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Telecom Cables Wanted For Climate Research
schliz writes "Oceanographers have called for telecommunications companies to use their active and retired submarine fibre to collect climate data. Sydney University's John You says voltmeters could simply be attached to cable landing stations to measure ocean currents via the electromagnetic current that they generate. More information about salinity and seismology could be collected by attaching sensors to repeater boxes that are typically installed every 100km of cable to amplify signals. Because fibre optic cables could remain under the sea for decades, they could be a consistent, continual source of data for researchers."
You do realize that undersea fiber optic cables are bundled with high voltage power lines to power all those repeaters, right?
It's a hell of a lot better than not knowing.
Do you have any idea how much Australia earns from coal exports? Why should the Australian taxpayer fund research aimed at providing data to undermine that industry and ruin our economy?
Someone has to place some limits on scientists, otherwise they'll just go around playing God.
About AUD 55 billion a year, or about 5% of our GDP. That's 250 million tonnes of carbon, which turns into almost a billion tonnes of CO2 once burned.
So yeah, a truly scary amount of coal, but if people start taking global warming seriously, then there are alternatives. We could start exporting Uranium instead, we do have huge reserves. In the same time period, we only exported about AUD 1 billion of Uranium.
Losing 5% of the GDP would certainly be less than ideal, but it wouldn't destroy the Australian economy, especially if it happened over a few decades.