[Geysers] Casper Trib article

[Karen Webb]

What whoever wrote the bio is, is someone who could use a course in 
basic grammar!
    I can't believe the grandiose nature of these claims, and I'm 
surprised this ended up on Reuters (except that it looks like you can 
upload your own press releases, or a service can do it for you). I try 
*not* to be a lazy journalist, but you are sometimes at the mercy of 
your editor. I had a very fair article on the subject of water 
flouridation hacked to bits by an editor (guess what went --- all the 
info no one on the paper had ever included that gave a case against 
flouridation), but I was surprised this article contained only one 
measly little comment from someone related to the park. It is a very sad 
fact of journalistic life that newspapers assign warm bodies with no 
expertise in specialized areas. Maybe Greene's plan would allow 
newspapers to extend their budgets to cover unpopular areas like the 
arts and sciences in addition to everything else he expects his plan to 
improve. Revitalizing the auto industry? Selling energy to Mexico? I 
guess he *has* lived a life extraordinaire, if only in the fertile 
fields of his own imagination.
Karen
(Like I said in my comment, the article just sounds like people 100 or 
so years ago saying "Look at all the bison. There's just so darned many 
that a few white men hunting them for sport won't even put a dent in the 
population.")

David Schwarz wrote:
>    Here's a link to the original press release by Steve M. Green, the
> inventor and, apparently, sole proponent of this plan:
> http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS134398+11-Nov-2008+PRN20081111.
>
>    I hate to resort to ad hominem attacks, but who is this guy?
> What's his background that he has this incredible, planet-saving
> insight that has been either missed or irresponsibly dismissed by all
> of the professional geologists and physicists in the world, who have
> dedicated their entire lives to the study of their fields?  A
> "self-proclaimed problem solver"?
>
>    Here's the bio from his own press release: "From NASCAR racing to
> world-record-holding Tornado Hunter, and creating
> breakthrough inventions such as his new Water Bomber which will help
> save life and property while helping to prevent the displacement of
> people during major wildfires, Steven M. Green has lived a life
> extraordinaire. He passionately strives for paradigm-shifting
> achievements that according to Green have the potential to save the
> planet. Green currently lives in Canton, Ohio, where he
> is working on promoting his energy plan to key government, media and
> the alternative energy industry leaders."
>
>    At least he's modest.
>
>    I'm sorry, but he doesn't sound like a geophysicist to me.  Maybe
> I'm wrong, but if I were a geophysicist trying to sell the story he's
> selling, I'd be sure to mention it in my bio.  To me, he sounds like a
> guy who read some facts that he understood at only a superficial level
> and put them together to arrive at a ridiculous conclusion.  Somehow,
> I bet that his lobbying campaign doesn't include anything approaching
> a rigorous engineering analysis of the cost and feasibility of the
> project he's proposing, nor of its realistic yield.  Yes, if you could
> harness all the energy of an active volcano, you could get a lot of
> power.  Good luck 1) doing so cost-effectively 2) doing so sustainably
> and 3) doing so at all, or even coming close.
>
>    As popular as it apparently is to think so, the world's scientific
> and engineering communities do not consist of idiots.  If they haven't
> latched onto this plan, then maybe, just maybe, it's not as brilliant
> as its creator says it is.
>
>    While I'm casting aspersions on people I don't know, I find the
> complete lack of skepticism by the Tribune reporter pretty appalling.
> I realize that it's unreasonable to expect every journalist who writes
> about science to have a thorough understanding of the subject, but I
> _do_ expect them to ask some pretty detailed questions and do some
> thorough investigation when someone comes to them claiming to have
> found a solution to all of the world's energy problems.  That's a
> pretty outlandish claim, and at least as far as his press release and
> this article are concerned, it's not backed up with a shred of
> evidence, much less anything convincing.  The Tribune might as well
> have just reprinted his press release for all the legwork that went
> into their piece.  I understand that sloppy, lazy journalism has
> become the rule of the day, but this is really above and beyond.
>
>    If I make a press release tomorrow that I, computer scientist,
> software developer, and problem solver extraordinaire, have come up
> with a means by which we can feed everyone in the world, and all we
> have to do is level New York City, I'd like to think that I'd be met
> with a little more skepticism than, "Perhaps the logistics are smaller
> than the cultural leap it would take to tackle such world-scale
> problems."  Yes.  If only people would get over their silly reluctance
> to sacrifice two million acres of some of the most beloved and
> spectacular wilderness in the world--on the word of a single
> self-proclaimed expert--maybe the human race could finally start
> making some real progress.
>
>    I can't help but think that some people living around the park,
> tired of various environmentalist groups imposing restrictions on
> their lives and livelihoods (banning snowmobiles, changing visitation
> rules, introducing and/or protecting species that impact ranching, and
> so on), think they've finally found a way to stick it to them: Tell
> them that they can have clean, green energy, but it'll cost them their
> beloved wilderness, mountains, forests, wildlife, geysers--all of it.
> That's certainly the impression I get from the gleeful, petty tone of
> some of the comments on the article's web site, and I wonder if the
> lack of skepticism in the article isn't due to that sentiment being
> shared by the Tribune staff and editorial board.  If so, it's
> misguided and the article only makes them look foolish.  If not, I'm
> at a loss to explain how you don't put a little more effort into
> investigating a guy with dubious credentials who claims he can save
> the world.
>
> David Schwarz
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