The End of the World is Near, Unless We Follow My Well-Thought Out Plan [View All]

[Dems Will Win]

Are we doomed? If global warming continues, and the methane-heavy peat bogs in Russia and Canada melt, in turn melting some methane deposits on the ocean bottom, the temperature of the Earth would soar 30 degrees Celsius, as it did during the Permian Extinction, when 95% of all species died out.

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=227

So we have to stop global warming. Now. It's the biggest emergency in the history of the world, bigger than WWII and we have to accept this inconvenient truth.

Gore had it right in his movie when he showed how to address the crisis. Conservation, wind and solar power, more hydroelectric and switch to electric cars everywhere.

Up until now, Gore's plan has its heart in the right place but given the state of technology in 2005, the economics for renewables, except for wind, just weren't there. Unless the government made you do it with credits and subsidies.

But that was 2005. Now it's 2006 and suddenly everything has changed.

Why? Because there have recently been several great new energy inventions announced and they solve everything--if we play our cards right from this moment on.



#1 The Tesla Electric Car - Burn Rubber, Not Gasoline: Designed, Built and tested by Silicon Valley billionaires and Venture Capitalists, Tesla Motors has a 21st Century sportscar that goes 135 mph, 0 to 60 in 4 seconds (!), and gets 250 miles to the 3 1/2 hour charge off of 6,138 LAPTOP BATTERIES. If everyone gets the sedan version of this electric breakthrough and charges at night, 85% of all passenger miles in the US could be replaced with nighttime base load energy that is there anyhow. This means we wouldn't have to build extra plants or burn extra fuel to charge the whole fleet (there is 30% extra off-peak capacity in most regions, except maybe Southern CA).



#2 Tidal Power - There are now companies starting to field-test new powerful tidal power machines that rest on the ocean floor and work like wind turbines. The blades can be geared so they move slowly and still make lots of energy--so fish are not killed by the devices.





#3 Wind Power Breakthrough - Clipper Wind now has a 16-gear turbine that has its own crane built into the tower for much cheaper maintenance. The blades are geared so they move slowly and still make lots of energy--so birds can not killed by the devices. These are 25% more efficient and can economically be placed in medium wind areas.



#4 Concentrating Photovoltaics - One company is now out of R&D and will be producing in volume soon. They use a lens and optics system to concentrate 400 Suns on a special multi-junction chip. Rather than 11% efficiency, as with silicon panels, the device get 40%. Huge solar farms will soon be contracted out for this technology, which will quickly dominate the solar industry as it does not use silicon waste, of which there is a shortage right now. THe old obsolete silicon panels need 5 acres to make a Megawatt, CPV at 40% only needs 1 acre, 80% less land!


#5 Neighborhood Conservation Drives - Using Community Development techniques with block parties and regional newspapers, neighborhoods are organized to get everyone to pitch in, conserve and save the planet. This can produce 20% reductions in electricity and water usage very quickly and it is sustainable.

Welcome to the Future.

The new Global Climate Stabilization Plan:

#1 All world leaders declare a state of emergency in energy use and work together to gear up and manufacture the above breakthroughs and others on a war footing. Rationing would have to be implemented if people don't change their ways and conserve.

#2 Deploy Breakthrough Technology Over The Next 15 Years - 300 GW of CPV solar farms, 400 GW of mini-hydro and retrofitting dams, 150 GW of wind power, 100 GW of tidal power and ban production of new fossil-fuel Internal Combustion Engines because of the Climate Emergency Declaration, switching to the electric car. Trucks and tractors can run on bio-diesel, while jets will have to burn hydrogen. All of these technologies now exist and need only to be manufactured in volume. The 950 total GW is more than current US installed capacity and will stabilize and then reduce carbon. In the following 15 years, 400 GW of CPV, 200 GW of tidal and another 200 GW of wind, so add another 800 GW to account for all new energy use by the world. There would not be much more hydro sites left to install, so that would not happen in the second 15 years.

#3 Seed Stratosphere with Sulfur Particles to Buy Extra Time and Cool The Earth This strategy, from the leading atmospheric scientist Paul Crutzen, costs $25 billion to $50 billion and immediately cools the Earth by a half-degree Celsius for 2-3 years by reflecting sunlight and thus heat. Repeat if necessary.

http://pubs.acs.org/cen/news/84/i32/8432cooling.html

That's the plan. Simple. 1-2-3.

Let's get a movement together that demands this start to happen immediately so it becomes a real political issue. The GOP can't win this one after Katrina and now the rapidly melting ice sheets--and especially they can't win because the economics suddenly--in 2006--favor renewables.

Oh and btw, nukes are useless in a globally warming world because of drought--which reduces the cool river water until the plants have to shut down, as they are now doing in Europe and soon in the Midwest. So nukes can never be part of the solution to global warming. Since the drought of July of 2006, we now know that nukes are just good money after bad.

Some links:

http://www.teslamotors.com
http://www.clipperwind.com
http://www.pyronsolar.com
http://www.lunarenergy.co.uk

Please remember to recommend if you want to try and save Spaceship Earth. If you want to see this planet fry, forget about it...