But that's the problem. We have an amazing capacity to not look at seemingly good ideas beyond the result we're hoping for. That's why I brought up modern medicine. On the surface it's pretty hard to argue against the benefits of modern medicine. But if you go a little deeper, it has created other problems as well. The major problem being we have taken ourselves out of the natural cycle of life and created our own artificial life-spans. We now have a life span roughly twice as long as we did before modern medicine. That means we consume roughly twice the resources we used to to. Only now we're also a consumerist society so naturally demand for resources has increased even more substantially.
Infant mortality rates have plummeted meaning there's ever more and more people living twice as long as we used to wanting/needing those resources.
There are ideas I'm all for. There's the idea of "micro" hydroelectric turbines that LA, Portland OR and Denver are trying/using. They put the turbines in the pipes of their water supply system. All three seem to be having a measure of success with them.
I think of the river that used to flow through one of the towns I lived in. It had a decent current and lots of little flood control dams along the way. I'd love to see them figure out a way to either retrofit the dams with turbines or replace them with dams that would provide both flood control and power generation.
I also love the idea of "Earth Ships". But I don't see the day that govts will get on board with the idea because there's just so much that would have to be reworked. How do you maintain a grid when you have hundreds of thousands of households living in Earth ships? Then there's the lost revenues from taxes, or from the billing itself if the utility is publicly owned. The food industry would take a pretty good hit too, which would again affect govt revenues.
And there is the crux of the problem ladies and gentlemen. Until govts understand that they have to change the way they think, like they demand we change, none of these issues are ever really going to be solved. Research, engineering and regulation only work when govts are fully committed and not just playing the "what will get/keep me elected" game of self-interest. The stupid windmills in Ontario are a perfect example. Ontario literally had no need for them and yet the Liberal govt had a bunch slapped up because "it was the in thing to do". It was almost like there was an attitude that if you don't utilize wind power, then you're a climate change denier, even if you already generate a crap-ton of emissions-free power that's way more reliable and isn't being subsidized up the wazoo to the point where taxes and "fees" on hydro bills are higher than the amount being billed for actual hydro use.
MICRO ELECTRIC TURBINES inside water pipes????????????????????????????
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Are you completely NUTS?????????????????????????????????
Most drinking water systems in the world ARE ELECTRIC POWERED to begin with!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Electric pumps push the water to where it needs to be...................................................
thus putting a "micro turbine" into a water pipe generally means MORE WORK FOR THE PUMPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And more electricity used!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh sure- you could put a micro turbine into the out feed pipe of a water tower...............................................
since they use gravity to disperse the water to neighbourhood customers anyway .............................................
AFTER the pumps have pushed the water UP INTO THE TOWERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But of course anything - like a micro turbine will also REDUCE THE FLOW of water in the pipe................................
and it would somewhat INCREASE the pressure in the outflow pipe as well..............................
meaning you would need to replace the pipe more often because of the extra pressure.................................
or simply install THICKER WALLED AND LARGER DIAMETER and thus MORE COSTLY PIPE...................................
to handle the extra pressure resulting from the micro turbine.......................................
but of course here in Canada we LOSE SOMETHING LIKE A TRILLION LITRES OF DRINKING WATER PER YEAR
thanks to RUSTED OUT PIPES that cannot handle the EXISTING PRESSURE....................................
much less any significant NEW PRESSURE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Apparently Rube Goldberg IS ALIVE AND WELL..........................
and building silly mechanical TOYS in Portland and Denver!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
