by Michael Ryan
Coming up with new and innovative approaches to creating renewable energy should be the domain of any clever Global Citizen, and we should all put our collective thinking caps on to get this done!
In the ever growing, wide open Green Sector, New Ideas may not only save the Planet but could make a savvy investor the next member of the Billionaire Club. For anyone interested in the idea of “Going Green” itself as well as the practical potential for renewable energy creation from a purely immediate benefits standpoint, the potential return on investment for the Capitalist willing to gamble on new Green Tech ideas is great.
Enter an old idea with some new found energy: Solar Updraft Technology.
I found the following article on Solar Updraft technologies on the NYT Energy and Environment Page. I was pleasantly surprised and then actually became excited at the prospect of something so simple and green friendly as creating electricity from rising hot air. (Yes I know, if they could only capture my hot air…)! The technology was proposed by a German in 2001 and initial projects did create a working prototype that generated 50kW. However, further development was halted due to lack of funding. Now a company called EnviroMission Ltd. has opened an office in Phoenix AZ with a proposal on the board to create a facility with a close to mile high tower. If the project goes forward, not only do we have to potential to lead the world in Green Energy creation, but we might employ perhaps 1000’s of American’s desperate for jobs.
How cool is that!
Here is part of the article from the NYT…More at the Green Room Page.
The solar updraft tower, which uses the greenhouse effect and thermal convection to drive wind turbines and produce electricity, has been hailed as a novel — and promising — approach to renewable energy generation.
The technology relies on an elementary principle of physics: heat rises. To generate power, a massive greenhouse creates hot air and funnels it into a tall chimney-like structure. This ‘hot wind’ propels a wind turbine within the tower. According to some estimates, such towers could, if sufficiently large and located in the proper environment, generate emissions-free power at a considerable discount over traditional renewable sources.
<More at The Green Room>
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2009
Ayn Rand and Fred Nietzsche
…A Match Made in America
by Michael Ryan
The other night I watched King Vidor’s classic movie, “The Fountainhead” written by Ayn Rand, starring Gary Cooper as Roarke and Patricia Neal as Dominique Wynand.
The movie is not really entertaining in the usual sense. It feels more like a propaganda piece with cool backgrounds and high contrast lighting. Just like Rand’s books!
I’d seen the movie at least twice before and yes, I’ve read the book! ( I’ve read Rand’s “other” book as well, “Atlas Shrugged.”)
I’d planned on one day writing a critique of Rand…Well today’s the Day!
I have to say Ayn still ‘gets’ to me and I will admit that I agree with her take on Man as “creator” with a right to “ownership” of his life and work. I will also admit to a fondness for her “gospel” of individualism and liberty. Although her view…Roarke’s in the movie…that altruism is a sin and considered immoral is a bit too much for me. In a word her philosophy can be called “Solipsistic”… A philosophy not unlike a variant of Berkelian “Subjective Idealism” where it is the individual observer that creates reality and all things are uniquely personal.
Her ideas, in my opinion, have been adopted by a stratum of American Society that can be described as, well, “Fascist”…maybe in the least “Libertarian.”
Some background on Ayn Rand:
Ayn Rand (February 2, 1905–March 6, 1982; first name is pronounced /ain/ (rhymes with ‘mine’), born Alissa “Alice” Zinovievna Rosenbaum, was best known for her philosophy of Objectivism and her novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. Her philosophy and her fiction both emphasize, above all, her concepts of individualism, rational egoism (“rational self-interest”), and capitalism. Her father’s loss of livelihood during the Bolshevik Revolution and the family’s near starvation afterwards, laid the “foundation” if you will, for her hatred of Communism and the State’s ownership of its Citizens, their work and especially, their Ideas.
Certainly understandable.
For some reason however, Ayn’s Philosophy reminds me of Fred Nietzsche’s, “Will to Power” idea. And I’m pretty sure she’s more than familiar with Nietzsche’s works, “On the Genealogy of Morals” and “Man Proud Man,” both which speak of the Individual’s rights that ought to supersede all others’ needs and rights.
Her novels were based upon the archetype of the “Self Made Man,” a “hero” who answers to no one and follows no other code but his own. The Randian hero, a man whose ability and independence causes conflict with the masses, perseveres nevertheless to achieve his own goals without regard to the rewards or laurels offered by the mob. Rand viewed this hero as the ideal and made it the express goal of her literature to showcase such heroes. She believed:
1. That man must choose his values and actions by reason;
2. That the individual has a right to exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing self to others nor others to self; and
3. That no one has the right to seek values from others by physical force, or impose ideas on others by physical force.
Sounds pretty good, right?
Not so! These concepts when adopted by the Single-Minded Capitalist necessarily excludes “duty to others.” And the notion that the Capitalist should not be interfered with as he follows his “rational self-interest”, by government or any other citizen, opens the door to Selfishness, Greed, Fraud, Elitism and yes, Fascism.
Remind you of anyone?
Copyright © Michael Ryan. All Rights Reserved.
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