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First Successful Demonstration of CO2 Capture Technology
An anonymous coward writes "Global Research Technologies, LLC (GRT), a technology research and development company, and Klaus Lackner from Columbia University have achieved the
successful demonstration of a bold new technology to capture carbon from the air. The "air extraction" prototype has successfully demonstrated that indeed carbon dioxide (CO2) can be captured from the atmosphere. This is GRT's first step toward a commercially viable air capture device."
Watch some Republican in congress is going to pass a bill outlawing this tech because of the possible "Global Chilling by terrorist". (Not only will he be seen as Anti-Terror, but eco-friendly.)
You gotta love politics.
I watched a documentary on the effects of Global Warming on Antarctic wildlife a few days back. Fortunately this was misbilled. The point is they said that "Global Warming" was affecting the Penguins. It seems the Emperor Penguins were nesting a little farther south as were some other species of penguins. Damn - those birds are smart. I'll bet if we have Global cooling they will move farther North. You might say they have adapted to a changing climate and know how to cope... especially since they have been around for a few million years. Either that or they have a survival strategy that doesn't take too much thought... like when you want to nest you get out of the water then you walk south for "n" days or miles or whatever metric they use and when you have gone as far as you think you should go then you find a nest. One could use such an algorithm in a robot!
I happen to know there were trees North of the Arctic circle 5 million years ago because a good friend's drilling crew drilled into wood 200 meters down in a kimberlite they were looking for diamonds in. In order to have trees North of the Arctic circle you need a much warmer climate. The earth climate is always in flux.
We already have CO2 absorbers in constant action on the planet. They are called trees. I would suggest instead of chopping them down faster than they can grow that we just let them do their jobs.
But then the trees of course are often replaced with a concrete jungle. Well folks! Concrete absorbs CO2. It really likes it when it is in the form of Calcium Oxide and Calcium Hydroxide (in portland cement).
So one way to do this chemically is to simply stack barrels of either Calcium Oxide or Calcium Hydroxide around and after they turn into Calcium Carbonate we can tote that back to the Cement Factory and roast it to (say way?) "drive off the CO2". and then reuse the stuff.
If ANYONE has missed the obvious. Its going to cost as much in energy terms to remove the CO2 from the atmosphere as we gained from the fuel we burned when we put it there! This is REGARDLESS how you do it and if they've got a way that doesn't require this energy then they better trot on down to the patent office (along with all the other lame brains) and patent their perpetual motion machine.
If we can get the taxpayer to fund this stupidy then we are well on our way to getting rich at the expense of the masses which seems to be the normal way things are going these days considering the amount of useless paper pushing going on, crap wannabe documentaries created by pollies which show up on movie channels (which I am about to cancel), and law suits such as the joy created by SCO.
Of course as a programmer I am caught in the same crap that many other programmers are caught in and that is that if we want to create something useful we'll probably be sued by a patent troll. Then if my kids want to listen to a tune they may well be sued by the RIAA. In fact when I look back the stupidity that seems to be going on is maybe worse than during the Vietman war... and what did they sing then? "1, 2, 3, 4 what are we fighting for?"
Oh.. we are fighting a war on drugs. This throws innocent single mothers in Jail. Oh... we are fighting a war on terror. But really it is an oil war meant to free middle eastern oil for a terribly inefficient USA automotive fleet. Oh... we are fighting a war on Global Warming! Yet its becoming more and more apparent that the idea of Global Warming driven by CO2 is bad science. Comparing CO2 concentrations for instance to water vapour concentrations is about the same as comparing the thickness of a sheet of toilet paper to a tree stump. We CANNOT MEASURE WATER VAPOUR ACCURATELY ENOUGH TO DETERMINE IF IT IS INCREASING, DECREASING or STAYING THE SAME AND CERTAINLY NOT WHY Yet it is Water Vapour that is the principal green house gas.
I would suggest to anyone worried about CO2 levels to (1) plant some trees and (2) put some insulation in their houses and (3) figu