Global warming - more bad news !

[BIGBOSSMAN]

If I was voted Emperor, I would re-establish Pangaea - thereby bringing the world closer together and reducing the need for nasty polluting international air travel.

[Wolf]

If I was voted Emperor, I would re-establish Gondwanaland - thereby bringing the world closer together and reducing the need for nasty polluting international air travel.

Merely requiring lots of nasty polluting cars instead

[avgas]

If I was voted Emperor, I would re-establish Gondwanaland - thereby bringing the world closer together and reducing the need for nasty polluting international air travel.

Isnt that africa

[Aurora]

i just had a thought:
water expands when it freezes right? so if the north pole melts, doesnts that mean that the sea level will actually go down a bit?

Hmmmm?

[Ocean1]

The NZ govt has vast resources and could establish tidal power stations, thermocline (ocean) stations, mandate solar panels on all new homes, push through wind farms, build 21st century clean coal plants etc etc. Frankly a couple of nuclear plants is the simple answer. We'd have to face tax rises but it can all be done.

I also believe technology will save us longterm but it might be our grandchildren who see it. Fusion generation is the future but is still in the lab at present.

The NZ government has fuck all resources. They have a little of the cash they've stolen from us left, but not enough uncommitted to social experiments to maintain the infrastructure we've got let alone get all inventive with new stuff. Nor do they have the tech personel resources to do it, they're all in Aus or Europe on a wee extended OE. We do have a few old bits of lab equipment kicking around CSIRO and a few other broom closets, will that do?

I could argue climate all day. Except I can't be fooked.
I can be fooked arguing energy, I think, maybe... is it time for my afternoon dram yet?

A little planning and basic engineering might produce solutions like the ones you suggest. I'm a great fan of massive overkill when it comes to engineering though, it's just a bunch of fun. Most of your suggestions have some unfortunate side effects too, but there's some that don't.

Wave generators do work, so far they just don't work on the scale we need without a bunch of difficult maintenance issues (hard to gat at). Seaborn windmills work well, self-regulating (they keel over in high wind), a mature, well understood technology. Just string a few tens of thousands of 'em off the south west coast. More efficient than land-bourn ones, and a bloody sight prettier, just need a fekin' big extension cord. Likely ecological impact: minimal. Cost of energy: high-ish. One problem with a similar scheme in the UK was that the air force put the kybosh on the development prototypes. Turns out their radar can't see past all dem rotating blades to where the ICBMs are. They did develop more radar-friendly ones from carbon fibre but by that time the budget was gone.

I wonder how many cubic kilometres of seawater flow through the Cook Straight twice every day? There's several metres difference in height either side of NZ for a fair bit of the day, we could partially dam that, bung in a shitload of turbines and walk away from energy shortage concerns for fekin ages. Ecological impact: slight. Cost of energy: not sure.

One for a few years time: How about we drill a hole about 5 - 6 Kilometres into some of the oceanic trenches that lurk off our eastern coast and bung a big superconducting cable down there. The thermal gradient is huge, and the cable maintains the same temperature throughout it's length, make steam, drive turbines. Ecological impact: zero. Cost of energy: depends on where the platform for the turbines is, probably competitive if they’re on the bottom.

Like any other ideas these all rely on one of the only two possible sources of energy available, internal tectonic sources (the moon is considered part of our system, although lunar tidal energy isn’t strictly internal it is similarly finite) and Solar (external). One estimate has enough solar energy falling on a few% of the planet’s surface at the equator to power every energy requirement we currently have (Fiji might do nicely). The energy contained in the thermal and kinetic tidal systems of the planet and it’s satellite are many orders of magnitude more than we’ll ever use before we shuffle off elsewhere. We just need to work on cost effective and ecologically clean ways to plug in.

Imagination is more important than knowledge, for knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world - stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. - Albert Einstein

[BIGBOSSMAN]

Merely requiring lots of nasty polluting cars instead

Nope, I'd establish a vast network of 'Travelators' powered by methane from old landfills and active volcanos. It may take longer to get from A to B, but it'd be fun chatting to people coming the other way, wouldn't it!

[BIGBOSSMAN]

Isnt that africa

Gosh yes, I really meant Pangaea. I must get better advisors (a single gun shot is heard, followed by an 'arrgh', and the sound of a lifeless body hitting the floor).
Initial post edited.

[davereid]

The oceans have risen about 300mm (1 foot) over the past 300 years which we know from old tidal gauges.

Sea level rises occur for two reasons:

1 Landbased ice melting and adding to the sea.

2 Thermal expansion. Water expands when it gets warmer.

This isn't all quite as simple as it looks. Pacific islands going underwater may be caused by the shelf of land sinking rather than water rising so we can't assume this alone indicates sea level rise. Soetimes land slumps because water has been pumped out from under it for centuries.

Nevertheless satellite data supports a continued sea level rise over the whole globe.

Yes.. but according to Intergovernmental Panel on climate change it is 1-2mm per year ie it took the entire 300 years to rise 300mm

http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc_tar/wg1/013.htm

[Zuki Bandit]

Global warming is unavoidable. It's been happening on it's own for billions of years. "BURN MORE FUEL" I say!!!

[Dilligaf]

Some animals seem to enjoy it...

[Sanx]

Glad they're treating it with the seriousness it deserves.

Not a p/t.

[Finn]

Yes.. but according to Intergovernmental Panel on climate change it is 1-2mm per year ie it took the entire 300 years to rise 300mm

Excellent! In just another 18000 years, my cliff top property will be beach front. Woohoo!!!

[Wolf]

Excellent! In just another 18000 years, my cliff top property will be beach front. Woohoo!!!

And think of what house prices are going to be like!

Good to see you think in terms of long-term investment.

[Street Gerbil]

Personally I am a lot more scared of certain experiments with alternative energy sources, than with man-made global warming (in which I don't believe).
I find it scary when people accelerate two beams of gold ions and crash them one into the other at light speed. Given the resulting temperature of 10000 times the temperature of the sun core, it sounds like a perfect way of setting the Earth atmosphere aflame.

[Wolf]

Personally I am a lot more scared of certain experiments with alternative energy sources, than with man-made global warming (in which I don't believe).
I find it scary when people accelerate two beams of gold ions and crash them one into the other at light speed. Given the resulting temperature of 10000 times the temperature of the sun core, it sounds like a perfect way of setting the Earth atmosphere aflame.

As Douglas Adams always said: DON'T PANIC:

"But since the heavy ions in RHIC collisions are so small (see physics primer), the actual impact of the speeding ions on each other is about the same as the impact of a mosquito hitting a screen door on a summer evening. And, RHIC collisions last only a few billionths of a second.

In other words, RHIC collisions may be super-fast and super-hot, which makes them interesting to physicists, but they're too small and too brief to be dangerous."

If you want to worry, the core of a bolt of lightning is pure plasma and hotter than the surface of the sun and it lasts long enough to seriously fuck things up...