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Author Topic: American Election Megathread - It's Over  (Read 763806 times)

mainiac

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Re: American Election Megathread - It's Over
« Reply #9270 on: November 12, 2012, 01:31:34 am »

"Clean coal" is such a funny idea.

Hard nosed serious minded men want none of that hippie crap about solar power or wind turbines.  You don't assume that these are profitable just because there are people making a profit from it right here and now.  No, you want to put your money on a sure thing: a speculative bet on a technology still in the brainstorming phase but which the laws of thermodynamics tell us will necessarily be significantly more expensive then coal and thus more expensive then what solar costs today.  Because that's practical, unlike those silly hippies.

But this is hardly a rare phenomena.  The politics of ideology makes us tend to assume that conservatives ideas are practical even when they are laughably poorly thought out.  When Clinton bombed Yugoslavia everyone worried about it being a quagmire because we didn't have a serious minded conservative running the show.  When Bush went into Iraq everyone assumed he knew what he was doing.  Everyone is so worried about the deficit over here in America and calls Obama spendthrift.  Meanwhile over in Europe the economic illiteracy of people like Cameron, Merkel and Draghi are whistling as Rome burns but everyone assumes they are on it because they are willing to make "tough" (i.e. stupid) choices.
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Strife26

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Re: American Election Megathread - It's Over
« Reply #9271 on: November 12, 2012, 01:36:36 am »

It'll never happen. If Texas left, the Republicans can kiss goodbye to winning the presidency ever again. Of course, that's starting to happen with demographics, too, and they don't seem to care that much...

Well, not necessarily. I mean, as soon as everything got reapportioned again they'd be competitive assuming roughly equal gerrymandering and the current electorate. The Republican's aren't *that* far behind in the popular vote.


Quote from: Strife26
-snip-

Wait, so as long as the 'States is okay, the rest of the world can go hang? Well screw you too.   :-\


Yeah, sorry about that. Talking from pure, national interest and stuff, you know? If it helps, I'd like the Commonwealth to do well as well, and everyone else too.


"Clean coal" is such a funny idea.

Hard nosed serious minded men want none of that hippie crap about solar power or wind turbines.  You don't assume that these are profitable just because there are people making a profit from it right here and now.  No, you want to put your money on a sure thing: a speculative bet on a technology still in the brainstorming phase but which the laws of thermodynamics tell us will necessarily be significantly more expensive then coal and thus more expensive then what solar costs today.  Because that's practical, unlike those silly hippies.

But this is hardly a rare phenomena.  The politics of ideology makes us tend to assume that conservatives ideas are practical even when they are laughably poorly thought out.  When Clinton bombed Yugoslavia everyone worried about it being a quagmire because we didn't have a serious minded conservative running the show.  When Bush went into Iraq everyone assumed he knew what he was doing.  Everyone is so worried about the deficit over here in America and calls Obama spendthrift.  Meanwhile over in Europe the economic illiteracy of people like Cameron, Merkel and Draghi are whistling as Rome burns but everyone assumes they are on it because they are willing to make "tough" (i.e. stupid) choices.

Was there an underlying point there, other than cynicism? Forgive me for being brusque, but that's all I got out of. Yeah, clean coal's kinda a weird idea, but it's certainly got possibilities and advantages. While Solar is certainly helped out by the government just the same.
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Osmosis Jones

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Re: American Election Megathread - It's Over
« Reply #9272 on: November 12, 2012, 01:38:39 am »

I must admit Strife, I'm actually curious; do you personally advocate these views, or is this an idle thought exercise?  :P
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Strife26

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Re: American Election Megathread - It's Over
« Reply #9273 on: November 12, 2012, 01:43:09 am »

It's mostly idle thought exercise, I mean "yeah, but I'm a little more to the right, but I think that enough credence isn't given to the other side" gets so boring, you know? Doesn't lead the thread anywhere.




But on the personal, occasionally ashamed, but probably true, note, I'd get on a plane in two hours to whatever warzone the US was embroiled in with a smile in my heart and a song on my lips. Well, not now that I've posted it, I'd feel responsible and probably assume that I was in a thought experiment, but in general. Or in general, specific to me personally.

Eh, that wasn't remotely coherent, was it?
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kaijyuu

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Re: American Election Megathread - It's Over
« Reply #9274 on: November 12, 2012, 01:45:23 am »

But on the personal, occasionally ashamed, but probably true, note, I'd get on a plane in two hours to whatever warzone the US was embroiled in with a smile in my heart and a song on my lips. Well, not now that I've posted it, I'd feel responsible and probably assume that I was in a thought experiment, but in general. Or in general, specific to me personally.

Eh, that wasn't remotely coherent, was it?
What I took away from it was that you're a patriot who'd fight for the country, regardless of what the country was fighting for.
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Strife26

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Re: American Election Megathread - It's Over
« Reply #9275 on: November 12, 2012, 01:50:59 am »

But on the personal, occasionally ashamed, but probably true, note, I'd get on a plane in two hours to whatever warzone the US was embroiled in with a smile in my heart and a song on my lips. Well, not now that I've posted it, I'd feel responsible and probably assume that I was in a thought experiment, but in general. Or in general, specific to me personally.

Eh, that wasn't remotely coherent, was it?
What I took away from it was that you're a patriot who'd fight for the country, regardless of what the country was fighting for.

Yeah, I think that that's about right. Although, I know that I've got lines where I'd draw it. Really, someone who's looking for something to fight for, I guess. But yeah, I'd guess that it makes me a little more willing to argue for violent solutions, even when they're obviously a bad idea, and much more willing to honestly fall on the side of shedding blood.
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alexandertnt

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Re: American Election Megathread - It's Over
« Reply #9276 on: November 12, 2012, 02:03:58 am »

Sure, but I'd like to note that all three of those points were perfectly rational and reasonable things to debate against.

A) On a large scale, I would certainly stand behind the claim that solar is not a large scale solution. I mean, even assuming massive gains in solar efficiency, life-span of panels, price, ect. it's gonna be a long, hard fought argument to convince me that the amount of land and management it'd take would be worth it. Now, nuclear, geothermal, and a nice, healthy chunk of coal gasification, that's a whole
'nother ball game.

I agree that solar panels are not a good long term solution, however modern solar power plants do not use Solar Panels, they use arrays of mirrors to heat up fluids. You build them and leave them there to generate energy, requiring very little maintenance. More money needs to be invested in finding efficient renewable resources.

B) Heck, if we want to be most economical, I'd argue that we're better off taking all those juicy non-renewable resources now while we're still comfortably the world's sole hyperpower. Who knows how long that'll lost? I'd also strongly contend that coal and oil are so cheap largely because that's what we're tooled to use and because coal's domestic (and our domestic oil reserves aren't anything to sneeze at either) while surpluses are a secondary factor.


Short term economy, perhaps. We are very much tooled to using oil and coal, since we have been using it for so long. Once you take all that non-renewable resources, then you will have to move on to renewable resources.

If if nothing happens, the oil/coal will run out/become uneconomical to aquire. One way or another the US will be forced to greenify. Most arguments are for gradually doing so now is so the US doesn't get hit in the face with the sudden need to.

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I'd always take projections like the sinking of Florida with a grain of salt. Yeah, it's perfectly possible, but how much can we affect it?

Its more like sinking Florida by rising the the ocean leves. Actually that is exactly what it is, no salt metaphor necessary (disclaimer: I don't actually know of the elevation of Florida and if it would even be affected, but that does not invalidate my point).

But your metaphor may be correct if the assumption that the large-scale pollution was nothing more than a "grain of salt" and/or the enviroment could be considered as large as Florida. But this is not the case. The earth exists in a very delicate equilibrium, a few grains of salt is all that is needed to change something until it finds a new equilibrium. This new equilibrium will most likely not end life on earth, but it may make life hard. In sort: You can affect it quite alot.

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Reducing people's freedoms?

In what way? If you are referring to restrictions to avoid screwing up the enviroment (eg pollution limitation), than yes. People should not have the freedom to screw up the enviroment affects other people negatively and in a way they have no freedom to prevent.

Most of your arguments are in regards to extreme, sudden "greenification" of the US, instead of the gradual easing that is generally advocated. If the US does nothing, then they will be forced the sudden "greenification" in the future.

Moving onto renewables is an inevidability, this fact is completely unaffected by any state any economy might be in. It will either happen with a responsible gradual transition, a slap-in-the-face spontaneous event, or the deindustrialisation of society.


Quote
Yeah, I think that that's about right. Although, I know that I've got lines where I'd draw it. Really, someone who's looking for something to fight for, I guess. But yeah, I'd guess that it makes me a little more willing to argue for violent solutions, even when they're obviously a bad idea, and much more willing to honestly fall on the side of shedding blood.

This is a bad thing. If they are obviously a bad idea, how could argue for them, knowing they are a bad idea? It boggles my brain.
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Strife26

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Re: American Election Megathread - It's Over
« Reply #9277 on: November 12, 2012, 02:08:17 am »

Because playing devil's advocate's generally fun and useful to these threads, and because, in general, there's a lot of problems that can get solved with blood and iron or can simmer until they boil over.


Yeah, I'll accept everything you just said, with the caveat of "sure, greenification has to happen, but whatever the other side's arguing for is too much in the damaging crash course camp"
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Nadaka

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Re: American Election Megathread - It's Over
« Reply #9278 on: November 12, 2012, 02:11:23 am »


Was there an underlying point there, other than cynicism? Forgive me for being brusque, but that's all I got out of. Yeah, clean coal's kinda a weird idea, but it's certainly got possibilities and advantages. While Solar is certainly helped out by the government just the same.

The physics and chemistry of "clean coal" make it an impossible supposition.

There is no way to safely sequester that much carbon.  The current plan is to pump it underground. With that much gas at that high of a pressure, natural bedrock is an insufficient pressure vessel. It will stress the rock, break it, cause earthquakes, it isn't mechanically different than "fraking" once the gas pressure gets high enough. It will leak, and when it does it can cause a catastrophic loss of life if there is a rapid out gassing in a populated area. When that happens, everything dies.

And when all is said and done, its still more expensive to sequester that carbon from coal in that horribly dangerous way than either nuclear power or solar thermal power are today.
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Strife26

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Re: American Election Megathread - It's Over
« Reply #9279 on: November 12, 2012, 02:13:51 am »

Alright, we'll find a better thing to do with it. Turn it into something useful or neutral, or store it safely, or shoot it into the sun. Just a matter of figuring out how. Or until we find something else that works as a solution.
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Eagle_eye

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Re: American Election Megathread - It's Over
« Reply #9280 on: November 12, 2012, 02:19:44 am »

But we have alternate solutions now.
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SalmonGod

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Re: American Election Megathread - It's Over
« Reply #9281 on: November 12, 2012, 02:20:45 am »

Alright, we'll find a better thing to do with it. Turn it into something useful or neutral, or store it safely, or shoot it into the sun. Just a matter of figuring out how. Or until we find something else that works as a solution.

Epic handwave.
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jester

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Re: American Election Megathread - It's Over
« Reply #9282 on: November 12, 2012, 02:21:33 am »

To use a military metaphor strife, we know the war is coming, isnt it better to work on our defense now rather than waiting for the enemy to be at our shores?
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Strife26

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Re: American Election Megathread - It's Over
« Reply #9283 on: November 12, 2012, 02:26:25 am »

Yeah, I gotta say that I'm pretty fond with it myself, honestly. However, it's completely true. When we've got a resource like coal in abundance, saying "eh, it's useless, let it sit" seems to be the height of folly to me. Discounting anything when we don't have a silver bullet (or even after that) is poor practice.


And to continue that military metaphor, Jester. If we know that war is coming at some indeterminate future, and that mobilization will hurt our economy if war doesn't come immediately, when do you start to mobilize? Answer's indeterminate, of course.
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jester

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Re: American Election Megathread - It's Over
« Reply #9284 on: November 12, 2012, 02:37:58 am »

Coal is a whole lot less useful than you are making it out to be, your tank and pretty much anything but powerplants will never run on coal, it has its uses, but the idea that coal is a short term fix is really about as serious as the clean coal idea, they are both political, not reality based solutions.

  And I gotta say, hoping the enemy is just going to sit on their hands doesnt sound like sound military doctrine.  The enemy is coming, better to build serious stuff now than handing out pointy sticks and saying we will just build the big stuff when SHTF.  And the potential payoff off clean renewable energy would be huge, like total world gamechange huge.
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