Re: global warming: is it us, or is it the sun?

From: Perplexed in Peoria (jimmenegay_at_sbcglobal.net)
Date: 07/24/04 

Date: Sat, 24 Jul 2004 04:55:35 GMT

"Henry Spencer" <henry@spsystems.net> wrote in message news:I1Bs4B.A6H@spsystems.net...
> Whether or not you believe that modest amounts of artificial
> global warming are already present, there is no reasonable doubt that
> adding tens of terawatts of fossil-fuel power will produce very large
> amounts of it.
>
> Moreover, preventing this -- or even restraining it enough to offer some
> hope that climate effects will be modest -- is really hard; trying to
> regulate it away, e.g. Kyoto, is like ordering the tide not to come in.
> Already, 80% of annual CO2-emissions growth is in developing nations in
> Asia, not in the industrialized Western world.

Amen. Though the bulk of the emissions, if not the growth, is still in
the West and the former Soviet bloc.

> This is a technological problem, not a regulatory one:

But here I have to disagree. It is at least partially a regulatory
problem. I am not talking about "clean up emissions and improve
power generation efficiency" regulations here. That idea is absurd.
But a part of the solution has to come from reducing the growth in
demand, and regulation (including carbon taxes) can play a role here.

The only technological fix that has a hope of making a dent in the
problem in the time frame required is nuclear breeders. And it is
wrong to suggest that the problem here is merely technical - it is
also regulatory, in both positive and negative senses.

> [I]f we're going to
> even contain this, then by mid-century, we need to be commissioning
> perhaps a terawatt a year of CO2-neutral primary power sources. None of
> the current ideas for how to do that is within current technology, if only
> because of scaling issues.

Relevant Pages

  • FCC Votes to Classify Transmission On Power Lines as Information
    ... classify the transmission of data over power lines as an 'information ... The United Power Line Council's first filed for FCC ... over Power Lines as the regulatory equivalent to DSL and cable, ... well-established providers of DSL and cable modem service. ...
    (comp.dcom.telecom)
  • Fed Up
    ... Above all these agencies need to have the power to penalize those who ... Barney Frank wants to give the Fed more regulatory power: ... Congress is moving to create strong new oversight of the financial ... sector that would likely give the Federal Reserve authority to examine ...
    (misc.news.internet.discuss)
  • Re: I dont understand why my phone system does what it does.
    ... Nobody is talking about 100% reliability. ... why they lose power in that section... ... So it returns to a question of "how often and why" and whether that is or isn't up to the standards of the particular State regulatory body. ... my guess would be the telco makes pretty sure to ensure that. ...
    (alt.home.repair)
  • Re: Gurps traveller refuelling question
    ... they use an enormous amount of power over a very short ... Almost all of its fuel is consumed doing this (through the ... might use 95 - 99% of its fuel on the jump, ... manoeuvring doesn't use incidental amounts of power. ...
    (rec.games.frp.gurps)
  • Re: [PATCH] USB: mark USB drivers as being GPL only
    ... GSM transceivers when used in those parts of the world^ where regulatory ... requirements prohibit modification of power or frequency settings, ...
    (Linux-Kernel)