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I'm optimistic about renewable energy coming online fairly quickly, even optimistic about the transportation sector undergoing a vast transformation with the ri

by nyxtom 8y ago

I'm optimistic about renewable energy coming online fairly quickly, even optimistic about the transportation sector undergoing a vast transformation with the right pushes. I'm less optimistic about people consuming less. Unless market forces make it more costly to toss away material, we're going to need an entirely new way of manufacturing a lot of different types of things. CEB is possibly going to be a great alternative for concrete brick construction if it takes off based on the Boring Company. I'm not quite certain of the technical nature, but I understand this uses a minimal amount of concrete added to a highly compressed block of earth. Adobe construction has been used quite a lot in the past. (Probably won't work so well for skyscrapers). That being said, there are supposed to be alternatives here but scale is the main concern. Steel looks like it is going to be the main thing for a long time. Politics are cyclical in nature, the next cycle will shift and we will likely see a radical shift in a lot of these policies. Will it be enough? Hopefully, but probably not everything.

nyxtom 8y ago
My main concern, and I think about this quite often, is the sheer magnitude of our consumption and waste we produce every single day. Landfills need to be adapted to capture methane for one. But more than that, more products need to be made with compostable material. I've seen a lot of recent food shops / juiceshops here in Austin that now provide compostable cups / silverware / packaging where nothing is provided in Sytofoam or plastic (all plant based material). It appears to be scalable and something I would love to see elsewhere with manufacturing / packaging. Though I can also imagine a world where people will want to be able to get whatever they need nearly instantly. Maybe 3D metal printing will accelerate at larger scales and take into account better recycling / raw material breakdowns. That being said, it's argued that 3D printing is more environmentally sustainable as an additive manufacturing process rather than the traditional subtractive process of cutting and breaking down material to form and producing waste. > A U.S. Department of Energy study confirmed that utilizing additive manufacturing can reduce material needs and costs by up to 90%. Along with waste savings, the DOE also found that 3-D printing can save energy, especially when a component that was previously made by combining several smaller parts is consolidated into one. > https://www1.eere.energy.gov/manufacturing/pdfs/additive_manufacturing.pdf https://www1.eere.energy.gov/manufacturing/pdfs/additive_man...

by nyxtom 8y ago

nyxtom 8y ago

My main concern, and I think about this quite often, is the sheer magnitude of our consumption and waste we produce every single day. Landfills need to be adapted to capture methane for one. But more than that, more products need to be made with compostable material. I've seen a lot of recent food shops / juiceshops here in Austin that now provide compostable cups / silverware / packaging where nothing is provided in Sytofoam or plastic (all plant based material). It appears to be scalable and something I would love to see elsewhere with manufacturing / packaging. Though I can also imagine a world where people will want to be able to get whatever they need nearly instantly. Maybe 3D metal printing will accelerate at larger scales and take into account better recycling / raw material breakdowns. That being said, it's argued that 3D printing is more environmentally sustainable as an additive manufacturing process rather than the traditional subtractive process of cutting and breaking down material to form and producing waste. > A U.S. Department of Energy study confirmed that utilizing additive manufacturing can reduce material needs and costs by up to 90%. Along with waste savings, the DOE also found that 3-D printing can save energy, especially when a component that was previously made by combining several smaller parts is consolidated into one. > https://www1.eere.energy.gov/manufacturing/pdfs/additive_manufacturing.pdf https://www1.eere.energy.gov/manufacturing/pdfs/additive_man...