Alternative sources of energy

sepusepu · Senior Member

Alternative sources of energy

abre les ojos · Guru

Sometimes the cost of producing renewable sources of energy outweigh the alternative. Most western countries do it for political reasons i.e. catering to environmentalist lobbies. The science of climate change is certainly full of alarmist and the less dramatic facts get lost in all the hyperbole.

Still, the hypocrisy of the west is clear. After spending the last 200 plus years polluting the environment to achieve technological success, they are using their influence to dictate that other developing countries cannot do the same as the earth cannot sustain it. That's very convenient. But China - quickly becoming the worlds second polluter is excused because she produces 70% of the worlds consumer electronics for cheap.

Producing or at least, doing research into sustainable energy is important to Africa but we have mouths to feed. And given the choice of gradually releasing Carbon Monoxide into the air in order to feed people I'm sure they'll pick the food part.

To be continued I have to go to work now...

bingiza · Guru

http://www.activeboard.com/forum.spark?forumID=8720&p=3&topicID=7921464&topicPage=2

I tried to bring this up albeit in another way but its really a source of concern.

Recycling is really very expensive take for example glass, Malawi imports a lot of glass which end up ku dzala, the list goes on and on, paper, plastic and a lot other renewable products, the only thing we are recycling is paper turning to tissue, egg trays and cards

sepusepu · Senior Member

Indeed we need food but we have to look at the long term goals. At the moment we are trying to push the idea of irrigation. I dont know if whoever is pro irrigation have considered the cons of irrigation eg the Aral sea. Technology has got to the point where you can recycle organic material into oil and other minerals. The thing which caught my eye was that these plants do not need any external source of energy they tend to be self sufficient.

Most western countries offer us outdated technologies.We can only benefit globalization if we look at what we can do and when ( real time). For example India has become the back office of the US because they advanced themselves in IT and cought up with the developing world.

It is expensive and somehow a greater risk but it can be done.

sepu

eetchef · Senior Member

I admire your posting Sepusepu but what confuses me now is Bingizas own defeating opinion when he rushes into concluding that recycling waste is a very expensive technological innovation for a country like Malawi. When is waste waste anyway? And what is waste, if I may ask for a more positive elaboration as regards waste?

Still, I have been patiently waiting for Abres summary and conclusion in his reaction to Sepusepus posting since he promised to come back and windit up. Again Abres chooses to use unproven statements of results when he jumps from a chair onto a table saying this and that without actually answering the two initial questions of why and how (refer to original posting)?

What do you mean Abres saying that "Sometimes the cost of producing renewable sources of energy outweigh the alternative.?" What is waste?

bingiza · Guru

eetchef wrote:

I admire your posting Sepusepu but what confuses me now is Bingizas own defeating opinion when he rushes into concluding that recycling waste is a very expensive technological innovation for a country like Malawi. When is waste waste anyway? And what is waste, if I may ask for a more positive elaboration as regards waste?

For starters Eeetchef call a spade a spade technology doesnt come cheap thats where the expensive part comes in.

Malawi just like the rest of the poor countries is a dumping ground for waste that is not degradable we look at all these donations and we smile that we have things to use for free but we need to start looking long term. We are poor yes but knowing there is poison in food that is being donated why not refuse? (Nchifukwa chake ku Naija amakana polio vaccine kuti muli kulera)

Waste is waste yes but in what form? Even plastic has two types the degredable and non degradable thats why Nadi creations lost a lucrative german deal of exporting malawian sponges (Zinkhupule) there because of not using the proper wrapping and the whole consingment was sent back. Now the questions we need to start asking is do we produce plastic in Malawi? The answer is a definite no, we only blow what was bought from elsewhere we have forest that we can make paper jumbos for our groceries but we dont.