Rocky Observations

Having had occasion to spend the better part of a week in the environs of Boulder, CO and visits to a few locations in the Front Range of the Rockies, I have formed several opinions of this area:

1. We had a vastly enjoyable visit with our daughter; visiting her in her home was too long in coming.

2. Boulder, CO, despite the culture of tanned outdoorsy people busily walking, jogging, running, and biking (waiting, I gather, for skiing season), is basically an annoying university town filled with far too many entitled, self-important white people who are constantly looking to see who's looking- at them.

3. Colorado itself appears to provide just another huddle of human beings in the middle of the Wide Open Spaces. They either huddle in the cities, or huddle in the resorts and tourist traps, or huddle in the parking lots (amazingly crowded, for the middle of nowhere), and even the trails are somehow a group activity. At the risk of becoming discursive (a risk I am always prepared to take), the open spaces, or wastes -and despite the spectacular scenery, that is what a good bit of Colorado IS- have always been places of solitude, places for human beings to find themselves, or God, in reflections of nature. Nature in great big doses exists most emphatically in Colorado; of solitude I felt not the slightest trace.

4. As something of a postscript, if you are a-pining for the maximum amount of fragmented and thoughtless Green- or eco- babble....well, let's just say you won't be disappointed.

Waking Nightmares #6739: Lenses in Space

The "Green Hallucination" that is beginning to pervade society is for the most part harmless rhetoric. The dangerous part is that we can take some bright idea concocted by a scientist hungry for grants and parlay it into a world-saving measure.
An illustration of this was recently telecast on the Discovery Channel in a show entitled "Space Sunshield." The description states "Scientists consider shading the planet with mirrors to deflect sunlight and protect against global warming." In matter of fact, most of the individuals shown in the Discovery Channel feature might be charitably described as "fringe players," and I was actually somewhat relieved after watching it, realizing that few viewers -save the most credulous- will be buying this.
At our present state of knowledge, trying to block the sun's rays has an equal probability of precipitating us into the next phase of the million-year Ice Age (Pleistocene), where we live in balmy interglacial period. Scientists are in agreement that it's only a matter of time before the next glaciation occurs. The last time, an ice sheet a mile thick covered a good bit of the Northern Hemisphere, which is where most land animals (including us) live.....because that's where most of the land is.
Any consideration given to implementing such a project absent far, far more research is worse than criminal, and could literally be genocidal. On the other hand, those who advocate voluntary human extinction may support this.....

Never Mind

I guess those Polar Bears might be safe for a while longer. All the croaking about the Arctic sea ice melting away, to be followed by Greenland, Antarctica, and the cubes in your Scotch. Now this- back to 1979 levels. Thanking the University of Illinois Arctic Climate Research Center(these people haven't heard that the U of I's just supposed to be called "Illinois" now), without wondering too much why the university has one.......

Learn it. Now.

In my reading of various items on all the "miraculous" solutions for abundant, cheap energy that keep cropping up like little poison mushrooms on the Internet, I am reminded of the classic conspiracy tale of the 100 mpg carburetor for automobiles, which has to be 50 years old.

Every person who wants to talk about energy -even casually- ought to be required to learn this, and pass a thorough exam on it. Actually, anyone interested in the subject can benefit from regular reading of Robert Rapier's blog.

During breaks, they must repeat Heinlein's mantra: TANSTAAFL*

Earth Day, 2007

Ah, Earth Day! Remember when they invented that? Mary Margaret told me a little anecdote of the Earth Day discussion at church this morning, and it was just like all those discussions back in '73 after the "energy crunch" about who was going to bell the cat. It didn't matter what elements of energy conservation were under discussion, it always devolved into generalizations about "-what must be done," and not "Here's what we personally are doing / planning to do."
As they discovered 30 years ago, when interviewed, the majority of people thought that it would be a wonderful idea if their neighbors on either side implemented a whole array of energy-saving measures, but that they "might" do something "someday." Needless to say, Mary didn't win any popularity polls when she said she didn't want to hear anything except what each person in the conversation planned to do themselves.
The power companies have spoken of their need to raise rates after the long freeze in Illinois, and I know a great way for them to get the money. Just have a sliding scale for each residential customer, based on a determined average usage. Up to X kwh, the rate is at par, whatever the ICC says. Above that rate, for the next 100 kwh or so, it increases by 25 %, and so forth, until by 400 kwh over the rate is double.....and it doubles for each 100 kwh over that. My guess is that no further measures would be required. Oh, people can argue that cheaters can cheat with such a system, but they cheated on rationing in WWII, and did it wholesale. The fact that there are always cheaters doesn't invalidate a math exam, and it doesn't invalidate this. And it provides instant and very powerful incentives to conserve.
There- I've made my Earth Day contribution, and in a much more pragmatic way than people burning french-fry oil in their diesels or ethanol made from corn. I know we eat a lot of fries, but not enough to make a drop in the bucket against diesel use. I recently read an article that estimated that if EVERY ear of corn grown in the U.S. were converted to ethanol, it would equal.....12% of the gas burned. But look on the bright side; the food shortages that would ensue should abate the national concern over obesity.