Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Eli Is Not A GeoEngineer But . . .

The MIT CoLab is running a series of contests for the best ideas about how to deal with climate change
Anyone can join the Climate CoLab community and participate. Community members are invited to submit and comment on proposals outlining what they think should be done about climate change. In some contests, computerized simulation models project the environmental and economic outcomes of the proposed actions proposed. Experts review and evaluate the proposals, and both experts and community members select the most promising proposals. For more, see How the CoLab works.

Among the contests are those dealing with building efficiency, reducing emissions from cement, industrial efficiency, adaptation and civil groups, transportation efficiency (ride a bike), efficiently using fossil fuels, decarbonization, resilient cities, ag and forestry, local action, and, of course geoengineering.

Bunnies can submit plans, criticize or praise the plans of others, vote for finalists and more.  Eli may have some fun with a few of these:)

13 comments:

  1. Building efficiency:

    MIT's network is very drafty -- basically a wind tunnel.

    Since they obviously are very upset about "too much" of their heat( JSTOR knowledge) leaking out, perhaps they should do something (anything) to actually "weather seal" their network (login, password protection, locked utility closets, etc).

    Threats of fifty year prison terms for the "heat crooks"* might be great to discourage future "heat theft", but once the "heat" is gone, it can be very hard to get it back (Second Law of Prosecutor Dynamics).

    ~@:>

    *you know, the homeless guy warming himself around the fire you built in the trash barrel out in the open. "Throw the barrel at him, Danno"

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  2. I have my doubts about the utility of this.

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  3. Well color me stoopid, that is why they call me "Hey Stoopid".

    Cui bono.

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  4. Very interesting blog post by Tom Murphy of UCSD on what physically happens to Earth if economic growth continues at 2.3%, with some good comments BTL.

    Galactic-Scale Energy

    "No matter what the technology, a sustained 2.3% energy growth rate would require us to produce as much energy as the entire sun within 1400 years. A word of warning: that power plant is going to run a little warm. Thermodynamics require that if we generated sun-comparable power on Earth, the surface of the Earth—being smaller than that of the sun—would have to be hotter than the surface of the sun!"

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  5. Human stupidity (of which mainstream economics an important subclass) is also exponential

    "It's the stupid trend"
    -- by Horatio Algeranon

    The "Stupid Trend"
    Is without end
    It even has an upward bend.

    “The globe has cooled
    So don’t be fooled
    Jim Hansen has been over-ruled”

    “The ice is back
    There is no lack
    The latter is a simple fact”

    “The HCN
    Is at it again
    In bed with all of Hansen’s men.”

    The stupid claims
    From the usual names
    Might seem no more than silly games

    But don't pretend
    The "Stupid Trend"
    Is really aught, but means to an end.

    There's also a graph.

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  6. The Pome's great, but that graph is truly a corker, Horatio!

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  7. Economic growth and growth in energy usage are not the same thing.

    I guess it would be if the composition of goods and services consumed and produced remains constant and technology never changes.

    But that's not the case.

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  8. good blogging but still u have a long way to go

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  9. "Economic growth and growth in energy usage are not the same thing."


    Growth in energy usage and life expectancy is more to the point .

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  10. "Hexponential Growth"
    -- by Horatio Algeranon

    Economics is absurd
    Mathturbation of the herd
    Growth eternal
    Is infernal
    Hexponential, in a word

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  11. "Geoengineering"
    -- by Horatio Algeranon

    While geoengineering
    To some, may sound endearing,
    It might produce Macbeth,
    The "Great Blue Screen of Death".

    And most unfortunately,
    Unlike the home PC,
    When Earth has been polluted
    It can't just be rebooted.

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  12. Horation:

    "There's also a graph."

    Needs some error bars

    ReplyDelete

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