Potential for powercuts in UK this winter

[GT98]

Note that this link gives regional US stats on asthma from 1960 to 1995. The greatest rise seems to be in the northeast where bituminous and subbituminous coal use is common. In the midwest, where lignite is the chief fuel for coal-fired power plants, the rate is somewhat lower. It may be that our plants, being somewhat newer, have better exhaust scrubbers (but that's speculation on my part -- although our scrubbers are very good).

Kevin

The other thing to consider is that alot of the polution in the North East is carried by wind currents, and where do they come from? the mid-west....I wouldnt say the different use of Coal in the NE vs the Mid-west is only explantation of why asthma is more provalent.

[Dr Mordrid]

Another problem is that a lot of our pollution comes from China via the jet stream, and their emissions are virtually uncontrolled.

Dr. Mordrid

[Nowhere]

...and I hope nobody will use it as an argument in style of "if they don't care, why should we?"

[Brian Ellis]

OK, chose promise, chose due: "The WHO, in its 1997 report on sustainable development, estimates that deaths due to indoor and outdoor air pollution from energy activities account for 6% of the total 50 million annual global deaths." That seems to work out at the 3 million I cited. However, to be quite fair, this figure would appear to include problems due to, say, wood or dung fires in an unventilated hut as well as from fossil fuels. I'll try for the report cited.

http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Booklets/Development/devsix.html

In fact, the whole of this page is well worth the read.

[KvHagedorn]

The elegant solution to our energy problems would be to put poor fat people on exercise machines and let them generate electricity while getting in shape.

[Tjalfe]

The elegant solution to our energy problems would be to put poor fat people on exercise machines and let them generate electricity while getting in shape.

excellent idea.. can I get your address so I can send you the first doughnuts?

[Brian Ellis]

The elegant solution to our energy problems would be to put poor fat people on exercise machines and let them generate electricity while getting in shape.

Why not rich fat persons, as well? Maybe you fall into that category?

Seriously, it would not help very much. Treadmills used to be popular in the past for turning machines and you would need about 12 fit men to sustain 1 HP over about 1 hour or 16 to generate 1 kW. To equal a typical 1 GW power station over 24 hours, you would therefore need teams totalling 384.000,000 fit men and probably 1,000,000.000 fat men (plus a few doctors to certify the deaths). If you count 2 kW/household average, this would serve to supply 500,000 households with electricity. I see a slight imbalance of supply and demand here!

[THE_Editor]

First off...

Thanks for all the informed info on here.. I agree with what GT98 said. Most people DON'T know whats going on. I know I didn't. Now I at least have an idea thanks to stumbling on this thread.

Thing the two:

Asthma: I'm 44 years of age and have lived in UK and Perth, Western Australia. I too noticed that I only ever knew ONE person that had asthma back then. And that was in the UK.

Ironically, just today I was mulling over past "things" with my Father in Law and I mentioned Diabetes......

I never even heard of this until I was 19. And that was through meeting a girl (Hey , i'll give her name a plug !! Natalie.. known as "Rock Folly" on CB) that I met on the CB radio.

I suspect that constant mixtures of different pesticides along with food additives & colourings are making a pot pouri of other chemicals and these are causing side effects. ie: Diabetes.

I'll close for now as your've all given me stuff to ponder over and I got a night shift to start in a minute.

Your heard of the "Night boat to Cairo" .. We'll I'm the night trunk to Taunton !!

[KvHagedorn]

Well, I was thinking they (poor people) could be doing something productive rather than sitting on their couches and collecting welfare.

Anyhow, anyone would benefit from the exercise and added energy. Personal generating systems in every home could charge battery banks in the basement.. solar, wind, even water power if one lives by a stream, combined with the exercise bike, could all contribute. It would not shoulder the whole burden, of course, but every little bit helps.

http://www.humboldt.edu/~ccat/pedalpower/hec/hpeg/

I agree that there are too many crap chemicals in our food, as well. Fertilizers and pesticides should be allowed only on the basis of first doing no long term harm rather than their immediate economic impact of increased short term productivity. We need to have plenty of organic choices out there when we go to the supermarket. If they were offered and promoted correctly, without being so overpriced that it feels like someone is reserving good health food options for the rich, they would be a real success.

[Umfriend]

I donnow, I guess fat people are better as carbonide-storage facilities then as energy generators. I think they;d have some of the worst statisitics when it comes to CO2 production vs. KWh generation.

@GNEP: If you got gas-storage, then what's the first post all about?

Although nuclear might be the way to go nowadays, I maintain that the resitance agaisnt it in the 60s and 70s was very reasonable and usefull. Nuclear waste at the time was treated badly indeed (it was dumped into the sea for instance) and the reactors built at the time were, although safer than chernobyl, not as well designed as the current generation. We could have had hundreds of these older reactors that did not have the intrinsic safety of the PMBRs and would still have an ignored waste issue had it not been brought to the attention as it has at time. If we go nuclear, than I'd like to thank those who opposed it back then and who in that way made it a better product now.

[Wombat]

Well, I was thinking they (poor people) could be doing something productive rather than sitting on their couches and collecting welfare.

Ah yes, because if you're poor, you're automatically fat and lazy.

I agree that there are too many crap chemicals in our food, as well. Fertilizers and pesticides should be allowed only on the basis of first doing no long term harm rather than their immediate economic impact of increased short term productivity. We need to have plenty of organic choices out there when we go to the supermarket. If they were offered and promoted correctly, without being so overpriced that it feels like someone is reserving good health food options for the rich, they would be a real success.

Organics aren't overpriced. They accurately reflect the costs of keeping food growing without the benefits of commercial fertilizers and pesticides. Also, it's pretty expensive to get land & equipment & supplies that are certifiable organic. If you want, you can often catch a break by shopping for "natural" foods. These are generally grown just like organic foods, but haven't been able to organic-certify every step in their supply chain.

[Dilitante1]

The elegant solution to our energy problems would be to put poor fat people on exercise machines and let them generate electricity while getting in shape.

well you seem to have a plethera of HOT AIR some days, should put that to work as well.......

[Tjalfe]

Funny how he sells power sucking electronic entertainment devices for a living.. maybe he should make his customers on a theadmill , or get a windmill / solar array to power it all