Weekly Green news Blurb | You Should Know Vol. 5
By Wesley Joseph • Aug 24th, 2008 • Category: Energy, General, News and Media, Pollution, Recent Posts, Recycling
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If you’re trying to follow the envirohuman movement, you should definitely pick up these news stories:
Pickens’ Plan to Profit Off of Public Water
I did not know that Pickens’ plan, which includes a large project of transmission lines to move electricity generated from wind power from rural areas to urban ones, seems to double as a way to move water from what arguably should be considered a public resource. The water, from a vast underground reservoir, would use the same transmission pathway as the electricity. Seems we should be careful of what we wish for; even though so many environmentalists, capitalists, and government officials all seem to be in favor of this plan, is it fair for an individual or company to take so much of what belong to the public an make such huge profits off of it? The same could be asked of oil companies drilling for and profiting off of oil under public lands.
Bloomberg Skyscraper Windmill Plan
I had always wondered about the high altitude created by, among other surfaces, skyscrapers, as points of interest for wind turbines. Obviously, in the middle of a city, the power generated has more than enough available users, but also, cities have huge overall electricity needs, but relatively little open spaces to put windmills. Or, do they? It seems this may be a viable plan for reducing the need for fossil fuel-burning power plants for cities and the transmission lines it might take to move power from open plains into urban areas.
This is a very interesting concept for me, because while yes, much of this ship is made up of recyclable metals, it also includes some plastics that have concerned scientists familiar with the project for the negative effects of introducing chemicals associated with such plastics into the food chain. This reminds me of a project that the New York Times detailed months ago, regarding the sinking of spent subway cars into harbors, also for the purpose of becoming marine habitat. Again in that case, there was concern over the asbestos used in the subway cars, and how it escaping into the ocean might have a negative effect. Still, the sunken vessel and the subway cars have made for great marine habitat.
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Wesley Joseph is the primary editor for EHI. He comes from a strong political science background and is interested in the effect humans' actions have on the environment, how in turn the environment affects humans, and how environmental policy at large and personal actions can both change into positive envirohuman impacts.
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That is an excellent and innovative idea, to put windmills atop skyscrapers. If found to be viable they would, I imagine, be able to take advantage of high wind speeds that high up in the air, and address the energy requirements of the inmates of the building as well!