Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Smart Meters in communities

[Diane (dianeclaire]

Well this discussion has certainly changed focus.  As for population growth,
the well proven solution is simple: educate women and free them --  give
them control over their lives and their bodies.  Then, as in the countries
where this has happened you will see PGZ and even below PGZ.

But I'm not sure this has much to do with cohousing.

Diane Margolis, Cambridge Cohousing

On Mon, Jul 11, 2011 at 7:35 PM, Moz <list [at] moz.geek.nz> wrote:

>
> Sharon said:
> > I used to teach with a physicist who edited one of the best academic,
> > peer-reviewed journals on physics. About 15 years ago, I asked her about
> > the feasibility of solar power.  She said we don't know what it will do
> to
> > the environment.
>
> Well no. The same could be said for planting corn instead of grass. Or
> deforesting the Sahara.
>
> > No one has ever taken that much energy away from the sun
> > before and converted to other uses.
>
> The agricultural revolution had a much more dramatic effect - widespread
> deforestation was a *huge* change in how we use solar power.
>
> > How will that affect the sun?
>
> Remember that we are not taking energy away from the sun - at most we are
> changing the albedo (reflectivity) of a planet that receives less than one
> part in a billion of the sun's radiated output. So I hope you're
> misremembering that discussion. Counter-factual environmentalism is a
> particular bugbear of mine.
>
> So I think I can guess on that last question: it won't. A tiny change in
> reflectivity on a little dot 8 light-minutes away from the sun will have
> no detectable effect. The recent ice age would have had more effect. If we
> launched a soletta and reflected *all* EMR straight back at the sun we
> might be able to have some effect on it. What we're doing with solar
> plants is a bit like asking what effect that USA flag we planted on the
> moon will have on tidal flows on Earth. Yup, in theory it definitely has
> an effect (we moved mass between orbiting bodies). In practice? Too many
> leading zeros.
>
> The effect we have on the environments down here is likely to be
> noticeable. But I'm not sure quite what it will be. One that would amuse
> me is if large-scale solar collector arrays had the effect of increasing
> local rainfall and cloud cover. But that seems unlikely. More likely is
> slight local cooling. But the decreased reflectivity might mean local
> heating.
>
> Moz
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
> http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/
>
>
>


-- 
Diane Margolis
175 Richdale Av.
Cambridge, MA 02140
617 354 1349