This blog is about global warming and renewable energy.
As strange it may sound, I am in favor of "renewable energy". Energy is something that most people do not understand. Did you know that energy can not be created or destroyed? It can only be transformed. I would like to get into "Entropy", but I think it would be over the head of my readers.
I burn wood to heat my house. Wood is clearly a renewable form of energy, and it is produced by transforming energy from the Sun that shines onto the Earth. Trees collect the Sun's energy and turns it into wood, The trees takes Carbon Dioxide out of the air and lock it into wood. When I burn the wood in my stove, I release the Carbon and Hydrogen in the wood back into the atmosphere in the form of Carbon Dioxide and Water. Real simple isn't it? Since I grow my own trees, I am totally "green".
Now, how about gasoline that I use in my truck. Is that bad? No! What I am doing is recycling the Carbon and Hydrogen that plants took out of the air millions of years ago using the energy from the Sun just like the tree now do to provides me with my fire wood. If you think about it, oil is Solar energy since the original source of the energy was from the Sun. Are you starting to see that the Sun is the source of most of the energy that we enjoy here on Earth?
How about wind mills and the energy that we get from wind? Did you know that the source of the energy that creates the wind comes from the Sun? Wind is caused by the uneven heating of the atmosphere because of the "rotation" of the Earth. If the Earth did not rotate or if we had no Sun, there would be no wind here on Earth. It looks to me that wind energy is actually solar energy. Did you know that?
How about hydro power that we get from our dams? The hydro energy is created by water at higher elevation being pull down to the ocean by the Earth's gravity. What is happening is that the hydro generators actually get their energy from water vapor created by the heat of the Sun which is lighter than air and thus the vapor rises until it condenses and falls at an elevation higher than the oceans. Isn't it clear that hydro power is actually energy that came to Earth from Sun and heated water. As long as we have water here on Earth and the Sun, we have an endless but limited supply of green solar energy.
How about solar panels that turn solar energy into electricity? It has to be clear that this energy actually comes from the Sun too. This was an easy one!
How about tides in the oceans giving us energy? In some places where the tides are very high, it is possible to extract energy from the tidal differences. Isn't this a form of renewable green energy? Did you know that tides get their energy from the pull of the Sun and Moon on our oceans as the Earth turns. Are you starting to see the importance of our Sun?
The only source of energy that is not directly from the Sun is nuclear energy, but did you know that the energy from the Sun actually comes from nuclear too? I guess that the bottom line is that 100% of the energy that we have here on Earth is actually "nuclear" energy!
PS--To be totally accurate, I need to point out that energy from the rotation of the Earth is from the "Big Bang". As we take that stored rotational energy from the Earth, the Earth actually slows down a little. It is like taking stored energy from a spinning "fly wheel". There is no "free lunch" when it comes to energy. Energy can not be created, it can only be transformed!
As strange it may sound, I am in favor of "renewable energy". Energy is something that most people do not understand. Did you know that energy can not be created or destroyed? It can only be transformed. I would like to get into "Entropy", but I think it would be over the head of my readers.
I burn wood to heat my house. Wood is clearly a renewable form of energy, and it is produced by transforming energy from the Sun that shines onto the Earth. Trees collect the Sun's energy and turns it into wood, The trees takes Carbon Dioxide out of the air and lock it into wood. When I burn the wood in my stove, I release the Carbon and Hydrogen in the wood back into the atmosphere in the form of Carbon Dioxide and Water. Real simple isn't it? Since I grow my own trees, I am totally "green".
Now, how about gasoline that I use in my truck. Is that bad? No! What I am doing is recycling the Carbon and Hydrogen that plants took out of the air millions of years ago using the energy from the Sun just like the tree now do to provides me with my fire wood. If you think about it, oil is Solar energy since the original source of the energy was from the Sun. Are you starting to see that the Sun is the source of most of the energy that we enjoy here on Earth?
How about wind mills and the energy that we get from wind? Did you know that the source of the energy that creates the wind comes from the Sun? Wind is caused by the uneven heating of the atmosphere because of the "rotation" of the Earth. If the Earth did not rotate or if we had no Sun, there would be no wind here on Earth. It looks to me that wind energy is actually solar energy. Did you know that?
How about hydro power that we get from our dams? The hydro energy is created by water at higher elevation being pull down to the ocean by the Earth's gravity. What is happening is that the hydro generators actually get their energy from water vapor created by the heat of the Sun which is lighter than air and thus the vapor rises until it condenses and falls at an elevation higher than the oceans. Isn't it clear that hydro power is actually energy that came to Earth from Sun and heated water. As long as we have water here on Earth and the Sun, we have an endless but limited supply of green solar energy.
How about solar panels that turn solar energy into electricity? It has to be clear that this energy actually comes from the Sun too. This was an easy one!
How about tides in the oceans giving us energy? In some places where the tides are very high, it is possible to extract energy from the tidal differences. Isn't this a form of renewable green energy? Did you know that tides get their energy from the pull of the Sun and Moon on our oceans as the Earth turns. Are you starting to see the importance of our Sun?
The only source of energy that is not directly from the Sun is nuclear energy, but did you know that the energy from the Sun actually comes from nuclear too? I guess that the bottom line is that 100% of the energy that we have here on Earth is actually "nuclear" energy!
PS--To be totally accurate, I need to point out that energy from the rotation of the Earth is from the "Big Bang". As we take that stored rotational energy from the Earth, the Earth actually slows down a little. It is like taking stored energy from a spinning "fly wheel". There is no "free lunch" when it comes to energy. Energy can not be created, it can only be transformed!
