Dave has proven anthropogenic global warming to be real many times in this tread. Haven't you read it haha. He has proved that humans are increasing CO2 levels and that CO2 absorbs IR radiation. As Al Gore would say, "the debate is over".
You really are a black or white kind of guy If 1/3 of the country could reduce it's impact, that would more than meet the Kyoto goals, and then some. The country/government/private business could then 1) sell the electricity to other countries and bring more money into the economy and 2) sell the carbon credits to other countries. Why? What's preventing the US from doing the same thing? It's not transmission of electricity, technology, or lack of resources. There's two types of geothermal, one which would be useful for power generation which extracts heat from faults, the other just does heat exchange with ground loops and it doesn't require volcanic activity. The east coast could easily be encouraged to install these for home heating. I'm not sure how you interpreted that from what I wrote. Geothermal doesn't release CO2. Volcanoes are background CO2 and release it anyway and are part of the pre-existing Earth's climatic equilibrium. So I guess the US must immediately stop importing power from Canada. By the way, the loss of electrical lines is 0% if the right lines are used. That's another infrastructure investment which would be a wise choice. If your theory was true then other countries would be paying the US for CO2 -- that's simply not going to happen. No, just like SO2 markets right now, the government caps the output and the market sets the price by demand.
How would it not? Yes, it's a complex system and we have the temperatures as evidence, the increase in CO2 as evidence, and a variety of other evidence. Plus, we know that CO2 molecules are extremely efficient absorbers of IR. Here, try a syllogism: We know that CO2 absorbs IR We know that the atmosphere has more CO2 Therefore we know that the atmosphere is absorbing more IR. Well, the CO2 could come from somewhere else. But that was disproved and it comes from man. The temperature increase could also be coming from elsewhere in addition to CO2, but then it becomes more important to reduce CO2 to reduce catastrophic climate change, since we know its effect. Hmmmm?
Quote from drjekyllus: So the entire west has access to geothermal. What about the central and eastern parts? the us is already using geothermal and it is available everywhere. the cadillac of home heating and cooling systems right now is a geothermal heat pump. they are so hot that it is hard to get one installed mainly due to a 30% tax credit. they are still expensive, about double what a regular heat pump costs, but prices should come down eventually. http://www.waterfurnace.com/tax_credits.aspx http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P0Z1Pa_Vvc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CO_xM5gV48&feature=related
Thanks for showing up late to the conversation. BigDave in yet another one of his dishonest attempts at truth tried to compare Iceland to the US but failed to mention Icelands unique situation as far as geology is concerned. It is intellectially dishonest and it is the kind of comparison often made by leftwing wack jobs. No one has argued against geothermal or efficiency. When you compare apples and oranges and make bogus claims people are going to shut you down.
"Unique" means that it's the only one on Earth. Did you know that half the entire world's geothermal features and two thirds of the worlds geysers are located in Yellowstone alone? I think we can all get behind higher efficiency -- especially since it means more money in your pocket. It's honest to say that vast areas of the US can support Icelandic style geothermal. The rest can support ground-loop geothermal, wind and solar. Sometimes a country just needs a little kick start to get private enterprise to do its thing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_power_in_Iceland Here do a little research for yourself since it seems to be way over your head. ICELAND AND THE US HAVE DIFFERENT SITUATIONS. According to your reasoning we should be looking at what countries like Thailand are doing to heat there homes because their heating bills are almost zero and we are wasting all this energy. The scary part is idiots on the MMGW side of the debate would actually consider that a valid critism.