Quote (anonplanz @ Nov 23 2011 10:31am)
Energy? Completely self sustainable if given the proper tools, resources and education. And there is WAY more than enough for every house on this planet to create its own energy, in fact, so much that it can create energy for the people who cant create it for themselves. By intelligently designing infrastructures to pool an over abundance of energy, we don't need centralized conglomerates. But your answer. Pfft. Socialism. It makes me sick how STUPID people are.
People can create more good food in their basement in hydroponics than they can ever eat, and the surplus? Gee I wonder what to do with all this god damn food? Gee.. hmm. oh, forget it we cant do that, that's like, like, like um... socialism.
People can farm the 20.9 billion acres of unused hoarded, criminally regulated and neglected on purpose land to put man in a place he has can't even fathom
But don't listen to me, its too easy, its .... "socialism"
But I digress... it's socialism, its scarcity. HOGWASH. IT"S AN OUTRIGHT LIE, AND IGNORANCE.
Well there are a few problems with what you claim, even though I agree with the idea of people growing atleast some of their own food.
Is energy self-sustainable if given the proper tools? Yes, to a point. If you use nuclear energy, there is enough for a large enough amount of time that if it were not affected by any other energy need it would be a non issue. Unfortunately the machines used to get the elements out of the ground, process them, transport them, and maintain them use petroleum. As much experience you have in the world I am sure you are well aware that relatively soon (15-20years) that the worlds oil wells will run dry.
What about solar power? Well to harness solar power directly via solar panels, it faces more problems than nuclear energy. Not only is the gather, manufacturing,and transporting a problem, there is the problem that solar panels eventually wear out. This is when it gets problematic. At the time being a solar panel setup+ batteries to run a 1,500 square foot house at current energy consumption standards would cost you around 30-35 thousand dollars. The batteries would need to be periodically replaced, as would the solar panels. So at that point there are two options, and neither would be particularly valid. You could recycle part of the panels (you would still have to mine more of the minerals for increasing demand due to population increase)
but doing that would use massive amount of energy when used to replace all of the solar panels in the world. Also , if you were using hydroponics you would need many more solar panels per house than the average, driving the initial cost up by at-least 40%, as-well as the replacement cost's up by the same amount. All in all, it would be a relatively short term small scale fix, that would not be sustainable indefinatly.
What about coal? Well I am not sure of global coal supplies, but as far as the mines in West Virginia and surrounding areas go, they will have enough for 40-50 more years factoring in exponential growth of coal consumption.
What about wind turbines? once again, small scale short term fix. There are not enough "windy" for lack of a better term, areas (in the US atleast) to power the entire country.Yes it can be used to power individual houses , and even small-medium sized cities in some areas. These are more renewable material wise than most of the other options, but they require alot of energy to produce them. Not to mention the affect on local wildlife, particularly birds.As population rises in areas where it could be applied, you need more and more energy, more and more wind turbines.
Hydro electric power? Well this is one that has its ups and downs. One decent sized electric dam can generate a large amount of electricity easily, and once it is in place the maintenance costs are comparatively low. Where wildlife conservation not a problem, these could help ease the strain on other resources for quite some time (they can last hundreds of years). However they come with their own problems. They are labor intensive to construct, they require a large amount of water behind them to be able to function well, they can be easily put out of commission by droughts, and once again cause problems with wildlife.
Not sure about natural gas but I doubt it is our savior.
As far as farming all the food people need in basements, I have to flat out say your a fool if you meant that litteraly. The most obvious reason is that most people do not have basements, but aside from that, it would require a much larger space to provide a consistent amount of food for one person, let alone a family of 3-5. How exactly are people who live in cities supposed to do this I wonder? Not to mention the fact that most people who do have the land to do this either A. already do this on a small scale and do not find it worth doing for the mass majority of their food, or b. do not have the ability to farm the large amounts of land that they own, with their free time.
No matter how much land people could have, in todays lifestyle, farming our own food is not an option for most people. If they spent most of their time growing their food, the economy would greatly diminish. What are you going to do when you need a Dr when your appendix ruptures, and hes tending to his tomatoes on his farm 75 miles away, and you have 30 mins to live without a surgury? Does he need to buy his food because his lifestyle does not allot him to grow his own ? If so then it is essentially the way the world is now.
I understand that you were supposedly in the Navy. Well you may have been, and if so I thank you for your service. Yes, you are my senior by a number of years. However neither of those facts change the problems with what you have stated. Yes we need to learn to manage food and energy more efficiently, but what is more important if our sole worry is energy and food consumption, is that we LOWER our global population. With lower populations less food and energy would be required, and we could go for much longer periods of time with the resources we have at our disposal. Energy companies and food companies need a new slogan "save power/food in the future by using our condoms"