GBurch1@aol.com wrote:
>
> [The following came from one of the green lists I monitor, suggesting one
> area in which extropians values of "distributed power" in the broadest sense
> coincide with the more clear-thinking elements of the green movement. I
> continue to think that we may be on the verge of a revolution in power
> generation equal in importance to the impact of the "micro-computer"
> developments of the 1970s and 1980s, leading to a social change analogous to
> that caused by the Internet.]
Watch out Greg, some of this is smoke.
>
> 20TH CENTURY POWER SYSTEM INCOMPATIBLE WITH DIGITAL ECONOMY
>
> <http://www.worldwatch.org/alerts/000715.html>
>
> Study Calls for Greater Use of Micropower
>
> Today's giant coal and nuclear power plants are failing to provide the
> high-quality, reliable electricity needed to power the new digital economy,
> according to a new report from the Worldwatch Institute, a Washington,
> DC-based research organization.
False. This situation has been engineered by the Green opposition to
construction of new plants to meed demand. Increasing demand without new
supply has caused the current problems. This whole situation has been
engineered by Greens.
That being said, is the goal of the Greens the same as our goals? With
centralized power generation, and so much of our lives dependent upon
centralized power, each of us can be put under seige by the power
oligopolists in the event of a popular revolt against alleged business
'control' of government, much as protesters can be starved out, we are
each hostage to statist control over our lives. Promoting
microgeneration serves the goals of all libertarians, however, don't
mistake the end goals of the Greens with libertarian or extropian end
goals. We both want to change society, but we want to do so in opposite
directions. If it comes to a showdown, one side will wind up on the
wall, and the other side will be firing the rifles, and we are likely to
be used just as the Mensheviks were used by the Bolsheviks in the 1917
revolution in Russia.
> The new micropower technologies, which include fuel cells, microturbines,
> and solar roofing, are as small as one-millionth the scale of today's coal
> or nuclear plants, and produce little if any of the air pollution of their
> larger cousins.
This is false. They all produce the same, if not more, pollution than
their larger cousins, on a pollution per watt basis.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon May 28 2001 - 09:56:27 MDT