The 1994 report
Carbon dioxide is, of course, falsely demonized as usual as a "greenhouse gas.'' In combining nuclear, coal, oil, and natural gas in a "non-renewable'' category, these technophobes send mixed signals. Are we to be pessimistic with fear of boiling oceans and ioniz-ing radiation or optimistic as we anticipate the exhaustion of these non-renewable threats in a few thousand years? Maybe we should all just "go for it'' and burn coal and atoms as fast as possible to reach the renewable millennium where these dangers are gone.
This "framework for action'' (which bears the Great Seal of the United States) is notable for its lack of numbers. There is not one graph or table in the entire document that would interest readers of Access to Energy because there is virtually no quantitative information presented.
Much of this document is about
energy and energy production. (The report has great pictures of windmills but none of nuclear power plants.) We all use these two terms routinely, but one wonders if that might be part of the cause of our undoing.First, what is energy? Richard Feynman said "It is important to realize that in physics today, we have no knowledge of what energy
is.'' (See Access to Energy 22-2 (1994) p 2.) If Feynman didn't know what it is, most of the rest of us probably don't know either. That's OK, however, what we really know is how to produce it. Right?Second, the law of conservation of energy tells us that we cannot produce it. The amount of energy is rigorously conserved - at least according to the best experimental data and scientific theories that are available today. We cannot increase it or decrease it.
What can we really do? We can transform energy, and we can measure the amounts of the different forms of energy. Feynman lists these forms - "gravitational energy, kinetic energy, heat energy, elastic energy, electrical energy, chemical energy, radiant energy, nuclear energy, and mass energy.'' These forms are often subdivided further such as in the rotational energy, vibrational energy, and translational energy of molecular motion that are component parts of heat energy.
Different forms of energy are useful to us at different times. As I write this, our truck sits in the driveway with its fuel tank filled with chemical energy in the form of diesel fuel and its battery also filled with chemical energy in the form of lead, lead dioxide, and sulfuric acid. This energy is useful to me even now because it assures me that I can drive to another place if need arises.
In driving, this chemical energy is converted into kinetic energy for the truck and its occupants. In the winter, heat energy from the burning fuel is also useful. When we reach a destination, we apply the brakes which convert excess kinetic energy to heat energy so that we can stop. Along the way, the chemical energy is also made into electrical energy for our lights and radio. As we go up and down hills, it is also transformed to and from gravitational energy.
If the car were electric, it would be powered by electrical energy transformed from mass and nuclear energy (from nuclear power plants), gravitational energy (from hydro plants), and chemical energy (from coal plants) and supplied by our electrical energy grid.
To go outside and use the car, my body (composed primarily of mass energy and nuclear energy and having small amounts of chemical energy) must convert chemical energy into kinetic energy and gravitational energy. While doing that, I will also convert chemical energy to heat energy and radiant energy.
The human body and mind are able to transform energy in ways that they find useful. As far as science now knows, the physical world (including the bodies of human beings) is entirely made of energy manifested in different forms.
According to the law of conservation of energy, we cannot produce energy or consume energy. Moreover, it is silly to try to demonize some forms of energy - especially nuclear energy. After all, we ourselves are made primarily of mass energy and nuclear energy.
The new age enemies of technology are busy today promoting earth worship and animal worship under the banner of harmony with nature. This ancient disease has afflicted people periodically for thousands of years. They are also promoting disharmony with technology by campaigns against the components of technology.
Chlorine, ozone, plutonium, carbon dioxide, DDT, dioxin, asbestos, PCBs, radiation - all are guilty. So far, pure water has escaped condemnation, but there isn't any pure water. Water, according to the new age gurus, is contaminated with thousands of chemicals created by the evils of technology.
Ordinary Americans are confused by all of this nomenclature. They are doubly confused as a result of the enormous resources that have been expended in efforts to demonize certain words and sanctify others - for example, "nuclear'' vs. "natural.'' The idea that energy is actually one thing which has different forms - forms from which we ourselves and all we see about us are actually constructed - is easily understood. That we cannot make energy or destroy it is also simple to communicate.
General public knowledge of these facts about energy would go a long way toward immunizing the American people against such nonsense as
Technology for a Sustainable Future.Our enemies seek to reduce our freedom to transform energy for human use. We cannot hope to educate most Americans about the intricacies of science. Moreover, our strength does not lie in pretending omniscience about subjects we claim are too difficult for others to understand. Our opponents are excellent play actors, too.
We must look for unifying concepts that are easy to communicate to untrained minds. Energy and conservation of energy can be such concepts if we describe them accurately.
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Vol. 22, No. 4
Newsletter: Access to Energy Newsletter Archive Volume: Issues Issue/No.: Vol. 22, No. 4 Date: December 01, 1994 02:48 PM Title: Conservation of Energy
Copyright © 2004 - Access to Energy Newsletter Archive
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