Hawaii Fear
I just got back from a trip to Hawaii (pics forthcoming) and while there I had the opportunity to read some local news. In particular, given my own predilection for fear mongering, a series of articles on geothermal energy interested me. I was wondering aloud to my wife why Hawaii didn’t have more geothermal power generation, and it turns out that the locals have all sorts of concerns about the environmental damage that it would cause. (Unlike I guess the 78% of their electricity which is currently generated from oil.) Given their tidal wind solar and geothermal sources, renewables should be able to easily make up a majority of the power generation needs for the island, but it currently only provides 6%[1]. But vocal local opponents have stopped major projects from going forward to far. The series in the newspaper did a pretty good job of showing the benefits and describing more scientifically what the actual dangers are, and not just the presumed dangers.
Given that, the next piece of local fear that appeared in the newspapers is extremely humorous. There is currently an ongoing eruption on the big island. This is great for visiting, because you get to see something that doesn’t happen that often, but annoys the locals because it creates a bunch of SO2 vapors blanketing the island with a fog like substance they call vog. People wrote into the paper complaining about it, and suggesting that “something needs to be done about the volcano.” Awesome. Some suggestions were put a dome over it and fill it with concrete. Fortunately that day a scientist responded, “the lava has been coming up through three miles of the earth’s crust, I don’t think your concrete is going to stop it.”
And now I read about another item from the Hawaiian courts. Apparently someone is suing to stop the LHC at CERN. Oh yeah, because it is going to create micro black holes and eat the planet away, all Earth style. I think the scientists who were afraid that the first nuclear explosion was going to engulf the entire planet in a chain reaction had a better argument. It also makes my fear of peak oil look like a downright sure thing.
[1] Numbers are from 2002.