I stand corrected.

I'm not too proud to admit i was wrong.




But, i still don't like new
trendy stuff.

125 feet, that's almost 40 meters Per blade???
OMG that would totally freak me out.
Height converter says 400 feet is 120 meters. You sure you got them numbers right??

Here it is expensive to recycle. Some people separate trash and don't realize it's all going in the same place. Instead of bottles water, drink from the tap. Don't buy a big SUV. Don't wear a sweater in the summer because you have the a.c. blasting. Pesticides are a necessity. I'm thinking they have environmental friendly.

they still make them here crystal, but they are for sure loose market share

Economical wind, and solar energy, is a myth. The industries cannot stay open alone --- US Govt subsidizes them.
Same with ethanol in gasoline, It is only viable with govt subsidies. And it's bad for engines.

The kelvin is defined as the fraction ​1⁄273.16 of the thermodynamic temperature of the triple point of water (exactly 0.01 °C or 32.018 °F). In other words, it is defined such that the triple point of water is exactly 273.16 K.
On the kelvin scale ZERO is absolute zero (AZ), the cessation of all movement. NOTHING can be colder.

LED stands for Light Emitting Diode.

A light-emitting diode (LED) is a two-lead semiconductor light source. It is a p–n junction diode that emits light when activated. When a suitable current is applied to the leads, electrons are able to recombine with electron holes within the device, releasing energy in the form of photons.
P-N stands for Positive-Negative (two leads).
a transistor is N-P-N or P-N-P and can be identified by the leads and the color bars printed on it.
Basically, a diode is an electrical gate that only allows electrons to flow in one direction.
In direct current, electrons flow negative to positive in a negative ground system (think your car's electrical system).
In Alternating Current the electrons alternate direction or pulse (think your house electrical system).
For a LED to work, something needs to change the A/C current to D/C current.
In your car, your alternator produces a/c power by electromagnetic induction. Its the diodes in the alternator that changes that a/c current to d/c current.
In your LED lights, a circuit board with transistors does a similar job.

Both incandescent and fluorescent bulbs require a burning substrate to excite in order to produce light. An LED does not.

Cleveland, OH windmills
Lincoln Electric Kennersys wind turbine

the US accounts for a very small percentage of the world's various forms of pollution.

Far outweighing anything we, or Europe, does is the pollution generated by India, China and the African continent.

I think ecological degeneration is directly related to population densities.
The more people, the more pollution.
The carbon footprint is not the only cumulative ecological impact 7.5 billion people have on the planet.

We 'cause' our own problems just trying to maintain and ever increasing population.
We have an insatiable consumption requirement that grow larger every second.

Consider a simple issue;
Your house...
The wood needed to build your house comes from trees.
Trees are plants that breathe carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen.
They have root structures that provide structure to reduce erosion.
We harvest great areas of trees to provide wood to build homes and other structures for the ever increasing population.

Most people don't think of recycling a house.
This is because trees rot when dead.
So, we need new trees at an ever increasing rate to satisfy our needs.
We have established practices that require new trees to be planted when they are harvested but not all countries are subject to these laws.
There is still a lot of 'clear cutting' on the global scale.

Foliage also absorbs sunlight, provides wind breaks so its absence affects weather patterns. Forests provide habitats for other flora and fauna as well.
Its all connected in one way or another to the conditions on this planet and its all related to the human's need to consume.

There is no one fix to fix everything aside from removing our bloated populations from the planet.
If that were to happen tho, the planet would still recover quite quickly.
We haven't pushed it past its recovery point yet but we are inching closer and closer as time passes to damaging this planet beyond natural recovery.

Yes, those numbers are right. I checked my numbers with the information on them through Meadow Lake Wind Farm, in Chalmers, Indiana. One of my day bike trips takes me there. One was sitting on the ground, waiting for assembly, everything was there. Each blade, is 66 paces from tip to mount.(My paces, about a meter for you) The generator hub, is about 3 meters across, and takes 96 bolts to hold it to the generator. (bolt size, about 20MM) The blade, at the base of the hub, is about 2 meters, and it tapers out to about a 1/3 of a meter at the tip.

These things are MASSIVE! The towers come in 100 meter sections. These sections are put on a semi trailer, off a rail flatcar, and trucked about 200 Km,to where they're built. Just the trailers are impressive, they have wheels that turn opposite to the truck. I followed one down to a 90 degree turn, just to watch them go around that turn. Very Slick!

Washington has Environmental Protection Agenyies in States .

USA is well aware of any REAL problems.

The US Army Corps of Engineers and environmental organizations do a considerable amount of the work to protect the environment in the US. Businesses operate to serve the subjective priorities of the consumer (ie. protecting the environment, something else like medical expenses, or some project to make more money). Being an educated client certainly helps in making the “bang for the buck” on improving the environment more efficient. I have worked for landowners on illegal experiments that created toxic chemicals in the ground. I have also worked for landowners to assist them in permenant protection of over a thousand acres of pristine nature. It is necessary to adhere to a common vision with those who have the technical capacity to achieve the essence of what you value and prioritize for protection of the environment, and it also takes a collective effort for the big changes, and this often requires big money, legal expertise, an inspiration.

It also takes accurate performance evaluation.

There are a lot of people that are led astray by the media on environmental issues and conservation efforts.
This is the same media that fills heads with the idea that global warming is caused by people.

The carbon footprint initiative isn't there to lay blame.
Its an informative effort to get people to realize their habits and take a small effort to curb some of the more drastic ones.
Everyone has some kind of carbon footprint. Its impossible to live in today's society without one.

Consider this;
The world is aware of environmental issues that have global effect.
We have the technology to repair those issues but refuse to dedicate funds to the effort on a global scale.
So the issues continue to grow, pretty much unchecked because no one country or entity feels they should spend their money to clean up the world's problem.

Take that island of plastic in the South Pacific Ocean.
Nearly everyone now knows its there.
We have the technology to gather it up and recycle it but no entity is willing to spend the money on the effort.
So, it continues to grow, continues to kill wildlife and we just ignore it as it gets bigger and bigger.
Right now, its outa sight outa mind. It just won't stay that way forever tho.
More people, more trash being dumped in the oceans, larger and larger plastic islands and eventually it will interfere with our activities and then, all of a sudden, OMG we have to do something about it.

This is the common theme with environmental issues.
Ignore them till they are too big to ignore and then OMG we gotta do something, Hurry!
The bottom line is spend a little now and put the safeguards in place or spend a whole lot later and try to put safeguards in place.

The plastic islands... there's this Dutch young man who came up with a way to take care of these a few years ago.
He's doing it as well, already cleared up a few islands close to the US I believe. He's getting sponsors for the work.
But there's a number of people who are against it as it sends the message "It's okay to pollute, cos we can clean it up!"
There's something to that, but then why not start more campaigns on the other side of it to prevent it while another takes the effort to clean it up. It has to be cleaned up.
It's also not okay to try and prevent further pollution while leaving all that chit out there.

And yes, 3rd world countries likely create a bigger problem than Europe & USA, doesn't mean we are doing all that well just yet and shouldn't continue to work on it. A lot of things that have a huge, global effect are to fill Western societies needs, like oil. Last year got a newsletter from Green Peace about something concerning the Amazon reef that is being threatened by plans of Total & BP. The Northpole was threatened too, wasn't that Shell? I believe they managed to prevent that.

Wood for houses... I think that depends where you live. Over here houses aren't built from wood but brick that last a very long time. Okay, you need some wood like beams for the roof but these last as long as the rest of the house as well. I actually do think most of Europe has brick houses, except for maybe Scandinavia.

All wood bought in the DIY stores is wood that's been grown for it and/or replanted. I think it has been like this (by law) for some 20 years now. If memory serves this was the case throughout the EU, but nowadays I don't know. EU changes everything all the time, usually not for the better.

Also, it's not just stuff like that.
And I think there was something in Brazil concerning plans to build a huge dam for electricity which would consequently ruin large areas of nature.

Oh well, we'll get there, hopefully when there's still time to salvage the world so we can live on it. The planet won't die, she'll change and continue to exist. Question is: can we still live on it or not?

Thanx, you mentioned a few things I was unaware of and a few things I hadn't considered.
I'm not really a trendy person and not interested in the NEWS media circus so I tend to get behind the times.

You ask for a US citizen's opinion and I am a US citizen.
I am aware of my ecological footprint.
I do take steps to curb my impact.
It isn't a consuming activity but I do have habits that have been adjusted from the knowledge I have gained in the past.
Most people I know do likewise.

One thing not mentioned yet in this topic is noise pollution.
I read an article a few years ago about a study done on birdsong.
They found that as the noise from humans increases, birdsong is getting progressively louder.
The noise is cumulative, no matter the source.

In high school (astronomy club) I was made aware of light pollution.
It seems that artificial lights at night from cities and communities is blocking out the view of the stars at night.
Living in the country I never really gave it much credit till I moved to a city.
Then, I was on a ship at sea and it was blacked out for night ops and the view was astounding.
We miss a lot of beauty just because we are 'civilized'.

Speaking of the sea, Most of the water near the shore has a brownish green hue.
Out on the ocean, the water is so blue its amazing, utterly beautiful to behold.

During the 80s, my naval career allowed me to visit many different countries. One thing I noticed was that each country had its own unique smell. Some smelled like mold or rotten wood, others smelled like sewage and a few smelled like decaying/burnt flesh.
When returning to homeport in the states, I didn't notice a 'smell'.
I often wonder what the US smells like to people visiting?