3 ms·

Seems to me our only hope now is some very radical immediately effective carbon capture tech, that is cheap and people are happy to do it - whatever "IT" is. Pl

by nickd2001 5y ago

Seems to me our only hope now is some very radical immediately effective carbon capture tech, that is cheap and people are happy to do it - whatever "IT" is. Planting trees is great but to my mind that isn't going to be enough, doesn't happen quickly enough. Without this, it seems there will be weather disasters and food shortages all over the world and accompanying wars and political destabilisation that leaves few places unscathed. I think frankly the most important subject any scientists should study right now is how to get this huge amount of humanity=threatening previously emitted CO2 out of the atmosphere

me_me_me 5y ago
We can run budgets to do it. We are wasting money on armies already. That alone could be a great start, but... u know... humans. We should be converting cities into greener spots to reduce ambient heat, and start switching to hydro-phonic farming within the cities. These are not future techs we already have them. No one need new fighter jets, when you have nukes. So why drown money into 'new jet research'?
- nickd2001 5y ago
  Well, somebody somewhere makes money out of pointless new jets etc. I think that vested interests control such a lot, its hard to get people to cooperate on things etc, that if we could come up with some carbon capture which side-steps those problems, it'd be good. E:g some cheap device people could have in their home or garden that removes CO2, that enough concerned folks bought and operated that it made a difference, even whilst their neighbours denied any link to fossil fuels. Or some way of converting CO2 into something of commercial value, maybe a construction material? Apparently there's already some kind of rock salt thing you can put on fields that helps crops as well as takes out CO2, dunno how much of a contribution that can make. The fact that some US states dominated by oil industry, have built a load of wind and solar farms because its cheaper, gives me hope that the right product could gain mass acceptance. Can we look at excessive CO2 in the atmosphere as a raw material for making something else useful? I'm not a chemist though. :(
  - me_me_me 5y ago
    Just one point worth mentioning. > some cheap device people could have in their home or garden that removes CO2 CO2 should not be a citizen's option. Its a mindset that corporations want to push. Its up to you individual to fight global warming. Hell it is not. Big business/polluters are the main source of CO2 and they should be responsible for dealing with their mess. They have been reaping rewards of not dealing with externalities for decades so its them that have to pick up the cheque now. I am not against having a co2 scrubber connected to your solar panel, just the idea that common people should be doing 'their part' when the main source of co2 is not doing their part.
    - nickd2001 5y ago
      I know what you're saying :) Yes big business should indeed be dealing with their mess. OTOH, being pragmatic, given that getting them to take responsibility is so hard to do, and time-consuming, and that we face an emergency right now, I wonder, are there other things we can do anyway. Also much of the CO2 was emitted in the past and is hanging around. Should oil companies be on the hook for what was pumped out in the 60s? Well maybe, but will we get them to pay to fix that, indeed can they afford that? Don't know, but in the meantime can we come up with some clever tech? I'm shocked, that friends, colleagues, family, generally people I know that do seem to care about others, nevertheless seem to think its OK to go on a flight for their holiday, seems they put their fingers in their ears while booking the flight. What are we going to do about this? Any government that tries to legislate to stop leisure flights will get kicked out of office quickly. The best hope for that is things like sleeper trains, electric planes etc.I guess my argument is, people as a whole are behaving utterly irresponsibly about the climate and taking us ever more rapidly towards disaster and point of no return, so I feel as technologists we should try to find ways around this. What else can we do?
- ASalazarMX 5y ago
  If anything, military budgets of warmonger countries will increase, preparing for the worst case, to take control of valuable resources (water, food, livable land) by force.

me_me_me 5y ago

We can run budgets to do it. We are wasting money on armies already. That alone could be a great start, but... u know... humans. We should be converting cities into greener spots to reduce ambient heat, and start switching to hydro-phonic farming within the cities. These are not future techs we already have them. No one need new fighter jets, when you have nukes. So why drown money into 'new jet research'?

nickd2001 5y ago
Well, somebody somewhere makes money out of pointless new jets etc. I think that vested interests control such a lot, its hard to get people to cooperate on things etc, that if we could come up with some carbon capture which side-steps those problems, it'd be good. E:g some cheap device people could have in their home or garden that removes CO2, that enough concerned folks bought and operated that it made a difference, even whilst their neighbours denied any link to fossil fuels. Or some way of converting CO2 into something of commercial value, maybe a construction material? Apparently there's already some kind of rock salt thing you can put on fields that helps crops as well as takes out CO2, dunno how much of a contribution that can make. The fact that some US states dominated by oil industry, have built a load of wind and solar farms because its cheaper, gives me hope that the right product could gain mass acceptance. Can we look at excessive CO2 in the atmosphere as a raw material for making something else useful? I'm not a chemist though. :(
- me_me_me 5y ago
  Just one point worth mentioning. > some cheap device people could have in their home or garden that removes CO2 CO2 should not be a citizen's option. Its a mindset that corporations want to push. Its up to you individual to fight global warming. Hell it is not. Big business/polluters are the main source of CO2 and they should be responsible for dealing with their mess. They have been reaping rewards of not dealing with externalities for decades so its them that have to pick up the cheque now. I am not against having a co2 scrubber connected to your solar panel, just the idea that common people should be doing 'their part' when the main source of co2 is not doing their part.
  - nickd2001 5y ago
    I know what you're saying :) Yes big business should indeed be dealing with their mess. OTOH, being pragmatic, given that getting them to take responsibility is so hard to do, and time-consuming, and that we face an emergency right now, I wonder, are there other things we can do anyway. Also much of the CO2 was emitted in the past and is hanging around. Should oil companies be on the hook for what was pumped out in the 60s? Well maybe, but will we get them to pay to fix that, indeed can they afford that? Don't know, but in the meantime can we come up with some clever tech? I'm shocked, that friends, colleagues, family, generally people I know that do seem to care about others, nevertheless seem to think its OK to go on a flight for their holiday, seems they put their fingers in their ears while booking the flight. What are we going to do about this? Any government that tries to legislate to stop leisure flights will get kicked out of office quickly. The best hope for that is things like sleeper trains, electric planes etc.I guess my argument is, people as a whole are behaving utterly irresponsibly about the climate and taking us ever more rapidly towards disaster and point of no return, so I feel as technologists we should try to find ways around this. What else can we do?
ASalazarMX 5y ago
If anything, military budgets of warmonger countries will increase, preparing for the worst case, to take control of valuable resources (water, food, livable land) by force.