wind is the earth's way of equalizing unequal solar heating...so...when we extract energy from that process, what effect does that have?
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I like this question. All the talk about alternative energy, and people have not considered that they all have negative environmental impact. SOlar, wind, hydro, tidal all will have some negative impact. \n\nI am convinced that windmills have negative environmetal efects but the true effect will no be know unless there are a bigger number of windmilss out there. What I can say right now is that they kill a large number of birds.
385061
I have heard it as "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction" As for people and environment.  Someone cuts down a forest- what happens? Soil biodiversity changes, animal species in that area change, CO2 consumption in that area decreases.\n   People put more black top up- absorbs and reflects heat warming the earth's surface more. There are a ton of examples, I am not sure what you are looking for specifically.
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they stabilize dust, control erosion, entrap air polluting gases, conserving water and harboring wildlife. Climate control is obtained by moderating the effects of sun, wind, and rain. Radiant energy from the sun is absorbed or deflected by leaves on deciduous trees in the summer and is filtered by their branches in winter. We are cooler when we stand in the shade of trees and are not exposed to direct sunlight. In winter, we value the sun's radiant energy; Wind speed and direction can be affected by trees.\n\nThere are many and many more , hope i could cover the gist.
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No easily measurable effect. There is a small Coriolis effect when flying north or south, but not when flying east or west. The air and Earth are all rotating as a unit, so except for wind, it is no different than driving on the ground. Wind speed and direction is controlled more by heating from the Sun than anything else, and it can blow in any direction. True, prevailing winds to tend to make for quicker travel in one direction, but that is not what you are talking about I think.
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It sighs, moans and howls. It can sweep us off our feet or leave us burned. We share a tempestuous relationship with one of the most powerful forces of nature - wind - but where does wind actually come from?\nIt all starts with the sun.\n\nIt all starts with the sun, says Professor Kimberly Strong, an expert in atmospheric physics at U of T. Solar radiation emitted by the sun travels through space and strikes the Earth, causing regions of unequal heating over land masses and oceans. This unequal heating produces regions of high and low pressure. "The atmosphere tries to equalize those pressures, so you get movement of air from a region of high pressure to a region of low pressure," says Strong. Scientists call this the pressure gradient force, and it is the fundamental force behind wind.\nKimberly Strong\nKimberly Strong\n(Image: Jewel Randolph)\n\nEarth's rotation adds a twist to the story. While wind would normally move in a straight line, the spinning of the planet beneath makes the wind appear to follow a curved path. This is known as the Coriolis effect, which deflects winds to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern hemisphere. There is no Coriolis effect at the equator.\n\nThe faster the wind blows, the more it is deflected by the spinning of the Earth. Wind speeds increase higher up in the atmosphere, away from the frictional effects of the Earth's surface. The most extreme examples are the jet streams, which separate cold polar air from warmer subtropical air. Located about nine kilometres above the surface of the Earth, this fast-flowing air moves from west to east over the mid-latitudes and, at 240 km/h, boasts some of the world's fastest wind speeds.\n\nCloser to ground level, local land formations such as mountains and the proximity to water can affect wind patterns. Near the ocean, the unequal heating of land and water can generate so-called "land breezes" and "sea breezes". During the day, the air temperature above the land increases more quickly than that over the water while cooler, higher pressure air from over the water forces its way inland, creating a sea breeze.\nWinds are intimately tied to our weather.\n\n"At night, the reverse happens," says Strong. "The land cools more quickly, while over the ocean, it's a bit warmer," creating a high pressure mass of air over the land that then blows offshore. "Winds are intimately tied to our weather," says Strong. High pressure systems tend to bring clear skies, while low pressure systems, characterized by rising air, cloud formation and rainfall, are linked to bad weather.\n\nHurricanes are regions of extreme low pressure that have managed to build up high levels of energy. As water vapour condenses from warm, humid air to form clouds, it releases a huge amount of energy. That heat further warms the air, creating a positive feedback loop and reducing the air pressure at the surface. Air rushes in from regions of high pressure towards that region, and the combination of the pressure gradient force and the Coriolis effect starts the hurricane's familiar spinning motion. Winds inside a hurricane can reach over 300 km/h at the wall of the hurricane's "eye", near the surface of the water.\n\nTornadoes, unlike hurricanes, are localized storms that form over land. "They're violent wind storms involving a rotating column of air extending down from a cumulonimbus cloud," says Strong. "The pressure inside is about ten per cent lower than the air on the outside, so the air near the ground tends to rush into the tornado. The air streaming inwards moves upwards as well, until it merges into the air inside the cloud. You can get winds in tornadoes of 480 to 500 km/h."\nMantra project\nA balloon launch for the MANTRA project\n(Image: K. Strong)\n\nBut those are gentle breezes compared to the gales found on our planetary neighbours. Ju
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Not only possible, but it's happinging right now.  The sun converts millions of tons of hydrogen per second into helium and energy.  Mass is lost because the total weight of the helium is less than the original hydrogen to make it.  Thus some mass was converted to pure energy.\n\nSo the sun has been losing mass since it's first nuclear reactions when it became a star about 4.5 billion years ago.\n\nAlso, combined with solar flares and mass coronal injections, there is trillions of tons that the sun has lost over the years.\n\nAs far as the orbit goes, it does affect the orbit (making the earth tend go farther out), but it's negligible.  The sun is soooooo massive that even mind boggling losses in mass in our perspective is only a pittance to the sun's perspective.\n\nJust a side note...\n\nOur earth orbit really goes from nearly a perfect circle to a slight oval every 10,000 years.  Some attribute ice ages being  significantly impacted by this effect, along with global warming, etc.\n\nAlso, guess what.  Just a fun fact, but the earth GAINS about a million or so tons a year from meteorites, solar dust, etc.\n\nEarly in the earth history this Mass gain was MASSIVE.  Most of the oceans were formed by comet impacts.\n\nSo while the sun gets a little lighter, the earth actually gets a little heavier.  Hows that for odd...
68382
when the air on the land warms up and rises up,it creates a high pressure due to which the air above the ocean moves to the land .thus creating wind
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read this\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy
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I guess it is an assumption by you but it can happen.  It would be a better world because it will replace the use of many contaminating fuels and will be of a great economic value.  Also the hole over the pole caused by industrial  emissions and others would have a higher probability of surviving.  Actually such a use is increasing and you can find windmill farms for the production of electricity.  They are contamination free except for an acceptable low noise.  Although great advances are being made on the subject,  more can be done.  I have found a lot of information about this topic in the Internet, as well as for other alternatives like gasohol and bio diesel.  Today  you can get heat from the sun as well as electricity  by using either common panels or vacuum tube collectors.
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If you want some info look at this magazine call mother earth news it has alot of info on solar energy, solar heating and other stuff. Try it, i'll give the webs site of were to get it. I am always look at solar earth and cheap heating. i hope this helps http://www.motherearthnews.com/
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yes, of course the rotation of the Earth contributes to wind. The Earth is turning at about 25,000 mph. Air wants to stand still...obviously, air is moving to a high extent, or we would have 25,000 mph winds! But, friction, differences in topography (mountains, etc.) cause the air to move more slowly, so we have what is apparent wind. And, a bigger contributor is pressure difference in hot and cold air. The circulation of the Earth cause High pressure areas to spin in a clockwise motion in the northern Hemispher, and Low pressure areas to spin in a counter clockwise direction. When these two approach each other, pressure gradients cause air from the high to flow to the low creating winds...the stronger the differences in the low and high, the faster the wind to fill the low. Nature "abhors" a vacuum..and a low is a kind of vacuum. And yes, wind contributes greatly to tides. Wind pushes water in front of it, and when the pushed water comes ashore, the effects of wind are quite dramatic...such as a hurricane surge! Gravitational differences in the moon/Earth set up causes water to raise or lower, depending upon that cycle...a raise in water is a High Tide, and lowering is a Low Tide.  And that gravitational difference can be very dramatic....look at the tides along the Eastern seaboard. In some areas, the tidal differences are measured in a few feet, in others, the differences are as much as 20 feet! In some areas, there are NO tides.
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Definitively a lot of hot air goes up warming the atmosphere.\nAlot comes from certain party and politicians in that party. That definitively aids the  warming phenomena which is due to the changing tilt of the earth.\n\nOn the other hand polution cause the opposite effect . it cause solar diming  wich counteracts the global warming effect.So its a War between those with the hot air and those with particle polutants.\n\nAs far as biological life of animals and plant life it does not go back that far .Because it is the changing tilt of the earth(precession of the poles) that cause either global freezing or cooking.I dont think that evolutionary species like revolutionists could survice these extreme changes.\nThe complete poles precession was calculated by scientist and astronomers to have a cycle of 22,000 years.\n\nAs fAR AS DINOSORS ARE CONCERNED ITS NOT SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST THAT MAKES THEM SURVIVE. it is the availability of nutritional food that allows them to survive. Besides there was a global flood in the history of the Globe. And that was only a short time ago.(poor Noah).So that anihilated some of the  animals who could not reach higher ground.\nThis bring the question whew did the oil in the ground come into being?\n\nAbout millions of years? there were writing that dated before the flood. and these people also exagerated about Time.The same is the case today . Dont believe those scientists who talk out of the top of their hats.Unless there is positive correct proof.
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The law you are referring to is the law of inertia, which is directly related to the laws of gravity.  The heat from the sun and it's gravitational pull are what "make the earth go round"
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The easy answer is, of course, from the potato salad and burrito you had earlier. A more dignified answer is at Scientific American. \n\nSimply put, wind is the motion of air molecules. Two concepts are central to understanding what causes wind: air and air pressure. Air comprises molecules of nitrogen (about 78 percent by volume), oxygen (about 21 percent by volume), water vapor (between 1 and 4 percent by volume near the surface of the earth) and other trace elements. Every time we breathe, the air we inhale is composed of about the same relative ratios of these molecules, and a cubic inch of air at ground level contains about 1020 molecules. \n\nAll of these air molecules are moving about very quickly, colliding readily with each other and any objects at ground level. Air pressure is defined as the amount of force that these molecules impart on a given area. In general, the more air molecules present, the greater the air pressure. Wind, in turn, is driven by what is called the pressure gradient force. Changes in air pressure over a specified horizontal distance cause air molecules from the region of relatively high air pressure to rush toward the area of low pressure. Such horizontal pressure differences of all scales generate the wind we experience. \n\nThe areas of high and low pressure displayed on a weather map in large part drive the (usually) gentle ambient wind flow we experience on a given day. The pressure differences behind this wind are only about 1 percent of the total atmospheric pressure, and these changes occur over the range of multiple states. The winds in severe storms, in contrast, are a result of much larger and more concentrated areas of horizontal pressure change. Tornadoes are great examples. In June 2003 Tim Samaras of Applied Research Associates placed a scientific probe in the direct path of an F4 (devastating) tornado near Manchester, S. Dak. He found that the air pressure dropped by 10 percent of the total atmospheric value over the radius of the tornado. The magnitude of this air pressure change, and the very short distance over which it occurred, explains why the winds are so destructive in this phenomenon: air molecules are very quickly accelerated into the very low pressure at the center of the tornado where the water vapor contained in the air often condenses, creating the often visible "condensation funnel."
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Well, the solar energy received by Earth is considered a constant. The heat from residual internal sources is considered to be minimal compared to the amount received by the Sun. Also the idea of a constant temperature is relative to the scale of time and space you choose. I'm not going into variations possibly due to sunspot occurrence, orbital, precession, axis wobble, volcanic, meteor impacts, nor seasonal changes.\nHere is a general model of energy transfers, heating and temperature.\nThe amount and wavelength of energy absorbed by a substance or blackbody causes it to heat to a particular temperature and radiate at a particular wavelength. Though the atmosphere is of a layered, mostly permanent composition and the Earth surface is not contiguous, this helps understand the effect of radiant energy on Earth. The reactions of the Sun make it so hot the radiant energy is essentially short wave (high frequency). Consider 100 units of solar sw received by the Earth (insolation), the atmosphere absorbs 25 (mostly due to ozone in the stratosphere) and reflects or scatters 25, while the water/terrain at the surface absorbs 45 and reflects 5. As the terrain and atmospheric gases absorb the sw energy they heat, but not too hot, and radiate long wave energy (low frequency).\nThe Earth surface radiates 104 units of lw - 100 to the atm and 4 out to space. The atm radiates 154 units - 88 back to Earth and 66 out to space. How can this happen and where does the additional energy come from?\nThere are several parts of this development.\nPart of the reason is the atm is a layered, mostly gaseous composition that exchanges energy amongst the layers, the Earth surface, and out to space. Another part is the other ways energy is transferred, such as the convection and turbulent flow of gases that transfer latent and sensible heat between the surface and atmosphere. You experience this when water is transported and goes through its various phases to develop the local weather.\nLets give these processes values. Convective processes values account for 22 units of latent heat and 7 of sensible heat.\nNow tally the total energy absorbed by the surface as 45 + 88 = 133 and the atm as 100 + 25 = 125. The convective processes ensure the energy balance by transferring 29 units of energy from the surface to the atm to obtain the 104 units and 154 units mentioned earlier. This leads to development of a mean global temperature as we know it at 15 deg C.\nNotice how much the atm is relied upon to transfer energy out to space? Changing the atm composition with additional variable/ long term gases, particulates, and aerosols can alter the events.\nParticulates and some gases can cause more reflection at the top of the atm resulting in less insolation, less heating, and lower temperature. Addition of some gases into the atm can increase the absorbtion of lw radiation or prevent it from being transferred to space. When it comes back to the surface, additional heating and a temperature increase will result if the convective processes cannot adjust for the increased energy.
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Well, if you get something with the second to lowest potential energy in the world, that energy can go to the lowest potential energy thing in the world and that's it.  Otherthan that, no.  And there's nothing inherent in the material, unless you're talking about chemical reactions, in which case, I just don't know what those two things are.  I hope that's clear.
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I'm going to focus on the word "producing" here.  The sun produces heat and light through thermonuclear reactions in its core.  If those reactions were to stop tomorrow, it would take hundreds of thousands of years for us to find out.  Maybe scientists who study the sun would know sooner.  Energy that is produced in the core has to collide with an immense number of particles on its way to the surface -- so many particles that it takes about one million years for this light to make it to the surface.\n\nEven if the reactions that power the sun stopped tomorrow, it would go on shining for roughly a million years.  No one in our lifetime, or for many generations to come, would be the wiser.