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04/17/09
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When a project is this brown, does it still count as green?
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On a slightly unrelated note, why is it that we call it "take a dump"? Is it because we are taking the "dump" out of our body, or is there more to this phrase that I do not understand?
04/17/09
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I hate to bite on such a tangent, but I must. It is certainly true that our planet goes through warming and cooling cycles which we never truly exit from, so your comment has truthiness to it. However, scientists can (and have) shown the likely cause for cooling and warming in each of those periods. It is not just a natural part of life on Earth - there are real reasons why these things happen.
That that in mind, what is the reason for the current warming trend? That is where things get tricky for folks that believe humans are not responsible since you have to then find the source. Fortunately, we have thousands of scientists that study exactly that, and they all publish reports on the subject. Here is one from 2007:
[www.ipcc.ch]
If we believe the thousands of scientists behind the report and the evidence they site is not a giant conspiracy theory, climate change appears to be happening and humans, according to them, are likely the leading contributor, and the evidence gets stronger for it as more studies are published. (There are newer studies, which I can give you links to if you want to read them.) For that reason, I tend to discredit anything published before 2006 as out of date, scientifically speaking. I also tend to discredit anything published by a single person since there are plenty of scientists that can band together if evidence presents a different opinion.
So, with that in mind, I would love to see your scientific evidence of what is actually causing climate change.
Thank you.
04/17/09
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Rider: I ain't payin sh##.
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While I do support an audition process for Facebookers, I don't support this guy's constant hatred towards every Facebooker on the site.
PS: Thanks Jesus Diaz for keeping the site clean. I, along with all my other friends and family who go to Gizmodo and Lifehacker daily admit the main reason we're dedicated fans of Giz is because of the lack of YouTube-ish comments.
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03/08/09
Disclosure: law student.
03/07/09
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03/07/09
Iiiii drinkkkk lottttsss ofofofof cococoffeeee.
Sssomme ppppeeoppple tththtithinkkk Iii ddddrinnnnkk toooo mmmummumumuch...
03/08/09
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Do some research and you will discover how bad biofuel is for not just the environment, but the world as a whole. Hopefully hydrogen fuel comes into it's own soon, but until then, we can only hope that engines become more efficient and that hybrids make up a larger market segment for those who drive.
03/07/09
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@aurispector: Assuming I drove. That said, it kills me, first of all, to see someone driving an SUV and, secondly, to see them driving with under-inflated tires.
@Révolution: Biofuel is made from biomass. Biomass is simply any organic matter. There is the technology to make biofuel from algae, switchgrass, garbage, and chaff, but most biofuels that we see being made now aren't made from such sources. In the US it is predominantly made from corn and in Brazil it is sugarcane. Thus in the world's top two producers of biofuel, both sources are from food products. The benefit of algae based biofuel is it is cheap to produce, mass amounts of it take relatively little space to grow, and eats CO2. Switchgrass grows quickly and has low energy cost vs it's output. Garbage can produce biofuel, which would aid in reducing the amount of trash put in landfills, thus recycling our garbage (along those same lines, even human fecal matter can be used to produce biofuel). Chaff has many of the same advantages of garbage.
03/08/09
03/08/09
They just built (are building?) a facility in Georgia to use agricultural waste. Think of how great it would be if corn stalks and other agricultural waste, garbage, leaves from your trees, fecal matter, etc all went into producing biofuel. Assuming fairly efficient processes are developed, this would be a great source of power. I personally am a fan of the methane recapturing that some cattle owners are doing through anaerobic digestion. Not only do they dramatically reduce the greenhouse gases produced by cows (who are, incidentally, the number greenhouse gas producer in the world), but they also power their farm and put power back onto the grid.
03/08/09
But I like stakes, and hamburgers...so I guess I'll just buy a fan and deal with the heat ;-)
03/08/09
The Buch plan also called for more sources of green energy as a whole, but not much has been done there. It seems that a lot of people consider "clean" coal green energy.
There are certain plants that can be used for biofuel that don't take up much land, like switchgrass. Since it grows so fast, it doesn't need a lot of space. I wouldn't care if gas was just as expensive if it took those waste products and turned them into gas, but I do know others would.
I seriously hope algae pans out. It grows quickly, has an incredibly high energy to mass ratio, and takes up very little room. Plus, if for some reason you grow too much of it, you can eat it.
@renorydabp: Yeah, it's sad most people don't know. We pass things like the Kyoto Protocol (well, developed countries that aren't the US do, but we don't pass any legislation regarding cows. The UN has put out reports that cows are far more damaging to the environment than are cars, yet we do little to change it. That's one of the many reasons I'm vegetarian.
@-Core-: It does due to it's high oil content.
And no, you can't smoke it.
03/09/09
"If you look at that closely, they're using feedstock. That means that farmers are having to devote more land to the production of feedstock as the demand for ethanol increases."
Perhaps you should remember that cattle can't process starches anyways, and that the 'used' biomass is actually a better food for livestock than is was before it was fermented. The whole 'price of corn went up because farmers were using it for ethanol' rumor is unfounded. By that logic beef/poultry should have risen as much if not more than corn. They did not. The increase in corn prices last year was due to increased fuel prices and particularly shitty weather.
03/09/09
"I seriously hope algae pans out. It grows quickly, has an incredibly high energy to mass ratio, and takes up very little room."
a guy is doing wonderful things growing algae in vertical tubes, which significantly increases the surface area for light to penetrate, and keeps it from being contaminated.
the algae he's growing is 50% lipids. when they get to full growth he runs the algae through a press which extracts the oils. all the 'waste' water and algae corpses are 100% reusable.
i dunno his name but googling for 'algae vertical tubes lipids' should get you there.
03/07/09
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