Re: shuttle disaster
On Thu, Feb 06, 2003 at 11:38:09AM -0600, Ron Johnson wrote:
> On Wed, 2003-02-05 at 22:50, Pigeon wrote:
> > On Wed, Feb 05, 2003 at 11:41:19AM -0600, DvB wrote:
> > > csj@mindgate.net writes:
> > >
> > > > On Mon, 3 Feb 2003 22:36:45 +0000,
> > > > Pigeon wrote:
> > > >
> > > > [...]
> [snip]
> > I can think of a few off the top of my head:
> > - run mobile power plants (vehicles, locomotives) off RME or alcohol
> > - design the products of industry to last ten times as long as they do
> > at the moment, and reduce industrial output by 90%
>
> Unfortunately, the world economy would crash.
Yeah, it's broken. Symptoms of the same disease.
> > - impose a 1% cashflow tax on the oil industry and put the money into
> > fusion research
>
> The petroleum industry is already highly taxed in the West.
But the money isn't put into fusion research.
> > - put sails on ships
>
> Yankee Clippers were covered with sails, but were only a small fraction
> of the gross tonnage of modern cargo ships. It would be impractical.
I've seen a photo of an experimental Japanese sailing ship, modern
cargo ship size with a big bank of aerofoils instead of conventional
sails. I'm not suggesting get rid of the engines, simply not to rely
on them for everything.
> > They all suffer from the problem that people who currently make vast
> > amounts of money out of fossil fuels won't be able to any more. I have
> > an unpleasant suspicion that we'll be dependent on fossil fuels until
> > they actually run out and force us to do something else. Science can
> > find lots of solutions, politics/greed are the problems when it comes
> > to putting them into practice.
>
> The "problem" is that gasoline & diesel are very convenient & high-
> density fuels.
But such fuels don't have to be derived from fossil sources. We could switch
to RME and alcohol, and drive less.
> I'm pretty confident that a decent minorty of US cars will be using
> fuel cells in 15 years.
So will my bicycle, I hope! Methanol-fuel-cell-powered laptops and
mobile phones, I think, are almost with us. Maybe they are with us.
Pigeon
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