Green, Solar & Wind Power

Green Generators The Herald ran an AP story by Matt Crenson (Louisiana Sinking, Sunday, Aug. 11) that provides a good illustration of how bad journalism has tainted the publics understanding of global warming and its likely consequences.

The gentle curves of the Spiral Solar Wind Chime will come alive with the power of the sun, chiming softly to help your day along.

Solar Panel First, Crenson relies on a discredited report by maverick elements of Whitmans EPA that vastly overstated the magnitude of human-induced climate warming (anthropogenic global warming). President Bush dismissed that report as inconsistent with scientific reality.

Stateline Wind Facility (Walla Walla County, WA; Umatilla County, OR) Summerview Wind Facility (Pincher Creek, Alberta, Canada) Tillamook Animal Waste to Energy (Tillamook, OR) Washington State School for the Blind (Vancouver, WA) Hanford (White Bluffs, WA) The above facilities replace our energy consumption by supplying the power grid with our equivalent energy requirements of 100% green energy from wind and solar energy providers.

Epa Greenpower Second, Crenson makes no distinction between anthropogenic global warming and natural global warming. This is a key distinction that is often omitted by global warming alarmists for the simple reason that there is no credible science that has demonstrated a clear and significant human component to observed climate warming.

Despite Britain enjoying 40% of Europe's wind energy; it is way behind Denmark, which generates 18% of its total electricity from wind. It is essential that we use renewable energy sources now and in the future to ward off the catastrophic effects of global warming. there is no doubt that wind power will increase its share of the fuel mix in the years to come.

Wind Energy Third, Crenson vastly overstates the estimated magnitude of sea level rise due to global warming (whether natural or induced by human activities). He cites a worst case scenario that suggests sea level will rise 44 inches in the next 50 years. The question of sea level rise due to global warming is comprehensively examined in chapter 8 of The Satanic Gases, Clearing the Air about Global Warming, by Patrick J. Michaels (UVA) and Robert C. Balling (ASU), where Michaels and Balling conclude using the IPCCs equally plausible scenarios, the best guess range of sea-level rise during the next century would be about 5 to 11 inches....

If you're planning to build a new home, you can use some of the bigger aspects of building green. used or recycled building materials, you can lessen the impact that you have. You can also choose environmentally friendly insulation like recycled newspaper or cotton. Try using as many materials as you can that are refurbished and not new. Install heating systems that are powered by solar power and electrical circuits that require wind power, for example.

Solar In typical alarmist form, Crenson presents a wholly implausible estimate of nearly four feet of sea level rise in half century when, a realistic estimate (assuming linearity) would put the actual figure at one-quarter to one-half of an inch! Remember, estimated sea level changes reveal nothing about the origins of climate warming.

Solar panels are expensive and, particularly in the UK, inefficient. It usually takes more than a decade for an investment in solar power to pay off and a large amount of space in direct sunlight is required. In the UK climate, effective and productive source of green energy than solar power. In addition, the world's limited supply of silicon can be put to more efficient uses, in computing, for example.

Nuclear Power Finally, Crenson provides us with the more likely reason why coastal Louisiana is threatened by rising sea levels. Most of coastal Louisiana exists as the result of deposits from the Mississippi River. It is mans tinkering with the river that threatens the stability of that process. Indeed, much of New Orleans is already below sea level and not as a result of global warming. Too often journalists mislead the public by suggesting natural coastal erosion and barrier island evolution are the effects of rising sea levels from purported global warming (for a blatant example, see Time magazines issue of April 9, 2001).

Greenpower Inc If you believe global warming is caused by human activity and you fear the consequences will be dramatic during the next century, then you ought to follow the advice of Frederick Seitz, past president, National Academy of Sciences, who wrote of The Satanic Gases, This lucid book by two climatologists dealing with the present status of our understanding of global warming should be read by every scientist and layman who has an interest in the topic, particularly if they have been led to believe that we face a potentially enormous catastrophe of human origin. Michaels and Balling demonstrate that the ongoing influence of human activity on climate will probably lie well within manageable bounds.

Solar Electricity Bob Webster
Andover, NJ

Power Greene NJ Herald - 8/28/2002

Topic: Climate Change

[ Comment, Edit or Article Submission ]