h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.nationalpost.com/todays_paper/story.html?id=440268&p=1

Two of my pet hates neatly castigated together. Well done, that man!

B

And a very interesting interview published today...

http://energy.probeinternational.org/climate-change/the-deniers/don-t-deny-yourself

B

Wait, are you not allowed to just shoot people like that?

Global Warming: While there are undeniable natural trends contributing, equally undeniably, human action is accelerating the overall trend.

If it were me, I'd be putting a lot of emphasis on developing byproduct industries for industrial effluent greenhouse gas emissions, sequestering the factory effluents, fractionating them and channeling them in to appropriate industrial and chemurgic applications. For example, industrial CO2 emissions channeled into greenhouse production of things like mulberry fiber, linen and latex, which can be used to produce durable and recyclable goods.

...An old idea dating at least to the 1890s which wasn't practical before development of osmotic diffusion filters in the 1960s.

The Icelandic move to hydrogen fueled vehicles is an excellent pilot program which could be extended to the entire world and certainly isn't going to destroy the market for petrochemicals which after all have many applications other than fuel.

http://www.worldpress.org/europe/0123iceland.htm
World Press Review - Fuel Cells - Iceland - Hydrogen Power

Another idea has to do with sequestering greenhouse gases by means of injecting them into non-productive oil wells which has better than the mean industry appeal and the benefit that once the infrastructure for that is in place it can be applied to other purposes.

"equally undeniably, human action is accelerating the overall trend."
I've seen nothing in the scientific literature ressembeling 'undeniable' evidence of any effect of human endevour on changing mean, average global weather patturns/climate. Corylation does not equal causation, unless, of course it is politically benifical for it to do so.

How many times do I have to tell people, it's them damned cows!

If greenhouse gasses are causing climate change then cows are a significant threat to the environment. Save a Range Rover, kill a cow!

The cows would be fine if we didn't stuff them full of corn. It's subsidies to corn farmers that causes all the cattle flatulence.

If it's not gas from cows that's contributing to global warming then it must be from us vegetarians

Have you given thought to the biomedical effect of an increase in atmospheric CO2 to 2%? How about 6%? Some trends are self limiting.

When I'm feeling particularly pragmatic, I believe that the Earth is self correcting, it will take care of itself. If we do enough damage to it, it will just scratch us off like a dog scratching fleas. It's not going anywhere until our sun begins its great expansion a few billion years from now. And I really doubt, barring full blown, Disaster Area Concert level nuclear holocaust, that anything we do will end all life on Earth.


We humans may not be here much longer, but life will go on.

It's kinda like those bumper stickers : Forget the whales, save the humans.

Forget the humans, save the geeks

Re: post 9.... One of the more subtle and insidious advantages of locating industry in trouble spots beyond the point that idle hands are the devil's workshop and the gainfully employed have less time to get into trouble.

burp

Hydrogen fuel vehicles: Two basic strategies, A.) burn the hydrogen to power fuel cells, B.) use the hydrogen in a direct internal combustion cycle. The latter approach provides greater power and longer cruising ranges for a given volume of fuel than petrochemicals, unlike all the other alternative power proposals I've seen.