Prepare for war to come (Discovery of World at War)

The Standard ^ | 7-6-06

[jankp]

Wars tend to widen. Containing war in terms of area or intensity has nearly always been impossible. The War on Terror is proving no exception.

Controlling war's expansion gets harder until exhaustion sets in. So far the War on Terror shows more signs of proliferation and intensification than exhaustion.

Israelis and Iranian-backed Hamas Palestinians appear headed for a new level of conflict even as the West escalates pressure on Iran over its nuclear development. The deadline of July 12 to stop its enrichment processing could prove crucial.

[jankp]

We're moving right along...and to think this particularly discovery only took about 5 years.

[Pontiac]

One primary impact of the spreading war will be energy. We simply must open up our electricity generating grid to renewable sources like solar and wind power, well before the 2018 date being bandied about now. Delaying such actions not only imperils our environment and health; it will look very foolish when the war makes energy scarce and prices soar.

I guess we know were this authors political sympathies lie.

Solar and wind power can at most contribute 10% of electrical production. If the author wants to boost electrical independence he should be promoting Nuclear generation.

Also sense the muslims control oil which is used today primarily for transportation fuel boosting electrical supplies will have little impact.

[NaughtiusMaximus]

We've got virtually unlimited supplies of coal. Musn't forget that.

There are very few countries on the planet which could go virtually self-contained and self-sufficient if it needed to.

Some steps in this direction would "square away" a lot of enemies and unreliable "friends" too.

Just a few oil shafts in the ANWAR and along the coasts would cause some important changes, probably beneficial.

[Dallas59]

But we can't do that because it's racist and arrogant and not being part of the "village"....

/s

[LibertarianInExile]

"Solar and wind power can at most contribute 10% of electrical production."

How is that a certainty? We haven't even started to consider focusing mirrored light from space onto earth-based targets, which would be both a wonderful way to generate electricity and to vaporize Iranian yappers.

Seems to me too early to rule those out, with the rapid advance of technology in electrics.

Not that I disagree that nukes are the way to go ultimately, but I don't like saying that we should simply rule out renewable energy. The real solution is to let the market handle it and get government out of the business, anyway.

[Pontiac]

We've got virtually unlimited supplies of coal. Musn't forget that.

Correct.

If we are to invest in energy research we can invest in Coal Liquefaction technology.

If we could come up with a inexpensive process to liquefy coal we could tell the Saudis to pack sand.

[Pontiac]

The space based solar power system is the only possible way to make solar pay. I have read of a system of space based solar panels beaming the power back to earth with microwave lasers.

But even this is at present impractical because of the expense of lifting the system into space.

Ground based solar is too inefficient (and unreliable in many parts of the country). The best solar panels are at best 40% efficient. Then the sunlight is to defuse to generate enough power to make it pay. It would take huge amount of land area to make up for a small coal plant.

Currently the most profitable use of solar is roof top water heating but only in places where sunshine is reliable (doesn’t work too well in Seattle and Cleveland).

Wind power is useful in limited locations because the wind has to be fairly constant to make it pay for itself. It also takes a fairly large piece of real estate to make a commercial go of it. Most of the places where the wind is constant enough to make Wind power work are near the coast where real estate is expensive and wind turbines are politically unpopular.

[LibertarianInExile]

"The space based solar power system is the only possible way to make solar pay. I have read of a system of space based solar panels beaming the power back to earth with microwave lasers. But even this is at present impractical because of the expense of lifting the system into space."

It is a problem. As is ensuring the system won't go loopy and fry Montana. But it's a better long term solution than anything else. The sun won't burn out any time soon, or so I hear. Nukes run, what, about 50 years or so? And a half-life lasts forever...well, at least it does for those of us doomed to using cheat codes.

[Pontiac]

Nukes run, what, about 50 years or so?

There is no technological reason that they can not run much longer.

And as for the used fuel it can be reprocessed and reused like the French and Japanese do.

What little of the fuel waste that can not be used as fuel there is a process where it can be loaded in to fuel rods and made relatively safe buy “burning” it in the reactors

[MNJohnnie]

What we are addicted to is CHEAP oil. We want all the energy we can get cheap without any of the mess production or refining duties being done on US Soil. The real closet Imperialists are the wacko enviros who want the rest of the world to bear the enviromental costs of proving their fat pinks butts with cheap power.

Shale Oil, Nukes, Off shore Drilling, Alternative energy sources, Hybrids, Coal Gasification. Power saving technology, Space based Solar... DO it all. Tell all the the Sierra Club Trust Fund babies and their hyper "Environmentalists" religion to drop dead.

I pray to see the day the Middle East achieves the same level of political, military and economic insignificance the continent of Africa currently hold for the United States