The Millenium Development Goals, agreed to by every member country of the United Nations in 2000, call for the worldwide eradication of poverty and hunger, universal education, gender equality and huge improvements in health by 2015: two years ago!!
Can we do this without making the planet warmer?
Let's think big and imagine how we can confront the climate crisis in a way that is realistic about the other major problems that we face as a planet and as a species on it.
Clean Development >
Capturing Wind Energy at 2,000 Feet
Wind energy has a much lower carbon footprint than conventional fossil fuel energy. However, we can only place so many wind turbines on the ground before running into other problems such as endangering certain species, and polluting the landscape and scenery. A start-up group in Boston has designed a way to harness extremely strong winds, 2,000 feet up, and change it into energy. Not only does this help solve the problem of space for the turbines, but the winds at high altitudes are also so much more powerful. These winds are strong enough to power the entire planet.
http://www.popsci.com/article/science/q … -2000-feet
I like the idea of having clean energy and saving these species from dieting but one problem I have with this is how it will affect the transportation of planes and maintenance. I think putting these on top of skyscrapers and mountains would be much more efficient instead of in farms.
I think the idea of harnessing the wind energy at 2,000 feet is a wonderful idea! The average jet plane flies at around 39,000 ft, so as long as these turbines are enough distance from airports and clearly visible to planes (lights, beacons, etc) then I see little reason for them to interfere with flight patterns. Also, these turbines could be positioned above no fly zones to further decrease the chances of them causing any airplane related issues. Here is some additional information on the altitudes at which different airplanes fly: http://traveltips.usatoday.com/altitude … 00359.html
Wind turbines at 2,000 feet sounds like a great idea. As you said the wind at this altitude is much stronger and therefore can provide more energy for everyone. Like the above comment says planes fly much higher than this altitude, so it shouldn't be a problem for them. If we just make them clearly visible there should be no problem with them being so high. One problem is building them this tall and them being strong enough to withstand the winds, they will have to be very strong and have large bases more than likely.
I think this is a fantastic idea! Now, all environmentalists are so concerned about using fossil fuels that it's great somebody came up with such an innovative idea. I think that when the world finally runs out of fossil fuels, they will have this to fall back on. This is so great because it's all natural and you don't run out of wind!
I really appreciated your post because wind energy can be forgotten in discussions about renewable sources of energy because people often just focus on solar energy. I was drawn to your post because I do not know much about wind energy, and it seems like it has so much potential to help the environment. The different new technologies for capturing power from the wind that the article describes are very interesting. However, they each seem very expensive to make, which may be one of the reasons that wind energy is not as common as solar energy. With solar energy, anyone can install solar panels to their roof, but it appears that these new technologies for wind energy will be much less accessible. However, wind power can be made accessible to households with Trident Winds LLC’s new project. In September of this year, the San Luis Obispo Tribune described how the wind company hopes to install 100 floating turbines in Morro Bay, California. These turbines would be able to power 150,000 homes. I think this proposal is especially interesting because it involves turbines in the ocean, and the wind energy that you mentioned would be in the air. The fact that harnessing wind can be possible on land, in the air, and at sea demonstrates the great potential and wide range of options for converting wind energy into power.
Hi Elaine! My name is Paulina !
I love the idea of using the wind to create energy, I think is really helpful to lower or footprint, by deciding the use of wind as energy producer you don't need to create nuclear energy that can harm people and affect our world. Unfortunately for making this type of machine You need to buy the system but it's price is higher. The good thing is that governments have been building this type of machines over the rural area. If we ask for something by a group we can help the world.