Why

Why

The Focus

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A Foundation for All Nations to Compete in the Global Economy

Education is the Key, Employment is the Answer!

_________________________ The Hidden Agenda ______________________

" A Growing Partnership with our Environment "

The Past	Today Highway & Airport Grid Lock!	The Future!

a Nation that has left it's Roots & depends on Two forms of Public Transportation! • Carbon Dioxide Levels Rise • Mercury Climbs•Oceans Warm • Glaciers Melt • Sea Level Rises • Sea Ice Thins • Permafrost Thaws • Wildfires Increase • Lakes Shrink • Lakes Freeze Up Layer • Ice Shelves Collapse • Droughts Linger • Precipitation Increases • Mountain Streams Run Dry • Winter Loses Its Bite • Spring Arrives Earlier • Autumn Comes Later • Plants Flower Sooner • Migration Times Vary • Habitats Change • Birds Nest Earlier • Diseases Spread • Coral Reefs Bleach • Snow packs Decline • Exotic Species Invade • Amphibians Disappear• Coastlines Erode • Cloud Forests Dry • Temperatures Spike At High Altitudes

Air pollution kills 30,000 people each year and makes hundreds of thousands of others sick.

For the past one hundred years, electric companies have primarily generated electricity from burning fossil fuels like coal and oil. When fossil fuels burn, they emit air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming.

Each year the electricity industry adds millions of metric tons of these pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.

And until now, consumers were unable to do anything about it. Deregulation of the retail electricity market presents an opportunity to introduce a change for the better.

To date, five new renewable plants have been built to meet demand from Green Mountain Energysm customers.

Operating these plants keeps 40 tons of sulfur dioxide (acid rain), 43 tons of nitrogen oxides (smog and acid rain), and 20,000 tons of carbon dioxide (global warming) pollution out of the air every year.

Even now, despite the proven health and environmental impacts, coal-fueled power plants are as popular as ever because the supply of coal remains plentiful and cheap.

An even cheaper alternative, nuclear power, creates dangerous waste that remains radioactive for thousands of years. There is still no safe technique for permanently disposing of nuclear waste.

Environmental Impacts of Air Pollution and Global Warming:

Acid rain, disrupts the natural pH level in lakes and streams, leaving these bodies of water barren of plant life and animal species.

It also stunts the growth of high-elevation trees like the Red Spruce, a native to the Appalachian Mountain Range.

Acid rain may also accelerate the decay of building materials and paints including stone, wood, concrete, and many all-weather house paints.

Impaired visibility created by sulfate particles, produced by SOx, has obscured by 50% some of the most spectacular vistas in Shenandoah National Park and the Great Smokey Mountains in Virginia.

Altered landscapes and ecosystems may result in decreased crop yields, water supplies, and forest productivity.

Health Impacts of Air Pollution and Global Warming:

Air pollution kills at least 30,000 people every year and makes hundreds of thousands of others sick.

Increased spread of infectious diseases like malaria and the West Nile virus.

More weather-related deaths among people with heart and lung conditions.

Increases in respiratory illnesses including Asthma and Acute Respiratory Disease in children and lowered resistance to respiratory infections.

Increases in hospital visits and mortality rates.

Can technology help find oil fast enough?

Even the most ardent proponents of technology say there’s no guarantee that advances will come fast enough and be applied quickly enough to head off the possibility of oil shortages in the future.

But they note that most of the major increases in discovery and production in this century have been associated with major Technology breakthroughs that open up new supplies.

“What we saw as a limitation 20 years ago is no longer a limitation now, so who’s to say in 20 years whether our current limitations will be relevant?

Sept. 22, 2004--- How long will the world's oil last?

As production peaks, economic impact could be dire. When the modern oil industry was born 145 years ago in Titusville, Pa., few people worried about just how long petroleum would keep flowing out of the ground.

But since production peaked in the United States in 1970, a growing number of geologists, economists and industry analysts have been pondering the question of just how long worldwide supplies will keep up with growing demand.

And some are predicting that global production may peak as soon as next year. This year, global demand for oil — currently at more than 80 million barrels per day and climbing — has come closer than ever to exceeding the world’s known production capacity.

Disruptions in oil supply due to wars or market forces like OPEC embargoes — are nothing new. But with producers pumping as fast as they can, there is little cushion for temporary supply interruptions or heightened demand from industrializing countries like China and India.

We really are close enough to the edge to have no excess capacity. Demand growth shows no sign of slowing and now it seems to be accelerating.

The question now being raised is whether new reserves can be discovered fast enough to both replace depleted oil fields and keep up with growing demand.

The worry is whether there is something worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s waiting for us — particularly that the United States gets heavily hurt because we burn a quarter of the world’s oil.

It’s a finite resource; we can’t get around that. Eventually, you’re going to get to the point where there’s not any more to find.

Economists also argue that higher oil prices will eventually reduce demand as consumers choose more efficient cars and energy producers develop alternatives like Hydrogen Fuel Cell power.

But there is no way to predict whether oil demand will fall fast enough – or alternative energy sources will be developed quickly enough -- to avoid an economic shock like the oil shortages of the 1970s.

The debate over oil reserve estimates and demand-production trends is not just academic; at stake is nothing less than the economic well-being of the world over the next few decades.

There are numerous scenarios describing the transition from a global economy based on fossil fuels to whatever energy sources ultimately replace them.

The most extreme pessimists – found on Web sites like dieoff.com – foresee a kind of global return to the Stone Age as a world deprived of energy is beset by anarchy and starvation.

And even the most optimistic scientists who believe oil production will soon peak warn that the transition to a post-petroleum world will require an enormous undertaking involving breakthrough technologies and massive amounts of capital.

If I’m right about the time scale we’ve got a problem,” said Deffeyes.

“I don’t think you could reverse the decline. In an ideal world you might stretch the time decline of the curve out about five years. In the meantime, many scientists are looking for those alternatives sources.

Some have suggested that technologies promoting cleaner-burning coal -– still in plentiful supply in the U.S. -– will help bridge the oil gap.

Others have suggested that nuclear power will become more attractive if oil production declines too rapidly. Wind power, more widely used outside the U.S., has a proven track record.

More advanced technologies -– like the conversion of coal to hydrogen also show promise.

The “hydrogen economy" has been widely touted because it relied on an energy source that produces no carbon or other pollutants when burned.

Carbon tubes

Dr. Richard Smalley at Rice University thinks the answer may be found in a fundamental overhaul of the global electrical grid. Smalley won a Nobel Price in Chemistry in 1996 for his work in the discovery of fullerenes, a structure of carbon atoms arranged in a closed shell.

He’s now working on tiny carbon tubes that could be used to produce a highly-conductive, carbon-based wire that would improve the efficiency of the electrical grid and permit cheaper long-distance power transmission.

He also envisions advanced electrical storage devices that would allow homeowners and businesses to smooth out periods of peak power production and demand.

But the breakthroughs needed to make that happen will amount to “minor miracles.

Even if we had the technology right now to supplant to the current energy system with something new and wonderful, it would still take us several decades to do it because its such a big enterprise.

looking at the transition away from petroleum Hydrogen will inevitably play a major role.

At some stage , someone is going to have to stand up and say, ‘We have a problem here and I think we ought to go out and solve it.

Or "Often something looks impossible until somebody just grits his teeth and does it!"

Cause of Death	Lifetime Odds of Dying*
Car crash	1 in 242
Drowning	1 in 1,028
Plane crash	1 in 4,508
Lightning strike	1 in 71,501
Bitten or struck by dog	1 in 137,694
Venomous spider bite	1 in 716,010
*for someone born in 2000 Source: National Safety Council

A Foundation for All Nations to Compete in the Global Economy

Helping Put The World Back to Work!

_________________________ The Hidden Agenda ______________________

" A Growing Partnership with our Environment "

Hydrogen-Electric High-Speed Train Transportation Technology for the 21st Century

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