandma-Reexamin-by-Monika-Mitchell-110620-419.html
Here is a great article!
Cutting Social Security is a moral outrage and a social and political tragedy--nothing short of the expensive Iraq war debacle that continues to weigh our nation down. Unlike the media, however, our elected officials are paid to serve the public. They should spend less time espousing the fairytale family values they claim to represent, and more time focused on how their constituents are being treated in a land that promises equality, democracy and the right to pursue happiness for all. There are some things like educating our children and caring for our elderly that should be simply non-negotiable.
I BELIEVE THAT YOU AND I ARE CALLED BY GOD TO BE A CHANNEL OF PEACE FOR A BETTER WORLD FOR ALL OF HIS CHILDREN!!!
Whether people can believe in Jesus, Gandhi, and/or Chesterton, there can be no denying of their powerful words. "Love one another as I have loved you." - Jesus of Nazareth! "I like your Jesus but its your Christians whom I do not Like." - Gandhi! It's not that Christianity has been tried and failed; it's that it has never been tried." - Chesterton!