At 1:23 AM 2/11/5, John Berry wrote: >But what effect would this have on satellites and future spaceships? >If this is a good idea (and I doubt it) the orbit of the particles would >have to be limited so they are easy to steer round. > >Horace Heffner wrote: [snip] >>This is really a last ditch effort, and may be totally unnecessary. There >>is enough methane hydrate in the Northern hemisphere to meet all our needs >>for generations, probably well over 1x10^14 CF. If that gas can be >>produced and converted to hydrogen, without burning the carbon in the >>process, and all the carbon in the gas is converted to construction >>materials, the carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere hopefully would >>diminish at a sufficient rate to avoid runaway warming. [snip]
This concept in general and the issues you raise were developed and debated in the very recent thread "A last resort attack on global warming". You can review it at <http://www.escribe.com/science/vortex>. The concept was proposed as a final option in the event of *runaway* global warming, which could make earth like venus, with a surface temperature above boiling. Better to do without GPS, communications satellites etc. than to stew all life. However, there is a launch window through the polar regions, and possibly even directly through the nano-belt provided appropriate external nano-particle shielding is provided, possibly aerogel: <http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=399812&page=1> (URL courtesy of Terry Blanton.) All other means should of course be pursued first, including production of methane hydrates and conversion of that methane to hydogen, nuclear power, solar power, wind power, geothermal power. At the same time conservation measures, which have barely been utilized, may have the capacity to get us half way there. Also, read the post "Message from Russ George about ocean CO2". This is really stunning information. It may be possible to reduce atmospheric CO2 by fertilizing the oceans with iron. Regards, Horace Heffner
