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Sea Change – The Pacific's Perilous Turn

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Re: Sea Change – The Pacific's Perilous Turn

#31

Post by yk »

jallmann wrote: post #10
moocowduckquack wrote: post #8

So, how do we build solar faster? The energy is there, there is ~89 petawatts of incoming solar hitting the ground and we apparently use ~18 terawatts and it looks technically achievable using current technology, so the main restriction would seem to be production capacity and capital costs.

We'd have to cover too much land with solar panels. What we need are more nuclear power plants, but no one will build them anymore.

You need something like half of the Sahara to produce the global primary energy consumption from solar panels alone. [1] ( Or the next few largest deserts combined.) So this is certainly not easy, but it is on the scale of doable. On the other hand, there are reasons why no one has ever tried to finance a nuclear power plant out of his own pockets, it is basically a bet on the interest rate of the next 30 years. ( And besides, we see in Germany that nuclear power gets slaughtered in the market when there is too much renewable energy. [2])

[1] 100 TW primary energy, 100 W/m^2 for solar irradiation on earth and 20% efficiency of the solar cells. Then you need 5e6 m^2.

[2] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-04-22/windmill-boom-curbs...

Re: Sea Change – The Pacific's Perilous Turn

#33

Post by indefatigable »

rickjames28 wrote: post #32

Like many who visit HN, I am an atheist. I am coming to believe, however, that the production of CO2 is the greatest sin, in the religious sense, that exists today Yes, global warming has become the religion of leftists.

Someone famous once said something to the effect of: "When people believe in nothing, they will believe anything."

Interestingly enough most of those people are completely in denial about their own irrational zealotry.

Re: Sea Change – The Pacific's Perilous Turn

#34

Post by [deleted] »

revscat wrote: post #7

Like many who visit HN, I am an atheist. I am coming to believe, however, that the production of CO2 is the greatest sin, in the religious sense, that exists today. It dwarfs all other problems -- Syria, terrorism, the NSA, class and economic disparity, all of them. Being technologists we tend to assume (hope?) that some solution will present itself before it is too late. I am growing increasingly pessimistic that su…

[deleted]

Re: Sea Change – The Pacific's Perilous Turn

#35

Post by moocowduckquack »

AsymetricCom wrote: post #17
ph0rque wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a way to sequester CO2 in soil, reverse desertification, and make more delicious steak, all at the same time: http://www.savoryinstitute.com/

No, we must throw off the shekels of our oppressors, then we can talk about practical solutions.

maybe after dinar

Re: Sea Change – The Pacific's Perilous Turn

#37

Post by yetanotherphd »

The most important component of a strategy to reduce CO2 emissions is a carbon tax, which is economically equivalent to a cap-and-trade system. However, people involved in tech seem to be especially prone to what I call a "problem solving" bias: discrete problems require discrete solutions, and we just have to figure out if the right solution is solar, nuclear, or the Savory Institute. The (correct) economic point of view is that there are many possible solutions, and a carbon tax properly incentivizes implementing all of them.

On the issue of China, because their per capita emissions are so low, and any reasonable global cap and trade system would allocate CO2 emissions rights to countries on a per-capita basis (or at least per-capita indexed to some base year like 1960), China is not actually the bad guy, and under a fair cap and trade system they would be net sellers of CO2 credits not the other way around. However too many people are blinkered by anti-Sinitism to accept this fact.

Re: Sea Change – The Pacific's Perilous Turn

#38

Post by vertr07 »

rickjames28 wrote: post #32

Like many who visit HN, I am an atheist. I am coming to believe, however, that the production of CO2 is the greatest sin, in the religious sense, that exists today Yes, global warming has become the religion of leftists.

I always find it funny when the religious claim that atheists are actually religious too and use that to dismiss them.

Re: Sea Change – The Pacific's Perilous Turn

#39

Post by vertr07 »

indefatigable wrote: post #33
rickjames28 wrote: post #32

Like many who visit HN, I am an atheist. I am coming to believe, however, that the production of CO2 is the greatest sin, in the religious sense, that exists today Yes, global warming has become the religion of leftists.

Someone famous once said something to the effect of: "When people believe in nothing, they will believe anything." Interestingly enough most of those people are completely in denial about their own irrational zealotry.

I think what you are referring to is: “He who stands for nothing will fall for anything.” ― Alexander Hamilton

Nice try though.

Re: Sea Change – The Pacific's Perilous Turn

#40

Post by Margaret12 »

moocowduckquack wrote: post #35
AsymetricCom wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, we must throw off the shekels of our oppressors, then we can talk about practical solutions.

maybe after dinar

my buddy's mother-in-law makes $75 every hour on the internet. She has been without a job for seven months but last month her check was $17516 just working on the internet for a few hours. useful source...

http://xurl.es/w2x2a

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