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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

This artist’s rendering at left suggests a device that its proponents say will, one day, capture CO2 from the Earth’s atmosphere, and mitigate the growing threat of climate change.  But let’s think about this for a moment.

The concentration of CO2 in our atmosphere is fairly consistent from the planet’s surface up to about 60 miles in elevation.

Given that the radius of the Earth is ~4000 miles, and that the volume of a sphere is 4/3 πr3, this means the volume of this section of our atmosphere is 4/3 π 40603 – 4/3 π 40003 =  11.7 trillion cubic miles.

How many of these devices will be required to make a significant dent in the overall CO2 concentration, given that they need to process almost 12 trillion cubic miles of our atmosphere?  What’s the cost per each one? How will they be powered, given that our grid-mix is largely fossil fuels?  Won’t this only make matters worse?

This is a sad joke, but even sadder, it’s not the only one out there.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I’m sorry to report that “the Donald Trump of Argentina” Javier Milei has won his country’s presidential election.

Milei has all the earmarks of the world’s rising numbers of extreme right-wing leaders.  He believes that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by Marxists and that gun laws increase crime levels.

From CNN: Milei, a social conservative with ties to the American right, opposes abortion rights and has called climate change a “lie of socialism.” He has promised to slash government spending by closing Argentina’s ministries of culture, education, and diversity, and by eliminating public subsidies.

The first person to call to congratulate him?  Donald Trump himself.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Here’s an article that says that, among young voters, Trump leads Biden in a hypothetical election between the two.

I’m suspicious.  Yes, I know that our educational system is failing, and that young people are less altruistic than they were a generation ago, but it’s still hard to believe that Americans 18 – 29 years old would vote for anyone whose platform is a mixture of climate denial, racism, and misogyny.  On top of that, you have the 30K+ documented lies and the 91 felony charges.

Again, I can’t imagine how this is possible.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Re: the meme here, Donna Schlesak writes: I’ve never wished anyone dead and I’m opposed to the death penalty, but I can’t say I’d be sorry. Imagine if Hitler died years before he did. So many millions wouldn’t have lost their lives if he had. My family will be celebrating when this dictator wanna be is gone. And yes, I’m wishing that someone would take one for the team.
I hear people say this constantly. My response, as I’ve mentioned before, is that the only way to purge this nation of the scourge of Trumpism is to let the justice system take its course.
Even then, when Trump is tried and convicted, there will still be people who believe that he was unfairly persecuted by the Deep State, the Hollywood elites, the radical Marxists, and God knows who else.
Yet, suppose he dies before this process can unfold; he will be considered a martyr by his base.
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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Fistfights at sporting events erupt spontaneously–even in the absence of provocative statements like the one this fellow is making.

Now, this is a baseball game, so perhaps a brawl is a bit less likely here than had it been football or ice hockey.

Still: ill-advised.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

These people’s message to potential investors: “There is no reason to drill when you can capture CO2 directly from the air.”

The concentration of CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere is ~400 ppm, or ~0.04%. This is either a scam or a terrible idea that is supported by people with no scientific training.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I don’t think anyone of any political philosophy disputes that the United States is in trouble.

When Donald Trump, facing 91 felony charges from four separate indictments, is the runaway leader in one of two parties, that qualifies as trouble right there.

DeSantis himself is trailing badly and is no real threat.  We can thank the good Lord for that, because, though he’s (apparently) not a criminal sociopath like Trump, he’s at least as bad ideologically.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Here we have the words of Monica Crowley, political commentator, lobbyist, and Fox News contributor.

It seems, however, that she faces a few problems with her remarks here:

The whole world watched the insurrection on live television.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump for inciting the event.

Just a few days ago, a judge in Colorado found that Trump had, in fact, incited the violence on January 6th.

The U.S. justice system is aggressively prosecuting Trump for his leadership in an effort to overturn the 2020 election and election interference in Georgia.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

MIT linguistics professor emeritus Noam Chomsky belongs in the same class as Bertrand Russell: a small group of extremely intelligent people whose contribution to society is a blend of a penetrating understanding of the world, married with a profoundly humanistic philosophy.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Really?

Where does the energy come from to spin the resort?

Someone thinks they’ll get more energy out than they put in?

I’m reminded of a business plan for generating electricity using hydrokinetics I reviewed long ago, whose author told me, “Think of it as a river in a box.”

I tried to explain that he could not get more energy out of the box than he put into it to get the water moving, and therefore this was theoretically impossible, but he wasn’t buying it.  I told him I had something burning in the kitchen as an excuse to politely end the call.

 

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