Welcome

3 Responses to Welcome

1. Anonymous says:

   October 5, 2010 at 12:43 am

   Hey Hal, I love the new site! It’s sooo easy on the eyes!

   Reply
2. Razzing Hal makes good radio! says:

   November 6, 2010 at 6:30 am

   Harvey is Bezerkley’s fruitcake equivalent of LA’s Julius, Monterey’s Bob Oliver, & Salinas’s The Great Ben. At least Julius & Ben seem to listen to your show. Harvey typically crank-calls with an off-topic payload of crap & unfortunately, you let him babble his scientific nonsense unchallenged. I suspect a “Linus” carbon fog has clouded your judgment on energy matters due to the guilt you feel from your own King-Kong sized carbon footprints that surround KRXA & now stretch across the country. If solar is so ready for prime time, lets see you reach for your wallet & run your transmitter on it. Oh that’s right, you think the taxpaying public should reach in THEIR wallet to fund your solar energy use even though like you, they can’t afford it.

   Solar panels are NOT even close to as pollution free as Harvey alleges. Making solar panels “cost-effectively” simply transfers our pollution to the the third-world’s back yard where it creates hazardous waste sites that maim & kill and that would cost billions to clean. Remember the pollution to underground & surface waters when similar products were manufactured heavily in Silicon Valley? The pollution that still remains from those times is nothing compared to what the Chinese turn a blind eye to in their desperate pursuit of American dollars. Then there is the issue of the safety of installing & maintaining millions of solar panels on rooftops. Like the roofing & construction industries, illegals & other undesirables would soon dominate this dangerous line of work. There are plenty of articles to support this:

   http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/32974

   “A recent Washington Post article, however, has revealed that China’s booming solar industry is not as green as one might expect. Many of the solar panels that now adorn European and American rooftops have left behind a legacy of toxic pollution in Chinese villages and farmlands.

   The Post article describes how Luoyang Zhonggui, a major Chinese polysilicon manufacturer, is dumping toxic factory waste directly on to the lands of neighboring villages, killing crops and poisoning residents. Other polysilicon factories in the country have similar problems, either because they have not installed effective pollution control equipment or they are not operating these systems to full capacity. Polysilicon is a key component of the sunlight-capturing wafers used in solar photovoltaic (PV) cells.

   China is now a global leader in solar PV manufacture. According to the recent Worldwatch Institute report Powering China’s Development: The Role of Renewable Energy, PV production capacity in China jumped from 350 megawatts (MW) in 2005 to over 1,000 MW in 2006, with 1,500 MW estimated for 2007. High-profile initial public stock offerings for several Chinese companies, some valued in the billions of dollars, have focused global attention on how this industry will progress—having literally developed from scratch into the world’s third largest PV industry in just five years. Most of this development, however, is driven by global demand, with over 90 percent of Chinese-made solar PV systems being exported to Europe, Japan, and the United States.

   Technologies exist to recycle the chemical byproducts of solar-cell production, but some Chinese polysilicon plants, including Luoyang Zhonggui, are cutting costs and corners by avoiding significant extra investment in pollution control. The cheaper prices of their products, which do not currently factor in environmental costs, are projected to fan the rapid expansion of Chinese-made solar PV systems around the world, especially in industrial countries that can afford the still-expensive units.

   Although China will eventually benefit from this green technology as well as costs decline further, for the time being the industry continues to tread the traditional path of “pollute first, clean up afterwards.” At stake are the underrepresented groups in Chinese society, especially rural farmers who depend on increasingly polluted lands for a living. China’s shining solar industry, while enabling blue skies elsewhere, is leaving behind a scarred landscape at home.

   So far, the environment has been the biggest loser in China’s rapid economic growth. The irony of the recent Post exposé is that the environment is not even being considered seriously by those Chinese industries that bear a “green” tag, and whose products support progress toward a better environment.”

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3. Where did you put the dagnabbit edit button! says:

   November 6, 2010 at 6:56 am

   Hal- Where did you put the dagnabbit edit button that I rely on? Correction nec: I suspect a “PIGPEN” carbon fog has clouded your judgment on energy matters due to the guilt you feel from your own King-Kong sized carbon footprints that surround KRXA & now stretch across the country. (I’m trying to create an image of your energy use that you’ll remember forever but it’s all in fun!)

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