Any physicist / meteorologist around

[Tris]

The analogy with lemmings is about right. History is full of examples of civilisations that rose up, thrived for hundreds of years, but ultimately exhausted the resources available to them and collapsed. The difference now is that we are doing this on a global scale and as such the Western nations are exporting their environmental impact and not seeing the feedback from this.

Was it James Lovelock who theorised that by 2100 the planet would only be able to support 2 humans at the polar regions?

 

[HamsterJam]

On one level, you must be correct. I.e. The friction of the wind agains turbine blades will slow the air (and cause turbulence). However in the grand scheme of things, I suspect turbines are not very efficient at removing energy from the wind.
This means despite the fact we extract useful amounts of power, it is probably only a tiny percentage of the total wind energy.

 

[Freddyjersey2016]

when you consider a cubic mile of air weighs about 5 million tons - the kinetic energy in wind in a UK weather front, at say a wind speed of 10 miles per hour is immense - a few wind turbines are extracted a tiny fraction of the energy

 

[John Brown]

Ultimately, all our energy comes from the sun(except nuclear).

 

[Fitzroy]

when you consider a cubic mile of air weighs about 5 million tons - the kinetic energy in wind in a UK weather front, at say a wind speed of 10 miles per hour is immense - a few wind turbines are extracted a tiny fraction of the energy

Sometimes things seem so implausible you have to do the maths. That’s a great factoid.

F.

 

[Yojevol]

Ultimately, all our energy comes from the sun(except nuclear).

And geothermal

 

[Fitzroy]

And geothermal

I was thinking about that last night and came to the same conclusion. Also found a nice article on why.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-is-the-earths-core-so/
Which of course only applies if you agree the earth is not flat.

F.

 

[Droogs]

Geothermal technically is due to the suns influence on the planets core really so just man made instant sunshine

 

[Droogs]

Which of course only applies if you agree the earth is not flat.

F.

My bits flat, it took ages to make sure

 

[--Tom--]

Well ultimately we’re all made of the products from stars, depends how far back you go

I imagine a turbine removes less energy from the wind than a large tree or two, and we’re down to less than half the amount of forest there was 500 years ago so we’ve introduced a gap we can fill

 

[Droogs]

That's what I like to see @--Tom-- positive thinking

 

[John Brown]

And geothermal

Is that not nuclear?

 

[Yojevol]

Is that not nuclear?

No, have a look at Fitzroy's link above.
3 elements of heat are
1. from earth's formation
2. convection friction
3. radioactive decay

Radioactive decay goes on around us all the time. Nuclear fission is the process utilised in power stations (and bombs) and nuclear fusion is what goes on in the sun (and bombs).
Brian