why is it so??? - when featuring pic's of power stations

[gardenlen]

why is it that when ever they feature pictures of our power stations on the media they show plumes of steam emitting from the cooling towers???

they never show the chimney stacks, like they do when showing those atiquated chinese units belching our plumes of dense smoke.

is it that they think that the public is so stupid as to believe that those plumes of steam are actually plumes of smoke from the furnaces???

maybe the gullibility of the masses is showing through?

len

[bazman]

Hi Ken

Like most industry that has smoke stacks, they fire steam into the pipes so when it comes out the top it's nice and white, it's so all those western people driving past think it's not that bad as it's nice a white.

As crasy as this sounds, I had a friend who sold his soul and work for many of those companies, that was their thinking.

Each day I hold my breath going past the concrete plant just over the pine rivers bridge. I also feel sorry for those who live close to the plant.

[Jim Bob]

Plumes of steam do not show greenhouse gases, but greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4, etc) are invisible, and in any case plumes of steam show wasted energy.

When your car goes "vroom, vroom", that sound took energy to make - so that sound is wasted energy, energy which should have gone into making the car go forwards, but instead is making a noise. Similarly, when they pump liquid water into the machine and turn it into steam, the energy it took to turn it into vapour is wasted - steam rising from the plant shows energy just floating away into the air.

So, a steam tower isn't a vision of pollution, it's a vision of wasted energy. It's therefore an excellent illustration of the problems we humans face - we're wasting energy.