What does Geothermal mean to you?

Once again the Winnipeg free press has the ability to drop my jaw, and make me to drool all over my pants. What did this? Some mind-blowing article, full of facts, and a well thought out commentary?

Nope.

What got me was this…

What is geothermal heat?

It's a process that uses stored solar energy beneath the surface of the earth, where the temperature is at a constant 10 C. Heat is drawn out of the ground (or groundwater) in winter by a pump that also raises it to the proper temperature. In summer, the process is reversed. Heat is sent back into the ground, cooling the building.

SOLAR ENERGY?

THE HELL?

That statement makes no sense. The Sun does not heat Winnipeg very well in the wintertime. I mean it keeps us alive, and it heats the planet's surface… but geothermal loops are buried deep in the ground to avoid the permafrost, and temperature changes caused by the atmosphere so it can provide a constant energy source. A quick Internet search, that any five year old can do, has provided many definitions of geothermal heat. Even Wikipedia has a great description that even I can understand.

None of them refer to ‘stored solar energy.’

As most of us have learned the core of the earth is hot, this is for various reasons, but the key here is that the Earth’s core is hot, very very hot, and this heat radiates out. This is the heat that the geothermal pumps use.

These people are in total support for something they have no idea what it is. It's not the first time they have made mistakes about alternative energy sources. Let's not forget Mary Agnes Welch's comments about Wind Mills, not for grinding grain , but for electric production. Wind Turbines work much better then wind mills, still waiting for the correction on that one.

Alternative energy sources are exciting things, and science is doing some crazy things, but how can you write an article about anything without even doing a 10-minute google, or wikipedia search.

Does the Freeps IT department block any website other then its own?

Did the Freep feel its Internet bill was to big, and now only has one computer hooked up to a dial-up connection, and the staff uses that one computer to listen to my podcast, The Great Canadian Talk Show, and 92.9 Kick-fm all day, and therefore don’t want to use it for any other purpose because it will suck up to much bandwidth?

Or

Are the facts that unimportant?

It's articles like this that make me glad that the Freep doesn’t have a bigger science section, I chastised them a few weeks ago on The Great Canadian Talk Show, for not having a bigger science section, but now….. ohhhh boy.

The article otherwise shows that private companies see the value of energy saving technology, and are starting to use them, and its about time.

But until you learn how to research properly..

Keep your dirty mitts off science please!