Richard J Kinch wrote:
Ron Hardin writes:

A regular bike rider can easily put out 250w for hours, which ought
to keep ahead of a flood with lots of room for breaks.

Consider the horsepower it takes to lift a given volume of water a
given height in a given time. A man isn't good for much, bicycle or
no. This was well known to the 19th century navies of the world wrt
bilge pumps and to firefighting before the era of portable steam
engines.

Reminds me of a friend who thought we would fly on bicycles some day,
it was just a matter of improving the mechanical efficiency. That he
couldn't run up a few flights of stairs without being exhausted
didn't seem to be a problem.

Likewise those who think the country can be run by sunbeams. There's only
700 watts/sq meter of sunlight falling on the surface of the earth. At the
equator. At noon. With no clouds. The ONLY way to increase that number is to
move the orbit of the earth closer to the sun.