Latest comments posted about Forces of nature on ChinaDialogue en-gb http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/1256-Forces-of-nature http://staging.chinadialogue.net/images/cdlogo.gif http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/1256-Forces-of-nature In an article by David W.Keith and other scholars it evaluates the influence of large-scale wind power on global climate. Please refer to the following extracts. “Suppose that use of wind power were to grow 100-fold to 2 TW, which is somewhat beyond the largest quantity envisaged for the next half century by recent studies (20, 21) but only ≈1/10th of the global electricity demand in 2100 under fossil-intensive emissions scenarios ”,“Our results suggest that the resulting peak changes in seasonal mean temperature might be ≈0.5 K, with RMS changes approximately one order of magnitude smaller and near-zero change in global mean temperature ”."Preliminary calculations using assumptions common in such models consistently show that, by reducing CO2 emissions, the indirect benefits of wind turbines exceed the costs (or benefits) arising from their direct climatic effects". You can find this article from the link below: http://tinyurl.com/65u6vs Wed, 23 Jul 2008 06:47:56 +0000 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1256#comment-7701 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1256#comment-7701 We often talk about properly understanding our living environment, but would completely forget to reflect on the impact our behavior has on it whenever we can profit from exploiting the environment. It is the case when crude oil was initially exploited. The same is true with forest logging. Now it’s turn for wind power. Apparently we have only looked at the positive side of wind power. Yet changing the wind pattern will disturb, no matter in small or intermediate scale, the weather system. The weather system is a sensitive system in which the change of one element will spread across it. As far as I know, there’s little assessment being made on the impact of wind power exploitation. We should do more work in this regard. Thu, 13 Mar 2008 11:24:42 +0000 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1256#comment-7140 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1256#comment-7140 Wind power is our first and foremost choice of renewable energy for the following reasons: 1. The price of oil is on the rise. We should reduce the dependence on it. 2. It has been long identified the serious pollution from coal burning generated electricity. 3. It seems that hydroelectric power is not as perfect as expected. The Three Gorges Dam has resulted in the pollution in main and branch waterways of Yangze River and some remarkable geographic demages with 17 out of 20 counties appearing landslides in that area. 4. While using nuclear power, people have to bear the danger of handing nuclear waste and take the risk of nuclear pollution. 5. The cost of solar power is way too high, up to 0.8 to 1 yuan RMB per kwh. 6. The cost of wind power has been significantly reduced, down to 0.4 to 0.6 yuan RMB per kwh. Considering its environment friendly nature, the cost is almost the same as the traditional way of generating electricity. Therefore, we should motivate all effort possible to develop the Brilliant Wind power of the future, which will leave the future generation a blue sky with effective implementation of government policies. Sun, 24 Feb 2008 21:18:29 +0000 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1256#comment-7076 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1256#comment-7076 The general consensus is that wind energy is the perfect green energy. However, this observation is sadly wide of the mark. People tell of the great benefits of wind but they only recount one side of the story. Changes in surface winds, or the distribution of high and low pressure patterns can act to change the rate of the Earth's rotation or even the direction of the rotational axis. This means that over time it has the effect of stopping the Earth from rotating, leaving our planet in a still, motionless state. The wind's force, coupled with the dragging effect of tidal friction, will turn the planet into a barren land with atmospheric pressure rising to as high as 100 atm, and the temperature reaching 800 °C. Exposure to the tropical sun causes air temperatures to rise, this air then expands, elevates and attracts bipolar cold air fronts. This is called the Hadley Cell. The Hadley Cell means that latitudinal zonal winds only have to reduce a tiny amount for ground latitude to increase and the ground speed to decrease rapidly (with a pole speed of 0). Therefore, under conditions of mid-latitude and high altitude, this means that wind direction in the Northern Hemisphere is south-westerly and the Southern Hemisphere is north-westerly, while at low altitude, the Northern Hemisphere is north-westerly, the southern hemisphere is south-westerly. So at mid-latitude and high latitude, the air pushing against the earth's surface is creating friction, slowing the Earth down. In short, the Earth's atmospheric energy is killing the planet's rotational force, turning the planet into the next Hesper – a motionless, uninhabitable land. If we adopt wind power on a large scale we shall inadvertently be digging a grave for our planet. Tue, 04 Sep 2007 13:05:14 +0000 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1256#comment-4325 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1256#comment-4325 That was the first time I commented on this website, not sure if it can get through to be published. So my comment was too simplified, no wonder it make you feel like that. Apologies for that, and please excuse me for the simplification. This is a very complicated issue. When published on the third issue of Chinese version SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN in 1996, it was named "Hellfire without merci" and was required to be shortened to less than 10,000 words, which had some negative effects on the sucessful delivery of my idea. Here, there's a 3500 cap. I can only mention the main points, set up the framework and give a conclusion without further elaboration. The article is not published in the original journal in the US. At that time, Scientific American would pick some local articles to be included in its Chinese version every time and my article was one of them. (They are not doing it any more.) Therefore, not so many people can get to read it. I left the information of my webpage and references at the end of my comment. (It's different from this in the sense that the other one is a popular science journal.) I plan to move my articles here in the future, for the diversification of the audience, for the trustworthy translation, and for the efforts saved from translating them myself. Thanks for reading my comment and letting me know where the problems are! Sat, 08 Sep 2007 11:00:22 +0000 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1256#comment-4365 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1256#comment-4365 I do not see any correlation between the facts and conclusion in your sentences.. Thu, 06 Sep 2007 09:33:10 +0000 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1256#comment-4340 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1256#comment-4340 There's a wind power plant near my home, the white fans of which are very beautiful. If all the electricity we are using comes from this type of place, there will be no pollution any more. Fri, 31 Aug 2007 01:15:19 +0000 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1256#comment-4299 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1256#comment-4299 China collects statistics of wind power 10 meters above the ground. Statistics show that rich wind power resources are available in southeast China's coastal areas and nearly islands and islets. Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, northwest China, north China, Xinjiang and Innor Mongolian regions, as well as some parts of northeast China. This means this way to describe the availability of wind power resources in China is different from the usual way when talking about geographic locations. Please find more information by referring the essay.http://engine.cqvip.com/content/ tk/98032x/1993/000/002/gc07_tk4_1148715.pdf Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:49:07 +0000 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1256#comment-4252 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1256#comment-4252 The cost of wind power is declining at an increasing speed. It won't take long before it reaches those of traditional energies, such as the cost of coal-fired power plants. Fri, 24 Aug 2007 15:37:49 +0000 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1256#comment-4240 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1256#comment-4240 Coal power will be dominant energy resources for a long time in China. And then it will be hydropower, finally it may be wind power. The problem of cost is too difficult to solve. Fri, 24 Aug 2007 11:15:20 +0000 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1256#comment-4239 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1256#comment-4239