World is Falling Apart Thread (Locked forever)

[Sarge]

Playing devil's advocate (imagine that!), the proposed rules would have only changed the projected temperature by 2100 by a few hundredths of a degree Celsius.

Natural gas will do fine by itself. Wind and solar are not efficient enough to truly bring a lot of benefit, and have other issues besides. (Solar is great for apps where you have to use it, like deep space exploration, or areas with tons of sunlight, but it's also pretty energy-intensive to make. Wind also has issues in certain areas, and also has some other ecological effects, like the effect on birds and whatnot.)

To be clear, I think the future of clean energy is nuclear, and the sooner we get there, the better.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Playing devil's advocate (imagine that!), the proposed rules would have only changed the projected temperature by 2100 by a few hundredths of a degree Celsius.

Natural gas will do fine by itself. Wind and solar are not efficient enough to truly bring a lot of benefit, and have other issues besides. (Solar is great for apps where you have to use it, like deep space exploration, or areas with tons of sunlight, but it's also pretty energy-intensive to make. Wind also has issues in certain areas, and also has some other ecological effects, like the effect on birds and whatnot.)

To be clear, I think the future of clean energy is nuclear, and the sooner we get there, the better.

Wind and solar are actually really efficient ways to generate energy...but we just haven't figured out a good way to store it yet. I also agree that the future of clean energy has to include nuclear power generation.

[Jmustang1968]

Playing devil's advocate (imagine that!), the proposed rules would have only changed the projected temperature by 2100 by a few hundredths of a degree Celsius.

Natural gas will do fine by itself. Wind and solar are not efficient enough to truly bring a lot of benefit, and have other issues besides. (Solar is great for apps where you have to use it, like deep space exploration, or areas with tons of sunlight, but it's also pretty energy-intensive to make. Wind also has issues in certain areas, and also has some other ecological effects, like the effect on birds and whatnot.)

To be clear, I think the future of clean energy is nuclear, and the sooner we get there, the better.

Wind and solar are actually really efficient ways to generate energy...but we just haven't figured out a good way to store it yet. I also agree that the future of clean energy has to include nuclear power generation.

This is not true. Most commercially available solar panels are not efficient, they have a conversion rate of about 15% or less. Tech is getting better, but most higher efficiency panels are not commercially viable. Now, they do produce more energy over their life than is used to make, so they benefit in that way.

[Sarge]

They're useful as supplementary sources of energy, but certainly not enough, even with storage, to power a Western economy.

[marurun]

The problem with nuclear is that the NRC has not approved some of the more recent reactor designs, which promise to be cheaper and safer than previous designs, like molten salt reactors. Further, current safety requirements (quite necessary, mind you) have left nuclear more expensive than natural gas (not sure how it compares to coal, but coal continues to get less competitive in total cost). Note that Westinghouse, one of the big nuclear builders, currently owned by Toshiba, declared Chapter 11. And Toshiba has been desperate to dump Westinghouse. I think nuclear power has an important role to play, but the technology needs to advance further and the NRC needs to be more on top of those advancements.

Solar and wind are great complimentary power systems. We need diverse power sources, not a single "one true power" setup. And as solar cells become cheaper to manufacture, their efficiency also improves. Current developments have solar cell efficiency above 20% and manufacturing techniques will soon eliminate the need for some of the more expensive and rare materials. These panels are not to market, yet, but I can't imagine it will be long. Further, wind and solar can coexist well in urban environments.

The biggest thing that needs to change in the US, however, is our power grid. We have this ancient power infrastructure which is incapable of intelligent power routing. A modern grid would be expensive, but reduce waste and enable current power generation to better meet wider power demands.

[Ack]

Well, due to a fire, part of I-85 in Atlanta has collapsed.

[Jmustang1968]

Well, due to a fire, part of I-85 in Atlanta has collapsed.

Obviously inside job. Conduit fire cant get hot enough to melt highway!

[MrPopo]

Well, due to a fire, part of I-85 in Atlanta has collapsed.

Yeah, I heard about that on the radio. They also said no one got hurt, so I didn't have to worry about you. Other than the obvious traffic hell you're about to be subjected to.

[Ack]

Yeah, there was a period of time where folks were checking around and warning each other before the news announced no one was hurt. GDOT was using the area for storage, and apparently some plastic tubing ended up acting as an accelerant, but no word on what caused it yet. The fire also reignited at 3am and still smoulders in a few places, but demolition and structural checks are already ongoing at least.

[marurun]

How bad is traffic as a result of all this? I mean, Atlanta's always been a mess traffic-wise, anyway.

And in other news...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the ... standards/

"But Trump's administration is now a focal point of an FBI investigation, and one of his closest advisers is seeking an immunity deal.

It's starting to look a whole lot like the scenario Trump and his campaign warned you about if the other candidate had won."