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RE: The Technological Features Of A Post Oil City

in #technology6 years ago

Maybe (re: massive sea level rises). Global change has and always will happen in the Earth System. Perhaps huge influxes of GHG (green house gases) and rapid changes alter the Earth system in ways we do not yet fully understand.

Extreme melting in Greenland, from anthropogenic GHG, leads to huge increases of cold fresh water into the north Atlantic, deflecting and slowing down the Gulf Stream. This cools Europe and more precipitation falls as snow, this causes glaciers to grow. These reflect more energy from the sun and then we start to actually cool.

Re: clean energy, please see my note below (re: externalities). We need to account for all costs in order to determine what is, or is not clean. Cheap wages? Mining regions in developing countries that do not pay a living wage, cutting virgin rainforests to get access to minerals to build those solar panels or those battery banks. Just how clean is it really? Food for thought.

In addition, RE: Nuclear. Until there is a good, "safe" (free from floods, earthquakes, etc) place where the wastes from nuclear can be stored, for at least 25,000 years (the half life of Plutonium-239), we should be careful about generating more.

Where were we 25,000 years ago? Living in caves? What legacy are we leaving the future with waste that kills everything for 25,000 years? I don't have a good solution except caution and clear, level-headed thinking by teams of independent scientists

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PS. Here is my formal reply and follow on after getting inspired from this cool post here. Thanks for the inspiration:

https://steemit.com/steemstem/@snowyknight/the-real-costs-of-clean-energy-and-technology-part-1-my-battery-needs-cobalt-and-lithium

PSS. Resteemed.