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chaloobi
SFN Regular
1620 Posts |
 Posted - 11/29/2007 : 13:20:04
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In the US, those who prefer the Energy Status Quo typically complain that reducing carbon emissions will 'harm' the economy. Harm? Yes, much the same way converting from a typewriters to PCs harmed the economy. People lost jobs and had to retrain. Factories shut down. A whole industry had to change from Tech A to Tech B. In other words, this argument for keeping change at bay is utter nonsense.
What the change from a carbon energy infrastructure really amounts to is huge economic opporunity. Whatever economy comes up with cheap and easy solar, wind, biofuel, tidal, wave action, whatever energy is going to reap huge benefits, while those who try to hang on to old tech energy are going to suffer. We'll be buying this technology rather than selling it.
Japan, however, will be selling. For example Japan is embracing alternative energy technology in general, and in this case advanced solar specifically.
Japan's Sharp sees bright future for solar power
TOKYO (AFP) - Japan's Sharp Corp. announced Thursday a 200-million-dollar investment in solar cells as manufacturers compete for a slice of the burgeoning market for alternative energy products.
Sharp will spend about 22 billion yen on a 10-fold expansion in production of thin-film solar cells, which it said use only about one hundredth of the silicon raw material used in conventional crystalline solar cells.
They can be made more quickly and cheaply than conventional solar cells, and offer better power generation in hot regions, the Osaka-based company said in a statement.
The technology could be used in windows and on wall surfaces of homes and buildings in the future, and can generate electricity by day and illumination at night, it added.
Sharp's solar cell business has suffered from a shortage of silicon that has driven up prices of the raw material, prompting the company to seek ways to make the manufacturing process more efficient.
Rival firms such as Sanyo are also investing in solar power as they seek to tap growing interest in alternative energy amid sky-high oil prices and increasing demand for power in fast-expanding emerging nations.
Japan prides itself on being a leader in energy saving technology, a crucial area for the world's second largest economy which relies heavily on Middle East oil to power its factories, homes and offices.
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So what have we dumped into Iraq so far? Officially it's something like $400 billion but I've heard it's likely quite a bit more, on the order of a trillion, when the full expense of the war is taken into account.
If Iraq wasn't dead center in the Middle-East and/or the Middle-East wasn't rich in oil, the US army would not be there. So in a very real way, that war is an investment in oil. Imagine what that kind of investment into developing alternative energy might have yielded. Imagine if just a tenth that went into alternative energy research! What a waste.
In the end we're going to have to embrace carbon alternatives. Even if we weren't staring down ecological calamity, there's the fact that oil, gas and coal are a finite resource. They pollute tremendously. They are in politically and socially volatile locations. They are largely controled by foreign and often hostile powers. This insistance on sticking with old technologies is short sighted, greedy and stupid. Unfortunately, We The People are the ones who'll suffer the consequences of that policy, not the Deciders.
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-Chaloobi
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Edited by - chaloobi on 11/29/2007 13:22:41
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9688 Posts |
Posted - 11/29/2007 : 16:47:59 [Permalink]
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I've made pension-fund investments (in stocks) in China and India.
Within my life time, USA won't be a 1st world country, economically speaking. |
Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
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chaloobi
SFN Regular
1620 Posts |
Posted - 11/30/2007 : 03:46:50 [Permalink]
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| Well, I feel like socially we're barely a 1st world country now. I suppose that to the powers that be as long as they can invest and earn returns off the economies of other countries, it doesn't matter all that much what happens here to our worker bees. I'm sure it's not that simple but... |
-Chaloobi
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 12/02/2007 : 00:53:40 [Permalink]
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Mab said:
| Within my life time, USA won't be a 1st world country, economically speaking. |
That cuold be within the next 10 years. I hope not, but it could happen. The US $ is in bad shape right now, dropping like a stone in value.
Some political shakeup in the near future could turn things around though! We need out of these moronic wars and to start fighting religious fundamentalism more intelligently. (where is the outcry from all the alleged "moderate" muslims over the imprisoning of the British teacher for allowing a kid to name a teddybear after himself?!) Something needs to change on that front, and it doesn't seem to me like it will change by the US invading other nations. Armed conflict may be a part of the solution, but not the way we are doing it now....
But yeah, it seems like a good idea to make sure your retirement portfolio is diverse. Asian and European markets are currently looking srtong.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9688 Posts |
Posted - 12/02/2007 : 12:37:18 [Permalink]
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| You know, I remember a time when the US dollar was worth even less compared to the Swedish Kronor. About 75% of today's value. But I don't know if that was because the dollar was low, or the Swedish Kronor was high. I think it was around 1982. |
Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 12/02/2007 : 23:55:44 [Permalink]
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The Kronor must have been high. I was living in Germany in '84, and the US dollar was pretty strong compared to the German Mark, like 3.5:1. The USDollar was also very near even with the British Pound at the time.
When I was in Germany again in 1990 the USDollar was down to 1.5:1 vs the German Mark, and around .8 of a British Pound.
The G8 and world bank won't let any of its members fall to far though.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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Japan - Future Solar Power
