Re: Global warming or carbon cult?
Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2011 12:43 pm
Maybe this isn’t the proper forum topic under which to express these particular thoughts, but they came to me while reading these posts, so I decided to post them here.
All the talk and speculation about new world-changing energy technologies reminds me of the efforts to invent a perpetual motion machine. The idea that somewhere out there a more-or-less inexhaustible source or method of creating energy must lurk, seems to ignore the fact that, at least so far, Newton has always proven correct: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. I understand that this law does not directly address things like energy sources, however, it does address methodologies, which would have to be applied to any source in order to convert it into an efficient supply of usable energy. I can’t get too technical about this because, frankly, I don’t have the necessary background in physics. Rather, what I want to talk about is the common sense of how things work in the real world, either economically or scientifically.
For centuries scientists and inventors have sought the holy grail of perpetual motion; or, to put in terms more relative to this discussion, a source of unlimited energy without loss (here I might add, without consequence). And, though thousands of such devices and processes have been created, none have proven to result in energy creation even equal to energy consumption, especially when you include economics in the equation. Even the most promising things like solar, wind, geothermal, biofuels and the like, have their economic downside that makes them less than practical at today’s costs, and the only remedy (now pretty much agreed on) is to increase the cost of all energy to the point where some of these “unlimited” sources become practical alternatives to traditional sources.
There is always the chance, of course, that tomorrow someone will make a huge breakthrough and suddenly this historic failure will be overcome. However, it seems to me that nature is still telling us, “nothing is free;” that no matter what we do, there will be some price to pay, and that price will probably be more than the cost of whatever we can come up with.
In a way, it’s kind of like infinity, which can be approached but never reached. This doesn’t mean that continuing to try is unwise or futile, only that the populace should be aware of the reality, and not hang their hats on the idea that there is some kind of panacea out there just awaiting discovery.
I know I will probably get hammered for saying this by the more scientifically astute folks who post here because, like I said, I am not nearly as educated or knowledgeable in the sciences as the average contributor. And actually, I’d like to hear the arguments against what I’ve said, because I really hope I’m wrong about this. I do know that so-called “common sense” doesn’t always apply to things like quantum physics, so there may be something out there I’m not aware of or couldn’t comprehend if I was. I did hear that they’ve maybe found something that travels faster than the speed of light, which, I supposed might lead to an entire paradigm shift in the physical sciences, so maybe something really is out there waiting for us.
All the talk and speculation about new world-changing energy technologies reminds me of the efforts to invent a perpetual motion machine. The idea that somewhere out there a more-or-less inexhaustible source or method of creating energy must lurk, seems to ignore the fact that, at least so far, Newton has always proven correct: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. I understand that this law does not directly address things like energy sources, however, it does address methodologies, which would have to be applied to any source in order to convert it into an efficient supply of usable energy. I can’t get too technical about this because, frankly, I don’t have the necessary background in physics. Rather, what I want to talk about is the common sense of how things work in the real world, either economically or scientifically.
For centuries scientists and inventors have sought the holy grail of perpetual motion; or, to put in terms more relative to this discussion, a source of unlimited energy without loss (here I might add, without consequence). And, though thousands of such devices and processes have been created, none have proven to result in energy creation even equal to energy consumption, especially when you include economics in the equation. Even the most promising things like solar, wind, geothermal, biofuels and the like, have their economic downside that makes them less than practical at today’s costs, and the only remedy (now pretty much agreed on) is to increase the cost of all energy to the point where some of these “unlimited” sources become practical alternatives to traditional sources.
There is always the chance, of course, that tomorrow someone will make a huge breakthrough and suddenly this historic failure will be overcome. However, it seems to me that nature is still telling us, “nothing is free;” that no matter what we do, there will be some price to pay, and that price will probably be more than the cost of whatever we can come up with.
In a way, it’s kind of like infinity, which can be approached but never reached. This doesn’t mean that continuing to try is unwise or futile, only that the populace should be aware of the reality, and not hang their hats on the idea that there is some kind of panacea out there just awaiting discovery.
I know I will probably get hammered for saying this by the more scientifically astute folks who post here because, like I said, I am not nearly as educated or knowledgeable in the sciences as the average contributor. And actually, I’d like to hear the arguments against what I’ve said, because I really hope I’m wrong about this. I do know that so-called “common sense” doesn’t always apply to things like quantum physics, so there may be something out there I’m not aware of or couldn’t comprehend if I was. I did hear that they’ve maybe found something that travels faster than the speed of light, which, I supposed might lead to an entire paradigm shift in the physical sciences, so maybe something really is out there waiting for us.