A proponent of the wind turbine shown at left writes:
I commented this 6 year’s ago . It is so simple even if you put in small stream 1 000 000 small turbines like this one, you will have more power. It’s the same for the wind , we don’t need this big huge wind Parks we need small efficient and most important easy for fixing and easy for installation. Not forgetting we can make smaller things with eco friendly materials.
Me:
There are a few reasons that claims like this are bullshit. The main one is that the power extracted from the wind is proportional to the square of the radius of the blades. We recall from our childhoods the formula: Area (of a circle) = pi r-squared. This is why real (not fictional) wind turbines are so large (and getting larger all the time).
Also, as I mention frequently, today’s wind turbines capture about 90% of the theoretically available kinetic energy from moving wind; given the laws of physics, there is no room for any significant increase in efficiency/output.
Even if neither of these were true, which would you rather cover the cost of maintaining: one large turbine or a million little ones?
There really are threats to human civilization that seem to be mounting in intensity:
• World fascism. (If it can happen in the U.S., it could conceivably happen anywhere.)
• Environmental collapse.
• Malicious use of AI.
• Pandemics, as misinformation on vaccinations spread and the frozen tundra melts, releasing pathogens never seen by humans.
• Nuclear war.
Addressing the point made at left, is there any scenario in which world governments agree to cooperate so as to stave off the end of an organized society here on Earth? One supposes so, though it sounds far-fetched in today’s world in which the leaders of most of the 200+ sovereign nations are trying so desperately to cling to power.
Obviously, James Carville has been wrong before, but it appears that he’s onto something here.
An ever-increasing number of Americans are realizing that Trump is criminally insane, and is leading this nation to destruction.
It’s a pleasure to see that Dr. Brian Cox has people so popular, having joined the ranks for Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye, and a few others. This phenomenon of celebrity physicists if one of very few bright spots in our modern world.
I would qualify what he says at left as follows: the only people who hate the economics here are those invested in fossil fuels. Clean energy and transportation are already huge industries, and they’re growing at an amazing pace–even in the face of heavy suppression by Big Oil and Donald Trump.
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