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So why don't we?

must not be that simple

Source? Disbelieve

I've got a feeling that picture's a bit misleading scalewise, but there are definitely possibilities... and "we" do try/have tried:

DeserTec springs to mind : http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ ... lectricity

I don't think they plan to export to Europe anymore though... most bits and pieces I've read in the last couple of years seem to agree that Europe can provide for itself; there are plenty of options for renewable energy and not all of them involve brokering peaces between rival warlords.

And, you know, Africa needs power too...

there use to it tho where as europe would suffer cus we're not

wub wrote:
So why don't we?

oil is much more profitable

The numbers probably work out correct or close enough as an illustration. If I remember correctly the estimation was based on the amount of energy reached the earth from the sun. Even if you factored in inefficiencies you probably wouldn't need more than the whole area of the Sahara.

There are a number of reasons this is difficult (but not impossible) to implement:
- You'd be hard pressed to keep the panels clean enough with all the sand being blown around. This is challenging even in current solar farms.
- Long distance transmission of energy is highly inefficient. High temperature superconductivity could solve this but we're not really close to making that a reality.
- You may need to build this across countries and, frankly, these countries would demand huge concessions because most of the energy would not benefit them.
- The energy needs to be stored to enable 24-7 power. The tech is getting there though.
- A significant proportion of our energy consumption is through heat. We need to move more towards electrically powered systems to make this viable.

A distributed system would probablywork better. TgThere's also a proposal in the US to replace all roads with solar cells. That'd have a similar effect. But has other technical challenges. But you could very much achieve the same by building along the sides of highways.

the earth is fucked anyway though isn't it?

Harkat wrote:the earth is fucked anyway though isn't it?

No, even if we managed to kill off ourselves and other species the earth is fine

Unless we somehow managed to take the water out with us

you know what I meant

the earth as a habitable environment for humans

Then yes, most likely

similarly, 100x100 miles of solar panels somewhere in the southwestern US like arizona would be enough to power the country

OGLemon wrote:

wub wrote:
So why don't we?

oil is much more profitable

So we should save it, right? For sustained profits over time.

Harkat wrote:you know what I meant

the earth as a habitable environment for humans

Maybe for our civilisation.

I'll be accused of false optimism, I'm sure, but I still find it very hard to believe that a species that has survived the climate change, natural disasters and plagues that ours has in the past 200,000 years would actually let itself go extinct. We're survivors... even if it meant another 100,000 years of hunter/gathering, we'd keep on fucking.

ezza wrote:must not be that simple

You mean we can't draw a red square outline with ms paint over a photo of the Sahara and power the world? The fuck? This shit is harder than it looks.

magma wrote:

Harkat wrote:you know what I meant

the earth as a habitable environment for humans

Maybe for our civilisation.

I'll be accused of false optimism, I'm sure, but I still find it very hard to believe that a species that has survived the climate change, natural disasters and plagues that ours has in the past 200,000 years would actually let itself go extinct. We're survivors... even if it meant another 100,000 years of hunter/gathering, we'd keep on fucking.

About 6% of all the humans who ever lived are alive, so we're also pretty fucking dope at getting whacked.

rickyarbino wrote:

magma wrote:

Harkat wrote:you know what I meant

the earth as a habitable environment for humans

Maybe for our civilisation.

I'll be accused of false optimism, I'm sure, but I still find it very hard to believe that a species that has survived the climate change, natural disasters and plagues that ours has in the past 200,000 years would actually let itself go extinct. We're survivors... even if it meant another 100,000 years of hunter/gathering, we'd keep on fucking.

About 6% of all the humans who ever lived are alive, so we're also pretty fucking dope at getting whacked.

That's part of our survival strategy though.

Strategy, or tragedy?

comedy

rickyarbino wrote:

magma wrote:

Harkat wrote:you know what I meant

the earth as a habitable environment for humans

Maybe for our civilisation.

I'll be accused of false optimism, I'm sure, but I still find it very hard to believe that a species that has survived the climate change, natural disasters and plagues that ours has in the past 200,000 years would actually let itself go extinct. We're survivors... even if it meant another 100,000 years of hunter/gathering, we'd keep on fucking.

About 6% of all the humans who ever lived are alive, so we're also pretty fucking dope at getting whacked.

Not entirely sure I understand what point you're trying to make.


Can we add this as an auto-reply to rickyarbino posts please?