Off the Editor’s Desk – 11-13-2013
I have a few items that I would like to discuss this week. The first is that last week while watching a morning talk news show, Franklin Graham was being interviewed and he was talking about his father, Billy Graham’s upcoming 95th birthday.
Franklin noted that his father would have liked to give a sermon, but is not able to stand up for that long of a time. He noted that Billy asked if he had to shake hands with all the invited guests that would be attending a birthday reception for him.
But Franklin related that they felt that as a society, we have abandon our Christian values and God’s rules. He especially talked about same sex marriages and our acceptance is OK.
I begin to think of how our society honors and worships great athletes, like Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings. He recently learned of the death of a child he apparently did not know he fathered until the boy was injured and died at the hands of his mother’s boyfriend. I wonder how many children he has fathered? Or does he even know how many? And all of them out of wedlock! Who is paying the support for these kids? Do I need to say anymore to make that point!
MORE ON WIND TURBINES
A recent report by Travis Fisher and Alex Fitzsimmons, policy associates with the Institute of Energy Research stated “Wind Power’s Stunning Link to Toxic Waste.” Wind turbines use magnets made with neodymium and dysprosium, rare earth minerals mined almost exclusively in China.
An MIT study estimated that a 2-megwatt-wind turbine contains about 752 pounds of rare earth minerals.
The report indicated that rusting pipelines meander for miles from factories processing rare earths in Baotou, China out to the man-made lake where the foul-smelling radioactive waste is pumped.
The report by Fisher and Fitzsimmons disclosed that about one ton of rare earth minerals produces about one ton radioactive waste.
Last year the United States added 13,131 megawatts of wind-generating capacity, and at least 4.9 million pounds of rare earths were used in the turbines installed in 2012. That means at least 4.9 million pounds of radioactive waste were created to make those turbines.
In comparison, the U. S. nuclear industry produces between 4.4 and five million pounds of spent nuclear fuel each year. So the U. S. wind industry most likely created more radioactive waste last year than America’s entire nuclear industry, while accounting for just 3.5 percent of all electricity generated in the country.
— Carlton