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I'm beginning to agree with the recent Russian social educator who said the USA will break up into several regions and govern themselves seperately....
More currently, I've seen projections that in 50 years, West Virginia is probably all that's left of America anyway. But yeah, I've read that, Professor Igor Panarin :
"He predicted that the U.S. will break up into six parts - the Pacific coast, with its growing Chinese population; the South, with its Hispanics; Texas, where independence movements are on the rise; the Atlantic coast, with its distinct and separate mentality; five of the poorer central states with their large Native American populations; and the northern states, where the influence from Canada is strong. "
No offense to Russians, but they should be worrying about their own house before predicting our demise. The life expectancy of a male has dropped to 58 (confirm?), declining population, and there's always the potential China will trounce their border for their oil.
Add this backwards step . .
2008/12/17 "MOSCOW (AP) - New legislation backed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin would allow Russian authorities to label any government critic a traitor—a move that rights activists said Wednesday was a chilling throwback to times of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin
The bill, which is expected to become law, would expanded the definition of treason to include damaging Russia's constitutional order, sovereignty or territorial integrity. That, rights activists said, would essentially let authorities interpret any act against state as treason—a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison. " Russian treason bill could hit Kremlin critics
I'm gonna laugh my tookas off when those idiot UMW clowns lose their jobs because of obama. When i was a lad all the liberal kooks were worried about global cooling, now it's global warming. What we should be worried about is global stupidity.
The Steel Workers didn't think they would be put out of business either...the Shipyards...the aircraft plants...
It's like dominos falling...after the Auto Plants and mines...and we mine metal, stone, salt and potash too, in addition to coal...
What is left in this country...Oil production is ugly...Windmills are ugly...(whatever happened to T.Bone?..lost his butt in the late stock market...ha ha)
Then we will be one huge corn farm...from Colorado to Cambridge, Ohio...and that corn produces c02 when its used, boys and girls...It will be legislated out of existence too..
Kook global warming is something of a misnomer because it describes phase 1 (which is warming) but phase 2 is cooling. You'd have to be willing to read about the topic in depth. Difficult to do if you've made your mind up already. Whether or not nature has regular cycles of warming and cooling is one topic, but if we're actively hastening them with reckless behavior is something worthy of examination.
Similar to the trail washout in winter you posted when the vegetation wasn't replaced for airport construction project. They failed to plan ahead. Global scale silent things have far worse consequence if we ignore it for sake of comfortable answers. If there's another price tag attached to my tailpipe (airport construction equivalent) I'd like to know about it.
DK the nature of capitalism is birth and death cycles. When it's a steam engine going by the wayside for the sake of a combustion engine it put a serious hurt on coal. Now when a combustion engine could potentially go by the wayside for renewables, it's a bad thing?
Greenies aren't inherently bad, they're just myopic. Conservatives are suffering from the same disease if you really look at it honestly. You can't claim to defend capitalism then subsidize multiple industries that are failing. They're failing for dozens of reasons, not just the one that fits nicely with a party philosophy vilifying citizens who disagree.
Fuel and energy will always be needed because civilization demands it. The more practical way to extend the viable life of coal is to clean it up (that technology is available right now. Am I wrong?). Greenies, the more practical way for you to get greener is to work with what you've got and invest in R&D. Your technology isn't 100% quite yet, but I recognize that conservatives have deliberately undermined efforts. I'm opposed to conservatives behavior when I see it going that way. This country has realized it's greatest heights when technology was free to stimulate economic growth and collectively advance our civilization in constructive ways.
Greenies targeting coal as the bane of their existence- that's complete BS. I oppose you when you're ignorant of economic realities and believe it's acceptable collateral damage to destroy a viable industry without giving coal states a legit chance to establish economic bases from another resource. Would they have options they would have taken them by now, so on this point I'd have to say it's a very immature attitude going on in the left. I do not believe Obama shares that attitude, but if he does, he'll only hurt the cause ensuring no liberal will be trusted anymore than citizens are willing to trust conservatives at this point.
Presuming muscling postures from either political extreme has led to one thing; a 30+yr stalemate where both have actively undermined all efforts squandering billions in the process. Reagan tears down Carters solar panels, Clinton beefs up environmental standards, Bush refuses to enforce them, and meanwhile weasels get a second opportunity to loot America by raping us with oil prices.
Left-- every time these global politics are played out 3rd world countries suffer even worse than industrialized because they're forced to borrow from IMF to feed themselves and IMF rules take over their economy. Right-- change is inclusive of your issues if you factually change. Our historical actions have proven one thing; nothing done prior has been effective. Every president since Nixon has stated we need to be energy independent. We need to quit backbiting and work together. Enough of the cross purpose squandering. We can't afford to be stuck on stupid anymore.
IMO our immediate goals should be that coal needs investment to get greener, stick with traditional underground mining vs mtn top removal, and America needs off foreign oil every opportunity it gets for everyones sake (not just our own, because byproduct of this issue is fodder for $$$$ wars for resources). Collective technology advances with progressive spirit can solve many things applicable to all issues from all parties. On this count I believe progressives have the best solutions. How they go about it is my gravest concern.
Combustion engines will burn natural gas and we will fill them up in our garages..
I'm tipping my hat to Mr. MoJo...give those chinese the Deed to Mingo County and they own it...produce the gasoline in a reserved area similar to our Indian Tribes...why didn't they do that? They did.
Bought downgraded Russian gasoline during the 90's and it stalled our cars...
I got a load in Colorado.
Was a Nissan too, fuel computer should have automatically adjusted but did not...drove 200 miles to clear out the black smoke and hesitation...That Russian gasoline was about 75 Octane...What an experience!
More currently, I've seen projections that in 50 years, West Virginia is probably all that's left of America anyway. .........
I'm still waiting for the gigantic meteorite to hit the ocean and wipe out the entire east coast (rerun of Sudden Impact was on the other day). Oh wait a minute, then all the people from the coast would invade WV. So, never mind.
Back to coal: On the bright side, I did see a blurb on TV where Obama was talking in a positive light about coal and mentioned improved technology using coal. On the flip side, I think the bite was from several months ago. Not sure why it was running, only caught part of it. Anyone else see it? It ran in the last couple days.
Now for the good news (except it was written this past summer):
Worldwide Energy Demand Will Rise 51 Percent by 2030, Energy Department Report Says
Despite persistently high oil prices, global energy demand will grow by 50 percent over the next two decades with continued heavy reliance on environmentally troublesome fossil fuels, especially coal and oil, the government predicted Wednesday. ......... The report forecast the steepest increases in China and other emerging economies ............ Worldwide Energy Demand Will Rise 51 Percent by 2030, Energy Department Report Says - FOXNews.com Transition Tracker (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2008/06/25/worldwide-energy-demand-rise-percent-energy-department-report-says/ - broken link)
Complicating everything is the worldwide financial meltdown. Frank Maisano, a Washington energy specialist and spokesman who represents coal-fired utilities and refineries, sees the poor economy as "a huge factor" that could stop everything. That's because global warming efforts are aimed at restricting coal power, which is cheap. That would likely mean higher utility bills and more damage to ailing economies that depend on coal production, he said.
Greenies targeting coal as the bane of their existence- that's complete BS. I oppose you when you're ignorant of economic realities and believe it's acceptable collateral damage to destroy a viable industry without giving coal states a legit chance to establish economic bases from another resource. Would they have options they would have taken them by now, so on this point I'd have to say it's a very immature attitude going on in the left. I do not believe Obama shares that attitude, but if he does, he'll only hurt the cause ensuring no liberal will be trusted anymore than citizens are willing to trust conservatives at this point.
HL, not only is it unfair to give the coal states a chance to other economic bases, it demonstrates a lack of knowledge of the electric power industry.
Surfing around this evening, I came across a very useful site: the Energy Information Administration. In particular, I was looking at their short term outlook (http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/ - broken link) page, which has tons of data for 2007, 2008 and 2009. In 2008, for example, we generated about 11.3 billion KwH of electricity per day. Of that 11.3 BKwH:
5.46 came from coal
2.20 came from nuclear
2.18 came from natural (mostly) and other gases
0.94 came from renewables of all kinds, including hydro, solar, wind, wood and geothermal. (Hydro was about 75% of that.)
So about 2.5% of our electricity supply currently comes from (non-hydro) "green" sources. Growth of those sources might be enough to keep up, barely, with population growth, but I see little chance to displace existing coal/nuclear/gas power plants.
And if plug-in electric vehicles really work...
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