Tangential Thoughts, was [at-l] Wind Farm Proposed at DeHart Dam

[janl2 at mindspring.com (Jan Leitschuh)]

How about site-produced wind energy? 
Enough to power the entire household? 
"Each Mag-Wind can generate 900 to 2,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity a month, depending on the amount of wind."

It's on the horizon:
http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/122605EB.shtml

"Turbine Company Harnesses Wind Power
    By Margaret Allen
    The Dallas Business Journal

    Sunday 25 December 2005

    High energy costs and green building initiatives could boost interest in the rooftop units.

    Fort Worth real estate mogul Ross Perot Jr. will be among the first to use a new alternative energy invention from a Plano-based company - the Mag-Wind rooftop turbine, which uses wind to generate electricity.

    Mag-Wind Co. LLC in February will install one of its first five pre-production models - possibly the one nicknamed "Toto" by its inventor - atop the developer's Victory office building in downtown Dallas.

    "We are allowing them to put a turbine on the Victory marketing center," said David Pelletier, a spokesman for Perot. "It will allow us an opportunity to evaluate how Mag-Wind works for possible use in projects down the road. Ross Perot Jr. wants all our people to look at green forms of energy."

    The founders of privately held Mag-Wind have been developing the patent-pending vertical-axis turbine since 1991. Each Mag-Wind can generate 900 to 2,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity a month, depending on the amount of wind. That's enough to power the average household, according to Bob Thompson, CEO of Mag-Wind. "
More at link.

But then, it may already be too late, according to 86-yr old scientist James Lovelock - Why do we think we can control and eff with  Mother Nature, he wonders? She's been doing this alot longer than humans. Forget Atlas Shrugging - when Ma shrugs, we go flying. Head for the Arctic!:

"Environment in Crisis: 'We Are Past the Point of No Return'
    By Michael McCarthy
    The Independent UK

    Monday 16 January 2006

    Thirty years ago, the scientist James Lovelock worked out that the Earth possessed a planetary-scale control system which kept the environment fit for life. He called it Gaia, and the theory has become widely accepted. Now, he believes mankind's abuse of the environment is making that mechanism work against us. His astonishing conclusion - that climate change is already insoluble, and life on Earth will never be the same again.

    The world has already passed the point of no return for climate change, and civilisation as we know it is now unlikely to survive, according to James Lovelock, the scientist and green guru who conceived the idea of Gaia - the Earth which keeps itself fit for life.

    In a profoundly pessimistic new assessment, published in today's Independent, Professor Lovelock suggests that efforts to counter global warming cannot succeed, and that, in effect, it is already too late.

    The world and human society face disaster to a worse extent, and on a faster timescale, than almost anybody realises, he believes. He writes: " Before this century is over, billions of us will die, and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable." 
More here:
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article338878.ece
or here:
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/011606EA.shtml