Geothermal Energy
I have not posted much about my new career or adventure on the Putnam Press blog because I did not think it worthy. Most of us have jobs that we enjoy and keep us busy. I have worked at various places through out my life and found that I am much happier working for company or organization that is adding value to the lives of its clients or helping the world be a better place in general. I could probably work for an organization for the sake of working and getting a paycheck in the short term - but it would be difficult to sustain any level of enthusiasm or performance for very long.
My new career has taken me in a slightly different direction than I anticipated ever going. I have never been a great advocate for the environment and have mocked at times the tree huggers and doomsayers that have claimed that man is destroying the world. The scientist in me said that the earth has been much warmer and much colder than it is now and what man does will probably not have much of an impact. I believe that there is a much higher power that controls what the temperature of the earth is going to be.
That being said, I don't doubt that we as a human race are leaving the world in a much worse condition than we found it 10o years or so ago. These last few years (50-100) have been particularly hard on the planet. I have started to sway a little more towards being an advocate for finding ways to lighten that load.
I found this company that seemed to meet a couple of my criteria for a new career. One - be in UT for now until our kids get out of HS. Two - have a challenging work enviornment that will push me to better performance. Three - find ways to help others and make the world a better place. And last but not least - reward me financially for my efforts.
Raser Technologies is an interesting company that meets most of the above criteria. They started out as a company making modules that help electric motors run more efficiently. That lead them to developing electric drives that can be used to make plug-in electric vehicles. If I could drive my same vehicle and use no gas - what a dream come true that would be. That would help the USA get off of oil and turn the balance of power away for the unstable middle east.
They also are putting together geothermal power plants that would generate the electricity to power and charge the cars and my home without using any fossil fuels - coal, natural gas, oil, etc. That would reduce the CO2 levels that many claim are causing global warming.
Speaking of CO2 levels - I found this chart called the Keeling chart that shows what has been happening to CO2 levels for the last 50 years of measuring those levels. Dr. Keeling started making these measurements in Hawaii and then others started to measure those levels around the world.
This was one of those pieces of information that started the sway to be a little more concious about what is happening in our environment.
This was not supposed to be a long rant about the enviornment and what evil people we are for wanting to build homes and drive cars. I still drive a pick up truck that gets way too few miles per gallon. You will not yet see me joining Greenpeace or see me chaining myself to a tree in the jungles of Brazil. But it is good to know that the work that I am doing may help make our lives a little cleaner and healthier. We have a long way to go before we can turn the earth over to future genereations in a better position than we found it. But this may be a step to help us get there.
My new career has taken me in a slightly different direction than I anticipated ever going. I have never been a great advocate for the environment and have mocked at times the tree huggers and doomsayers that have claimed that man is destroying the world. The scientist in me said that the earth has been much warmer and much colder than it is now and what man does will probably not have much of an impact. I believe that there is a much higher power that controls what the temperature of the earth is going to be.
That being said, I don't doubt that we as a human race are leaving the world in a much worse condition than we found it 10o years or so ago. These last few years (50-100) have been particularly hard on the planet. I have started to sway a little more towards being an advocate for finding ways to lighten that load.
I found this company that seemed to meet a couple of my criteria for a new career. One - be in UT for now until our kids get out of HS. Two - have a challenging work enviornment that will push me to better performance. Three - find ways to help others and make the world a better place. And last but not least - reward me financially for my efforts.
Raser Technologies is an interesting company that meets most of the above criteria. They started out as a company making modules that help electric motors run more efficiently. That lead them to developing electric drives that can be used to make plug-in electric vehicles. If I could drive my same vehicle and use no gas - what a dream come true that would be. That would help the USA get off of oil and turn the balance of power away for the unstable middle east.
They also are putting together geothermal power plants that would generate the electricity to power and charge the cars and my home without using any fossil fuels - coal, natural gas, oil, etc. That would reduce the CO2 levels that many claim are causing global warming.
Speaking of CO2 levels - I found this chart called the Keeling chart that shows what has been happening to CO2 levels for the last 50 years of measuring those levels. Dr. Keeling started making these measurements in Hawaii and then others started to measure those levels around the world.
This was one of those pieces of information that started the sway to be a little more concious about what is happening in our environment.
This was not supposed to be a long rant about the enviornment and what evil people we are for wanting to build homes and drive cars. I still drive a pick up truck that gets way too few miles per gallon. You will not yet see me joining Greenpeace or see me chaining myself to a tree in the jungles of Brazil. But it is good to know that the work that I am doing may help make our lives a little cleaner and healthier. We have a long way to go before we can turn the earth over to future genereations in a better position than we found it. But this may be a step to help us get there.
posted by Richard at 6:38 AM
2 Comments:
Thanks for that great post! Dad had explained it a little to me, but getting directly from you made it clearer.
I've been watching a lot of programs about engineers working on electric cars. One Japanese firm built a car that is more powerful than the top-notch Porche. They showed the two cars go head to head and the e-car smoked the Porche. It's all in the magnets.
Then recently I found this video on YouTube about a scientist who may have discovered important ... I really didn't understand it, but it looked like he captured and generated energy without a power source or something. I just looked it up ... check this out http://www.neatorama.com/2008/02/07/perpetual-motion-machine-stumps-mit-professor/ from that link you can follow the link to YouTube.
Sorry for the long comment, but I think what you and Raser are doing is great!
Take care,
Don
Thank you Richard,
I also appreciated having your job description in writing. I understand everything you told us a lot better. We are impressed !!
Enjoyed Don's comments too !
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