[Cold Iron]

@ Terez, even if we really are 5 years away from commercial scale production (5 years in any new technology usually means "we don't know when, not soon", wait until you get calls of "this year" (which means probably sometime in the next 5-10 years) until you get excited), there is little hope of producing anything like the quantities that will make any sizable impact on the market.

@paladin, you either change now, or you change later, but the reality is you need to change. you built your society on cheap oil? great, now change your society to adapt to expensive oil, or watch out because pretty soon there'll be no oil.

What's the worst thing we can do? Subsidise it and allow our unsustainable way of life to continue. I'm from Australia, we have the same problem, mate, but this isn't a war, we can't just drop a bomb on this one.

[Terez]

CI said:

@ Terez, even if we really are 5 years away from commercial scale production (5 years in any new technology usually means "we don't know when, not soon", wait until you get calls of "this year" (which means probably sometime in the next 5-10 years) until you get excited), there is little hope of producing anything like the quantities that will make any sizable impact on the market.

Do you mean in 5 years, or ever? From what I understand, it's probable that they will be able to produce enough to support the US eventually, and there's relatively little problem concerning infrastructure change. I'm excited even if it's a small win - like I said, this might (hopefully) be the first of many such innovations. But with people still out there that think ethanol is the solution, this one looks good.

[Cold Iron]

Terez;320565 said:

Do you mean in 5 years, or ever? From what I understand, it's probable that they will be able to produce enough to support the US eventually, and there's relatively little problem concerning infrastructure change. I'm excited even if it's a small win - like I said, this might (hopefully) be the first of many such innovations. But with people still out there that think ethanol is the solution, this one looks good.

Infastructure change is not the issue, reliable production is. It's worth investment, but I'd be surprised if we ever saw anything like the current oil usage coming from it.

[Terez]

I would too, if for no other reason than that these guys will be milking their patents as much as possible, so it's inevitable that other solutions will come from other areas, creating a competition that would make such high production unnecessary. At least, that's the scenario I'm hoping for.

[Cold Iron]

And I'm hoping nudism becomes the next craze to sweep the whole world's population of 16-30 year old girls

[Terez]

That pessimistic, huh?

[Cold Iron]

hey I could have said 14-45

[Optimus Prime]

This is more related to the energy crisis, but it technically ties into climate change as well.

http://www.universetoday.com/2008/06/01/ha...wer-from-space/

[Cold Iron]

Problem (cos you knew I'd find one):

Quote

The energy collected by highly efficient solar panels could be beamed down to Earth (although it is not clear from the source what technology will go into "beaming" energy to Earth) where it is fed into the national grid of the country maintaining the system.

[Cold Iron]

Half of Papua New Guinea Forests Could Vanish

:folken:

[Cold Iron]

For everyone who wants longer datasamples:

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/06/05/l...al-warming.html

[Optimus Prime]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25009273/

Realistic, Optimistic, or Impossible?

[Terez]

Worth a shot, one way or the other. Though not doubt some funds will be misappropriated along the way...

[caladanbrood]

Has anyone posted about the latest plans for CO2 scrubbing yet?

[Cold Iron]

Tree Leaves Keep Inner Temp Steady

Quote

For decades, scientists studying the impact of global warming have measured the oxygen isotope ratio in tree rings to determine the air temperature and relative humidity of historical climates.

Oxygen atoms within water molecules evaporate more or less quickly depending on the number of neutrons they carry, and the ratio between these differently weighted atoms in tree trunk rings has been used as a measure of year-to-year fluctuations in temperatures and rainfall.

"The assumption in all of these studies was that tree leaf temperatures were equal to ambient temperatures," lead researcher Brent Helliker said. "It turns out that they are not."

@brood, no, and since we don't really have anywhere to put all the emitted CO2, it's not really a feasible technology

[Sparkimus]

Cold Iron;328378 said:

Tree Leaves Keep Inner Temp Steady



@brood, no, and since we don't really have anywhere to put all the emitted CO2, it's not really a feasible technology

Send it into space...wait, that's my answer for everything.

[Optimus Prime]

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/06/19/z...arth-water.html

This is not good.

[Cold Iron]

Xander;334557 said:

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/06/19/z...arth-water.html

This is not good.

Are you sure you linked the right story there buddy?

[Optimus Prime]

http://dsc.discovery...an-warming.html

Interesting, that story wasn't even posted on the site the day I linked...hmm...weird.

CI, back from the dead!

[Shinrei]

http://www.madison.c...me/forum/292632