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Furious Bits - January 2008

OMG scary thought #2

January 15th 2008 22:55
I must escape the green debate before I am labelled a skeptic of any sort. I'm not in case anyone has already reached that junction and needs guidance, I am a realist and a logical one at that, yes the worst kind, but its a bit late to request spots instead of the stripes.

In reading about TV energy consumption(See : Plasma-Greenhouse-Effect ) I saw a startling fact, we in Australia (and we aren't that odd that the figure is likely to be similar in the western world) have an average of 2.4 cars per household. I will leave it to another post to discuss the benefits of this figure being greater than the average number of kids, in terms of the greenhouse soap I am not sure which would be better - do kids or cars issue more polution over their life span and are which are fully biodegradable.


Now it may be a new thing or I may only just be noticing it for the first time, but my mind seems to have become a singles bar; lots of single ideas hanging around waiting for a matching partner to do wickedly delicious things with. This latest one instantly found a match with the recent news from India that a new small car will finially make it to market. Its not a new concept, many people in the past have identified the opportunity that a really cheap car with the ability to go on roads and goat tracks might offer. However this one is due to be released on a grand scale by a huge manufacturer.

Brilliant, wonderful news every Indian family, then every chinese family, then every arabic family and finally (not strictly in any order inparticular ) every african family can trade in their donkey for their 2.4 cars and we can all be on the same page. Now the whole family can have the freedom to move to the next village and beyond whenever they choose, they can learn to appreciate the difficulties in life that we have all grown so used to, traffic lights, road rage and exhaust fumes..... arrrrrggggghhhhh


The greenhouse crocodile comes back and bites me, grabs my legs and in a death role slowly slips under the surface to drown me. I feel the weight of the rock as it is put on my body wedging me under, whilst my body starts to decompose.

If cars are one of the top three emmiters of greenhouse gases, (simple numbers does it not inefficency) then what the hell is going to happen when the 2/3rds of the world that don't have them now get them ? Isn't this going to be a bit more of an issue than baning plastic bags, changing light bulbs and even stopping whaling ?

Just don't ask them if they would like a plasma Tv with the car !

The realist in me tells me the solution is not possible by simply changing the behavioural hbits of the western world, sure we should all become aware and more responsible but lets not kid ourselves that this will solve the problem or even slow it down. The world has to develop, the poorer countries can not be held back from getting the simple benefits the western world already have like hospitals, schools and access to modern transport.

If the world is in trouble now, it is doomed when this happens !

The problem will be solved by huge corporations that invest in a technology or science that will reverse the effects we are creating. Simplistic as it may seem and I am not even saying it is possible, but a satelite in orbit in the ozone layer could be converting the harmful stuff into good stuff whilst its telling us our GPS co-ordinates ? Instead of spending billions on traveling to Mars (for what purpose if the world is about to self destruct I might add), couldn't we just resolve this issue first, or perhaps we already have a solution in the wings and no-one wants to play their hand to early.

Just a note after reading this one might also think i am a pessimist, not true I am very much the optimist, I have no doubt the world will find the solution, it will be remarkable and we will collectively pat the genius of the human race on the back for it. We will of course then pay for it through some wild and fancy new corporate scheme before Governments find a tax to stick on it, whilst seeking to find competition to justify increasing the cost to us further.




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Plasma greenhouse effect

January 15th 2008 06:16
Don't you just hate it when something niggles in the back of your head, a little voice tells you the planets are not alligned, but the cogs aren't jammed so much as struggling to keep turning.

The worse of it is when you don't remember what it was that upset your train of thought, the thing that overheated the grease just won't show itself. Days or weeks can pass by and eventually your mind learns to deal with it, accept the thought is gone and try to reinvent the lubrication system to get round whatever it was.

Just when you start to see blue skies and a glorious surf the answer hits you right between the eyes, disappointment that the idea or thought wasn't the next big thing is soon overcome by the fact that that particular load has finally been released.

So what was this conumdrum that kept me awake for days and days, sent shivers of greyness to every corner of my pre-midlife crisis brain. Nothing dramatic I am afraid but no less confronting...

Plasma Tvs are all the rage, I will point out the writer does not own one nor shares in companies that make or sell them (this is purely due to a lack of need rather than a religious or ethical belief). But it occured to me that these things must use a bit more power than the avergage Cathode Ray style if not only because of their size.

However this thought alone was not enough to worry my adled brain for more than a few moments. It wasn't until I was accosted in the shopping mall by a rather attractive young lady (yes I'm a bloke, I don't stop for guys), telling me in great detail how much money I could save by buying new light bulbs and chucking the old ones out.

I was a bit side tracked by her rather quirky smile, her eyes spoke volumes that I would love to hear but unfortunately her mouth, tempting as those lips were, was talking without distraction about light globes.

Simply put the average normal light globe costs about $134 per year including replacements as they blow, whereas a Compact floro costs only $32 per year and amazingly a new LED style costs only $21 per year.

Having taken as much punishment as I could I left the girl unsatisifed, partly as a punishment for her beauty which I now feel quite guilty about, afteral it was me that labeled her in this way and not her anything she encouraged. However the figures started to sink in and I had to discover why these two seperate ideas with numbers had developed a crush on each other inside my head.

It appears the average size Plasma (no not the kick ass wall that everyone seems to dream of, the ordinary joes version) uses a staggering 350w per hour compared to a conventional TV that uses 70w per hour.

In an average house one might expect to find 3 or 4 lights on when needed, each one of these average globes uses 60w per hour.

So some maths :

Plasma Tv 350w less conventional tv 70w = 280w per hour extra power to account for

This equates to turning off 4.5 conventional lights that would otherwise be on !

or

Changing 20 conventional lights that would ordinarily be on to compact floro lights

or

changing 46 conventional lights that would ordinarily be on to be LED lights

It is very important to stress a light must ordinarily be on, one could easily switch all the house lights on and then before sitting down to watch the big game, ceremonarily counting them as one turns them off to save greenhouse gas emissons.

Despite being told I am not your average joe public by a fair stretch I still can't imagine too many people would have 4.5 lights on that they don't need on, turning them off would be simple good house keeping as opposed to saving the planet.

The simple solution for anyone wanting to watch a picture bigger than their field of vision must be to adopt a group of lower class households, get them to change their light bulbs and agree never to dream of a large TV. That seems to be the only way the Jones' will ever make any impact on their greenhouse gas output.

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