Here is a quote to think about today about wind power:
Th[e] coastal region running from Massachusetts to North Carolina contained up to 330,000 megawatts of average electrical capacity. This was, in other words, an amount of guaranteed, bankable power that was larger, in terms of energy equivalence, than the entire mid-Atlantic coast’s total energy demand — not just for electricity but for heating, for gasoline, for diesel and for natural gas. Indeed the wind off the mid-Atlantic represented a full third of the Department of Energy’s estimate of the total American offshore resource of 900,000 megawatts.
Read the rest of the article here.
Whenever I see a wind turbine, it makes me a little happier. I've been casually following the Cape Wind saga for the past 5 or so years and I have developed an idealistic and curious interest in wind power. There are pros and cons to everything, of course.
The world is a strange place. For the wedding, I used a number of websites that had interactive, personalized lists that you could create to help you stay on track. They would send you email reminders about what tasks you needed to get done that week in order to stay on schedule. Why, the day after the wedding, did those emails suddenly turn into spam about having babies?
Gah. It's all too much. Can I live with myself for bringing another carbon footprint onto the earth at this time, when all I can do is think about how big mine is already? It's a stretch to connect wind power and babies, I know, but to me, they seem intertwined. At least, that's how I feel today and most days. Babies just seem to be the #1 topic for people to bring up lately. I can't go anywhere without people asking if I want kids and when. I don't know. There's entirely too much to think about. Ask me about wind power instead.
That was a total tangent. Apologies.
2 comments:
I agree -- the wind power debate seemed to perfectly reflect
the reason why we needed to revisit
'alternative power'
carbon footprint is always on my mind, esp. in Samburu where people
have an entire annual carbon footprint the equivalent of just my day through my morning coffee-and yet they are batterred in the public forum and media for
environmental degradation as pastoralists--something they've been doing sustainably for the millenia, until they were sequestered on to 'group ranches' by the government so they can no longer herd --or live--sustainably for that matter! aaagh. Globalization makes me lose sleep at night--the thought of increasing everyone's global carbon footprint is suicidal as a planet. is there any fragment of reason anywhere?
You don't have to tell us about babies. There's people here having babies left and right. It's like it's the "in" thing to do.
It is interesting that you linked babies and wind power. We do need to invest in alternate energies. That's the only way we can solve our problems. People are demanding cheaper gas, when it is twice as much in European nations. They, however, drive much more efficient cars than we do. It angers me at how people just think we have to do more of the same. It seems to be a theme among conservatives. I read an article on how, at the RNC, Romney led the crowd in a chant of "Drill Baby, Drill" as if offshore drilling is the sole answer to our problems. Link to op-ed article. We need to invest in new sources of power, change our habits, and find a real solution to this mess. Maybe I'm just growing too cynical, but is it really that hard for the populous to understand this?
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