tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post7400566963105714909..comments2024-03-29T00:24:13.128-04:00Comments on Daniel Greenfield / Sultan Knish Articles at DanielGreenfield.org : A Crisis of Unsustainable ConsumptionDaniel Greenfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13575285186581875356noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-53229137435611051642011-03-15T21:39:57.465-04:002011-03-15T21:39:57.465-04:00Paul said: "But this is not true:
"There...Paul said: <i>"But this is not true:<br />"There is nothing like an infinite supply of energy anywhere."</i> <br /><br />Actually, for all practical purposes there is: "MADISON — Two University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists believe moon rocks contain all the energy the United States needs for the next millennium.<br /><br />The moon’s surface is full of the energy source helium-3, said Gerald Kulcinski, a nuclear engineering professor and director of the Fusion Technology Institute at UW.<br /><br />“If we could land the space shuttle on the moon, fill the cargo with canisters of helium-3 mined from the surface and bring the shuttle back to Earth, that cargo would supply the entire electrical power needs of the United States for an entire year,”" <a href="http://www.energybulletin.net/node/192" rel="nofollow"><b>scientists want to mine moon energy</b></a> <br /><br />Someone might ask, "what do we do after we've gone through all the moon's supply of Helium 3"? <br /><br />Not a problem: Thorium reactors could run civilization for hundreds of thousands of years, and it’s essentially free. <br /><br />Thorium is so common that miners treat it as a nuisance, a radioactive by-product if they try to dig up rare earth metals. The US and Australia are full of the stuff. <br /><br />Then there's the asteroid belt an unimaginably rich resource just waiting for us: <br />"It has been estimated that the mineral wealth resident in the belt of asteroids between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter would be equivalent to about 100 billion dollars for every person on Earth today." <a href="http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/neo/resource.html" rel="nofollow">NEAR-EARTH OBJECTS AS FUTURE RESOURCES</a> <br /><br />"At 1997 prices, a relatively small metallic asteroid with a diameter of 1 mile (1.6 km) contains more than $20 trillion US dollars worth of industrial and precious metals." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_mining <br /><br /><br />The problem isn't energy or resources or even money. The problem is human stupidity, ignorance, greed and arrogance.Geoffrey Britainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01663224962346593872noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-37163735781521375492011-03-15T17:07:53.043-04:002011-03-15T17:07:53.043-04:00What about wind energy or energy from dams or sola...What about wind energy or energy from dams or solar energy, I heard if you could make 90 square miles of solar it could be enough for the whole US.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-61948318225766517882011-03-15T14:51:11.219-04:002011-03-15T14:51:11.219-04:00An excellent analysis.
It is odd that you did n...An excellent analysis. <br /><br />It is odd that you did not even mention the word "capital" or "capitalism" even once in the whole article and this is really what we are talking about when we say that money is finite, even if government spending treats it is as if it were not. Capitalism at its most vital is based on material resources such as land, minerals and energy. Capitalism at its most fundamental level is any individual and their simple existence, which they should be free to exploit in their own material interests. Software is a dramatic exception to the necessary material vitality of capitalism and trading in material capitalism for software to sustain an economy is a bad idea. The economic meaning of software is something that deserves exploration, it is certainly a frontier in economic theory.<br /><br />But this is not true:<br /><br />"Treating energy as a finite resource and money as an infinite resource confuses one with the other. There is an infinite amount of available energy, but wealth is finite. The sun beams out more energy than we could possibly use, and governments spends more money than could possibly exist. But while the left worries about sustainable energy, it spares no thought for sustainable spending. While energy can neither be created nor destroyed, wealth can be and is."<br /><br />There is nothing like an infinite supply of energy anywhere. Even solar power is something that can be harnessed only at some limited level, you are only going to get so many watts of energy per minute from sunlight and there is only so much sunlight coming down at any given time. And of course petroleum is bound to run out eventually too. The planet is not making any more at a rate to provide replacement if at all. To say that energy can neither be created nor destroyed is a subtle error in economics. For our purposes, and in a very real physical sense, energy exists in a state of potential and using energy involves transforming that potential into work. Once done, the potential is gone and while the energy may remain in some absolute physical sense, the potential is most certainly used up and of no available purpose to anyone.Paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13265154565691102783noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-68325411105154760732011-03-15T11:07:22.705-04:002011-03-15T11:07:22.705-04:00This may be the best thing you've ever written...This may be the best thing you've ever written.<br /><br />Excellent.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05353981395362791028noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-71775885830710179442011-03-15T04:42:30.257-04:002011-03-15T04:42:30.257-04:00When parents tell kids they don't have enough ...When parents tell kids they don't have enough money to buy them something the children really don't believe that. <br />They see their parents as a never ending source of money.<br />Liberals are often childish themselves and see the people as a never ending source of money to spend.<br />It is a matter of being childish and selfish too.Chana @ Lemon Lime Moonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11656854855385193867noreply@blogger.com