Relax… It IS Gonna Be Okay
Read Hondo’s post about Global Warming with some concerns.
Then I discovered that SecDef Hagel and the Brass Hats are taking care of it.
“We’re seeing the impacts” from global warming across Army facilities, said Katharine Hammack, assistant Army secretary for Installations. “Wildfires, changes in precipitation, and increased extreme weather events are growing in frequency and intensity,” Hammack said at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference in Washington, D.C.
I always kinda thought the old dictum of “Adapt and Overcome” applied to our military in general? I am REALLY glad to know The Brass is concerned enough to spend millions on important stuff like:
“The alternative financing is absolutely essential,” said Lt. Gen. Thomas Bostwick, head of the Army Corps of Engineers.
Bostwick pointed to several base projects to save energy – a solar wall for heating buildings at Fort Drum, New York; a ground source heating pump at Fort Carson, Colorado; and solar hot water panels at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington.”
Yeah, that’ll be better than spending the money on foul weather gear, better all weather vehicles, etc.
Aside: the other branches ARE doing the same indeed, I didn’t single out The Army.
Category: Geezer Alert!
And since they are on US Gov’t property they have been charged better than 10 times the actual cost and the cost will never be reclaimed for any of this shit…
Tax subsidies are the only way windmills, solar and all the other “green” crap will ever be paid for…
BOHICA !!!
Aside from ANY OTHER POINT in this post that I have a problem with: wtfbbq solar hot water panels at JBLM? I’m quite familiar with the area (many, many props to the folks at Fisher House there) and I have to ask whose bright idea it is to put solar hot water panels in southwestern Washington, where the median cloud cover ranges between 53% and ***97%*** (source: https://weatherspark.com/averages/30401/Fort-Lewis-Washington-United-States).
I grant you I’m not an expert on solar panels, but unless those panels can collect solar radiation through considerable cloud cover, I am left wondering exactly how these panels are going to help anything. Aside from initial cost, there’s the fact that a collection unit is only as good as its battery capacity and charge life…
Fort Drum recently opened new geothermal barracks. We occupied ones similar to this: https://www.flickr.com/photos/newyorkdistrict-usace/4721849388/ If you search for recent projects at Ft. Drum you’ll see a $34 million biomass facility conversion. In 2004 I was briefly housed in those infamous WW II wooden barracks (fire traps, all of them). If these new buildings last for at least 65 years or more I suspect we will see the wisdom of these major infrastructure projects.
Well, I do hope so – my issue with the JBLM choice is the use of panels, specifically. There are solar systems for heating water which could and would work in that climate, but solar panels would be a mindbogglingly poor choice. There’s just not enough days of radiant light (as opposed to ambient energy). I’m mainly just boggled by that choice, of solar panels to heat water in that location.
(visual)
Hagel and Pentagon leadership, bent over, with brown noses and lips from application to Teh BodaPrez’s posterior.
Ugh.
Buy stock in Chapstick and Karmex. With these clowns, you’ll have a comfortable retirement
If any of them actually had the faintest idea what they were talking about, I would not sit here, laughing myself silly.
Just can’t help it. The ignorant being led by deh stoopid.
Now, if they said that in Washington, they were using geothermal resources to reduce heating costs, I’d be more receptive to this, but as I said… deh stoopied.
Do they even have a clue?
Or heck, some of those systems which use hose systems – sorry for being unclear, I can’t recall what they’re called (all brain cells currently occupied in studying for a differential calculus exam tomorrow). But it doesn’t get affected by cloud cover, as opposed to solar PANELS…
Everything will be all right this morning! Take a break for the Blues.
If the real scientists are correct, they better invest in some white cammo and studded snow tires. It is supposed to get a lot cooler before it gets warm. Oh, and the Navy can shorten their anchor chains.
So now tree-hugging has a higher priority than Combat Readiness does? I wonder how many of these “Green Energy” contractors were lavish campaign donors to B. Hussein 0bama?
It’s amusing how the same people who would screech about the non-existent “separation of church and state” in the Constitution are fine with the government wasting money to appease the Holy Order of
Global CoolingGlobal WarmingClimate Change.As led by the Holy Right Reverend Al Goricle the Oracle.
You forgot PBUH, heretic!
from what i remember, FT Hood is the place they should be putting solar panels.
According to the Farmer’s Almanace, Washington and the PacNW should have a warmer and drier than average winter this time.
Their forecast, with the map, is right here:
http://farmersalmanac.com/weather/2014/08/24/2015-us-winter-forecast/
Let’s see who is right and who is just kowtowing to the gubbmint.
And then there’s this:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/10/14/water-temperature-of-the-great-lakes-is-over-6-degrees-colder-than-normal/
Yes, and the ice on the northern end of the Great Lakes (Superior) was there until July this year.
Even the local weatherman said on August 15, when the temperature was in the 50s, that we were having ‘strange weather for August’.
In regard to solar heating, it works if it’s done correctly.
This is what I notice. When the sky is clear of clouds and other sunblocking stuff like smoke, even if the outside temperature is in the 40s, the inside of my car will be toasty warm without the heater turned on. Sometimes, it is downright hot and I have to open the windows to let the heat out.
But as soon as the sun is covered by clouds or gone for the night, the heat goes away. There is nothing to collect the heat in my car. Solar heating uses water circulated through panels or tanks on the sunny side of a house, and slowly releases it. The installation may cost something, but the longterm use is nearly cost-free and requires only maintenance of parts.
There is a company, Enertia Building Systems, that buils houses which take advantage of solar and geothermal activity, using an envelope wall construction to insulate a home against cold and excessive heat. But it has to be specifically placed to take advantage of the sun and geothermal response.
Jumpiung on the solar bandwagon because they think it will save some money is fine, but if the system is not maintained properly, it will fall apart.
You either commit to it 100%, or you don’t.