The deadline for submitting entries to the Gore-Branson carbon sequestration idea contest has passed, but, nonetheless, here is my submission. It is simple, and more importantly it is non-exotic.
The basic concept is this: While protecting existing forests even more strongly than we do now, we must greatly expand the number of acres dedicated to tree farming, and plant those acres with extremely-fast-growing pulp trees. Weyerhaeuser Corporation has genetically modified species of trees to grow very, very fast.
As we increase tree farming, we should change our economy back to one which makes MASSIVE use of paper and other cellulose-based products -- fit cellulose back into the economy whenever and wherever we can find a niche for it.
Next, instead of recycling paper, we need to BURY paper and those cellulose products after use, when it is time to throw them away -- and use the used paper and cellulose as backfill to fill exhausted strip mines.
This has the impact of sequestering carbon in the form of the relatively stable cellulose moloecule underground.
The existing paper-collection-and-recycling system can easily be converted into a a paper-collection-and-burying system. Rebuild railroad rights-of-way to exhausted strip mines, and simply dump enormous quantities of paper from the bottoms of hopper cars into the mines.
The mines can be lined (with cellulose-based sheathing materials) to cope with leachates, and they can be structured to "chimney" methane to a central collection point, and then covered and the methane recovered and converted to electrical generation and the electricity sold to the grid.
Increases in economic activity in a cellulose-burying economy would increase the rate of carbon sequestration. Paper non-recycling and strip mining become blessings, not a curse.
Fundamentally, there's nothing technologically novel about the approach. Fundamentally, it is conservative in its logic, and cheaply executed.
Showing posts with label global warming. Show all posts
Showing posts with label global warming. Show all posts
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Current Earthquakes and the Iceland Volcano -- Evidence of a Geological Tipping Point?
In Haiti, Chile, Baja, Sumatra -- 4 Big Earthquakes , at http://pjdsharing.blogspot.com/2010/04/haiti-chile-baja-sumatra-4-big.html, I suggested that global warming might be the cause of the series of earthquakes afflicting various nations this year so far.
Now we have to add to that list last week's 6.9 magnitude Tibetan earthquake, and Iceland's volcano!
Six (6) huge geological events in just a few months!
Suggestion: Is it possible that just as there are "tipping points" in the environment -- where, when some of the ice starts melting, ALL of the ice starts melting, for example -- there might be "tipping points" in the geology of the Earth?
In other words, if the glacier-to-Equator flow of water from global warming reaches a rate of "X tons per minute," the braking upon Earth's rotation generated by the redistribution of tonnage to the Equator might be a tipping point where we see a constant stream of earthquakes and volcanoes, worldwide, due to the innate mechanical limits of crustal integrity and viscosity of the underlying magma.
If this is so, are we accelerating the emergence of the super-volcano in Yellowstone?
I'd be interested in what the Yellowstone tiltmeters have to tell us, these days.
Now we have to add to that list last week's 6.9 magnitude Tibetan earthquake, and Iceland's volcano!
Six (6) huge geological events in just a few months!
Suggestion: Is it possible that just as there are "tipping points" in the environment -- where, when some of the ice starts melting, ALL of the ice starts melting, for example -- there might be "tipping points" in the geology of the Earth?
In other words, if the glacier-to-Equator flow of water from global warming reaches a rate of "X tons per minute," the braking upon Earth's rotation generated by the redistribution of tonnage to the Equator might be a tipping point where we see a constant stream of earthquakes and volcanoes, worldwide, due to the innate mechanical limits of crustal integrity and viscosity of the underlying magma.
If this is so, are we accelerating the emergence of the super-volcano in Yellowstone?
I'd be interested in what the Yellowstone tiltmeters have to tell us, these days.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Haiti, Chile, Baja, Sumatra -- 4 Big Earthquakes
The 01/12/10 earthquake in Haiti was 7.0 on the Richter scale.
The 02/27/10 earthquake in Chile was 8.8 on the similar Moment/Magnitude scale.
The 04/04/10 earthquake in Baja was 7.2 on the Richter scale.
The 04/07/10 earthquake in Sumatra was 7.7 on the Richter scale.
What's going on?
Simple proposed answer: Global warming.
As CO2 and other greenhouse gasses -- especially methane -- build-up in the atmosphere, they trap heat from sunlight, the average world temp goes up, until it reaches a "tipping point" -- the point at which, on the average, a lot of frozen water, sitting on land, begins to melt.
The ice melts, rivers dump more ice into the oceans, and global rotation generating centrifugal force throws a lot of the new water weight to the Equator.
This is the global equivalent of a figure skater, doing a pirouette, spreading her harms to slow herself down. The increase in mass at the perimeter of a rotating object causes the object's motion to compensate by slowing down.
I.e., the increase in tonnage at the Equator causes the Equator to "put on the brakes" on global spin.
This sets the slowing crust at war with the inside of the Earth, which wants to continue rotating at the previous rate.
That war generates earthquakes and volcanoes worldwide.
The 02/27/10 earthquake in Chile was 8.8 on the similar Moment/Magnitude scale.
The 04/04/10 earthquake in Baja was 7.2 on the Richter scale.
The 04/07/10 earthquake in Sumatra was 7.7 on the Richter scale.
What's going on?
Simple proposed answer: Global warming.
As CO2 and other greenhouse gasses -- especially methane -- build-up in the atmosphere, they trap heat from sunlight, the average world temp goes up, until it reaches a "tipping point" -- the point at which, on the average, a lot of frozen water, sitting on land, begins to melt.
The ice melts, rivers dump more ice into the oceans, and global rotation generating centrifugal force throws a lot of the new water weight to the Equator.
This is the global equivalent of a figure skater, doing a pirouette, spreading her harms to slow herself down. The increase in mass at the perimeter of a rotating object causes the object's motion to compensate by slowing down.
I.e., the increase in tonnage at the Equator causes the Equator to "put on the brakes" on global spin.
This sets the slowing crust at war with the inside of the Earth, which wants to continue rotating at the previous rate.
That war generates earthquakes and volcanoes worldwide.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Chandler Wobble: A Ticking Time Bomb?
The Earth has a problem: It's a very slowly rotating top on perfect ball bearings.
Do you remember that toy gyroscope you received for Christmas years ago -- it would slow down, and start wobbling.
The Earth does the same thing -- it wobbles, in several ways!
For years, it hardly wobbled at all. Why?
Because of snow.
Because of global warming, it's snowing heavier in Antarctica than it has in thousands of years.
So, while ice shelf calving lightens one side of our slowly spinning top in space, more and more snowfall is increasing the snow tonnage on the other side -- the much larger side -- of Antarctica.
By trillions of tons.
Despite global warming and snow pack increase on one side of Antarctica, a few years ago, the wobble, called Chandler Wobble, was nearly gone. Nearly no wobble at all, for a short time.
Probably, snow tonnage accidentally perfectly balanced-out the other factors impacting wobble.
But things are changing. The two great ice shelves are getting smaller, as the oceans warm. And as the atmosphere warms, evaporation of the oceans increases, and snowfall at the poles increases. Antarctica is getting more and more imbalanced, relative to the Earth's core beneath it.
Imagine one day, you come home from work and turn on the news and the anchorwoman reports that scientists note that the Earth's wobble is the largest ever measured.
Ten days later, another report mentions a meeting at the White House to talk about the impact of global warming on Earth wobble.
Five days later, troops start being called home from Iraq and Afghanistan ahead of schedule, in great numbers, to the delight of many families, but to the puzzlement of many.
Two days after that, a spokeman for the Franklin Insitute notes that there has been talk of a "surprising" amount of wobble in the Earth's rotation. It is 1,000 feet off! The spokesman notes that he is having difficulty getting answers from government agencies.
Then a new phenomenon starts coming up in the news with surprising frequency -- small earthquakes -- many of them -- as well as some tsunamis.
And then, the volcanoes start. Lots of them.
Then people start trickling into hospitals at an increasing rate -- very, very slowly at first, but then the numbers become ever larger. The diagnosis is "motion sickness"!!!
Doctors are astonished, and mystified.
But then someone notices that the Sun is not quite rising and setting in the same place every day.
Wobble is suddenly 250 miles wide!
Very shortly thereafter, all of these steadily increasing manifestations of a problem begin filling the news in an ever increasing chorus. The weather starts changing. People watch the stars. New stars are seen on one horizon at night, other ones disappear on the opposite horizon. An amateur astronomer manages to get a time-lapse photo of Polaris, the North Star. It's a big circle on the film -- not stationery.
Panic begins to grip society. Winds start increasing everywhere. Earthquakes start occurring everywhere. Volcanoes start erupting in ridiculous places. Billions start suffering from a subtle motion sickness.
Then, the impossible suddenly occurs. The Sun sets in the south! After only a few hours of day! The Sun is darkening, the moon turns red, from volcanic dust in the sky!
And suddenly, the oceans jump up on the Western edges of all continents. Near what was the Equator, completely absurd tidal waves, traveling northeast at 700 miles per hour, 20 miles high, rush onto land. The water pressure at the base is ridiculously huge -- thousands of tons per square inch. Everything is ground into mud, as the Earth begins to wobble wildly out of control.
That's kind of what it would be like if Chandler wobble got out of hand.
Do you remember that toy gyroscope you received for Christmas years ago -- it would slow down, and start wobbling.
The Earth does the same thing -- it wobbles, in several ways!
For years, it hardly wobbled at all. Why?
Because of snow.
Because of global warming, it's snowing heavier in Antarctica than it has in thousands of years.
So, while ice shelf calving lightens one side of our slowly spinning top in space, more and more snowfall is increasing the snow tonnage on the other side -- the much larger side -- of Antarctica.
By trillions of tons.
Despite global warming and snow pack increase on one side of Antarctica, a few years ago, the wobble, called Chandler Wobble, was nearly gone. Nearly no wobble at all, for a short time.
Probably, snow tonnage accidentally perfectly balanced-out the other factors impacting wobble.
But things are changing. The two great ice shelves are getting smaller, as the oceans warm. And as the atmosphere warms, evaporation of the oceans increases, and snowfall at the poles increases. Antarctica is getting more and more imbalanced, relative to the Earth's core beneath it.
Imagine one day, you come home from work and turn on the news and the anchorwoman reports that scientists note that the Earth's wobble is the largest ever measured.
Ten days later, another report mentions a meeting at the White House to talk about the impact of global warming on Earth wobble.
Five days later, troops start being called home from Iraq and Afghanistan ahead of schedule, in great numbers, to the delight of many families, but to the puzzlement of many.
Two days after that, a spokeman for the Franklin Insitute notes that there has been talk of a "surprising" amount of wobble in the Earth's rotation. It is 1,000 feet off! The spokesman notes that he is having difficulty getting answers from government agencies.
Then a new phenomenon starts coming up in the news with surprising frequency -- small earthquakes -- many of them -- as well as some tsunamis.
And then, the volcanoes start. Lots of them.
Then people start trickling into hospitals at an increasing rate -- very, very slowly at first, but then the numbers become ever larger. The diagnosis is "motion sickness"!!!
Doctors are astonished, and mystified.
But then someone notices that the Sun is not quite rising and setting in the same place every day.
Wobble is suddenly 250 miles wide!
Very shortly thereafter, all of these steadily increasing manifestations of a problem begin filling the news in an ever increasing chorus. The weather starts changing. People watch the stars. New stars are seen on one horizon at night, other ones disappear on the opposite horizon. An amateur astronomer manages to get a time-lapse photo of Polaris, the North Star. It's a big circle on the film -- not stationery.
Panic begins to grip society. Winds start increasing everywhere. Earthquakes start occurring everywhere. Volcanoes start erupting in ridiculous places. Billions start suffering from a subtle motion sickness.
Then, the impossible suddenly occurs. The Sun sets in the south! After only a few hours of day! The Sun is darkening, the moon turns red, from volcanic dust in the sky!
And suddenly, the oceans jump up on the Western edges of all continents. Near what was the Equator, completely absurd tidal waves, traveling northeast at 700 miles per hour, 20 miles high, rush onto land. The water pressure at the base is ridiculously huge -- thousands of tons per square inch. Everything is ground into mud, as the Earth begins to wobble wildly out of control.
That's kind of what it would be like if Chandler wobble got out of hand.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
The Clever Way God Built Our World
It is good to know that, as we wrestle to tune the world in to the problem of global warming, God built into reality certain safety mechanisms which buy time.
As glaciers melt and retreat worldwide, the water enters the oceans. When the average depth of the oceans evens out, we find that a net majority of the water has made its home at the Earth's "belly," the equator.
This is the geophysical equivalent of a twirling ice skater moving her arms from above her head to a position extended outwards from her shoulders.
Just like the ice skater doing this, the change "puts on the breaks." Inertia is greatly magnified. The crust, in the vicinity of the equator, tries very hard to slow down the Earth's rotation. This sets the crust at war with the momentum within the UNDERlying magma.
Result: A worldwide increase in volcanic activity!
This vastly increases volcanic dust in the upper atmosphere. This reflects away a surprising amount of Sunlight, cooling off the Earth somewhat.
You can see this happening in a surprising way: Every other New Years Eve, nowadays, our government adds a "leap second" to our clocks, to account for the decrease in Earth's rotation from water thrown to the equator after global warming.
There's a dark side to all of this:
Those earthquakes in Haiti a few weeks ago and in Chile last night?...
Undoubtedly, they were accelerated by global warming.
When you drive your car in Philadelphia or Magnolia or Sharon Hill or Havertown, you really, really do contribute to earthquakes elsewhere!
As glaciers melt and retreat worldwide, the water enters the oceans. When the average depth of the oceans evens out, we find that a net majority of the water has made its home at the Earth's "belly," the equator.
This is the geophysical equivalent of a twirling ice skater moving her arms from above her head to a position extended outwards from her shoulders.
Just like the ice skater doing this, the change "puts on the breaks." Inertia is greatly magnified. The crust, in the vicinity of the equator, tries very hard to slow down the Earth's rotation. This sets the crust at war with the momentum within the UNDERlying magma.
Result: A worldwide increase in volcanic activity!
This vastly increases volcanic dust in the upper atmosphere. This reflects away a surprising amount of Sunlight, cooling off the Earth somewhat.
You can see this happening in a surprising way: Every other New Years Eve, nowadays, our government adds a "leap second" to our clocks, to account for the decrease in Earth's rotation from water thrown to the equator after global warming.
There's a dark side to all of this:
Those earthquakes in Haiti a few weeks ago and in Chile last night?...
Undoubtedly, they were accelerated by global warming.
When you drive your car in Philadelphia or Magnolia or Sharon Hill or Havertown, you really, really do contribute to earthquakes elsewhere!
Sunday, February 21, 2010
A Counter-Intuitive Approach to Solving Global Warming
Suppose, instead of recycling paper, we outlawed paper recycling, and, instead, buried it.
Then, wouldn't we be putting carbon back into the ground, after the trees remove it from the air?
Proposal: Make use of nature. Open up vast, vast tree farms covered with those extremely-fast-growing Weyerhauser trees. Grind them up into cellulose and make various kinds of paper products with it. Make everything out of paper or cellulose.
Then, when the iltem is used, recover it using the same paper collection system in use tofday to recycle, but instead of taking it to the recycling plant, load it into hopper cars, and run the loads of paper to open pit mines on the old railroad rights of way, and fill the mines with paper.
Carefully cap-off the cellulose-filled pit mines. Any methane coming to the surface can be collected and burned to make electrivity, resulting in a CO2 re-release, with about a 95% recovery rate.
Each pit mine will become a wonderful passive energy source while it segregates carbon.
Then, wouldn't we be putting carbon back into the ground, after the trees remove it from the air?
Proposal: Make use of nature. Open up vast, vast tree farms covered with those extremely-fast-growing Weyerhauser trees. Grind them up into cellulose and make various kinds of paper products with it. Make everything out of paper or cellulose.
Then, when the iltem is used, recover it using the same paper collection system in use tofday to recycle, but instead of taking it to the recycling plant, load it into hopper cars, and run the loads of paper to open pit mines on the old railroad rights of way, and fill the mines with paper.
Carefully cap-off the cellulose-filled pit mines. Any methane coming to the surface can be collected and burned to make electrivity, resulting in a CO2 re-release, with about a 95% recovery rate.
Each pit mine will become a wonderful passive energy source while it segregates carbon.
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