Interesting but long.
Geri
Member Posts: 2,100 ✭✭✭
A little thought exercise this morning... You are perhaps aware that the THIRD largest man made emitter of Co two is Concrete.... Or perhaps you aren't?
I just did some quick calculations.... Hoover Dam is made of concrete. Concrete is a MAJOR source of Co Two in our industrial world. There are 4,600,000 cubic yards of Concrete in Hoover Dam. Each cubic yard of concrete produced releases 400 pounds of Co Two during it's production. That's 1 Billion 840 million pounds 1,800,000,000 pounds of Co Two from building Hoover dam... Everyone talks about "Cle-an" En-ergy.... I laugh as there is no such thing....
Hoover produces a yearly average of 4.5 Billion Kilowatt hours yearly... 4.500,000,000 are generated there normally drought aside... So roughly 90 years of operation would have generated 405 Billion Kilowatt hours. So the average is.001 pounds of Co two per kilowatt hour of electricity generated just for the concrete involved. (But that is over 90 years). This of course doesn't take into account all the energy that it took to move all that concrete and build the dam generally which was HUGE...
DId I do the math incorrectly??? With appropriate life times of the various plants... I'm thinking it's about even long term... We don't have natural gas plants 90 years old at the moment to compare to...
Interestingly... Each kilowatt hour (kWH) of electricity generated in a natural gas power plant emits 0.897 pounds of Co two. Of course that doesn't take into account the Co Two generated by the construction of the plant made of steel mostly... Some concrete in the foundations certainly... Also that is an current number not one taken over the life time of the plant...
I just try to look at the world in a realistic way...... Concrete dams generating hydroelectric power... while on the surface seem to be very green, they are possibly more of a Carb-on Producer than a natu-ral gas plant or so it appears in the numbers over time I've found. freely here on the web this morning. Perhaps I'm just dreaming but I'm firmly of the opinion that popular narratives are there to blow wind up your skirt. I'm certainly not buying into the E---V,,, vehicle narrative... It's WAY worse than you are being led to believe. The term Joke applies rather appropriately....
Concrete is a MAJOR contributor to Co two production and if you think otherwise... do the math... Any construction project we undertake is a Co two producer. Big time. You see, we heat limestone to create quick lime. That heat is a Co two producer driving off the CO two from the CaCo three limestone... All those big buildings, bridges, roads... using concrete.... major sources. So lets all be gree-n and stop making concrete. And you think Gas--oline is a problem? lolololol.
My last thoughts of the morning...
Have a great day driving over all that Co Two emitting road ways in your CO two emitting vehicles... As we all know, electricity comes out of the wall plugs...
Comments
Interesting.......and that example just involves concrete. How much in producing/putting up a 400 to 800 foot tall wind turbine??????🤔
Although I can't quote any calculations........I'll go out on a limb, and venture to say that the world's volcanoes (The Ring Of Fire, comes to mind) have produced/currently produce and will produce more carbon dioxide emissions.......than mankind ever has............or ever will. 😉
I do know......just my $0.02 .