Bob Holt’s Recent Comments

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  migrating birds and the proposed Texas project

  The fact that the site is in a major migratory flyway does not necessarily mean that a significant number of birds will be killed. ("Significant" has to be interpreted in terms of a comparison with the mortality if we dawdle and do too little too late to stave off the worst consequences of global warming.)  Studies of the Danish experience are illuminating.  Some of those offshore wind farms are in migratory pathways, but radar tracking of the migrating swarms shows that they steer carefully around the farms except that a few manage to fly successfully right through them.  After all, they are not placed cheek by jowl.  And, I have found that some anxious birdlovers believe that those big 'propellors' can suck birds right in, when actually the are the opposite of electric fans: they take energy out of approaching wind, actually slowing it down.  Birds don't drift passively on winds and let themselves get smashed against cliffs.  (I am a card-carrying member of Audubon.)On Wind farm follies posted 3 years, 6 months ago 47 Responses

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  Gore's campaign in 2000

  None of the commentators who have criticized Gore for a poor job of campaigning when Bush prevailed mentions the fact that that alleged victory was achieved by fraud, stealing, and outright bullying tactics.  After the fact, we know that if Gore had played his cards right and had insisted on a total recount in FL, he would have won (assuming that the kind of brassknuckles tactics that
  DeLay used wasn't even more widespread).  And that doesn't take into account the many successful dirty tricks used to to keep the Democratic vote down.

  No, not only did he undeniably win the popular vote despite all the cheating, fraud, and hardball, but if the Republicans had behaved like decent citizens, he would have been president.  And despite the fact that there did not SEEM to be a lot of difference between him & W, the whole world would be in an incomparably better place now.  Spoken by one who actually voted for Nader!

  (Sources: Palast, Best Democracy Money Can Buy; and Miller, Fooled Again.) On An interview with accidental movie star Al Gore posted 3 years, 6 months ago 17 Responses

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  some neglectedissues

  A lot of good points have been made by opponents of nuclear power, largely ignored here (as elsewhere) by the proponents.  Let me just bring into the discussion a few points hardly considered yet.
  1. Several people believe we have to adopt the nuclear option because renewables will take too long to develop.  That's dead wrong: one of the big problems with supplying the demand with nuclear plants is that they take a minimum of 10 yrs. to get on line; well developed alternatives (like wind) are available off the shelf and can be built in 2 yrs.
  2.The huge capital cost of nuclear power, far greater than any other available option, means taking this option would starve better ones for the available capital.
  

  3. The often repeated claim of no air pollution overlooks two major types: a. nuclear power plants continuously vent radioactive gaseous fission products, and though most of them have short half-lives their daughters are also radioactive it all adds up to a significant increase in background radiation exposure to people living relatively nearby.  b. About 99% of the radioactivity of uranium ore remains in the discarded part after the uranium has been extracted, the 'tailings.'  They are usually piled up in the upen, unprotected from erosion by wind and rain.  If anyone has calculated what the health costs of this silent pollution are, I have not seen it.  Total silence about this problem from the industry.
     
  4. Suppose we did let greenhouse gases accumulate while we built enough nuclear plants to supply the world's need for electricity (and doing so would significantly augment the amount of greenhouse gases), how long would this alleged solution last?  The proved reserves of uranium are enough to last such an augmented array of reactors only a few decades, so this proposed solution turns out to be quite temporary while its noxious side effects would last hundreds of thousands of years.
     
  It would thus only defer the real solution: renewable energy sources, of which there are many not even mentioned on this blog.
  5. Another sleeper: the nuclear option requires very large, central generating plants, which can be afforded only by huge, wealthy corporations with the political clout to force them down the public's throat.  That would only exacerbate the already intolerable threat to democracy and social justice from corporate power.  The only viable future lies in decentralized, locally controlled, less vulnerable and more inherently efficient generation of electricity.

  Finally, extensive facts and figures to back up these arguments may be found in the numerous papers by the Lovinses at www.rmi.org and by the Nuclear Information and Resource Service at www.nirs.org.  See especially their "Nuclear power can't stope climate change," Umbra: only two fact-filled pages.

  Bob HoltOn Umbra on nuclear energy posted 4 years, 7 months ago 45 Responses

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  Veggie tailpipes

  Some time ago, my daughter--an ardent, well-informed environmentalist who doesn't just talk--got excited about biodiesel and looked into it as a business.  She was told that straight vegetable oil doesn't work well in diesels because it contains glycerine, which has to be removed.  The reigning process, currently, uses lye (a harsh caustic chemical) and exposes the operator to some danger if she is not a well-trained chemist.  So Cathy decided not to do it.  I have since learned that a new, noncaustic and more nearly permanent catalyst (metallocellulose?) has been discovered but is not yet available.

  So, what about the glycerine problem?  My hunch is that SVO will work if the engine is properly tuned, but that the claimed efficiencies and lack of pollutants are not based on it but on the purified stuff.  Does anyone know? On Umbra on converting your car to straight veggie oil posted 4 years, 7 months ago 5 Responses