Alternative Energy

Petroleum is an alternative energy.

I don't know how many times I've said it but given the usual reaction, it's a miracle I haven't been punched out for it.

Seriously, though, when whales got scarce but people still wanted lamps to take the edge off the night, there was this kerosene stuff. Mix it with some liquid oxygen and it's got enough juice to get you to the moon.

So move over Ahab, we'll just sink a drill in these waters and get the energy without your white whale.



So I spy this train near my house all loaded up with a wind energy hobby kit.

I'm all for wind farms. I know some people claim they're ugly, but I think they're beautiful. They could be more lovely if they came in some other color than grey: why not bright yellow with purple paisleys? Or paint them in earth tones so they blend in with their surroundings if you want.

I know a bird gets killed here and there, and I've wondered if some sort of noise generator could be built into them that would make birds want to alter their course.



But people sometimes say to me, do you know how huge those things are?

And I've always been 'yeah, I know.' Because I've seen them on TV, that people go up inside them just like water towers or whatever.

But until you see something like this, up close and personal, you just can't imagine. A wind-farm in the distance doesn't convey the size. That each blade is too long to fit on a single rail car (this whole train of windmill parts, the blades were each spread over two full length flat rail cars. The generator and hub they attach to were as tall as the locomotives. The line from Fight Club comes to mind, big the way you think of gods as big.



It's possible that they're not as green as you'd think. The resources it takes to build such things would have to be factored in, but given that they'll cleanly produce electricity for a long time after that, I'm betting they're about as good a deal as you can get. Every energy source has a downside. Endangered whooping cranes hitting the blades of these things would be a bad thing, but if you compare it to hunting sperm whales to near extinction for lamp oil, it looks pretty good.