Short Quiz No. 2 - Al Gore's Challenge to America

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johnkarls
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Short Quiz No. 2 - Al Gore's Challenge to America

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1. As Al Gore asks in his 17 July 2008 Challenge to America, did “The Stone Age” end because of a shortage of stones?

2. How much wind blows through America’s Midwest corridor every day?

3. How much solar energy falls on the surface of the earth every 40 minutes?

4. Why is Saudi Arabia different from the other members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (“OPEC”)?

5. What policy has this difference caused the Saudis to follow for the 35 years that OPEC has been setting oil prices?

6. Would it appear that this policy has caused the recent decline in oil prices? And should the decline put us back to sleep re solving our oil-import problem for another 35 years?

7. Will the price of generating electricity from wind and solar power decline as a result of economies of scale?

8. Will the price of generating electricity from wind and solar power decline as a result of future scientific improvements?

9. Is Thomas Friedman (a NY Times OpEd writer who authored one of our optional background books) naïve in thinking that China will ever pay us any royalties for our wind and solar technology if they are so notorious in pirating Hollywood movies, etc? In thinking any other country will volunteer royalties if China refuses to pay?

10. Do we need a US government “Manhattan Project” (which developed the atomic bomb) or “Tennessee Valley Authority” (a massive Depression-era power-generation organization) to finance Al Gore’s challenge? Particularly if the Saudis will try to drive the price of crude oil down to make the project uneconomic, if every country will want to wait so that some other country "takes on the chin" the costs of developing economies of scale and the cost of scientific research, and if the world’s governments can be expected to steal the technology that is developed at the expense of whatever "chump" country goes ahead?

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