As far as power grids go. The US has one of the best in the world, so you might want to check into that before you say stuff like that.
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Getting off the grid
- Thread starter Scorpio1963
- Start date
As far as power grids go. The US has one of the best in the world, so you might want to check into that before you say stuff like that.
Well I guess the science channel is all propaganda then and so are all the studies I have read.I case you dont know the entire infrastructure from roads,water distribution,power distribution have all been steadily crumbling for years and US has one of the worst infrastructers in the world that consist of modern countries.Hell we donteven have a high speed rail system while the technology is there we waste our tax dollars on wars instead or sending probes to mars.Our weather computers are lagging so bad that we have to use europes cause there are much more advanced in making weather models that are probaly the most accurate in the world.
The climate is not necessarily changing that radically though. I'm currently in my master's degree in earth sciences and I can tell you it's not all that bad, and there are so many things that we're unsure about. The whole carbon dioxide issues and other greenhouse gases are important, no doubt. But things that are harder to figure out, like solar flares and sun activity, are now found out to be a lot more important than we thought. And these things have much bigger effects on climate than greenhouse gases. It's just that you can't 'look back in time' and measure these things, as they don't leave a trace in the sediments. Carbon concentrations on the other hand, are easily measured and that's why we know that the levels were much lower in the past. That's why carbon is usually seen as the culprit, just because we can't prove it was something else. But we also can't explain everything with just greenhouse gases.
Isn't the infrastructure of the US just suited to what's needed? I mean, here in Holland we kind of need a really dense train, road and water distribution network, because population densities are extremely high. Yes, you could put a high speed train track from say Albany, NY to Port Huron, Michigan, but who in the hell is going to use that? It will never be economical. And are your roads congested every day? Cause here they are, even though they're brand new and 10 lanes wide. And trains have been overflowing with people ever since I can remember. That's why I got my motorcycle license, so I don't have to take the train anymore..
I do think there could be a serious lack of maintenance in your grid, and I fully agree that an enormous part of the government' s budget goes to the military. It employs more people in the US than Mc Donalds and Walmart together, I believe. And yes, sending probes to Mars is also debatable when it comes to cost vs benefits.
Oh n weather computers here are still not great. 9 out of 10 times the predictions for the next day are quite poor, despite a dense grid of weather stations and good models.
Isn't the infrastructure of the US just suited to what's needed? I mean, here in Holland we kind of need a really dense train, road and water distribution network, because population densities are extremely high. Yes, you could put a high speed train track from say Albany, NY to Port Huron, Michigan, but who in the hell is going to use that? It will never be economical. And are your roads congested every day? Cause here they are, even though they're brand new and 10 lanes wide. And trains have been overflowing with people ever since I can remember. That's why I got my motorcycle license, so I don't have to take the train anymore..
I do think there could be a serious lack of maintenance in your grid, and I fully agree that an enormous part of the government' s budget goes to the military. It employs more people in the US than Mc Donalds and Walmart together, I believe. And yes, sending probes to Mars is also debatable when it comes to cost vs benefits.
Oh n weather computers here are still not great. 9 out of 10 times the predictions for the next day are quite poor, despite a dense grid of weather stations and good models.
God damn I like this guy Willem. great points
Sorpio I wouldnt use the science channel as a good resource of information. Yes they have useful bits, but after all it is a tv station and the main goal is to entertain the audience, and Im not sure what you mean by crumbling? Do you have any examples?
As far as my city goes public transit has much improved in the past few years. We have almost 100 miles of track for the public trolley system called trax that has all been built in the last 10 years, and wouldnt you know a new high speed rail called Front Runner was put in within the past 3 or 4 years. Crumbling? Doesnt seem like it to me, but this has nothing to do with our power grid. I was just trying to correct you in saying that the US has a weak power grid. It was not about public transportation.
Sorpio I wouldnt use the science channel as a good resource of information. Yes they have useful bits, but after all it is a tv station and the main goal is to entertain the audience, and Im not sure what you mean by crumbling? Do you have any examples?
As far as my city goes public transit has much improved in the past few years. We have almost 100 miles of track for the public trolley system called trax that has all been built in the last 10 years, and wouldnt you know a new high speed rail called Front Runner was put in within the past 3 or 4 years. Crumbling? Doesnt seem like it to me, but this has nothing to do with our power grid. I was just trying to correct you in saying that the US has a weak power grid. It was not about public transportation.
I also dont beleive that climate change is all related to man,Theres alot of carbon monoxied thats been emitted by all these volcanos that have been erupting,I agree about the sun contributing also.
As for the high speed rail system the reason we dont have cause it uses a different kinda track than tradition rail roads.All that old track would have to be replaced or a whole new system for high speed rail service would need to be contructed.With our trillion $ deficit the $ isnt there to build it.They also use electricity and our power gridewouldnt generate enough to run it.
We have passenger trains to chicago and new york ironicaly from Port huron so if it was high speed rail system people would use it.
Its sad we are supposed to be one of the most technical advanced countries in the world and we dont have a high speed system that will go across the US and Back.
Detroit barely has a rail system to get people around the city.The city is in financial shambles due to years of corruption and now the city is facing bankruptcy.If we had rail system from Downtown out to the burbs it help releive congestion immensly.
Your weather system is still better than what we have in the US the computers that are used in Europe are 10 times moreful than what we have in the US..Our own forecasters on the Nations largest TV weather network is a joke have mention our computer technology for making models is way behind the times.
As for the high speed rail system the reason we dont have cause it uses a different kinda track than tradition rail roads.All that old track would have to be replaced or a whole new system for high speed rail service would need to be contructed.With our trillion $ deficit the $ isnt there to build it.They also use electricity and our power gridewouldnt generate enough to run it.
We have passenger trains to chicago and new york ironicaly from Port huron so if it was high speed rail system people would use it.
Its sad we are supposed to be one of the most technical advanced countries in the world and we dont have a high speed system that will go across the US and Back.
Detroit barely has a rail system to get people around the city.The city is in financial shambles due to years of corruption and now the city is facing bankruptcy.If we had rail system from Downtown out to the burbs it help releive congestion immensly.
Your weather system is still better than what we have in the US the computers that are used in Europe are 10 times moreful than what we have in the US..Our own forecasters on the Nations largest TV weather network is a joke have mention our computer technology for making models is way behind the times.
Yeah, like those incentives that go the petroleum industry to develop.
Oh, wait, there weren't any...
That depends on where you are. In large cities it can get pretty dense and congested, but if you take the country overall, there are some pretty dang empty spaces.
The US is far bigger than many people who have never been there realize. I had a conversation with a guy from Denmark a few years ago who was all indignant that Americans are so wasteful because they don't ride bicycles to work like he does. It didn't occur to him that the 30km commute that I had wasn't all that uncommon. He lived a 15 minute bike trip from work. I had to explain that I could go the distance that would be border to border in his country and still have a couple of hours to go to reach the next state.
This also works in reverse. We have these guys that look at European public transport and think "that's nice, we should have that here", completely forgetting that by US standards in many places over there people live practically on top of each other.
Here in Minneapolis we got a rail system the first run of which was between the center of the city (Downtown) and the airport. It sort of makes sense until you realize that there aren't that many people working downtown, most live in one suburb and work in another. So this line serves only a small segment of commuters. In the several years it's been in operation I've used it maybe twice, when I flew in to the airport and didn't want whoever was picking me up to drive all the way out there.
The government doesn't own or maintain the grid. So, the military budget isn't particularly relevant there. The electric infrastructure is patchy - good in some places, not so good in others.
Yeah, like those incentives that go the petroleum industry to develop.
Oh, wait, there weren't any...
well, actually, it's the petroleum industry that spends most money on developing renewable resources. Not because they're such treehugging environmentalists, but because it's becoming more and more interesting to develop these resources economically. And the prognosis is that the use of oil and gas has an expiration date, and they don't want to be out of business when that happens.
@ksqrly: thanks like you too haha 
Okay, I didn't know the government isn't responsible for the power grid. Come to think of it that's the same here in the Netherlands actually. Silly of me.
Also I didn't necessarily mean the military budget was relevant to the maintenance of the power grid. But fact is, one way or another, a part of your paycheck goes to maintaining the power grid (through an electricity supplier) and another part goes to the governments military budget. And the military budget in the US is enormous, also relative to the amount of people living in the US. And some of that money could also be spent on improving public transport, improving living conditions and benefits for disabled individuals (because I know first had how bad they have it over there), improving public education, etc etc
like you too haha Exactly. That's what I also meant with it being 'suited for its needs'.
Okay, I didn't know the government isn't responsible for the power grid. Come to think of it that's the same here in the Netherlands actually. Silly of me.
Also I didn't necessarily mean the military budget was relevant to the maintenance of the power grid. But fact is, one way or another, a part of your paycheck goes to maintaining the power grid (through an electricity supplier) and another part goes to the governments military budget. And the military budget in the US is enormous, also relative to the amount of people living in the US. And some of that money could also be spent on improving public transport, improving living conditions and benefits for disabled individuals (because I know first had how bad they have it over there), improving public education, etc etc
Well we have bridges on our hiways through out the whole nation that are literaly crumbling and need replacement.We have a water distribution that is a series of old pipes with valves that have been used in a 100 years or more so if they shut them off to do repairs they my never be able to get opened again.This especialy applys to New York City.Our power grid consist of wooded poles that break every other time we have severe storms when tunnels could be built underground to run them in.Probaly would cost billions to do but if these projects would have been plnned 20 years ago could have cost considerably cheaper.The city of detroit and its uburbs have it realy bad with broken poles and trees that fall down on wires that knock power out for several days to weeks.All this can be prevented if a underground pipeline was consructed.It will never happen the city is so broke it will take years if not a decade or longer to fix the financial mess there.
Oh, I know they do. They provide mobile energy and they don't want to be left behind if the shape this energy takes changes.
What I meant was that when the petroleum industry was getting started they didn't have incentives to guide them. They did what made sense economically and technologically. When development is guided by government funding I'm worried that it might be directed down a dead end path, or at least a significant detour because of political games or sheer ignorance of politicians (to illustrate, we have a guy in Congress who thought the island of Guam might capsize if too many people gather on one end of it).
