another climate thread

[cooltigger21 0]

I know here we go again. Ok this is not to argue over whether we think it is or isn't happening. We've already established who believes it is and who believes it isn't. My question to the ones that believe it is happening is this. What is the solution in your mind? I won't even come back and say I think you are crazy even though I think you probably are Seriously though I am genuinely interested in how you think it ought to be combatted.

[TheBlueVue 177]

I know here we go again. Ok this is not to argue over whether we think it is or isn't happening. We've already established who believes it is and who believes it isn't. My question to the ones that believe it is happening is this. What is the solution in your mind? I won't even come back and say I think you are crazy even though I think you probably are Seriously though I am genuinely interested in how you think it ought to be combatted.

Oh that's easy. Dont you realize that passing a carbon tax will most definitely whip mother nature back into line? In a liberal's world where EVERYTHING or, should I say, every problem becomes an issue of economics and there's not one known problem that a tax hike can't solve. :-\

[homersapien 11,357]

There's a saying in the military that when you find yourself in a deep hole, first you take away the shovels.

It's already far too late to prevent the earth from warming enough to affect the climate and we have yet to significantly affect the amount of carbon we are emitting. It is politically unfeasible to hope man will actually do much of anything until the effects are undeniable. (This forum is proof of that.)

So assuming a global political awareness is achieved prior to to the point where the "facts on the ground" have caused such a general breakdown in our (global) societies that action is impossible, there will be a general abandonment of carbon-based energy for a combination of solar - and its various derivatives - and nuclear.

"The amount of solar energy reaching the surface of the planet is so vast that in one year it is about twice as much as will ever be obtained from all of the Earth's non-renewable resources of coal, oil, natural gas, and mined uranium combined."

Yearly Solar fluxes & Human Energy Consumption

Solar 3,850,000 EJ

Wind 2,250 EJ

Biomass potential ~200 EJ

Primary energy use (2010) 539 EJ

Electricity (2010) ~67 EJ

(EJ) is 10¹⁸ Joules or 278 billion kilowatt-hours (kW·h).

http://en.wikipedia....gy#cite_note-16

It doesn't take an engineering genius to understand solar is the ultimate source we need to be tapping.

This, combined with a re-thinking of our power grid to decentralized sources, has the potential to ultimate make us carbon-free from an energy standpoint. IMO it will be the next great technological shift in the history of man which started with agriculture followed by industrialization.

Again, the biggest risk is the temporal disconnect between geological changes and man's ability to perceive a risk. Worst case scenario is that disconnect prevents us from realizing the danger until it's far too late, especially if the change becomes non-linear due to feedback mechanisms.

If that happens one would expect to see global chaos, that would likely lead to out of control wars, including nuclear weapons. It will be one big "dog-fight" for survival.

The good news is we already have the technology already to prevent this. If we knew we would run out of carbon in say, 5-10 years, I guarantee you the alternative technologies would be available. The price of solar cells is falling rapidly.

But because we are sitting on a veritable "mountain" of cheap carbon (which we ultimately can't use) I doubt that we are mature enough to make the transition before it's too late to matter than much.

That's my casual (non-researched) opinion.

[homersapien 11,357]

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/427037/making-solar-power-competitive-with-coal/