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On Oil Sands: The Resources, The Technologies, The Consequences
Rick, having worked in the industry in Calgary, I agree the oil boys are only out to plunder. The economic argument for the need to continue plundering is bogus as well because we have the opportunity to resolve the global energy/environment problem - The Existential Imperative: Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion
The PTB just can't see the forest for the oil in their eyes.
On Oil Sands: The Resources, The Technologies, The Consequences
Rick before Alberta goes to the expense of building new nuclear waste generators, they should use the residual heat and ionizing radiation of the waste the rest of the world is dieing to get rid of to produce their resource. The heat mobilizes the viscous material and radiation can fracture longchain molecules into more valuable fractions. This quid pro quo would get the world off Alberta's back and would save on both energy costs and CO2 to produce their product.
Bitumen is one of the best containers of radionuclides. A repository would act the same only better as a steam generator for SAGD.
On Our Energy Investment Sinkhole Problem
Gail this is false. OTEC ameliorates the climate problem by converting ocean heat to mechanical energy. The more energy produced, the potential is close to twice what the world currently consumes, the more the ocean is cooled. Like most technology its cost comes down with scale and improvement gained through experience. I have eight grandchildren and resent and reject your premise seven of them are redudant. Especially in light of your disregard for rebutals to your premise.
On Our Energy Investment Sinkhole Problem
Gail, aquifer pumping is as much a problem in the US as the Middle East. Proposals have been made to tanker runoff from the provinces of Quebec and BC to the South but have come against various objections. These proposals have never been advanced as a sea level efforts. No doubt there are other spots around the world where excess and shortages are in close proximity.
On Our Energy Investment Sinkhole Problem
Gail this is but one case.
The problem with nuclear waste is heat that damages rock and ionization radiation.
Both are precisely what is needed to mobilize and upgrade in situ viscous, long chain, bitumen, which is also one of the best sealants for radionuclides.
Over 90 percent of global warming is heat accumulation in the oceans. They are simultaneously the greatest hot and cold reservoir on the planet. This sets up the potential to produce all the energy we need even as we solve the problem.
No doubt there are others also being given short shrift.
On Keystone XL: John Kerry and His Canadian Counterpart
This Baird, this Canadian, is committed to confronting climate change and has offered numerous viable solutions all of which have been ignored by the government of which John is part, which is effectively little more than an appendage of the Calgary Petroleum Club.
On Our Energy Investment Sinkhole Problem
The Opportunities Overlooked
Saudi Arabia is reaching water limit for a rising population.
The world is awash in runoff from melting icecaps and glaciers which raise sea levels.
The world’s oil tanker fleet deadheads to the Middle East with salt water in its ballast tanks.
The tanker tonnage is about the same as the desalination and aquifer pumping output of Saudi Arabia.
A study lead by Yadu Pohkrel determined “The drawing of water from deep wells has caused the sea to rise by an average of .77 millimetres every year since 1961.” This is about 42 percent of the total.
The investment problem is a mismatch between the problems and their solutions.
On Climate Change and Washington's Approach
Hurricane Sandy was Nature's response to an overheating ocean surface.
OTEC would convert this heat to work at the same time as it moves 20 times as much surface heat to the deep where the coefficient of thermal expansion at 1000 meters is half what it is at the surface of the tropical water.
If you are not addressing the problem, you are the problem.
On Thinking Holistically about Energy
Think rationally about energy.
Over 90 percent of climate change is heat accumulating in the ocean causing thermal expansion and tropical storms that move heat towards the poles to exacerbate the sea level problem.
Convert this heat to work in accordance with the laws of thermodynamics.
The first law of thermodynamics is a version of the law of conservation of energy, specialized for thermodynamical systems. It is usually formulated by stating that the change in the internal energy of a closed system is equal to the amount of heat supplied to the system, minus the amount of work done by the system on its surroundings.
On Climate Change Activists Need to Get Real
"I would respectfully say to you that climate change is not something to be feared in response to — the steps to respond to — it’s to be feared if we don’t. 3,500 communities in our nation last year broke records for heat … and we had a derailment because of it. We had record fires. We had record levels of damage from sandy, $70 billion. If we can’t see the downside of spending that money and risking lives for all the changes that are taking place, to agriculture, to our communities, the ocean and so forth, we are ignoring what science is telling us. I will be a passionate advocate on this not based on ideology but based on facts and science, and I hope to sit with all of you and convince you that this $6 trillion market is worth millions of American jobs and we better go after it." John Kerry
Where are the environmentalists/capitalists eager to capitalize on a 6 trillion market that solves the problem?
On Climate Change Activists Need to Get Real
Couldn't ask for more Geoff. I think Malcom Bliss's comment above is dead on. If you believe the problem is serious, it is imperative to sound the alarm. If you believe you can mitigate the problem but for a failing market, I really don't know what the right response is. I have the utmost faith however you are one of the most rationale of actors and would love to have you as an ally in advancing the solution.
Regards.
On New Carbon Capture Catalyst Discovered
David, the likeliest storage location for the CO2 (gas) captured as Calcium Carbonate (soldid) is the oceans. To be of significance billions of tons of gas would have to be converted to a solid which as Archimedes found out causes displacement of water. Sea level rise is the greatest problem the CO2 gas is already creating, IMHO this does little to solve that problem.