Tom Brokaw on global warming is like the Pope on sex, nether know about the subject at hand.
On this particular show (it is not like a liberal bash or anything-straight documentary)
No such thing as a straight documentary, they all have a spin, unless they give both sides of an issue they are spinning.
they interview a lot of the scientists that 10 years ago were supporting my same thoughts on natural cycles.
The people interviewed were 10 and 20 years ago saying that the Earth was freezing over, now they say it's getting hotter. They never supported the natural cycle theory.
Now they have changed their minds and they explain why
Did they also explain why some of them believe that the Earth is flat.
Will global warming totally screw up the planet from our CO2? Probably not in my lifetime (30-50 years)
The answer is no, never. God is a better engineer then that, we can't kill the planet no matter how hard we try.
BUT we can't just immediately stop putting out all the CO2 we do (technically impossible "as is")
Yes we can. Just return to the stone age.
SO we MUST start now "cutting back" the CO2 we produce asap so that in 5-10 years there will start to be a reversing in the atmosphere then the needed decline over the next 40-50 years.
Been doing that for 30 years or so, it takes time to developer technology and improve how we do things. A little patience goes a long way.
A typical example is that with all the power demands this summer they are talking about building dozens of new power plants, all coal or gas fired. Much more CO2. WHY?
We need the electricity and the environmentalists wont let nuclear plants be built.
Oh, if you want to help by not releasing CO2, you could try not exhaling.
Existing wind technology as used in a few places in the USA
You haven't been around the country much. Lots of wind farms out there, one real big on is a little ways east of Indio CA, also have some in west Texas, Wyoming, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and the Dakotas. The thing about wind power is that you need wind, and some places just don't have any, but it is out there.
and widely in Europe
That explains all the nuclear reactors in France. Wind is not used as much in Europe as the leftist media would have you think.
could supply 3 times as much electric energy as we use today
Could, if you have the wind to move the veins. Not all places in this country have the wend to do the job needed. The thing to remember is that electricity is like water, if you want to move it a long distance, you need a lot of it.
IF we shut down all the current nuclear and coal-gas plants.
It would get dark.
So why are "they" talking about building dozens more conventional plants instead of more wind farms?
You need wind for a wind farm, not all places have it. But many are being built, my transportation company moves the blades for the wind tubins every day.
Easy...$$$
Why do you say that? Oil cost money, gas cost money, the hassles of nuclear fuel cost money but wind is free, if it were only about the money then all eclectic generating companies would switch to wind as fast as they could.
It's because the areas of the country with the best wind for highest production are not generally close to our major cities that use the most power...they don't want to have to build all the big transmission lines to bring the energy from the wind farms to the metropolitan & industrial areas.
The transmission lines already exist, it cost very little to hook a wind farm to the power grid. The problem is in the technology, it's still young and can't produce the high voltages needed to transmit over extremely long distances.
So it's quicker & easier and faster $$ return to the stockholders (and overpaid CEOs) to build high-CO2 plants close to areas where they already have too much air pollution.
Ok, so the stock holders should take all the risk but get no reward and the CEO should work for nothing. How about the farmer plowing his field but not being allowed to eat the food he grows. Same thing.
They build the high CO2 plants because that is what they have to work with right now.
You think these areas have too much pollution now, step back into the nineteenth century. Horse crap every where, sewage in the streets and rivers, if your horse died you left it where it fell (hadn't invented the tow horse yet) were it could rot for days, every house burned wood or coal for heat so smoke everywhere, the average life span was only forty years or so for a reason, it was a nasty place. Much cleaner today because we improved over time and are still improving.
It's time we made use of what we have in technology to do more than have refrigerators with built in LCD TVs and make clean, constant, totally pollution free, electricity.
We do. And if by chance I should want a T.V. in my refrigerator, I will. But nothing that lives is or will ever be pollution free, unless you can get the cows to stop farting, then there may be hope.
If not for global warming for our children's health.
Our children's health is just fine. Most live to be adults. Was a time when most died before the first birthday.
My son has asthma. There is no family history
No family history that you know of. Air quality has nothing to do with getting asthma, it's a genetic disorder, you don't catch it, you are born with it. Air quality can affect it but it does not cause it. More people are having symptoms of it because more people are leaving the country side and moving to the cities where the air quality is causing the symptoms, these people have always had asthma but the symptoms were so mild as to go unnoticed.
My thoughts are that deregulation was terrible for things like electricity.
What deregulation? The so called deregulation in California only deregulated the electrical distribution system but left the heavy regulations on the generation plants and the dealers, the generation plants cant upgrade the generaters or build new plants as needed so they can't keep up with demand, hence the rolling blackouts. The dealers on the other hand are stuck with price controlls that keep them from charging what it cost to buy power from other sources, hence the bankruptcies. True deregulation would let expansion happen as needed and prices to reflect cost.
Price is a natural rationing tool, as prices go up, use will go down, when the price reaches a point that you don't want to pay, you reduce your use. You ration your self. When the price is fixed, you have no reason to ration your self, and when demand reaches a point that supply can no longer meet, the government steps in and rations you and not in a way that is good for you. Think of the bread lines in the USSR or the gas lines back in the 70's.
Because now the government can't tell the power companies to build more wind farms or whatever.
You think not? He who has the gun and makes the law can do as he pleases. The government can tell the power companies to do what ever it wants. In fact it is mostly the government that is standing in the way of more wind farms and other technologies, all them regulations get in the way of better things.
They can run their business like any other corporation.
Not hardly. But what would be wrong with running a business like any other business?
But deregulation has only brought higher electric bills,
Inflation and the increase in fuel prices is what brought higher electric bills, profits have been going down.
old power lines not being replaced so they are overloaded (because replacing 50 year-old lines is bad for that profit)
It's government regulations that keep the capacity down, not old power lines. The generating companies have nothing to do with power lines, the company you buy from has nothing to do with power lines. The power lines belong to the distribution companies, and they keep them up, otherwise they would have no way distribute the power and could make no money.
and unlike regular corporations (you can decide which brand of car to buy
Again, regulations force you to buy from only one place, if it was deregulated you would have choices.
or if you are serious enough be like the Amish and get a bicycle or walk or get a horse...whatever) but you can't very well decide to live without electricity.
Now, just why can't you decide to live without electricity? The Amish do.
Today it is as necessary as water
No, you can live without electricity, hard to watch T.V. but you can live without.
Today it is as necessary as water (which is also at crises level, we are running out of water to sustain use in the USA and still grow)
Plenty of water. Have you not noticed the two big oceans on eather side of the country? A little salty but that can be fixed. Our only water problem is in the distribution system. Mexico has a real water problem.
it is required for EVERYTHING by EVERONE so it NEEDS regulating.
So you think the government can do it better? Show me just one thing the government has made better. Just one.
Your milk is cooled by electricity in your fridge but it's also produced by cows that are fed grains & hay produced by irrigation powered by electricity, then they are milked by electric milking machines and the milk is pumped by electricity into cooled storage tank to be shipped to plants where it is processed using electricity...you get the idea.
Yes, but there was a time when you pulled on a tit and squirted it into a bucket and a man in a white uniform brought it to your door every morning too. A few more government regulations and we may return to that as well.
I just think we need to start. Stiffer mileage and emissions requirements for cars (and no BS about increased cost, the same companies build higher mileage cars for Europe where gas is $6 a gallon already)
Ever hear of Honda or Toyota? Forrunners in fuel efficient cars. Europe is also where they build them overpriced cars that get only a mile to the gallon, not a good example.
Tax breaks or other incentives for you to install energy efficient stuff on your house or business
Is a government giveaway always the answer. Steal from one, give to another that does what you want, not what our forefathers had in mind.
wind farms under construction as fast as possible to make use of the wind that is blowing anyway, etc.
Already being done. Stop listening to the leftist media and get out and look for your self.
BTW: I checked on adding supplemental solar to my house when my electric bill hit $400 this summer. I am lucky, I live in an area that gets enough "sun hours" on average to make it efficient.
Good for you. But you still think that people that live in the shade should use solar, just like you think that people in low wind areas should use wind power.
CA has all kinds of rebates, tax incentives, etc. for buying solar and other energy efficient things after Enron screwed them over.
Enron had nothing to do with the problems in Ca, all of that was after Enron. They did screw over some areas of Texas and did a lot of screwing in India but they were not that big of a player in the U.S., they chased a lot more of the foreign aid money in the backward and corrupt countries of the world.
The electric lobby's don't want me cutting that $400 bill by 2/3!
They would never even notice that you were gone. If you little $400 dollars was that important then every Amish house in America would be forced to wire up.
For those with "eyes to see", only around 600 years ago Greenland was green and Iceland was covered in ice, now Iceland is green and Greenland is covered in ice, it's part of the natural cycle. In the 1500's the Earth experienced a mini ice age, winter rye froze in the fields and Summer wheat never went to seed, millions starved to death. 10,000 years ago Egypt was a forest with rivers running through it and a sheet of ice covered 70% of north America, 2,000,000 years ago Texas was under water, the Earth does it's on thing according to the way God designed it, we are just along for the ride.
