Noted scientificalist Albert Arnold Gore, Jr. took his message of LOOMING PLANETARY DEATH to The Tonight Show the other night, and here’s what he told Conan O’Brien about the awesomeness of geothermal energy:
People think about geothermal energy, when they think about it at all, in terms of the hot water bubbling up in some places. But two kilometers or so down, in most places, there are these incredibly hot rocks — ’cause the interior of the earth is extremely hot, several million degrees, and the crust of the earth is hot. And if you go down far enough, you can get so much heat, it can be used to generate steam and make electricity. And they say that here in the United States, we have a 35,000-year supply of energy just from geothermal. And they’ve now figured out how to do the drilling with the new drill bits that don’t melt in that heat, in order to get access to that source of electricity.
Wow, several million degrees! That must be why the Earth hasn’t turned into, whaddaya call it, a star. And apparently these miraculous new drill bits are made of adamantium, the stuff they used to make Wolverine’s claws. It’s good to know Al is getting some help from Professor X and Reed Richards.
Hey, is there a particular reason we’re still supposed to listen to this idiot?
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How can you be so snide about professor gore, he invented the internet you know, how do you know its not that hot, have yo been there?
OK, now the sarcasm is out of the way, has anyone else thought about the fact that extracting heat from the earths core on a massive scale may cause unknown side effects, or am I just paranoid?
Adamantium? Or Unobtanium?
He must’ve lernt all this in K – O – L – L – I – J – E . . .
Dave – you’ve got a very good point. I thought the problem these days was the atmosphere getting hotter? Doesn’t sound like pumping a crap load of heat from deep underneath the crust of the planet up to the surface, and thus, INTO THE ATMOSPHERE would help with that.
Also, isn’t the problem with areas of high tectonic and volcanic activity that the plates are thin or slamming into each other? Is putting a bunch of holes in the crap protecting us from trillions of gallons of deadly magma really a good idea? Why not make an airplane more aerodynamic by shooting holes in the fuselage at 40 thousand feet while we’re at it?
Oh, and was anyone else thrown by the 35 thousand years of geothermal heat thing? I thought the benefit of geothermal was that it never ran out? Are they saying that by tapping it the Earth’s core will eventually cool, harden, and theoretically stop spinning? Cause I saw a movie about that once – didn’t work out very well for anyone involved. And frankly I don’t think the current administration is bad-ass enough to detonate nukes inside the Earth to start it back up – they’d probably try a summit at Camp David which would break down when they can’t find a table big enough for the core of the planet.
These are the things that keep me up at night people.
I wonder how much energy we can extract from Al’s core?
I’m with you, David. Isn’t there some cheesy disaster movie about the earth’s core losing too much heat and starting to solidify and then EARTH WANTING TO KILL US ALL and things going boom everywhere? Tell me, Mr. Gore, after we suck out the earth’s thermal energy, are we going to switch to leprechauns to power our cities?
Wait, I forgot…we need to drill down into the earth anyway to get to ManBearPig. I’m super duper serial.
Scott F. beat me to the disaster movie with his superior awesomeness.
What about the people living under the earth fleeing the oppressive surface dwellers? Ooops, wrong sci-fi.
If you read the DOE website, there are geothermal plants (mostly in the West, where you REALLY want to be digging deep into the earth), but they don’t seem to harness heat so much as steam from extremely hot groundwater (geothermal reservoirs) that are relatively close to the earth’s surface. There is a reservoir in CA that has been used since 1960, so this isn’t exactly a new development. I really don’t think today’s geothermal systems have anything to do with harnessing the theoretical power of the earth’s actual core. Wouldn’t that raping Gaia, anyway? Bad enviro wacko!
Also, the earth’s crust is usually much deeper than two kilometers, though it does vary. From NASA’s website: “The outermost layer of the Earth is the crust. This comprises the continents and ocean basins. The crust has a variable thickness, being 35-70 km thick in the continents and 5-10 km thick in the ocean basins.” You aren’t hitting true magma/mantle until you move past the crust. While I’m sure it gets hotter the deeper you get, water boils at 100 degrees Celsius/212 degrees Fahrenheit. You don’t have to have temperatures of millions of degrees to make steam. At millions of degrees, I would imagine most rocks would be approaching a liquid state. I’m too lazy to look up exact numbers on that right now.
Regardless, a single building can make use of geothermal energy by using cool groundwater just feet below the surface, to cool and heat. No adamantium needed.
Gore needs to shut up and go away.
I just assumed he meant 35 million.
There are, in fact, reports that geothermal projects have contributed to tectonic instability and subsidence in Germany, among other places. I’m too lazy to dig up a link but if you Google geothermal earthquake you should get some hits.
And turbines are used to generate electricity. Not Turbans. He makes Obama look like Nobel peace prize winner. Oh wait…
I saw this on Stargate once. They turned their geothermal super conductor energy producer thingies up too high and it caused the planet to become one super volcano. It was pretty awesome watching everything blow up.
See – That’s exactly what I’m saying Bill! If Rodney McKay can’t fix it then it’s a bad freaking idea.
Hee. I used to work with an environmental engineer who was DEEP country. He went on a (very slow) tear once about how the DOE and the NRC were self-policing and thus shouldn’t be trusted. The best part of his drawling tirade: “Hit’s lahk kissin’ yore sister. FEELS good, but deep down, you know sumpin’ ain’t raht.”
I think we should start drilling in Al’s front yard, BTW.
Yep, I caught it too.
I figure we use super-computers to model umpteen years of climate, so we easily model Armegeddon too, right?
But what I struck me is that Al makes it sound like we’ve got two guys and a goat who ladle water onto a couple hot rocks to create crystal clean steam. Not really. The process liberates large amounts of mercury, methane, arsenic and ammonia from deep pockets. Our only answer so far is to shove all the yuck back were it came from, but then it’s concentrated and no longer fully trapped the way it was before we dug it up. As with all forms of energy production, there’s always a tradeoff. You can’t generate something from nothing.
Luckily the primary exhaust from geothermal plants is a bunch of harmless loose oxygen atoms. Yeah, they’re cute little buggers who float around harmlessly and sometimes they like to mate up with these adorable little carbon atoms and… uh… awwww sh!t.
Back to the drawing board, Albert.
“Hey, is there a particular reason we’re still supposed to listen to this idiot?”
Well, he’s on Futurama.
Two kilometers down? So it’s millions of degress a mile and a half beneath our feet?
All of those poor miners.
Stop listening to this imbecile.
Pasta, from whence does the Noodly One spring his beer volcanoes?! I can’t imagine I could be touched by His Noodly Appendage simply to drink warm beer for all eternity.
AL GORE, WHY MUST YOU TEST MY FAITH?!
The depth is actuallly at least 4,000 – 6,000 meters (4-6km) or as we Americans figure it 2.5 – 3.8 miles deep. The best place to drill is where tectonic plates meet, which also happens to be earthquake country. As far an energy production goes, geothermal is probably the cleanest and most reliable.
I don’t doubt that there are advantages to using geothermal energy. I just doubt that Gore really knows or understands much about it.
I watched this interview and I didn’t make it past his smug little chart about bird death causes without yelling at the TV. Yeah cats and windows DO kill a lot more birds than “turbans”, but birds and windows kill pigeons and birds that spend most of their time on the ground whose numbers are plentiful. The birds who live and hunt and nest high up where the “turbans” are are falcons and eagles and bird species where it actually really really does matter if even one gets killed. I guess Al can’t find a way to make any money off of endangered species, so to hell with ‘em.
The Earth has one hell of a fever you freaking moron.
“The Earth has one hell of a fever you freaking moron.”
It’s got a fever? The only cure is… more cowbell.
@ Punchy: So true. There are also a lot more cats and windows than “turbans”. Unless he’s planning on shutting the windmills down every spring and fall for at least two months, migratory bird populations will plummet with increased wind energy. All you have to do is look at the common flight paths: they cover half the country, and often follow mountains (a favored spot for windmills) as well as going over the Gulf of Mexico, Great Lakes, and both coastlines. Good luck getting past the court challenges on that matter alone.
Do we now have PROOF that AGW is a fraud, with manipulated data?
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/11/19/breaking-news-story-hadley-cru-has-apparently-been-hacked-hundreds-of-files-released/
This is going to get interesting CA Dave. Apparently there is also a 5 page document called ‘Rules Of The Game’ It appears to be a primer for delivering the global warming message to the masses in the UK. What also is disturbing are the emails discussing how to squeeze out any scientists who disagree. Al Gore better be paying attention.
I love how the media (who profit from WE”RE ALL GOING TO DIE FROM GLOBAL WARMING stories) is trying to bury the story. Washington Post has a small story on the last page of the A section before the letters to the editors. Most quotes are bluster from scientists who claim all the info and emails are taken out of context. Riiiight.
WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE FROM GLOBAL WARMING!!1!!1!111one1 THE MAYANS SAID SO!11!!1! A METEOR IS GONNA COME HIT US IN 2013 OR SOMETHING!1!!1!!!11!111
There. Now I have managed to combine all current apocalyptic hysteria so that you may freak out in the most efficient manner possible.
Speaking of environmental “scientists” doctoring their data… http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_climate_hacked_e_mails
The msm is still behind on reporting this or they take issue with the hacking and not what is in the information being exposed. For those wanting to keep up with the debacle at Climate Audit, Kate at small dead animals is doing a great job of putting the info out there in a clear, orderly fashion. Read her ‘the sound of all hell breaking loose’ parts 1 through 4.
http://smalldeadanimals.com/