On Nov 18, 2009, at 3:42 PM, Jim Devine wrote:
The New York Times / November 18, 2009 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/science/earth/18offset.html Paying More for Flights Eases Guilt, Not Emissions By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL Offsets have played a growing role in the greening of travel because carbon dioxide emissions from airplanes are growing so quickly and there is currently no technological fix that would drastically lower them.
Ah, but there is, and its been around for nearly a century. Dirigibles. Airships are already entering commercial use for shorter flights in Europe, and they're completely scalable. Modern dirigibles are powered by fuel-cells, and hydrogen (produced carbon-free through electrolysis by wind-turbine electricity) provides both the fuel and the lift. True, they fly too slowly for overnight long-distance business travel--a completely dispensable activity at best. But other passengers would travel faster and with at least as much comfort as in an ocean liner, and freight could be carried more cheaply than by air or sea.
Shane Mage
This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire, kindling in measures and going out in measures." Herakleitos of Ephesos
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