--Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Did you see where North Korea apparently threatened to "wipe the United States off the map." That's kind of adorable, don't you think?
Know your enemy, folks. North Korea is nothing. The real threat to our future? Alternative energy!
As part of the effort to wean ourselves off ever-diminishing fossil fuels, the United States and other countries are exploring geothermal energy as a virtually unlimited power source ("Deep in Bedrock, Clean Energy and Quake Fears"). According to an Energy Department report, geothermal power could, in theory, produce 60,000 (that's not a typoe. . . but THAT is) times as much energy as the United States uses every year. Sounds good. And unlike those lesser contenders wind and solar, geothermal energy provides the undeniable frisson produced by the knowledge that IT CAN CAUSE MASSIVE EARTHQUAKES!
This is a particular perk for those of us living near the epicenter of the newest proposed project, which straddles Lake and Sonoma Counties in northern California.
Yeah, THAT California. The one with the San Andreas, Hayward, and other smaller fault lines all over the place.
This is not just empty fearmongering. We have no objection to empty fearmongering, but this isn't it. The technique, to be developed by AltaRock, a Google-funded startup, is nearly identical to one that has already caused problems. In Basel, Switzerland, a fairly large earthquake that struck on December 8, 2006, was blamed on geothermal-energy "mining."
On the other hand, the earthquake apparently struck on the 650th anniversary of another catastrophic earthquake to hit Basel. So, y'know, maybe it's just something about the date that causes Swiss temblors. On the other other hand (wait, how many hands is that?), after the main earthquake, there were aftershocks for about a year, about 3,500 (that's not a typo, either) altogether.
A major earthquake and thousands of aftershocks, huh? On the bright side, the reconstruction work should stimulate California's economy.
If you need the Solipsist, he'll be in the bunker.
I fear earthquakes as much as the next LA native but that's also not the biggest threat. The very biggest threat of all is running out of cheap, easy energy: http://honeypiehorse.blogspot.com/2009/06/not-to-worry.html
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