The Carbon Thread
- Thread starter Woebot
- Start date
noel emits
a wonderful wooden reason
Buckyballs!
Nanotubes!
Nanotubes!
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Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
'Carbon emmissions' is a rather lazy term (not having a go, swears, I know everyone uses it), people should say 'carbon dioxide emmissions' if that's what they mean - methane, which also contains carbon, is a much worse greenhouse gas (weight for weight), while chloroflourocarbons are worse still.
So a ton of carbon in the form of CFCs is much worse, environmentally, than a ton of carbon in CO2.
So a ton of carbon in the form of CFCs is much worse, environmentally, than a ton of carbon in CO2.
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GRAPHENE - a single sheet of graphite only one atom thick with. Useful for making single electron transistors. Way cool.
http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/18264/
http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/18264/
George Monbiot seems to me to be the most reliable watchdog on the sorry state of the planet vis-a-vis carbon emissions and governments' failur eto do anything about it. (And I have to say that Woebot's derisory comments about him here not so long ago were misleading and unfair.)
This is well worth reading.
This is well worth reading.
noel emits
a wonderful wooden reason
Seems my response was inappropriate, sorry haha.
Buckyballs are kool tho.
Buckyballs are kool tho.
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
I don't think so - if it was meant to be a 'carbon emmissions' thread, it should have been called that.
swears
preppy-kei
stupid question
Right, I'm not really up on my science, so this question may seem a bit daft but it's something I've wondered for a while now. Can we actually reduce the level of CO2 in the atmosphere by cutting emissions, or are we simply stopping the situation getting any worse? Where does the excess carbon dioxide go? Into the water supply, into the earth...or is it up there forever?
Right, I'm not really up on my science, so this question may seem a bit daft but it's something I've wondered for a while now. Can we actually reduce the level of CO2 in the atmosphere by cutting emissions, or are we simply stopping the situation getting any worse? Where does the excess carbon dioxide go? Into the water supply, into the earth...or is it up there forever?
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
CO2 is naturally soaked up by plants: they use the carbon to form carbohydrates (sugars, starches and cellulose) and output oxygen (O2). So if human CO2 emmissions suddenly stopped - or were even just reduced to a manageable level - the excess CO2 in the atmosphere would eventually be reduced to the natural equilibrium level. I have no idea how long this would take, mind you. The problem at the moment is that CO2 emmissions are continuously increasing, while the amount of rainforest (they're not called 'the lungs of the planet' for nothing) is constantly decreasing.
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Trees use ("fix") carbon; animals exhale, flatulate and emit (in the case of industrial humans) carbon. When trees die the insects, rot etc. which break them down release their carbon again. More trees = less carbon in the atmosphere. Unfortunately trees and the related eco-systems of large rain-forests etc. are being razed all over the planet.
[edit - apologies for simul-post with Mr.Tea's above]
[edit - apologies for simul-post with Mr.Tea's above]
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Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
Don't feel bad - you can be bothered to spell correctly and form proper sentences, which officially puts you in the top 0.1% of the Internet.
Grievous Angel
Beast of Burden
I believe (and I am quite happy to be corrected) that the optimal way to get trees to capture carbon is to grow them big and then cut them down while planting more. I.e., not let them rot or be burnt. One of the best things to do with the wood is to use it in construction, so that the carbon in the wood just stays there for decades or centuries.
Anyone got an idea about the sunspots theory? And whether these guys have taken the $10K offered by Texaco for anti-global warming research? It all sounds like nonsense to me but I'm no scientist.
Anyone got an idea about the sunspots theory? And whether these guys have taken the $10K offered by Texaco for anti-global warming research? It all sounds like nonsense to me but I'm no scientist.
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
That sounds a bit odd. I think plants respire (i.e. use up energy stores like animals do, giving off CO^2 as a waste product) at night, but that they generally give off less CO^2 than they absorb, which is how the early Earth's CO^2-rich atmosphere got converted into an O^2-rich one in the first place, allowing animals to evolve. Er. I think.
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
Yeah, there are all sorts of suspected feedback-type effects going on - I think seawater is meant to be able to absorb a certain amount of CO2, but its ability to do this is affected by temperature, which is in turn affected by CO2 levels. This introduces (yet more) non-linearities into the equations used to model climate change, making it (even) harder to predict future trends. Having said that, it looks like most of the predictions made in the last ten years or so were under-estimates.
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