Is There Time For Global Warming Mitigation?

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Field Notes From a CatastropheChapter 7 -
Business as Usual
Space-Based Solar Power
Ron Carnell, Chris Pedlar, Jared
SiversonUniversity of Washington-Bothell
BIS243 Autumn 2007
Look To Your Future. No, Your Other Future.
NASA/MSFC (2007)
NASA/MSFC (2007)
Massive photovoltaic cells would harvest energy
from the sun, convert it to electricity, and beam
the energy to earth using microwaves.
NASA/MSFC (2007)
Hoffert puts most of his faith into using Space
based Solar Power (SSP) as the best way to
produce carbon free energy. SSP includes
launching a satellite into space, or station on
the moon with huge photovoltaic arrays to harness
the suns energy without the atmosphere diluting
it, as there is about eight times as much
sunlight. Other benefits over land based solar
power are the consistency, in space darkness or
clouds will not block the sun from the satellite.
Once collected the energy is then beamed back
through space to Earth in microwave form, much
the same as cell phone towers. A problem with
this however is that microwaves are harmful to
the human body, and with the large amount of this
energy we will be sending through the atmosphere,
I think it would be reasonable to assume there
would be some leakage that could cause health
problems for some people.
Is There Time For Global Warming
Mitigation? Nobody knows. Maybe we are past the
point of no return, or maybe there is in fact
still time to save ourselves. But where is the
harm in pushing for environmentally sound
changes? As opposed to, where is the harm in
continuing as we are now? Of which the latter
could be likened to throwing firewood at our feet
in a brushfire. It is not helping.
CO2 Emissions
Evidence indicates that current atmospheric CO2
levels are not only high and rising, but that the
rate of increase is itself rising. This is
primarily due to an increase in the number of
polluting power plants and the reduction of coal
purity as quality coal scarce (the more impure
the coal, the more pollution created and less the
efficiency). This unfavorable trend is what leads
some scientists like Hoffert to advocate a push
for new and revolutionary technologies.
Jet Stream Wind Turbines?
Wind power is another popular topic when it comes
to reducing CO2 emissions. Hoffert also suggests
the possibility of harnessing the strong winds in
the jet stream by suspending turbines to generate
electricity constantly. What Hoffert does not
mention is how those turbines will stay in one
place and how the electricity will get back to
ground stations. Other sources have suggested
the turbines might be fastened to the earth by
tethers, which would also send the generated
electricity to the earth.
In just the past 50 years, CO2 levels have risen
at a drastic rate. This severe rise in CO2 is why
Hoffert says that mitigating global warming
through current methods will merely delay the
inevitable.
Kris Holland, Mafic Studio, Inc.
Winds of up to 200 mph would spin the rotors of
the Flying Electric Generators (FEGs), creating
electricity, then sending it through tethers
attached to the ground.
Energy Sources for the Future, Today
Chinas Rising Emissions Output
As a country, China has the largest population on
the planet. That fact coupled with their abundant
supply of coal leads experts to project that
China will soon become the number one polluter of
greenhouse gasses, particularly CO2. This grim
projection resulting in a worldwide net CO2
increase, in spite of anything that America might
reasonably do to cut its own CO2 emissions, is
called "Recarbonization.
The population of the world is facing an
increasingly urgent need to curb CO2 emissions.
Drastic changes in climate from human-caused
global warming can be delayed by Socolows
busines as usual approach, but our group agrees
that investment in large-scale carbon-free energy
alternatives is the most rational policy. The
only difference between decreasing carbon
emissions and taking no action at all, is likely
just a few generations delay of a 500 ppm CO2
level. The cost of moving forward with SSP or jet
stream wind turbines is intimidating, but its a
fraction of what the federal government has
already sunk into the Star Wars program, and
the war in Iraq. No one knows for certain what
events global warning will bring. However,
nothing is ever lost when science errs on the
side of caution.
Chinas dramatically increased projected CO2
output will soon undo any decarbonizing that
could be accomplished, unless alternate methods
are found that will be able to fuel less
developed countries without being economically
unfeasible.