Christian Democrats in the United States
Global Issues - Global WarmingThe GOP strategy of burying heads in the sand obviously isn't working and alienates the United States from the rest of the world. We believe Al Gore states the problem well, but proposes no meaningful solution. Even if we switched to 100% renewable energy right now, even if we stopped using fire altogether, the global carbon cycle would still be charged with hundreds of billions of tons more than it has ever seen, and the arctic tundra is about to melt and rot, increasing that far more. We must direct immense research effort now to develop energy-efficient means of extracting carbon from the atmosphere without creating a carbonate oxygen sink. This is the only feasible way to reverse the immediate crisis of global warming.
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]nuclear fusion
Besides renewable fuel, which takes space and results in relatively little net decrease of atmospheric carbon, we must consider new nuclear power technologies because we can.One "pie in the sky" is nuclear fusion, which holds a bit of star fire in a magnetic field and uses it to heat steam and drive generators. With a backup power source like a traditional nuclear reactor to maintain the containment field, a few fusion reactors could emit enough energy to power the country, if not the world. By that time, material production can be replaced by crops or algae, and petroleum will only be useful for synthesizing jet fuel, if that.
Unfortunately enormous unknowns and risky bets on development of so many different technologies cause large market pressures against nuclear fusion research. What little we have is sustained by a few eggheads and theoreticians working with small-scale equipment. While everyone pursues the most rare particle combinations at the new collider in Switzerland, we could focus on the most practical application. That's what Americans are good at. But we don't really, because we are enslaved by market pressures of the global oil producers. People have learned that government definitely cannot force progress. However, we can only make the leap of faith into the new world by coming together to bypass a few particular market pressures obstructing progress, because we can.
Our minds are set free to know the inner workings of the stars. We may take the knowledge we find and consider it a weapon to work out the savage angers of our childhoods, or we can take it as a gift, study it and master it. These are our two choices at the turn of the age: down into the ground or up into the stars.
Please consider writing your Congress representative to ask to declassify research in superconductors. These advanced magnets can hold a precise fusion containment field in place with much less energy, so the fire glows and produces. Superconductors are used today in high-tech guns, and who knows, possibly to propel very large space ships built on the back side of the moon. Meanwhile, we might imagine, as that secret fleet flies overhead, down here in the ashes we weep and gnash our teeth our mother earth burns with the fires of oil and bombs.
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