Deep thoughts... have you ever watched "How It's Made" and pondered...

how much energy all those cool factory machines are using? Torches, furnaces, conveyor belts, giant 100-ton metal presses...

Perhaps it will become far to expensive to run those energy burning machines, and we'll have to go back to man and woman made products. I remember seeing pictures of the first production lines in Ford's original factories. Maybe they will become an inspiration again.

It has to be mind-boggling, still I have been watching the show since its inception.

how much energy is spent on lighting, a/c, heating, computers, coffee makers
etc?

The cost of the energy consumed per unit is only a fraction of what the unit retails for, or else they wouldn't be able to be sold for profit.

I could only watch it a couple of times before the irritation level got too high (plus it was boring watching machines do factory line work).

they also employee a LOT OF AMERICANS! I understand wanting to reduce energy use in the world, but I think we have to be practical too. I don't want to givee up my refrigerator, my stove, the lights in my house or most of all my computer!!!! DO YOU?

Besides, the environment is orders of magnitude "over" petty human ideas such as employment.

In other words, you may not want to give up your fridge, stove, lights or computer (I sure don't want to give up mine, either), but when the combination of Peak Oil and Global Warming begin to hit us in earnest, you or your descendants may wind up giving them up "by default", because gasoiline is $100/gal. and electricity $10/KWH or whatever. No one can foresee the details of the future. Hell, we could perfect mass-produced cheap fusion and pull our species' bacon out of the fire, then your descendants and mine could keep all their goodies.

Ultimately, THAT is the point of the environmental movement, to save what we can by negotiating a "soft landing" to this transitional period, as opposed to slamming into it like a brick wall, or like a bunch of yeast in a beer-making vat realize at the very end that something is very wrong here, just before they all drown in their own wastes.

how THOSE machines are made, and the energy, and/or which petroleum-based products are used in their creation.
And, who makes those robot machines that build machines?



very

very

deep

thoughts

Deep Thoughts
By Jack Handey

I hope if dogs ever take over the world, and they chose a king, they
don't just go by size, because I bet there are some Chihuahuas with some
good ideas.
http://philip.greenspun.com/humor/deep-thoughts

The world is not far behind. We can make this sustainable ... there's lots we can "put back" in by improving methods.

making our living than we ever could conserve by recycling personally, both energetically and materially.

I have been thinking this particular "Deep Thought (by Jack Handey)" for 20 years now. Everywhere I worked, from the USAF to pharmaceutical research companies, I have always generated orders of magnitude more waste than I ever generated at home.

I could have parties every day, really wasteful ones with plastic Chinette plates and cups, insisting that every person took a mere sip or a bite before throwing out their old plastic plates or cups, and getting new ones.

The amount of careless waste in the USAF 20 years ago was staggering, and I don't imagine it has changed much. Molecular Biology (MB), at least has good reason for it's tremendous waste generated. Because MB involves measuring and experimenting at the molecular level, dealing with microliters and even nanoliters of substances, the tiniest impurities can screw up an experiment, then you have to do it over, generating double the waste. Because of this, ultra-sterile items must be used and then thrown away once used. Because at that tiny level of measurement, even throwing things in the dishwasher means slathering them with impurities in the dish soap, etc. Not that it changes the reality of it, and I certainly am not condoning it. And it is not true of all items used in MB, but it is true for many of them.

How many gigantic plastic bags full, absolutely CHOCK FULL of used up disposable polystyrene and polypropylene, have I thrown way throughout my career? You don't want to know, but I guarantee you that, in making my living, I have already created more plastic waste (some of it is probably already making it's way down to the ocean and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch) that I could ever dream of wasting in my personal life, even if I lived to 150.

So, yes, I have been thinking that for many years now, and it is as close to an absolute truth as you can get. I have no doubt there are exceptions and there are more Green Jobs every day. MB will never be one of them, though.

and I've been working in South Boston the last couple of months and with the weather turning nice I often go and sit on the wharf and watch the harbor. I see the large gas and cargo tankers go in and out, very majestic really even with their industrial look. But then I imagine all the energy it is taking just to move the ships never mind the energy used up in what they carry. And the serenity is busted.

Of course these aren't the only answer, but there are other efforts being made by various industries to reduce energy costs. Unfortunately the current high price of copper may be slowing the changeover to high efficiency motors.

http://www.copper.org/applications/electrical/energy/motor_text.html

Here's a new website about energy and industry

http://www.energyvortex.com/pages/index.cfm?pageid=1