My apology to Kristen. I have failed as an advocate, not even checking my
Brin-L mail for weeks. Count on a job in computers to make me lose all
interest in computers. This is too much for me, too much to keep up with
and not enough that I am interested in to keep me interested while fighting
headaches and fatigue from work, helping watch my brother's kids, taking
care of 3 dogs, etc. I don't think I will be on list much longer.
To Kristen, I am not perfect, I am not a saint, I do what I can, when I can
to help the environment. Your eating meat does not make you a hypocrite
unless you think and tell others that eating meat is wrong. If that is the
case then it isn't time to give up fighting for what you believe, merely
time to reevaluate your ideas and your actions and make a choice to change
one or the other (or both, compromising isn't necessarily bad, as long as it
is a step in the right direction).
On the topic of solar power, yes, every power type has an impact on the
environment, it takes much resources to manufacture solar cells. I still
believe that it is the cleanest energy source with the least impact (note, I
never said it had *no* impact I said it had the least). Silicon is one of
the most abundant substances on earth, there is no shortage and little
demand for it in the ecosystem, and is on the Earth's surface, so mining it
is not terribly dammaging to the earth. Coal mining, oil drilling, and
radioactive waste are deffinately more damaging (Why not shoot radioactive
waste to the sun? Simple, if something goes wrong before the rocket leaves
the atmosphere, you end up with radioactive waste being spread all over the
rocket's crash site, which could easily be spread over many miles). Of
"clean" energy sources there are hydroelectric power, turbine fans, and
solar power. Hydroelectric has a bad habit of destorying ecosystems and
killing off species. Turbine fans are not always practical because the wind
taken to drive them is not always available, and I suspect (I have no proof
of this, it is only an untested, unresearched hypothesis) that the large
turbine fans may effect climactic conditions by slowing wind, potentially
affecting directions and progression of weather systems. In small
quantities of fans, I am sure this effect is not even measurable, but if we
were to convert solely to that as an energy source, and manufacture hundreds
of thousands of them (if not millions to provide all the power needed), I am
sure we will feel an effect, though what that effect will be is hard to say.
Solar power absorbs light that would normally produce heat or simply be
reflected back to space. If the solar cells are placed in a place not
interfering with plant growth (IE, rooftops), this should have minimal
impact. Even if solar cells were used in massive quantities, I do not
believe that absorbing light that would normally produce heat and turning it
to elecricity would have much impact (like causing an ice age or global
cooling or anything like that), because the items we use our electricity for
generate lots of heat, balancing it out.
Michael Harney
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
