this is true India is a great power and should be treated as such but our leadership is stupid and arrogant so....yeah.
peter Zeihan 2020
- Thread starter Cherico
- Start date
this is true India is a great power and should be treated as such but our leadership is stupid and arrogant so....yeah.
PeaceMaker 03
Well-known member
Notice no mention of cost for solar/ wind per Kw/ hour?
City of Phoenix put up solar panels over a city parking lot. Never paid for itself before panel replacement became necessary. Granted a decade ago and placement could be an issue in major metro area with other structures casting shadows.
Just issues I can see off the top of my head beyond normal graft and corruption in local government.
I was told only 10% of wind in Michigan pays for the turbine or profits w/o subsidies. This from a guy who worked in the industry. Also said to expect the wind turbines to be sold off to third parties if subsidies go away, and said third parties go bankrupt to avoid paying disposal cost for broken turbines. Compared to Railroads walking away from old track systems and government having to do cleanup.
City of Phoenix put up solar panels over a city parking lot. Never paid for itself before panel replacement became necessary. Granted a decade ago and placement could be an issue in major metro area with other structures casting shadows.
Just issues I can see off the top of my head beyond normal graft and corruption in local government.
I was told only 10% of wind in Michigan pays for the turbine or profits w/o subsidies. This from a guy who worked in the industry. Also said to expect the wind turbines to be sold off to third parties if subsidies go away, and said third parties go bankrupt to avoid paying disposal cost for broken turbines. Compared to Railroads walking away from old track systems and government having to do cleanup.
Renewables are actually starting the process of being a viable technology in parts of the world with the geography to support it, and it is worth investing in them to help defray costs, but you cant treat it like a magic silver bullet its a part of your energy profolio not the end all be all.
Of course if we were smart we would invest in nuclear but you know...
average environmentalist pictured above....
PeaceMaker 03
Well-known member
I also have issue with his “…..power lines are like pipelines”. No energy drop off over distance in power lines is an issue. My knowledge is 20+ years out of date but I do not believe we have had a major jump in material science for transporting electricity over long distance.
You always get an energy drop off but putting a bunch of solar in the desert and then using power lines to get it to nearby settlements does make fincial sense. Expecially for california.
The problem is that chances are the really big settlements that really need much energy will not be anywhere near a desert. And the transmission costs (and electric loss) scale by distance...
gral
Well-known member
As an aside, one of the videos he did on the subject(I think it's the second) shows why Zeihan, although worth watching, must be taken with some skepticism(especially when he goes beyond economic trend analysis) - he basically admitted he takes the mainstream media at face value or something very close to it.
and he really needs to stop doing that because the american mainstream media lost any and all insitutional ability to do international news when they purged any journalists with actual skills during the 90s in favor of highering much cheaper activists.
f1onagher
Well-known member
Agreed, Zeihan has a knack for consolidating arcane information from government organs to provide surprisingly useful composite views into the world as a whole. When that information is concrete stuff like demographics, GDP, strategic resources, and transportation networks he gets a good picture because the information is largely agnostic. The moment that information starts to interact with people his takes rapidly lose value. Zeihan is a true believer in the rules-based, institutional order, so he has immense faith in said institutions and rules. But as anyone who has had the misfortune of falling afoul of those institutions can tell you, they have their own agendas beyond their official permit, something those that support the order don't like to admit, including Zeihan.
Journalism became toxic the moment we started venerating the likes of Pulitzer. When papers were openly partisan rags there was at least an atmosphere of honesty (not in reporting but in presentation) but after journalists started to buy their own hype the profession started to attract even worse types than it already had. Daniel Ellsberg is celebrated for breaking the Pentagon Papers, but he and definitely his peers wouldn't have touched those papers if the regime in the White House was one they liked. The fact that the fourth estate ever had credibility was a problem to begin with.
Zeihan, to his credit, is aware that the cable brands are bought and paid for, unfortunately, he swims in the same information waters the Intelligence Agency favored press does.
Zeihan is very good at the fundamentals and understanding the broad situation that people are going to have to deal with in the future.
His biggest weakness is when it comes to political analysis and how individuals will act/react.
His biggest weakness is when it comes to political analysis and how individuals will act/react.
PeaceMaker 03
Well-known member
I agree with you, but that is true for any analysis that involves people.
Especially when we talk large groups of people, “…..the more people in the room the higher the stupidity factor”.
The coup in Russia may have failed, or it may butterfly something else. I do not claim to be an expert on Russia, but I do not see any easy fix for the country. The powers in charge of Russia have eaten the soviet corpse of what value it had and wonder why the Russian people are not supporting the government after decades of being left to rot.
After Putin does the real 'fun' in Russia begins.
Here's some Zeihan analysis of internal US stuff:
It looks like the Turks got their bribe, Hungary will demand their bribe next, but Sweeden will join Nato next.
He says that Sweden will be the most capable country to join nato since the 50s.....considering how few people have joined not much of a boast, that said sweeden plus finland cuts Russia off from the baltic entirely.