Anti Global Warming Tech?

noel emits

a wonderful wooden reason
After seeing Spiderman 2 last night I'm feeling slightly more cautious about the fusion thing.

Good job for Alfred Molina though, unconvincing American accent aside.
 

noel emits

a wonderful wooden reason
Wait a minute. Hollywood, big business, fascist superheros, anti sustainable energy propaganda. I sense a way to wind up those pesky conspiracy deniers.
 

vimothy

yurp
There are certain aspects of climate change that MIGHT be ameliorated by economic growth - namely through the invention of cleaner technologies* - but I hope you're not blinding yourself to the fact that this is going to be vastly exceeded by the *acceleration* in climate change, caused by that very same growth!

I'm thinking more of the effects than the actual change in termperature, as in my malaria example where it would be more efficient to be more developed and able to cure the disaease than less developed and have to deal with it less.

Ultimately, it's all about effects, right? I mean, who cares what the mean temp of the earth is? It's the falling crop yields and islands disappearing into the sea that are the worry.
 

vimothy

yurp
So the question is: Will human health and well-being and enviromental quality be better under richer but warmer scenarios than under poorer but cooler scenarios, or vice versa?
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
So the question is: Will human health and well-being and enviromental quality be better under richer but warmer scenarios than under poorer but cooler scenarios, or vice versa?

I think it would be *very* unwise to bank on the former. Technology can do many wonderful things, but it can't, for instance, simply conjour water out of thin air; so what about areas that are facing massive droughts as a result of climate change? It can't re-invent species that have become extinct, it can't indefinitely reclaim land from ever-rising sea levels, and it can't prevent hurricanes or extreme flooding due to huge rainstorms.
 

vimothy

yurp
I think it would be *very* unwise to bank on the former. Technology can do many wonderful things, but it can't, for instance, simply conjour water out of thin air; so what about areas that are facing massive droughts as a result of climate change? It can't re-invent species that have become extinct, it can't indefinitely reclaim land from ever-rising sea levels, and it can't prevent hurricanes or extreme flooding due to huge rainstorms.

But those are more along the lines of the "anti global warming tech" that I was responding to at the start of the thread.

I'm talking about adapting to climate change, not being able to reverse it.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
But those are more along the lines of the "anti global warming tech" that I was responding to at the start of the thread.

Yeah, I hear ya. I think developing technologies to produce clean(er) energy and make the most of the oil that's still left is a much better bet than letting massive climate change happen unchecked on the basis that we'll somehow "cross that bridge when we come to it". Could be a pretty fucking long bridge.
 

m33k +i93r

TheUnridiculousBearMix
I'm afraid my grasp of science is not discernibly distinctive.

enlightenment would be greatly appreciated.

also my inactivity on the board has been due to a recent spate of horrendous news, which has resulted in several severe headaches and achingly bad moods.

so just to reiterate chaps,

my bad.
 

vimothy

yurp
Climate Change and Economic Growth: Evidence from the Last Half Century

This paper uses annual variation in temperature and precipitation over the past 50 years to examine the impact of climatic changes on economic activity throughout the world. We find three primary results. First, higher temperatures substantially reduce economic growth in poor countries but have little effect in rich countries. Second, higher temperatures appear to reduce growth rates in poor countries, rather than just the level of output. Third, higher temperatures have wide-ranging effects in poor nations, reducing agricultural output, industrial output, and aggregate investment, and increasing political instability. Analysis of decade or longer climate shifts also shows substantial negative effects on growth in poor countries. Should future impacts of climate change mirror these historical effects, the negative impact on poor countries may be substantial.​
 

noel emits

a wonderful wooden reason
Something?

http://www.cquestrate.com/

The idea works like this:

* First, you heat limestone to a very high temperature, until it breaks down into lime and carbon dioxide.
* Then you put the lime into the sea, where it reacts with carbon dioxide dissolved in the seawater.

The important point is that when you put lime into seawater it absorbs almost twice as much carbon dioxide as is produced by the breaking down of the limestone in the first place.

This has the effect of reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It also helps to prevent ocean acidification, another problem caused by the increase in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

If done on a large enough scale it would be possible to reduce carbon dioxide levels back to what they were before the Industrial Revolution.
 
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