sandie Posted December 13, 2010 Share Posted December 13, 2010 With all the energy we are trying to extract from the wind the sun and the sea, do we upset the balance of nature. It might seem a daft question, but we take out the energy are we causing a problem to the natural environment. Is there not a reason for winds, sunshine and the sea. People will think I am talking rubbish, and I dont know the answer, but I remember my days at CTS and was told every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Your comments please and any technical info I would also like to see. Please no sarcastic comments this a serious inquiry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wednesday1 Posted December 13, 2010 Share Posted December 13, 2010 With all the energy we are trying to extract from the wind the sun and the sea, do we upset the balance of nature. It might seem a daft question, but we take out the energy are we causing a problem to the natural environment. Is there not a reason for winds, sunshine and the sea. People will think I am talking rubbish, and I dont know the answer, but I remember my days at CTS and was told every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Your comments please and any technical info I would also like to see. Please no sarcastic comments this a serious inquiry I would have thought that the amounts of sun, sea and wind involved are so miniscule that the effects would be insignificant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spooky3 Posted December 13, 2010 Share Posted December 13, 2010 Quick, stand still! I'd ask is it the best way for us to harness energy? Then i'd decide what best meant, in many different ways. P.S. Are you on about the butterfly effect? P.P.S. "To every action..." is a law of motion! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeadingNorth Posted December 13, 2010 Share Posted December 13, 2010 It's a reasonable question, but when you do the calculations you find that "minuscule" is actually a vast overestimate of the difference it will make. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alcoblog Posted December 13, 2010 Share Posted December 13, 2010 With all the energy we are trying to extract from the wind the sun and the sea, do we upset the balance of nature. It might seem a daft question, but we take out the energy are we causing a problem to the natural environment. Is there not a reason for winds, sunshine and the sea. People will think I am talking rubbish, and I dont know the answer, but I remember my days at CTS and was told every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Your comments please and any technical info I would also like to see. Please no sarcastic comments this a serious inquiry Actually, I think that's a very good question! I know what you mean by equal and opposite reactions. If you're taking energy from sunlight then I guess the reduction will affect plants, animals ... well everything really. same with stealing wind too ... there must be a loss somewhere. Wind and tides will be affected as we're nicking energy from that too. Although there's around 5 billion squabbling people on the planet I'm not sure if this would make any effect on the day to day mechanisms of the planet. So far as I know plants pump out more CO2 than we do by miles. Something like Mt. St Helens or Santorini or Krakatoa must block out more sunlight than we can possibly harvest and don't forget the dinosaurs. I personally think our effect on the planet is negligible compared to what it does itself. Look at the Gulf of Mexico for instance ... the energy to blow that hole must be more than the sum total created by all humankind. All the time there's stuff going on naturally that dwarves our intervention ...Tunguska in 1908 being another recent good example. Think how much energy it takes to move tectonic plates ... mankind is totally incapable of producing that. We panic about the after affects of Chernobyl, atom bombs and other stuff we've done but it's absolutely negligable to what the planet gets up to! Therefore I think that harvesting energy from sun, wind and seas would make not one jot of difference. Don't forget that matter cannot either be created or destroyed (?) so whatever we take out we put back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spooky3 Posted December 13, 2010 Share Posted December 13, 2010 ... So far as I know plants pump out more CO2 than we do by miles. ... They breathe it in! ... Don't forget that matter cannot either be created or destroyed (?) so whatever we take out we put back. You mean 'energy'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carosio Posted December 13, 2010 Share Posted December 13, 2010 With all the energy we are trying to extract from the wind the sun and the sea, do we upset the balance of nature. It might seem a daft question, but we take out the energy are we causing a problem to the natural environment. Is there not a reason for winds, sunshine and the sea. It will change the balance of nature, but in the same sense as damming a river or stream. Nature is a consequence of the elements, not the other way round. Winds are dissipated naturally through friction with the sea, the land mass and with itself, so it is with tidal energy which is part-converted into breakers when it meets the shoreline. A large wind farm off the coast will probably reduce the effect that storms might have and lessen any coastal erosion, as would wave (tide)-energy installations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alcoblog Posted December 13, 2010 Share Posted December 13, 2010 They breathe it in! You mean 'energy'. So far as I know (someone may prove me wrong) plants expel CO2 at night and O2 in the day due to photosynthesis. And yes ... as well as energy, matter cannot be created or destroyed ... burn the Mona Liza for example ... end product ? - exactly the same amount of carbon and other chemicals it was created with! The only loss being a true genius! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spooky3 Posted December 13, 2010 Share Posted December 13, 2010 So far as I know (someone may prove me wrong) plants expel CO2 at night and O2 in the day due to photosynthesis. ... Not heard that one, i'd like to know more though. ... And yes ... as well as energy, matter cannot be created or destroyed ... burn the Mona Liza for example ... end product ? - exactly the same amount of carbon and other chemicals it was created with! The only loss being a true genius! Your probably right there when I think about it, oops! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cavegirl Posted December 13, 2010 Share Posted December 13, 2010 With all the energy we are trying to extract from the wind the sun and the sea, do we upset the balance of nature. It might seem a daft question, but we take out the energy are we causing a problem to the natural environment. Is there not a reason for winds, sunshine and the sea. Wind farms simply use the strength of wind power to turn propellors that drive turbines which generate electricity. The wind is not really diminished in any way because the propellors are designed to move as freely as possible- ie they don't provide any substantial barrier to the wind. Solar panels absorb energy from solar radiation (light and radiant heat) and convert it into electrical energy. They only absorb the radiation that falls on them, so having a solar panel on your roof will only absorb the radiation that falls on that part of the roof, it won't diminish the amount of radiation that the sun continuously fires at the earth. Tidal power works in a similar way to wind power in that the movement of the waves is used to generate electricity - tidal generators are designed to move freely and therefore they do not diminish the power of the waves. So I would argue that no, it doesn't upset the balance of nature. What does upset this balance is the burning of fossil fuels, the burial of nuclear waste and the irresponsible behaviour of some energy companies that simply leave their equipment to rot in situ once a region's resources have been economically exhausted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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