While coal is king, water holds the crown
May 2, 2009
What a refreshingly readable article, “Bound to Burn”, by Manhattan Institute’s Peter Huber. Regardless of the “side” of his strong arguments one takes they still must be debated premised on logical thinking. See
http://www.city-journal.org/2009/19_2_carbon.html
So much that emanates from American society today in striving for answers, “out there, some where”, is so overwhelming that the Utopianites may never see it any other way.
That leaves the practical-minded, and yes, visionaries to chart a safe and reasonable if risky path. First, there has to be some kind of plan with benchmarks to guide, modifying them as necessary along the way and to not be thwarted by well intentioned but wrong forces.
We are a goal-oriented society for the most part where we measure our education by and through “grades”, by classification, onward and upward… I think the self-preservation instinct has kept civilization moving along at a pretty good clip and away from self-destruction so far.
Lemming-like followers of enviro-gods, however, will find themselves at the bottom of the abyss, nothing to show for all that unfounded adulation.
Coming back to earth for a moment, I am very interested in one important facet of the energy conundrum. As many of you know, the Tennessee Valley Authority consumes a lot of my passion.
Sixty-percent of TVA’s power generation comes from coal-fired plants, second is nuclear then hydro (about 10%) and the rest from other sources.
The problem with coal is that its smokestack pollution does cause sickness and premature death; so ruled a federal judge against TVA in a recent North Carolina case. Of course, the extra burden of making coal “clean” may also make it uneconomical.
In my view, we should be moving to the decentralization of all modes of power needs. Individual solar powered generators, for example, are needed that are cheap, simple to operate and that have the ability to store that power for later steam or pressure water use. The storage problem cures the fatal flaw in electricity as a source.
We should move away from massive electrical grids that we already know can have a crippling effect on huge segments of America if a part fails or from a successful cyber attack. In the short term, grids themselves should be chopped into much smaller segments that do not automatically connect to a larger one.
The vulnerability of a system to outside attacks was demonstrated last year when the Government Accountability Office (GAO) uncovered severe weaknesses in TVA’s management and control computer systems. GAO would not reveal the extent of that seriousness but one can only presume it is a matter of national security.
In my opinion, the most serious issue facing civilization today is not oil, or coal or gas but water. The availability of potable water world-wide is becoming scarcer every day. Future wars likely will be over water for survival, not oil.
Desalinization has been around for a long time but the systems and costs delimit its universal use. I see a future where water will be allotted perhaps to families where major decisions will have to be made in how it is used, recycled and waste disposed of. This would turn modern civilization on its ear.
Solution? The best one I can think of is a massive Manhattan-like project to make useful again in a practical way the greatest commodity on earth – water.
I have suggested The Great Southwestern Project http://greatwesternproject.blogspot.com/ as the beginning of a revolutionary way to transport goods via a waterway from Colorado through the section of Mexico to the Sea of Cortez. The right of way is provided for in a treaty with Mexico.
“Water the desert and it will bloom” is a saying that can come true to a much greater extent by pumping massive amounts of potable water into the Southwest to grow crops, provide navigation and to make the desert long-term survivable in order to help feed the U.S. and the world.
Cheap water, cheap transportation; American ingenuity and entrepreneurship can provide the rest while fulfilling the American Dream Part II, completion of the great westward movement.
Isn’t it time to get on with the Mother of all Manhattan Projects, the great desalinization program?
Ernest Norsworthy
emnorsworthy@earthlink.net
http://norsworthyopinion.com