The Big Question: Is there a technological solution to the problem of global warming?

[Hobjob]

Comprehensive and interesting article on this in Independent to-day

The Big Question: Is there a technological solution to the problem of global warming? - Climate Change, Environment - The Independent

Too long to paste really.

There was also a suggestion last week that if all houses in the world were painted white, then would have a significant impact too. I'm sure google will find it.

[Meta menardi]

I have constructed a computer that will answer this question. It is called "Deep Thought 2", and it is programmed not to come up with a numerical answer. Predicted program finish, year 0000.

[Rob_D]

I like the ideas but ocean fertilisation, or cloud seeding seem a little risky. Other ideas don't seem to scale. Hard to imagine a simple and easy solution that won't have big risks but who knows.

Something like fusion power could totally change the balance - if we genuinely had limitless, cheap and clean electricity then GW might be easy to solve. Having grown up in the shadow of the JET project in Culham, that was a big disappointment and fusion power seems as far away as ever. Let's hope ITER makes some big advances.

[tuckmeister]

Pykrete is a super-ice, strengthened tremendously by mixing in wood pulp as it freezes. By freezing a slurry of 14 percent wood pulp, the mechanical strength of ice rockets up to a fairly consistent 70 kg/sq cm. A 7.69 mm rifle bullet, when fired into pure ice, will penetrate to a depth of about 36 cm. Fired into pykrete, it will penetrate less than half as far — about the same distance as a bullet fired into brickwork. Yet you can mold pykrete into blocks from the simplest materials and then plane it, just like wood. And it has tremendous crush resistance: a one-inch column of the stuff will support an automobile. Moreover, it takes much longer to melt than pure ice. But as strong and eco-friendly as it is, pykrete remains forgotten today save among glaciologists, who express bafflement over why no one has made use of it. "I don't really know why it has languished in obscurity," admits Professor Erland Schulson, director of the Ice Research Laboratory at Dartmouth College.

So during winter months by adding wood pulp, recycled paper, cotton fibers to the advancing ice fields or glaciers it would make them more resilient to the summer melting?

Just a thought..

[birding dave]

Global warming, what global warming? Biggest con ever!!! Politicians have jumped on this just to get extra taxes out of us.

[BloomingMarvellous]

Well said birding dave, totally agree with you.

[Soupdragon]

Originally Posted by birding dave

Global warming, what global warming? Biggest con ever!!! Politicians have jumped on this just to get extra taxes out of us.

Global warming is fact, there is proof. As to the cause, well, that is not so clear cut, but the risks of us not doing anything about it are terrible for humans if you are wrong. The risks to us acting to prevent further global warming would just be inconvenient if I am wrong.

[seamusagleann]

Originally Posted by birding dave

Global warming, what global warming? Biggest con ever!!! Politicians have jumped on this just to get extra taxes out of us.

could well be !! can i just bring this to everyones attention

Forestry Law Change Will Help Global Warming Fight (from The Herald )

[Hoppingmad]

Originally Posted by seamusagleann

could well be !! can i just bring this to everyones attention

Forestry Law Change Will Help Global Warming Fight (from The Herald )

Thanks for posting that link, it is interesting. I am following an Open University course called The Earth in Crisis and articles like this are really useful.

Debbie

[Digit]

The Big Question deserves a Big Answer.
Assuming that GW is man made the answer is simple in theory. Stop over breeding!

Roy.