Zucas said:
Yes an America does have some of the most reserves of coal. But is it worth the environmental risk? That people are so willing to come into this thread an argue that we could do all these other things to get fossil fuels out of the environment and not consider the effect of it. Especially when we can switch to wind, solar, geothermal, ect. I mean its just amazing that the first thing people do when they come into this thread is a way to try and get around the statistic. I mean I think that shows just how much of a problem we really do have with dependence on oil as a whole. Like addicts in their first meetings at rehab. The point of this thread is it isn't an argument whether or not we cna continue to use oil like we do. There is no argument to that. The real issue is when will America become energy self sufficient by switching to renewable resources such as solar, wind, geothermal, and tidal/wave. |
I have one question about this post, have you ever considered what would happen if all the human required power was generated by your mentioned means?
Solar - currently this would require large amounts of usable energy for growing foods. Your answer will be in the deserts, but what would be the effect of removing all the heat from the desert?
Wind - no way this is even possible as power generation is so inconsistent. There have also been some very serious environmental problems caused by large scale wind farms
Geothermal - may not be a big issue, but I am not too sure I would want to know the effects of rapid cooling of the inner planet. Although that is unlikely to be a concern I don't know how large scale this would need to be to power a single US state.
Tidal/wave - see the same problems caused by the wind power problem
As it stands right now, there is very little in the near future that will offer full scale energy production. Since we are capable of using electricity to do everything, we will eventually need something that can do this with minimal resources. The most likely things to replace coal/oil is going to be nuclear fission, then most likely fussion power. The only problem right now is are we going to be able to transition from the fossil fuels to the next step without a world war.
