Dimensional analysis and surfboard experience teaches otherwise, Andrew Polar bear paw loading is less than 1 kg / cm2 , precluding a punchthough since the load is isostatic as long as the styrofoam is afloat, Pardon the snark, but but the proposal reall is heroically silly.
On Wednesday, March 27, 2013 3:08:52 PM UTC-4, andrewjlockley wrote: > > A polar bear would crash straight through 10cms-thick styrofoam. > > Much thinner sheets, blocks or even granules would suffice for albedo > purposes. > > The idea of using plastic or biomaterials to reinforce ice is perhaps more > promising. Compartively low volumes of fibres provide disproportionate > reinforcement. The concept of 'pykrete' is based on this principle > > Wind driven ice clearance is a major factor in rapid loss seasons, and > better-integrated sea ice is more resistant to wind clearance. > > A > On Mar 27, 2013 6:56 PM, "Russell Seitz" <[email protected]<javascript:>> > wrote: > >> >> Amount of styrofoam required to stably float a polar bear & cubs : ~ 3 >> m3 ~ = a 6 m hexagon ~ 10 cm thick >> >> Weight of such a strong styrofoam platform 100 kg >> >> Area " " " ' ~ 25 sq. meters >> >> Number per square kilometer ~ 40,000 >> >> Weight of styrofoam per km2 4,000 tones >> >> Area off summer ice loss in last decade ~ 3,000,000 -4,000,000 km2 >> >> Mass of styrofoam required for polar bear friendly replacement of lost >> ice : ~12- 16 billion tonnes >> >> Mass of needed polystyrene as percentage of annual world petroleum >> production : 300- 400 % >> >> Cost at $130 bbl : > $10,000,000,000,000, plus installation. >> >> Cost per polar bear: ~ fifty million dollars >> >> Since beavers transform many hectares of moderate albedo forest into >> blackwater ponds, shooting *Castor faber* and * Castro canandensi*s may >> therefore hold more promise in constraining albedo loss than conserving >> *Ursus >> marinus,* >> >> >> Sorry. >> >> On Wednesday, March 27, 2013 6:27:52 AM UTC-4, denskee wrote: >>> >>> My suggestion is to use the waste plastic which is generated at an >>> alarming rate, to manufacture rafts in a hexagonal or octagonal shape, each >>> linked to it's immediate neighbour at the corners with a coupling. This >>> coupling will enable each raft to move slightly independantly to allow for >>> wave movement. The upper surface of each raft would need to be either >>> white or silver to reflect sunlight, much as the ice does. Such rafts >>> should be large enough to support creatures such as sealions and seals. >>> Polar bears might be too much of a stretch. There would therefore need to >>> be an occasional raft left out of the pattern to enable such creatures to >>> enter and leave the sea. >>> If a number of identical moulds were created around the planet each >>> country with hopefully a number of such moulds could produce these rafts >>> before the waste left the country, and conceivably shipping companies >>> could convey them to particularly North polar countries where they could >>> be assembled into large rafts. >>> Already this plastic waste is shipped around the planet, why not have it >>> shipped as an end, and particularly useful, product ? >>> A similar product could be manufactured form this waste to basically be >>> anchored on the ground where the ice has already receeded, and could be >>> made perhaps in reinforced sheet form, to enable it to withstand weather >>> extremes. Whether those countries within the arctic circle would allow such >>> masking of their territory, is another matter. >>> >>> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "geoengineering" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected] <javascript:>. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]<javascript:> >> . >> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering?hl=en. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. >> >> >> > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering?hl=en. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
