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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Solar and Wind are not renewable.

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  • From: Daniel Conine <dconine@bertramwireless.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Solar and Wind are not renewable.
  • Date: Sun, 08 Feb 2009 15:36:13 -0600

The "renewable" or "sustainable" label is a language barrier to significance
of human activity.
When considering a technology or behavior of human beings, we must first consider what we have to offer the world/universe as a species. The common misconception is that Man is some kind of Fallen Angel, dropped lock, stock and barrel into the 'wild' garden of Eden.

Nothing comes from the top-down. Everything in the universe is built from the bottom up. Humans are just one of many upright-walking primates that managed to evolve the ability to imagine. Imagining that there is a tiger in the grass was more useful than not imagining the tiger hiding in the grass, so our imaginations grew and became coherent as our images became connected to one another.
That's it. That's what separates us from the cockroach or the elephant:
imagination which more often gets us into trouble than out of it.

Now, let's imagine that we have the ability to contribute something to the world that no other species can contribute. I'll use "protect the planet from asteroid collisions" as an example. How many people do we need to do this? Which people? How do we determine the importance of any action or civilization we create?

It's simple. 'Net Future Usefulness'. We are as valuable as our lives are useful to someone in the future (most commonly, our children). We could all go to living in caves or underground houses or in the jungles of the tropics, but when the next big dinosaur-killing asteroid comes along, we would probably go extinct along with most of the planet's species.

On the other hand, if we constructively use resources so that there is a Net Usefulness to our actions, then building windmills and solar panels can leave a more useful and stable world than the one we inherited.
It's the Net, not the specific resources that are critical, and using less is
better, but using none is getting nowhere.

Dan Conine
Belgium, WI





Energy in the real world
by John Weber
http://www.energybulletin.net/node/47606
Published Jan 1 2009 by Energy Bulletin

Solar and Wind are not renewable. The energy from solar and from wind is
available but not renewable. An oak tree is renewable. A horse is
renewable. They reproduce themselves.

But, and a very important but, the human made equipment used to capture
solar energy or wind energy is not renewable. In fact, there is
considerable fossil fuel energy embedded in this equipment. The glazing on
a solar collector of any kind ? solar thermal water, solar thermal air,
and solar electric ? requires energy to manufacture. Aluminum comes from
bauxite. It takes considerable energy to refine the bauxite.






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