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I wouldn’t.
Biggest problem we have is global warming, we already have the tech needed to solve it, it just isn’t being implemented.
If we don’t implement the tech we have to solve this problem, some VR goggles or hyperloop podcars (or whatever) aren’t going to have any return on the investment.
Solar shields at Sun-Earth L1… that would require SpaceX type tech, no? Pretty much all other energy tech, although significantly better than oil and gas, also affects the climate of the earth if done on a large scale over a long period. Thermodynamics is a bitch.
Thermodynamics actually makes basically everything carbon neutral other than digging shit up from the ground and burning it.
We just gotta stop digging up hydrocarbons out of the ground and burning them which releases gasses into the atmosphere which throws things out of balance.
Hydroelectric dams, Solar Panels, Wind Turbines, even nuclear power plants don’t do that. Sure solar and wind wasn’t economically viable until recently (they definitely are now though) but hydro and nuclear have been around a long time. It just burning fossil fuels was considered to be cheaper until we were aware of the true economic costs of it, which is immense.
There’s two things going on here. Carbon neutral and greenhouse gases is a major factor in global warming. But climate disruption can and will happen with almost all forms of energy production and consumption. Welcome to my TED talk. ;)
Premise #1: human caused energy consumption is always growing, and will continue to grow.
Premise #2: to handle that energy use growth, we will continue to require additional energy.
Statement: greenhouse gases are terrible and everything that follows is not in defense of oil and gas. All options are improvements over the status quo. In these scenarios, I’m assuming we’ve licked greenhouse gasses and I’m asking “now what.”
Assumption: there is a limit to the amount of energy humans can produce on the earth, without nuclear. This limit is related to the solar energy capture cross section of the earth. If we were to harvest 100% of the sunlight hitting the earth and turn it into energy, we would hit that cap. When this energy is used, it will be converted to heat. If this whole process was 100% efficient, the earth would try very quickly.
Simple version: if we cover the earth in dark panels to capture more sunlight, we change the albedo of the earth, and reflect less light back into space. In the process we heat the earth and probably destroy the climate.
Okay, let’s look at wind power as another example, taken to the maximum extreme: What would it take to harvest that energy from the movement of gases in the atmosphere. Well, you’d have to capture all that kinetic energy and turn it into electricity. In the process, you’d literally stop all natural movement of the wind, and destroy the climate.
Ugh. Okay, let’s look at nuclear energy (fission or fusion, doesn’t matter): all of the energy generated eventually gets turns into heat when it is used. It actually makes the problem worse because now we’re getting more energy dumped into the system than the sun hits us with.
Basically, any very long term solution kills the planet. And even if we don’t, the output of the sun is increasing as it ages - part of the natural lifecycle of a star. I’m not taking about the red giant end game for earth, but rather just a slow increase over time. 5% will be enough to turn Earth into Venus. Some post human civilization is going to burn to a crisp anyway, whether it’s sooner or later.
Except: we could block a small percentage of the sunlight from reaching the earth. Then as we slowly start doing things like nuclear and panels and whatever, we can keep the temperature from rising catastrophically. This block can take many forms – swarms of mirrored balloons, or mylar sheets at Sun-Earth L1, or just painting all of our streets and buildings white to control average albedo.
Basically: thermodynamics dooms us in the end regardless of the energy source unless we control the incoming sunlight. Ideally, with industrial processes (energy users – heat producers) off planet if growth sustains.
We could start this now, as a means to control greenhouse related warming, while we wean ourselves off fossil fuels. And it will still be a valid strategy after fossil fuels and carbon is under control.
All of this is running under the assumption that heat never radiates into space.
It does.
The problem is that with higher CO2 levels, less heat is radiating into space than before. It’s a greenhouse effect.
Heat from the sun that enters the atmosphere is going to cause heat regardless of whether the photons hit a solar panel, a tree, or some asphalt. Maybe by painting things white, we can reflect more heat out into space. But even that’s going to be less effective with higher CO2 levels.
I mean if heat never radiates into space, then why isn’t the earth a volcanic world as it was in the past?
The same, I just shut the fuck up and don’t tweet.
Less “tech” and more investing in efficiency.
Buying old vehicles at above-market rates, and tearing them down to recycle/recover the metals, rather than letting them continue to burn gas & oil.
Knocking down older homes that aren’t insulated and rebuilding multi-unit residential buildings that surpass existing building codes to reduce the energy footprint of building and operating a home. If every house that you knock down has between three and six apartments, a big part of the housing crisis in cities disappears.
Investing in optimizing transport. There’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to walk to the nearest major intersection and get picked up by a multi-passenger vehicle that gets you and a half dozen others to the major intersection closest to where you’re all going.
Lab grown meats
I want ethylene gas from atmospheric water and carbon dioxide, in a counter-top sized reactor that is fed only electricity and draws the gas from the air. Then makes polyethylene feedstock for an attached 3D printer. Plus an attached shredder to recycle your polyethylene creations when you’re done with it.
If I’m Elon-rich and also SpaceX-Elon thinking about manufacturing plastic things on Mars to support local production, I’m all over this.
I’d invest in carbon capture and in food production such that most agricultural real estate can be allowed to be re-wilded with our help. If we don’t figure this climate issue out we won’t have to figure out anything anymore.
And yeah, once that was all sorted in a day or two, the rest of the money I’d put in on @[email protected]’s Sandstorm app.
What’s a man w/o priority :)
I would really like to get this app I’ve been dreaming about for years off the ground. It brings together fans of “Sandstorm” by Darude by issuing successively longer and louder clips of the song as you get closer to other app users. Within close enough proximity the whole song plays on a loop and the screen and camera flash goes off to the song on all phones and a dance party starts.
It’s also installed on every phone on every OS and default active at all times…which is maybe Elon crazy but definitely Grimes-fun.
I would like to invest. Where do I sign?
Linux phones
Android, technically…
I should be more clear. A phone that runs true Linux.
Automated cooking, it would totally change the world and massively hurt companies like Nestlé
How is that different that factory made food? Other than time/distance between the machine and the consumer?
Well one of the first things is that it allows people to have fresh prepared food whenever they want it, a busy single mom with a headache can still serve her kids a meal cooked from fresh which means she’ll won’t even need to have expensive instant meals or unhealthy quick to prepare things, it’ll be a huge money saver especially when it’s easy to combine home and locally grown produce plus it’ll be much easier to maintain a healthy diet.
For me personally being too busy or too tired to cook soon turns into a bad cycle of not eating properly, feeling bad, eating worse… if I could ask my oven for lunch suggestions and it’d say ‘your daily protein requirements aren’t met and your blood sugar is low, we have the ingredients for these meals you enjoy…’ it would change my life
