Environmental Lip Service...(Deep breath)

[Kinger43]

I reiterate, we have not been on this planet nearly long enough to know what its natural cycle may be. Just because a hole opens in the ozone while we're on it doesn't mean that we caused it. It is my opinion and belief that this happened because too much carbon was building in the atmosphere and the atmosphere needed a release valve.

 

[Pauldohert]

The holes supposed to be healing itself isn't it?

 

[Kinger43]

The holes supposed to be healing itself isn't it?

That is my understanding

 

[dan-cat]

Can't remember where I read it, but didn't some scientists analyse various layers of the earth and come up with a theory that the earth has been through several 'warming' stages before?

 

[Kinger43]

Can't remember where I read it, but didn't some scientists analyse various layers of the earth and come up with a theory that the earth has been through several 'warming' stages before?

You are correct. In fact, I think each warming stage was suddenly ended by an ice age or mini ice age as was the case in the 1300s.

 

[thisisntwally]

that is the case, however what we see is evidence that this warming cycle (actually the Carbon cycle, which appears to be corralated and to precede the temperature business) is happening much faster, and to a far greater extreme. So the worry is did we break it (i.e. things just keep getting hotter), or will we experience an even steeper drop off than in the past, when the natural systems try to 'remedy' this.

 

[Pauldohert]

The integral z-squared dz
From one to the cube root of three
Times the cosine
Of three pi over nine
Equals log of the cube root of e

I'll remember that!

 

[Pauldohert]

The integral z-squared dz
From one to the cube root of three
Times the cosine
Of three pi over nine
Equals log of the cube root of e

I'll remember that!

Theres a favourite hobby of mine
For a new value of Pi to assign
I'd fix it at three
Its easier you see
Than 3.14159

More accessable that one.

 

[thisisntwally]

Theres a favourite hobby of mine
For a new value of Pi to assign
I'd fix it at three
Its easier you see
Than 3.14159

i do like that, nothing quite compares to the mathmatikal limerick

 

[Kinger43]

But then there would be a problem you see
Changing Pi to 3
There would be no association
No affiliation
Between diameter and its boundary

 

[GaryPanic]

I remember pi being 22/7 - and i get a calculator to work it out ..

 

[RexesOperator]

wait for the government to enact common sense policies such was wave / wind turbines etc..

Not to get off topic - but what planet are you living on when you expect "common sense policies" from ANY government -North/South American, UK, European, Outer Mongolian?

"Common sense policies from government" is almost as oxymoronic a phrase as Microsoft Help!

 

[statsman]

But then there would be a problem you see
Changing Pi to 3
There would be no association
No affiliation
Between diameter and its boundary

Why teach our children annoying things like the value of Pi. Just change the diameter of the circle to whatever the radius is X 3 squared.
Of course we'll be getting an entire generation of engineers who build bridges and buildings that fall down.

 

[garethl]

to be honest i think a large part of the solution is trying to reduce peoples reliance on piped energy on wholly or partially cutting them off from the grid network

renewables are a much more viable solution in the context of microgeneration

where is the sense in producing electricity from wind power or sunlight or whatever then piping it to someone down a wire (with all the associated transmission losses) and letting them use that same energy to heat water when they could have had a solar thermal hot water system in their roof or just burned wood?

the thing is the vast majority of our energy consumption (i believe its over 60%) is used in heating, either water or the air space in our homes and all that heating could simply be achieved by burning biomass (and the heat actually kept in by decent insulation)

next comes lighting but we should all be using compact flourecent lamps

what is left over, all the electrically powered gadgest of the modern age, tv's computers, dvd players these are actually all fairly low power devices in comparsison to our boilers and heaters, if we just burned wood to keep ourselves warm we could probably generate enough electricity ourselves to keep these low power (and non essential) toys ticking over

people have mentioned solar panels and like i hinted above they really are a bit of a waste of time, much better use the suns energy to directly heat water than as a horrendously inefficient means of generating electricity and then using that electricity to heat water or air.

 

[KalelGmoon]

I dont know how many get National Geographic, but in the november 07 issue there is a good article about how hunters are turning into the new conservationists. pretty good article

kinda off topic though

 

[Rich]

or just burned wood?

I thought wood was carbon based?

 

[GaryPanic]

to be honest i think a large part of the solution is trying to reduce peoples reliance on piped energy on wholly or partially cutting them off from the grid network

renewables are a much more viable solution in the context of microgeneration

where is the sense in producing electricity from wind power or sunlight or whatever then piping it to someone down a wire (with all the associated transmission losses) and letting them use that same energy to heat water when they could have had a solar thermal hot water system in their roof or just burned wood?

the thing is the vast majority of our energy consumption (i believe its over 60%) is used in heating, either water or the air space in our homes and all that heating could simply be achieved by burning biomass (and the heat actually kept in by decent insulation)

next comes lighting but we should all be using compact flourecent lamps

what is left over, all the electrically powered gadgest of the modern age, tv's computers, dvd players these are actually all fairly low power devices in comparsison to our boilers and heaters, if we just burned wood to keep ourselves warm we could probably generate enough electricity ourselves to keep these low power (and non essential) toys ticking over

people have mentioned solar panels and like i hinted above they really are a bit of a waste of time, much better use the suns energy to directly heat water than as a horrendously inefficient means of generating electricity and then using that electricity to heat water or air.

good post - I think you will find the people who use photo-solar aren't using them for heating - cos (as you point out) its not a viable option - they use them to charge batteries to run the toys/lighting etc

heating should be treated seperately- whether it be a heat pump - solar (not photo) or wood pellets etc

in essesne the power requirements need to be sectioned out

so
Heating
Lighting
Essenstails (Fridge)
luxuries (Kettle)
and you apply the technology to each

with heating you first strart with insulation get that up to scratch and half the job is done thne look at what works for your location - if your a townie a wood burner may not be an option - but if your a country folk - then its worth looking at .

Lighting - solar (photo) charging batteries - if you have the spare room for it again if you live in a flat - not really an option - however if you got lots of roof-age certainly worth looking at .

etc

 

[GaryPanic]

I thought wood was carbon based?

if you grow your own wood - and burn it - it is considered to be cardon neutral as the tree takes out the cardon while growing and then its release when burnt - (weird I know, not my rules) wood pellets burners burn slower so less wood is required and also a lot of it is recycled -( but still carbon emmissions)

I didn't make the rules -

 

[Rich]

Wood may well five out the lowest carbon emissions when burnt, but it still giving them out.
No the only option is to take a leaf out of pre-historic times and go back to pedal power like Fred and Barney

 

[Rich]

TVs and computers and most modern entertainment conveniences are a huge waste of electricity because the first thing the mains gets to in any of there devices is a transformer to bring the power down to between 36 and 5 volts

When I was a TV engineer very few TV's had transformers because they were too expensive and nowadays I think the torodial trans wastes little energy in fact transformers are some of the most efficient electrical 'machines, with some large units able to transfer 99.75% of their input power to their output