5 ms·

Also, we aren't necessarily doomed if we were willing to actually try anything. No one wants to try nuclear for reals because people are frightened of it and w

Also, we aren't necessarily doomed if we were willing to actually try anything. No one wants to try nuclear for reals because people are frightened of it and world governments don't have an economic interest in building more nuclear. We don't have an equivalent of an "operation warp speed" for developing next-gen CO2 scrubbing technology. I guess that's just not as cool to people as building tunnels under LA or launching cars into space. Speaking of algae, we're not turning wasteland into algae farming ponds and developing more useful algae because, well, I don't really know. Even with CRISPR-Cas9 being in relative infancy, GMO algae seems like a low hanging fruit for not only removing carbon from the atmosphere but being a food source in places around the world where food is scarce. I mean, as an individual you can buy a kit that has what you need to genetically modify yeast to glow with jellyfish genes, so how far off are we from making species like chlorella more practical? Maybe it's because nobody wants to eat pond scum. All I know is that the amount of effort we are putting into these solutions, although there is some effort in each of them, really doesn't add up to the message we are being told about climate change. It's both extremely disappointing and cause for raised eyebrows.

webreac 5y ago
Nuclear is not dead: French President Emmanuel Macron announced a shift to small modular nuclear reactors https://www.france24.com/en/france/20211013-france-unveils-nuclear-power-overhaul-with-eye-on-china https://www.france24.com/en/france/20211013-france-unveils-n...
- moffkalast 5y ago
  Fuck yeah, IKEA reactors for the win!
- RealityVoid 5y ago
  There have also been several articles on HN about his exact topic lately. I think this reaction is based on the current energy crysis and it seems to force things to move along
pjc50 5y ago
The algae thing has been trialled; it turns out to have lots of fiddly little practical problems, and is reliant on fresh water like other farming. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3152439/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3152439/
xyzzyz 5y ago
> Speaking of algae, we're not turning wasteland into algae farming ponds and developing more useful algae because, well, I don't really know. One of the reasons is that, according to many environmental activists, there is no such thing as “wasteland” that you could develop with minimal loss to environment. This is not a theoretical concern: read up on Ivanpah solar power plant, built in the middle of the literal desert, the place as deserving the designation of “wasteland” as any other place in the US. Activists forced the developers to spend tens of millions of dollars on relocating the desert tortoises living in that wasteland, at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars per tortoise - and that’s not even including the litigation costs. This also resulted in reduction of scope of the plant, reducing the total installed capacity, and reducing the amount of carbon-free energy we will get out of it. The lesson here is that if the environmental activists are not happy about building solar power plant in the middle of remote desert, they won’t be happy about building literally anything else. They’re totally BANANAs: Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything.
- _3u10 5y ago
  Dude in BC they pretend a pod of orcas is a separate species because orcas aren’t endangered so they had to invent a species with 73 members so they could have something to complain about. Look up Southern Resident Orca
  - pvaldes 5y ago
    > Dude in BC they pretend a pod of orcas is a separate species because orcas aren’t endangered so they had to invent a species with 73 members so they could have something to complain about. Sometimes scientists do genetic analysis and find things, yep. We don't do this because we are drama queens, It just happens that murica has some unique cetacean species and they are experiencing a sharp decline by unclear reasons. Some people repeating the same stupid jokes about activists since 1960's don't help to provide any solution. All seen the same to you? Can you spot the differences? https://cdn.roaring.earth/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Killer_Whale_Types-Illustration-by-Albino.orca_.jpg https://cdn.roaring.earth/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Killer_...
hummel 5y ago
I'm working on this direction, with an very specific seaweed that solve this problem now and doesn't need freshwater or fertilizers. If anyone is interested reach me on my profile.
- mrfusion 5y ago
  Why seaweed over algae? Hey bonus you could use the waste in cow feed to reduce methane.
moffkalast 5y ago
> No one wants to try nuclear for reals because people are frightened of it and world governments don't have an economic interest in building more nuclear Well it's also worth noting that it's become like that because of the oil lobby's decades of scaremongering and the oversupply of natural gas which makes those plants the most profitable choice. But still it's mostly a NIMBY problem. If smaller, mass produced, gen 4 reactors could be set up in some uninhabited areas we'd basically solve all that.
bertil 5y ago
> Also, we aren't necessarily doomed if we were willing to actually try anything. I maintain that, given how the majority of tax rebates and financial aid is still going to fossil fuels, unless we kick people out of that option for good, they will latch to the last dollar of subsidy or political donation until human life on Earth is beyond hope. The only way to kickstart changes and investments is to put executives in front a judge for the mass murders that are already well documented and be clear that they will be held responsible for the millions of deaths related to unusual climate events. How did we stop populist from legally raising to position of power against after the 1940s? Nuremberg and Tokyo trials. Climate disruption is a much bigger threat and needs a gesture at least as big.

webreac 5y ago

Nuclear is not dead: French President Emmanuel Macron announced a shift to small modular nuclear reactors https://www.france24.com/en/france/20211013-france-unveils-nuclear-power-overhaul-with-eye-on-china https://www.france24.com/en/france/20211013-france-unveils-n...

moffkalast 5y ago
Fuck yeah, IKEA reactors for the win!
RealityVoid 5y ago
There have also been several articles on HN about his exact topic lately. I think this reaction is based on the current energy crysis and it seems to force things to move along

pjc50 5y ago

The algae thing has been trialled; it turns out to have lots of fiddly little practical problems, and is reliant on fresh water like other farming. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3152439/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3152439/

xyzzyz 5y ago

> Speaking of algae, we're not turning wasteland into algae farming ponds and developing more useful algae because, well, I don't really know. One of the reasons is that, according to many environmental activists, there is no such thing as “wasteland” that you could develop with minimal loss to environment. This is not a theoretical concern: read up on Ivanpah solar power plant, built in the middle of the literal desert, the place as deserving the designation of “wasteland” as any other place in the US. Activists forced the developers to spend tens of millions of dollars on relocating the desert tortoises living in that wasteland, at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars per tortoise - and that’s not even including the litigation costs. This also resulted in reduction of scope of the plant, reducing the total installed capacity, and reducing the amount of carbon-free energy we will get out of it. The lesson here is that if the environmental activists are not happy about building solar power plant in the middle of remote desert, they won’t be happy about building literally anything else. They’re totally BANANAs: Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything.

_3u10 5y ago
Dude in BC they pretend a pod of orcas is a separate species because orcas aren’t endangered so they had to invent a species with 73 members so they could have something to complain about. Look up Southern Resident Orca
- pvaldes 5y ago
  > Dude in BC they pretend a pod of orcas is a separate species because orcas aren’t endangered so they had to invent a species with 73 members so they could have something to complain about. Sometimes scientists do genetic analysis and find things, yep. We don't do this because we are drama queens, It just happens that murica has some unique cetacean species and they are experiencing a sharp decline by unclear reasons. Some people repeating the same stupid jokes about activists since 1960's don't help to provide any solution. All seen the same to you? Can you spot the differences? https://cdn.roaring.earth/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Killer_Whale_Types-Illustration-by-Albino.orca_.jpg https://cdn.roaring.earth/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Killer_...

hummel 5y ago

I'm working on this direction, with an very specific seaweed that solve this problem now and doesn't need freshwater or fertilizers. If anyone is interested reach me on my profile.

mrfusion 5y ago
Why seaweed over algae? Hey bonus you could use the waste in cow feed to reduce methane.

moffkalast 5y ago

> No one wants to try nuclear for reals because people are frightened of it and world governments don't have an economic interest in building more nuclear Well it's also worth noting that it's become like that because of the oil lobby's decades of scaremongering and the oversupply of natural gas which makes those plants the most profitable choice. But still it's mostly a NIMBY problem. If smaller, mass produced, gen 4 reactors could be set up in some uninhabited areas we'd basically solve all that.

bertil 5y ago

> Also, we aren't necessarily doomed if we were willing to actually try anything. I maintain that, given how the majority of tax rebates and financial aid is still going to fossil fuels, unless we kick people out of that option for good, they will latch to the last dollar of subsidy or political donation until human life on Earth is beyond hope. The only way to kickstart changes and investments is to put executives in front a judge for the mass murders that are already well documented and be clear that they will be held responsible for the millions of deaths related to unusual climate events. How did we stop populist from legally raising to position of power against after the 1940s? Nuremberg and Tokyo trials. Climate disruption is a much bigger threat and needs a gesture at least as big.