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What does soil have to do with this? You think they’re just going to put the thorium in fertilizer or drop it all over the country from the air? Lithium ion ba

What does soil have to do with this? You think they’re just going to put the thorium in fertilizer or drop it all over the country from the air? Lithium ion batteries are incredibly important if we want to make a fast transition to green energy. The environmental calculus is 100% in favor of finding a thorium disposal site and making rare earths / lithium cheaper now, rather than being picky about where minerals are mined and pumping way more CO2 into the air due to the delay Localized thorium pollution is something that we can manage and deal with. Global warming, especially if it reaches a runaway tipping point, could displace a billion people, cause massive famines, and destroy tens of trillions of dollars of infrastructure and assets. Also consider that localized thorium pollution would probably be on-par with the pollution from washing coal, which is what would be replaced

misterprime 8y ago
>Global warming, especially if it reaches a runaway tipping point Thought we reached that a long time ago, and yet things haven't really changed.
- opportune 8y ago
  we have somewhat, in that a significant amount is going to happen even if we switch to 100% carbon neutral energy tomorrow. I’m thinking more about a Clathrate Gun kind of event Also things have changed. Something like 10 of the hottest years on record have been within the last 15 years. Global warming is not simply a modeled prediction, it is very much measurable and ongoing
  - misterprime 8y ago
    >Something like 10 of the hottest years on record have been within the last 15 years. Is that based on straight up measurements, or based on measurements that were adjusted based on a realization that the measuring method was flawed to begin with? Aren't the adjustments based on a best guess by people that may have a bias?
stevew20 8y ago
But the trees man... My god, think of the trees

misterprime 8y ago

>Global warming, especially if it reaches a runaway tipping point Thought we reached that a long time ago, and yet things haven't really changed.

opportune 8y ago
we have somewhat, in that a significant amount is going to happen even if we switch to 100% carbon neutral energy tomorrow. I’m thinking more about a Clathrate Gun kind of event Also things have changed. Something like 10 of the hottest years on record have been within the last 15 years. Global warming is not simply a modeled prediction, it is very much measurable and ongoing
- misterprime 8y ago
  >Something like 10 of the hottest years on record have been within the last 15 years. Is that based on straight up measurements, or based on measurements that were adjusted based on a realization that the measuring method was flawed to begin with? Aren't the adjustments based on a best guess by people that may have a bias?

stevew20 8y ago

But the trees man... My god, think of the trees