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Jun. 17th, 2008 03:01 pmProblem: Peak Oil. Oil and Natural Gas are finite resources, and the extraction graphs indicate that they are going to run out, while demand for this convenient source of portable and compact energy (not to mention easy component of plastics) is only increasing. Demand increasing, finite supply running out, problem.
Problem: CO2 pollution. Oil and Natural Gas are organic molecules. The process of getting the energy out of them involves reducing them to simpler molecules. One of these molecules, created in large quantities, is Carbon Dioxide. In small doses, the environment can soak it up. In large doses, a steady system is knocked off kilter, and into another steady state, which may not be so amenable to human civilisation as we know it. Amongst the effects of CO2 are increased acidity of the oceans, possibly leading to issues with anything that uses calcium to build a skeleton or dwelling, or which relies on them. That is, everything. It also increases the Greenhouse effect, which has been measured to increase global temperatures by trapping solar radiation energy as heat in the atmosphere, as opposed to storing it in some other way, or reflecting/radiating it back into space. This leads to
Problem: Global Warming. The increased heat load in the atmosphere is energy which has to go somewhere. One effect is to raise temperatures, but it can also lower local temperatures by causing redirection of winds and currents, which in turn change rain patterns causing droughts and floods, also feeding more energy into winds which pump into bigger and more frequent violent storm events. The globally rising temperatures, as well as local decreases and other changes, will drive many species out of the environment range where they are comfortable, without them having to move at all. Many local environments may change utterly, with nowhere for the flora and fauna to go.
These are all big, interrelated problems (despite what some GCC denialists like to say). And they all look insoluble: too big and complicated, too much inertia, too many people in high places saying that there is no problem, and it's all too hard.
Luckily, there may be a partial solution: SCIENCE!
Take solar radiation, turn it into algae. Growing algae also soaks CO2, helping reduce the levels a little. Not much, though, because much of this CO2 is turned into oil, just like we dig out of the ground, which then goes into petrochemicals and easily portable, convenient, high energy/unit mass fuel, just like we're used to.
Not a complete solution, it'll require lots of land area to get up to the oil consumption levels we're at now, let alone keeping up with the projected demand, and it'll also need lots of water, of the appropriate type, and it'll almost certainly be more expensive than the oil we're used to (even now), but it's a start, and might give a bit of breathing room to come up with other alternative energy sources, which we can use as well.
It's a start.
(Via Meowse.)
Problem: CO2 pollution. Oil and Natural Gas are organic molecules. The process of getting the energy out of them involves reducing them to simpler molecules. One of these molecules, created in large quantities, is Carbon Dioxide. In small doses, the environment can soak it up. In large doses, a steady system is knocked off kilter, and into another steady state, which may not be so amenable to human civilisation as we know it. Amongst the effects of CO2 are increased acidity of the oceans, possibly leading to issues with anything that uses calcium to build a skeleton or dwelling, or which relies on them. That is, everything. It also increases the Greenhouse effect, which has been measured to increase global temperatures by trapping solar radiation energy as heat in the atmosphere, as opposed to storing it in some other way, or reflecting/radiating it back into space. This leads to
Problem: Global Warming. The increased heat load in the atmosphere is energy which has to go somewhere. One effect is to raise temperatures, but it can also lower local temperatures by causing redirection of winds and currents, which in turn change rain patterns causing droughts and floods, also feeding more energy into winds which pump into bigger and more frequent violent storm events. The globally rising temperatures, as well as local decreases and other changes, will drive many species out of the environment range where they are comfortable, without them having to move at all. Many local environments may change utterly, with nowhere for the flora and fauna to go.
These are all big, interrelated problems (despite what some GCC denialists like to say). And they all look insoluble: too big and complicated, too much inertia, too many people in high places saying that there is no problem, and it's all too hard.
Luckily, there may be a partial solution: SCIENCE!
Take solar radiation, turn it into algae. Growing algae also soaks CO2, helping reduce the levels a little. Not much, though, because much of this CO2 is turned into oil, just like we dig out of the ground, which then goes into petrochemicals and easily portable, convenient, high energy/unit mass fuel, just like we're used to.
Not a complete solution, it'll require lots of land area to get up to the oil consumption levels we're at now, let alone keeping up with the projected demand, and it'll also need lots of water, of the appropriate type, and it'll almost certainly be more expensive than the oil we're used to (even now), but it's a start, and might give a bit of breathing room to come up with other alternative energy sources, which we can use as well.
It's a start.
(Via Meowse.)