- Joined
- Jun 12, 2018
- Messages
- 1,276
Harnessing Photosynthesis To Capture
The article is an interesting start. It article suggests that the idea that solutions have to be profitable, not just workable, might have outlived it's usefulness as a gauge of how to do things. That is a step in the right direction. We went down this road because all the signs said it was the short term profitable way to do things and most people never thought about what the long term implications would be.
If the process is much more efficient than trees at capturing carbon that would be a good start. But trees do a hundred more things than just capturing carbon to make our lives healthier. The problem with the tree solution is that you have to plant the trees and then leave them alone for a hundred years. If people grew the trees and only took branches off of them so the tree could continue to grow and grow more branches that would be a good start. But for some inexplicable reason people have to take the whole tree with them when they harvest what the tree has to offer.
There was a lot of construction of solar heated water systems back in the 70's when environmental concerns were being utilized as ways to build a greener world. The units with the clear tubing, or clear panels, grew so much algae that it choked off the flow of the water through the pipes. The free energy is there to be used, it just has to be used in a manner that uses up as much carbon as possible. The idea of making fuel from the bacteria would be adding more burnt fuel exhaust which would enter in as a long term debiting factor. Making electricity straight from the bacteria seems to be the best way to get clean renewable energy out of the used carbon. Until we get a handle on the free carbon situation, anything that recycles the captured carbon back into circulation has to be examined to see how much it alleviates the gains made in the first place by capturing the carbon.
If we were farther along in the exploration of the Moon and Mars and the building of rocket ships, perhaps shipping all the excess carbon to space colonies for awhile could make the situation better for Earth, the Moon, and Mars.
The article is an interesting start. It article suggests that the idea that solutions have to be profitable, not just workable, might have outlived it's usefulness as a gauge of how to do things. That is a step in the right direction. We went down this road because all the signs said it was the short term profitable way to do things and most people never thought about what the long term implications would be.
If the process is much more efficient than trees at capturing carbon that would be a good start. But trees do a hundred more things than just capturing carbon to make our lives healthier. The problem with the tree solution is that you have to plant the trees and then leave them alone for a hundred years. If people grew the trees and only took branches off of them so the tree could continue to grow and grow more branches that would be a good start. But for some inexplicable reason people have to take the whole tree with them when they harvest what the tree has to offer.
There was a lot of construction of solar heated water systems back in the 70's when environmental concerns were being utilized as ways to build a greener world. The units with the clear tubing, or clear panels, grew so much algae that it choked off the flow of the water through the pipes. The free energy is there to be used, it just has to be used in a manner that uses up as much carbon as possible. The idea of making fuel from the bacteria would be adding more burnt fuel exhaust which would enter in as a long term debiting factor. Making electricity straight from the bacteria seems to be the best way to get clean renewable energy out of the used carbon. Until we get a handle on the free carbon situation, anything that recycles the captured carbon back into circulation has to be examined to see how much it alleviates the gains made in the first place by capturing the carbon.
If we were farther along in the exploration of the Moon and Mars and the building of rocket ships, perhaps shipping all the excess carbon to space colonies for awhile could make the situation better for Earth, the Moon, and Mars.
