Simply Truth

From a newsletter on the future of energy consumption… Something to think about!!

Newsletter follows:
Radical New Gas Alternative That Your Kids Will be Using
By Darshan Goswami, M.S., P.E.
Hydrogen, produced from tap water, could become the forever fuel of the future, generating power for homes, industry, and cars.
A new day is dawning for a revolutionary way to generate electric power from renewable energy sources. Imagine a future where the electrical power needed to run your computer, TV and DVD is generated from a small appliance about the size of a dishwasher located in your home. Envision generating electricity without combustion, and producing heat and pure drinking water as by-products.
Picture a world powered almost entirely by an infinitely abundant and totally clean fuel. Hydrogen, the most common element in the universe, is that fuel, which can be produced from tap water to generate power for homes and cars.
Imagine being able to drive your car more than 500 miles between fill-ups. The car you drive could become a “power station on wheels” producing about 30 to 50 kilowatts of electricity. At work the parked car in the parking lot could be making money for you by supplying energy to the power grid during peak hours. The same fuel cells in the car parked in your garage could provide power for your home use.
In the new age of hydrogen, each individual could become the producer as well as the consumer of energy. Automobile, oil, and utility companies are spending billions to make this dream come true.
Renewable Energy Source
Hydrogen is “a renewable, versatile, simple sustainable domestic energy” and there is no danger of running out of hydrogen because it is the most abundant element in the universe. Hydrogen can be produced through a thermal, electrolytic, or photolytic process from fossil fuels, biomass, or water. Renewable and nuclear systems can produce hydrogen from water using a thermal or electrolytic process. People can even produce it in their homes with relatively simple apparatus.
The Hydrogen Economy is the term used to mark the shift from fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas to hydrogen. The vision of a Hydrogen Economy is one of an unlimited source of fuel that would be used to generate energy without releasing carbon and other pollutants into the air.
Hydrogen has the potential to do for the energy revolution what the computer and the Internet have done for the information revolution. Fuel cells are considered the “microchip of the hydrogen age,” the key to abundant energy from secure, renewable resources. Ultimately, fuel cells supplying homes, businesses, and industries could be linked to a national power grid allowing surplus power at one location to be transferred to areas experiencing power shortages.
Hydrocarbon Economy
Today, we have a “hydrocarbon economy” but the transition toward a “Hydrogen Economy” has already begun. In the very near future we will have weaned ourselves from carbon and we will live in a “Hydrogen Economy” powered by hydrogen energy from renewable resources. You will have access to hydrogen energy to the same extent that they now have access to petroleum, natural gas, and electric power.
Some cities, such as Chicago and Vancouver, already have buses powered by hydrogen fuel cells. Ford, GM, BMW, Toyota, and Honda have prototype cars powered by hydrogen. Ford chairman William Clay Ford Jr. has declared that the fuel cell will “finally end the 100-year reign of the internal-combustion engine.” Such efforts are leading the world toward the “Hydrogen Economy.”
The present fossil fuel economy has created significant environmental problems worldwide. The Hydrogen Economy promises to eliminate all of the problems created by the fossil fuel economy. The advantages of the Hydrogen Economy include greater fuel efficiency, elimination of pollution caused by fossil fuels, elimination of greenhouse gases, and elimination of economic dependence on Middle East oil reserves.
Good for Developing Countries
Specifically, the Hydrogen Economy may be even more beneficial to developing countries because it will generate more economic opportunities, reduce poverty and offer a dramatically cleaner renewable resource to bypass at least part of the expense of building a fossil fuel infrastructure.
The Hydrogen Economy could produce total decentralization of the global energy market controlled by giant oil companies and utilities, and result in vast redistribution of wealth and power. In a Hydrogen Economy utility companies will become obsolete.
The Hydrogen Economic revolution must overcome major challenges in regard to the safe production, storage and transportation of hydrogen, and in developing new sensor technology.
“World Hydrogen Energy Roadmap” must be developed to address hydrogen production, delivery and transportation, storage, conversion, public-private partnerships, research, codes and standards, testing, public education, and end use products. This effort must include government, industry, universities, and research laboratories.
Government subsidies and tax incentives could be used to encourage put the Hydrogen Economy on a fast track. The goal of the program should be to develop technologies to safely produce, store and transport hydrogen from water, nature’s abundant and virtually free source of hydrogen.
New Energy Revolution
Hydrogen has the potential to do for the energy revolution what the computer and the Internet have done for the information revolution. Global reliance on Middle East oil will come to an end and international trade balances will be realigned. Fuel cells are a “critical technology” that will bring a total revolution in the energy sector and change the course of history. President Bush has referred to fuel cells as the “wave of the future” and called for a “focused effort to bring fuel cells to market.”
The ultimate goal is to use the renewable energy of the sun to split water into its basic components of oxygen and hydrogen.
The Hydrogen Economy would open the doors for fundamental changes in our economic, political, and social institutions, similar to the impact of steam power at the beginning of the “Industrial Age.” The giant oil companies are investing heavily in a hydrogen future to control the design, production, and sales of the devices that produce and consume hydrogen. Fuel companies like Shell, BP, and Texaco are forming hydrogen and fuel cell technology divisions.
The Hydrogen Economy is a bright vision for the future of energy that will revolutionize the world by reducing our reliance for oil from Middle Eastern countries. I envision hydrogen as the power generation fuel of the future that will wean the world away from oil, slow global warming, and lift billions out of poverty. If significant progress is desired, government and private partnerships must be established to concentrate development efforts. A “Manhattan Hydrogen Project” is needed to ensure the Hydrogen Economy vision becomes a reality soon.
About the Author: Darshan Goswami has over 35 years of experience in the energy field. Until recently, he was the Chief of Energy Forecasting and Renewable Energy at the Rural Development, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in Washington, DC. Earlier, he worked for 30 years at Duquesne Light, an electric utility company in Pittsburgh, PA.
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Dr. Mercola’s Comments:
There are many renewable energy source alternatives out there and plenty of technical innovations are cropping up, increasing our potential to replace our reliance on both oil and fossil fuels.
It wasn’t all that long ago that the idea of making a car that could run on, say, AIR, seemed completely preposterous. But guess what? It’s available. NOW!
The Air Car, by Moteur Developement Int. runs on compressed air technology.
According to a January article in the MIT publication Technology Review, the Air Car is set to go into commercial production as early as this summer, and MDI has struck a deal with India’s largest carmaker, Tata Motors, to put the non-polluting vehicles on the streets of India later this year.
We are simply running out of excuses for not converting to safer, renewable energy sources that don’t turn the Earth into a toxic waste dump with every light we turn on and every mile we drive.
Harnessing the energy of the sun is now also a very cost effective alternative for homes and other buildings. The award winning Nanosolar Company announced on their website that they shipped their first commercial order in December 2007. And since their breakthrough solar coating is produced at an 80 percent reduced cost from previous years, it should make them a serious contender for consumer dollars.
My new office building, constructed for my practice and web team, will have solar power, and it seems obvious to me that this technology will allow us to not only radically lower our utility bills, but do it without polluting our environment.
We have to stop this unnecessary reliance on oil and fossil fuels, and we’re starting to see some very viable, exciting options.
Related Articles:
How to Eliminate America’s Addiction to Oil

A Solar Grand Plan

Solar Energy Soon to be Cheaper Than Coal

End of Newsletter article…

Very good ideas… My only concern is the availability of water; which can be used as the fuel source…

BTW: you do realize that fresh water is in limited supply; approx. 2% of all the water on earth, that we can use today!!

Why the Recession Is Good for Us!

By Dr. Steve Sjuggerud, from Gatwick Airport in London”You Americans will come out of this mess just fine,” a top executive at a publicly traded British company told me this week. “You always do.”
“Sometimes it takes a challenge to find out what you’re made of,” he continued, and I was eating it up. “Americans are not afraid to work.”

This last statement stopped me… Is that really true? Do we still have a work ethic back in the States?
I thought about how, for the for the first time in American history, the life expectancy of an American might actually be going down, thanks to bad eating and lack of exercise. And I thought about all the reality television in the States, celebrity meltdowns, video games…
I wondered if Americans are willing to work as hard as he believed.
Then I thought of it from his perspective…
“We had a bloke pick up a computer off a desk and throw it at a window,” my friend told me. “But thanks to English law, we still couldn’t sack the guy for weeks.”
He says it’s incredibly difficult to fire someone in England. Worst of all, the employees know it. This causes two problems…
First, English companies are afraid to take risks. They’re afraid to be entrepreneurial. If they have a business idea that requires 10 employees to try, they might not try it, simply because they can’t fire the 10 guys if it doesn’t work.
Second, since the employees know they’re not at risk, they can be lazy – really lazy. Apathy kicks in around the office if you know you can’t be fired. You just clock in and clock out. It’s like lifetime employment, with the government insuring your job. As he explains it, it sounds terrible… It’s sounds like the UKSR… the United Kingdom of Socialist Republics.
In order to keep up a socialist republic, a government must have an insatiable appetite for money…
The big news in England this week was British Chancellor Alistair Darling’s tax hikes. Taxes are up on the easiest things to raise taxes on: booze, cigarettes, and pollutants. What legislator is really going to stand up and argue against those?

Now, if you buy a new Volvo XC90 in England, you’ll have to pay an additional $1,900 in tax. If you buy a beer or a bottle of wine, taxes are up. And a pack of smokes will cost you more in taxes, too. I don’t smoke or drive a Volvo, and I hardly drink. But I still think these are ridiculous – particularly considering that the Brits are already heavily taxed. Already, a gallon of gas in Britain is about $8. Eight dollars a gallon!
In the eyes of Brits, America is still the Land of Opportunity. While Americans might think that government gets in the way of business, it is nothing like it is in the U.K. and the rest of Europe. Our businesses are set up to encourage entrepreneurship. And while we think we’re heavily taxed, our burden isn’t as bad as it is in the U.K.
I hope my friend is right… America provides opportunity, and sometimes it takes being challenged to find out what you’re made of.As we experience these tough times, I do know two things:

1) In order to have the freedom to get rich, you have to have the risk of getting poor. So you can’t forget that booms and busts are a natural part of having a dynamic, growing economy. We had a real estate boom. Now we have the bust.
With the exception of the Great Depression, our economic system has proven to generate more wealth across the board over time than any other system. The recession now may be painful, but it is a part of the right system.

2) Stock prices can do extremely well in a recession. As I reported in the February 12 DailyWealth, stocks generally bottom about halfway into a recession. The average fall is typically about 19%. If this recession follows a typical pattern, stocks could bottom by this summer. Then you really can make a heck of a lot of money!
(Stocks may have actually bottomed this week… This week felt like the bottom we saw in August 2007, when an enormous amount of fear gripped the market before the Fed came in and saved the day.)

Things may look bad… but even compared to England, we’ve got things pretty darn good.
Remember, recessions are a normal part of our dynamic economic system. And also remember, you can make a lot of money buying stocks as the recession bottoms. Based on historical averages, the time to really start buying stocks could be here soon.

Recession Investing: The Right Time to Buy
How to Profit in the New Credit Crunch

Recession is tough… but it is better than the alternatives you’ll find in much of the world, where closet-socialist governments spend enormous amounts of taxpayer money trying to protect people from themselves.
Thanks to our system, as my friend said, we Americans will come out of this mess just fine…
Good investing,
Steve

Now is the time for all concerned people to come to the aid of their country!!
There is always a better idea… This is one of the best I have seen in a long time… Read it and see if you do not agree!!
The better the US tax situation; the better the world will be… Since the US is the major power house in the world, the better the US economy goes the better the world will follow…

fact you may notice that when the US markets go down; the rest of the world follow!! So when the US markets, and economy are solid and stable the rest of the world has a better pathway for their markets…

This is not iron clad, but it covers most of the over all world economy… You can do your home work and check out the world and US markets over the past fifty years or so… Because once the US has it financial house in order; the rest of the world markets can boom…
BTW; It would be great for every government in the world would adopt and implement a version of the Fair Tax in their country… This would be the best of all situations!!

Well we can always Hope!!