Dear Editor:
As I stated in my letter Friday, when warm weather comes, the alarmistsstart writing letters. The last one tried to use religion to support his case and then went back to solar panels and wind. While these sources appear free, it is far more expensive to create the solar panels and wind turbines necessary to provide power than it is to use fossil fuels, nuclear or hydro-electric. This is because solar and wind power is dilute and intermittent. Because these power sources are dilute it takes a lot of resources to collect and concentrate energy to make it usable. If that wasn't bad enough, the worst part is solar and wind are intermittent as they do not provide power all the time and there is no large scale reliable way to store large amounts of solar and wind energy. So a more reliable system is needed as back up and that right now is fossil fuels. Switching back and forth is expensive, as the citizens of Germany are finding out. To be truly good stewards of the earth we must understand that the manufacturing process for solar panels also creates toxic chemicals and creates gases that are 10,000 times more powerful greenhouse gases than CO2. CO2 can be reabsorbed by plants, where these gases are not and need the UV light in the upper atmosphere to break down, literally taking decades. These gases are supposed to be contained but there is leakage and the results to the climate could be disastrous. I've also stated in previous letters how damaging wind turbines are to bird populations. Reports now indicate that sounds produced by these turbines have negative psychological and physical effects on humans.
We know that the environment is unstable and we need to create sources of energy, food and water that are reliable and independent from the environment. We know from history, that drought, flooding, tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes and volcanic eruptions happen and we need to prepare for them as much as possible. There are countries leading the way. France is increasing nuclear power. London, England is growing food underground. Russia and parts of Europe are building sea walls to protect from high tide storms. It is time we stop worrying about CO2 caused climate change and focus on real issues.
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