Global Warming

[Pie]

In regards to a4yo, ethanol is not a joke, it has it's pros and cons, it isn't viable as an energy source because of the amount of sugar cane(Or sugar sources) is massive as opposed to the amount of fuel gained from it. The ratio of natural materials to fuel is to big for it to be a viable source of fuel to replace petroleum based fuels.

The thing about global warming that bugs me, is that people assume that global warming is a man made problem, something that mankind has done on the planet, which isn't what i believe. From my own experience global warming is not a man made phenomenon, global warming has been around since the creation of the world (Creation either way, by an entity or by big bang). From what I can remember is that scientists can prove that temperature has fluctuated, sometimes dramatically and sometimes insignificantly, think ice age. It's not completely proven, but the temperature fluctuates on a regular basis, ie, the earth's temperature changes in cycles, whether those cycles do for millions of years, or tens of years.

While global warming is an issue, it isn't a man made issue, people are only contributing a small amount of carbon gasses to the "Greenhouse" effect. It is a problem, but it seems like the media misrepresents the idea of global warming, so by changing your lifestyle, you're not really doing a lot to change the earth temperature wise. It's more of a "feel good" way to deal with the situation. People think by paying people to reduce their emissions they're actually doing something to combat global warming, but they're really only making themselves feel good.

It seems that people only care about something once they can actually see it's a problem. which is probably why my country isn't really investing in green energy as much as some other countries. I'm pretty sure that Australia isn't really a green country, we did sign kyoto however, so at least we've agreed to do something. But am I the only one that thinks that if you don't use up your "Share" of emmisions, that you are able to use up more than your share next time?

That seems stupid, but yeah, my thoughts on the topic.

[a-4-year-old]

If you were watching the history channel you obviously were not paying attention. All the energy put into making hydrogen is released when you run the engine.

And? His original point wasn't that the energy isn't missing, its the process to obtain it.

What?

The problem with alternative energies, is all of them are either unefficient or expensive to make. Many times both. Take hydrogen...

No Pie, its a joke, it only works in brazil, it takes almost as much fossil fuel just to make the stuff from corn, it takes much too much corn to make it and that causes food shortages.

[Pie]

which was my entire point, it's not a joke, it's just not sustainable, economically, socially or environmentally. It takes something like 4 tones of sugar cane to produce enough ethanol to run a family car for a week, or something ridiculous like that, and when compared to the amount of time it takes to grow sugar cane, as well as the amount of ethanol that can be obtained per square km of sugar cane just makes it unsustainable in a large society. The reason brazil can do it is because they've been doing it for a long time, and because a lot of their landmass is dedicated to refining and producing sugar cane and ethanol.

It's like calling petroleum based fuels a joke because one day they could become unsustainable because they aren't a renewable energy source.

Geography taught me so much...

[a-4-year-old]

which was my entire point, it's not a joke, it's just not sustainable, economically, socially or environmentally.

But people think it is. That makes it a joke.

[excruciator]

In a few years we won't be using corn anymore to make ethanol. Cellulose to ethanol technology is being
further developed and tested as we speak.

which was my entire point, it's not a joke, it's just not sustainable, economically, socially or environmentally.

But people think it is. That makes it a joke.

It makes it funny, not necessarily a joke.

Also, global warming it is mostly a man made problem. I'm quite sure that the carbon dioxide emission from a factory trumps the emission from tens acre of forest minus trees

[PANZERCATWAGON]

In a few years we won't be using corn anymore to make ethanol. Cellulose to ethanol technology is being
further developed and tested as we speak.

which was my entire point, it's not a joke, it's just not sustainable, economically, socially or environmentally.

But people think it is. That makes it a joke.

It makes it funny, not necessarily a joke.

i think youll find it makes it humorous, not necessarily funny

[excruciator]

A joke is most likely to be created for the purpose of being funny. While this "funny" is mostly
collateral.

humorous or funny, it's the same thing.

[Pie]

In a few years we won't be using corn anymore to make ethanol. Cellulose to ethanol technology is being
further developed and tested as we speak.

which was my entire point, it's not a joke, it's just not sustainable, economically, socially or environmentally.

But people think it is. That makes it a joke.

It makes it funny, not necessarily a joke.

Also, global warming it is mostly a man made problem. I'm quite sure that the carbon dioxide emission from a factory trumps the emission from tens acre of forest minus trees

The earth's temperature goes up as a result of cycles, ie, the ice age being the "cool" cycle, and we are currently going through the "warm" cycle.

humans DO contribute to global warming, but the amount of CO2 we emit, is nothing compared to cows and so forth. Directly, human's have very little impact on the earth's temprature, but indirectly, we have a much large impact. We farm millions of cows, thus creating methane gas production as a byproduct of the meat harvesting process. We're not breeding those cows only to produce methane, but with the cows and the beef, comes the methane. So i guess humans have a moderate indirect impact, but directly, we probably couldn't change the earths tempreture if we tried. The major concern with the oil and the emmisions are that people are scared of the coal, oil etc, running out and with that comes the slump in economies, production, and the probable decrease in fresh produce markets and the raw material industry, without oil, we simply can't sustain our current lifestyle. We can't produce enough food, let alone move that food, without a reliable energy source and coal is that reliable energy source. So all in all, global warming is a small factor of the energy crisis, people aren't just worried about the earth, but about all those other impacts that will come when we stop using oil and coal.

I hear geothermal energy is a majorly sustainable energy source because it uses the magma flow from under the earth's surface, but because there are hardly any places in which in can be used as an energy source, it isn't readily available.

Our best bet is probably solar energy, but the transition from coal powered electricity to solar is pretty costly in the commercial market, i think it costs, at a minimum, something like $2500 to install on a home that is being built and even more on a home already running off coal supplied power. And the world can't just pool money together and make it that the population of the earth has a solar panel installed. (Which is what they should do instead of dicking around)

[Brock]

How the hell can Hydrogen be a "carrier"?  Don't you just combust hydrogen, and poof, energy?

no you use electricity to rip the hydrogen off of the two oxygens in water and then when you put them back together you get that electricity back. burning it would be silly.

So you basically rape water with electricity through electrolosis or w/e?  And it produces electricity? 

See I thought that you just burned it, combusting adds oxygen, and you get water as a side thing.  That doesn't make sense I know now...


Also, Panzer made my night/morning with the Ferrari thing  xD

[excruciator]

Pie, even if what you said about cattles is true(that the warming is mostly caused by them), we are the one that breed them. Therefore, it is still a manmade problem.

I personally believe that by releasing stored carbon(fossil fuels) back to the atmosphere is the main cause of global warming. Eventhough we are currently in the warm cycle, it certainly does not mask our impact.
(we warmed it up far quicker than it would naturally)

[Pie]

Pie, even if what you said about cattles is true(that the warming is mostly caused by them), we are the one that breed them. Therefore, it is still a manmade problem.

I personally believe that by releasing stored carbon(fossil fuels) back to the atmosphere is the main cause of global warming. Eventhough we are currently in the warm cycle, it certainly does not mask our impact.
(we warmed it up far quicker than it would naturally)

well, the impact is not direct.

And it's more of a comparison to the amount of greenhouse gasses people produce and the amount cows produce. While we do breed the cows, they simply do far greater damage to the ozone. Even if you don't include methane in the whole scheme of things, i'm pretty sure our impact is not as severe as people first thought. A gore said in an inconvenient truth that the world would be fucked in less than 5 years. it was filmed in 2006. You would think that if the world was supposed to end that we would see massive consequences to our actions by now, and yet we haven't really. The icecaps have melted slightly, but not so much as to cause the world to end.