Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Qmarx]

Perhaps some agreement between countries to acquire strict laws concerning recycling and whatnot?

If a very vigilante and determined recycling service were set up, it might help.

Not really.  Recycling paper and plastic doesn't really help the environment all that much. 

Aluminum, on the other hand, should be recycled constantly.  The amount of energy saved is ridiculous.


Oh, and I like the look of the Polywell fusion design proposed by Bussard.  If we can get a net gain from boron fusion, we'll be set until the sun explodes.

Otherwise we'll have to use uranium and breeder reactors, which'll only last a couple billion years. (but is defendant upon Greenpeace et al getting their head(s) out of their collective asinuses) 

[Duke 2.0]

 Recycling is already at a rather good place. Whatever materials we can recycle well are being recycled. Metals, glass, some plastics, papers...

 Mind you not everything can be recycled without putting too much energy into it. Plastics are incredibly difficult to recycle, and thus any new plastics in development(Or the raising of the two or so microbes that feat on plastics) is always appreciated by me.

 Metals are already recycled like crazy. Cheaper than mining more of the stuff.

[Dae]

This is a recurring problem with thinking about people-level environmentalism.  The assumption that the entire world lives like suburban Americans and can respond with the same changes.

Well, I've never ever been to an american suburb but I got your point. I'm not pretending to have universal knowledge or solution. And I know solar panels won't be a good idea behind the arctic circle either, or that disabled people won't ride a bike so as to have electricity, or any sarcastic way you could get my suggestion down.

Which makes me think, does anyone know what fast food do with their extra-fat ?

[Qmarx]

The energy cost of refining aluminum from ore is 15±0.5 kilowatt-hours per kilogram. 

Recycling takes 5% of that.

Basically, aluminum recycling is a really good idea.

The issue with paper is you don't save nearly as much energy or resources, and end up with an inferior product.

Extra grease from fast food places typically gets taken away by people doing home stills of biodiesel.  You can check your area, but it's probably already been taken.

[JoshuaFH]

That's really cool Qmarx, what about other stuff?

[Aqizzar]

This is a recurring problem with thinking about people-level environmentalism.  The assumption that the entire world lives like suburban Americans and can respond with the same changes.

Well, I've never ever been to an american suburb but I got your point. I'm not pretending to have universal knowledge or solution. And I know solar panels won't be a good idea behind the arctic circle either, or that disabled people won't ride a bike so as to have electricity, or any sarcastic way you could get my suggestion down.

I didn't mean to be sarcastic, it just struck me when I saw rain collecting, and thought about how silly that specific notion was.

A thought occurs - why have I never heard of an exercise clinic hooking up it's machines to generators?  It's a pretty tiny of energy really, but in this public environment it would generate a lot of buzz.

[Sergius]

Also, Sergius, you can't reasonably quote an article stating that 'The nuclear industry solved the nuclear waste problem decades ago.'
A couple months ago there was an article in a scientific magazine about how we should make waste storage area to make sure no one will look this way for ore or just for fun. Polluting further and saying 'Future World will deal with it' isn't exactly dealing with it. That's why sending it into space isn't nearly a solution either (more, the Earth's orbit already looks like a junk garbage).

Doesn't seem you even read it. Yes the problem is solved by the fact that there's no "nuclear waste". Nuclear "waste" = fuel. The only reason it's currently stored under some stupid mountain instead of being used is for the same reasons that nuclear plants have been shut down systematically. Because of nuclear fearmongers.

So yeah I can quote the article, and it's perfectly valid. If you don't want to read it that's your issue.

[Strife26]

I was going to come here and say nuclear tech, but it has been covered well enough.

Although, what about geothemal? It doesn't work everywhere, but it's great where it does work! Think Iceland, which, if I recall (I probably don't), is powered by about 98% geo!

That's just for electricty, think of the ways that geothermal could be used for home cooling/ heating.

As you dig into the earth, the temp milds out. i think that two meters down (bloody metric) it stays around 60 degrees F all of the time. Right now, it is -20 up here (sans wind). If one was to hook up a big circular pipe filled with some sort of coolant down a few yards, convection currents should be able to warm ones house slightly, for zero effective energy cost! Yay! 

[umiman]

Although, what about geothemal? It doesn't work everywhere, but it's great where it does work! Think Iceland, which, if I recall (I probably don't), is powered by about 98% geo!

Not many places in the US with geothermal energy I think. Heck, not many places in the world with such ready access to volcanic exhaust ports.

[Mephisto]

Not many places in the US with geothermal energy I think. Heck, not many places in the world with such ready access to volcanic exhaust ports.

I live in Indiana. While no one has geothermal anything in my county, some people one county over use it extensively. I'm pretty sure it's just for temperature regulation, though.

[Strife26]

That's the good thing about it, for temp regulation, it is completely independant!
I'm not sure how well it would work as a cooler, as some power would be needed to overcome covection, but there should be some enegy efficent way.

[Il Palazzo]

I shall remain sceptical on the subject of magnet motors, unless somebody shows me at least a theoretical design(a rough sketch would do).

Some people claim that there's no 'nuclear waste' to worry about, that it can be reused. I don't see how it could be done. When the spent fuel is reprocessed, it means removing the neutron absorbing 'poisons' from it so that the remaining fuel can be put back to work. There's no real recycling there.
Furthermore, while you might extract some of the fission's byproducts(which is costly on it's own), the majority of these radioactive isotopes cannot be used for futher fission, as they do not emit any more neutrons, instead decaying through beta and gamma radiation. Also, I don't see how medicine or scientific research could use up all these mass produced isotopes(and what happens to them anyway, when, say, your hospital doesn't need them anymore?).
Then, there's the irradiation of plant's stucture(concrete, coolant, protective clothing etc.) that has to be disposed of periodicaly with no conceivable way of recycling.
Now, I do think that the nuclear power is the best solution to energy problem, but one cannot go from one extreme(enviromentalist crazies) to another, completely discarding the problems it presents.
Personally, I don't see that much problem with storing the waste underground. Bury it, mark the place and stay away from it, what's so difficult there?

[Aqizzar]

Personally, I don't see that much problem with storing the waste underground. Bury it, mark the place and stay away from it, what's so difficult there?

Namely, that you have to bury it pretty deep, and wall everything off so that it can't seep or radiate out and contaminate water tables.  Despite what Dwarf Fortress would have us believe, digging big holes in the ground is not cheap.

Personally, I say ditch the digging altogether.  Dump it in the Pacific Basin - a couple miles under the ocean, near no tectonic faults, or anything anyone would ever worry about irradiating.

[Il Palazzo]

Namely, that you have to bury it pretty deep, and wall everything off so that it can't seep or radiate out and contaminate water tables.  Despite what Dwarf Fortress would have us believe, digging big holes in the ground is not cheap.

You can use the uranium mines to deposit waste. Just dilute it first to the radiation levels comparable with original(unmined) uranium, and you've got it solved.

Personally, I say ditch the digging altogether.  Dump it in the Pacific Basin - a couple miles under the ocean, near no tectonic faults, or anything anyone would ever worry about irradiating.

The international law is a problem there.
Article 1 (Definitions), 7., of the 1996 Protocol to the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter, (the London Dumping Convention) states:

“Sea” means all marine waters other than the internal waters of States, as well as the seabed and the subsoil thereof; it does not include sub-seabed repositories accessed only from land.”

Actually, tectonically active regions are the best place to dispose this waste. Just choose those regions, where the tectonics would carry it towards the Earth's interior.(subduction zones)

[A_Fey_Dwarf]

What we really need is a big hamster that doesn't need to eat and runs around in one of those wheel thingys turning a turbine.