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Thu 14 Apr, 2005 08:17 am
Even if Earth is likely to cool, we should consider ways to cool Earth. It is called contingency planning.
I was hoping someone would give us details on one of the hundred other ways to reverse greenhouse warming minutely. Is 1% too much to expect from the brilliant persons who post here?
As most of you know electricity is used in the same second it is produced. It can be sort of stored by using it in a way the energy can be recovered, such as making hydrogen. Then we create new electricity (or other energy) later. Unfortunately we typical recover about half.
Better is to level out the demand, so we only produce as much as we need in each second. We do this by pooling some of the electricity on the North America grid. When the total is 1/10% more than we need the grid voltage rises so that most every device connected to the grid gets a bit more than it's design amount of energy. Carried too far this method damages some of the devices.
When the grid gets 1/10% less than needed most every device gets a bit less than the design amount of energy. Carried too far, some locales have brown-outs. If a remedy is not found within seconds rolling brown-outs occur. The usual solution is to cut all the power to a neighborhood, so there is enough energy for the rest of the neighborhoods. At about the same instant, the local controller orders the start up of a gas turbine generator (if all of them arn't running already) When the additional gas turbine is making electricity a few seconds later, power is restored to the blacked out neighboorhood. Apparently my neighborhood is low priority, as we lose electricity for a few seconds typically once per week, just like in third world counties.
Batteries are good as the chargers can be designed to draw little power during a brownout and lots of power when the voltage is slightly excessive. Electrolysis of water to make hydrogen and florescent lights also help steady the voltage on the grid. Some of the florescent tubes stop lighting during a brown-out and don't relight until a voltage excess occurs. Neil
Cool the earth sounds easy. How about a nuclear winter? Set off a couple of big ones and she should cool right down.
I warn you, Neil, you better get it right the first time.
Hi roger: The nuclear winter hypothesis is based mostly one very large volcanic eruption in 1812. Crop failures were extensive the following spring and summer due to reduced sun light and lower temperatures. Subsequent eruptions and nuclear tests indicate the cooling effect is too small to confirm, except very short term.
Perhaps we could build giant machines, capable of grinding quartz sand and limestone to extremely fine dust, which can be carried to high altitude by natural updrafts. The dust needs to be light in color so it reflects solar energy back into space. Dark colored dust absorbs solar energy, warming the upper atmosphere. The upper atmosphere spirals toward the poles, so Earth's poles would get warmer, melting the ice which is presently reflecting solar energy back into space, which would make the polar regions still warmer. Dark dust might be a good strategy for moderating a new ice age. It is difficult to predict the dust color produced by very large nuclear explosions. Neil
I see.
But finely ground quartz sand sounds like an invitation to silicosis, unless we know it's never coming back down.
Ever read Mother of Storms, by John Barnes, I believe? I give it an A+.
The authors name and title seem familiar. Perhaps I read the pilot version in Analog. I rarely have the patience for a full length book. Asbestos causes the most trouble when the fibers are about 1/2 millimeter long. Perhaps a smaller size silicon dioxide = quartz would be harmful only in large concentrations which should be rare except when the updraft stops unexpectedly. Neil
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