Mother Earth News vs Science

I am insulted by an online article posted byThe Mother Earth News (TMEN). It uses a photo of the steam coming from power plant cooling towers (the story implies that the photo is of a coal-fired plant but it could also be a nuke but that is immaterial) to illustrate CO2 emissions.

As any science-aware person knows, the steam (H2O) shown in the photo is not CO2! TMEN had to use a photo of steam because a photo of modern smoke stacks would dramatically show nothing that would be editorially useful!

Since TMEN apparently assumes its readers are scientifically illiterate, a misleading photo is apparently justified. TMEN's egregious misuse of such a photo highlights:

• Profound editorial laziness
• Profound ignorance of basic science
• An assumption that TMEN readers are idiots
• A deliberate intent to mislead its readers into the false belief that one of the cleanest sources of energy (nuclear) is evil or
• All the above.

The web page also proudly mentions a Sierra Club announcement of the 100th cancellation of a proposed coal-fired power plant since 2001. There is no mention of a cost-effective and reliable replacement for the loss of 100 coal-fired power plants.

The real direction this anti-energy campaign is taking is back to the stone age when our ancestors did not have the technology we enjoy today which relies totally on reliable, abundant, and cheap fossil-fuel and nuclear energy.

TMEN and the Sierra Club should consider the simple fact that, without cheap and reliable energy from energy sources such as coal and nuclear to build and install them, there will be no electric or hybrid cars or solar panels or wind-powered generators. No solar panel or wind turbine is capable of generating the energy necessary to build its own replacement at a reasonable cost. It takes carbon or nukes to do that kind of real work.

It takes thousands of acres of wind turbines and/or solar panels to produce sporadic energy equal to the capacity of the steady and reliable output of one coal-fired power plant or one nuke. What is a bigger eyesore -- a thousand windmills or steam coming out of 5 cooling stacks? Which process is honestly more environmentally friendly -- gas and coal or solar and wind?

Here's another dirty little secret the alternative energy advocates aren't talking about: To avoid spoiling the food in your refrigerator, every solar/wind farm must be backed up by batteries (impractical for large-scale installations and an environmental nightmare for even small installations) or conventional power sources. No matter how much we invest in so-called "green" energy, we must also build conventional-energy facilities of equal capacity as backups and keep them online or the electricity will not be there when you need it!

Still another dirty little secret: So-called "green" energy exists only when it is involuntarily and heavily subsidized by taxpayers.

If TMEN and their allies are really worried about CO2 emissions (which, according to geological history, legitimate science, and common sense, does not cause earth's natural climate changes), TMEN should be pushing for nukes -- their CO2 output is zero!

The real direction this anti-energy campaign is taking is back to the stone age when our ancestors did not have the technology we enjoy today. Modern technology and comforts rely totally on reliable, abundant, and cheap fossil-fuel and nuclear energy. Self-proclaimed environmentalists generally seem to be people who don't know about science, don't understand economics, and won't do the math.

TMEN editors and writers, please stop listening to that buffoon and science midget Al Gore and do your homework!