Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Global Warming, yay or nay?

Scientists gather to dispute Global Warming hysteria

another article
(thanks to the Mike Church show for this link)

on a related topic, I watched an ad featuring a solar panel 'farm' in the US desert region and was shocked at the size of it. Miles of solar panels stretching in every direction... is that really an answer to our future electricity use? I tried to find the link to the company online, but no such luck yet. What I did find was an older blog entry featuring a 150 acre solar panel 'farm' in Portugal. The thing that jumped out at me was that panels covering 150 ACRES only generated power for 8000 homes. Photo:

150 acres = 6 534 000 square feet

How many acres would be needed to power even my small city? There are over 60,000 people living here, but I am not sure how many houses/apartment buildings/condos. Let's say even 20,000 houses --- 375 acres? In my region, that would take up a lot of prime ranchland space for raising beef cattle and/or food crops. Now think of larger cities - Calgary has over 1 million people. How many houses and businesses are there? How massive a field of solar panels would be needed to power the city? What about super cities such as NYC (8 million) or Greater London/London England (13 million)....

Or maybe they would use a combination of solar panels spread across the province in one direction, and thousands upon thousands of wind turbines spreading in the other direction. Is that seriously environmentally sound?? Is it even plausible? There is a LOT of work to be done in the field of alternative energy, and we should not be pushed so hard towards it when we could be decades away from anything substantial, let alone anything cost-efficient. Will it be worth it to use this energy if families cannot afford it and end up sitting in the dark or with no heat in order to save money? I heard Obama in an audio clip from before he was elected President, and his words in regards to alternative energy were "utility costs to the consumer will skyrocket". He was not feeling badly or defending citizens in what I heard, he was just telling it like it is, saying that his proposed changes would "bankrupt" the coal industry and "skyrocket utility costs". He thinks that is okay to do.... I heard it from his mouth, but so many seemed to ignore it.

At a time of economic turmoil, "catastrophic losses", high unemployment rates, people in the US face being hit with higher energy bills/taxes. Gee -- that makes sense.


  1. Saving is really important nowadyas, we have to earn more inorder to live graciously.
    The sun is a gift from God, that we really need. It is indeed amazing that we can make use of it's heat. To have energy for our homes and appliances and of course, to save!

    Solar energy panels really helped many people. It is very useful and reasonable in saving money.
    It is all natural and a green nature friendly.

  2. It's hardly all natural at this time, with man-made materials creating the panels in the first place lol. I agree, it's important to look into but for those who wish to push people into using this type of power now, or within the next few years, it's not really that efficient. I ran a quick search on my province's solar panel stores and found anything from $8000 to $25,000 for packages that would fit my small home (ex http://www.solarpanel.ca/PDF/home%20Packages%20for%20solar%20panel%20(new).pdf). The top end is more than I make in an entire year, and going by my average cost of electricity each month ($65), it would take anywhere from 10 to 32 years to make up the cost to me for the panels.

    As new materials are being tested that are more cost effective, the prices may change which I welcome. But I think that claims of it being 'all natural' when using man-made devices is a bit of a stretch lol, and reasonable in saving money - wow. Even if I use my entire highest utility bill ($387) it could take 5 years to get the initial cost back (and of course, my utility bill also includes garbage pickup, water, and natural gas). For some people, this is affordable. For most, it is not even close yet. They should keep working on it, but it is hardly reasonable when so many people are low-middle class.

  3. and PS - I should let other readers know that the first comment came from a marketing website trying to get you to fork over cash so they can tell you how to save 80% on your power bill. Scam Scam Scam - just thought I would point that out so no one has to waste their time clicking the person's profile :) I thought I would respond to their all-natural claims regardless :)


