Science Forums 2

[CraigD]

Originally Posted by Michaelangelica

There must be lots of things we can do on an individual level to slow Global Warming.
…
Any other suggestions?

Though I didn’t originate the idea, fertilizing phytoplankton with additional nutrients (particularly iron, particularly in the far-south Pacific) strikes me as a promising approach. The carbon-sequestering capacity of these plants is huge, and largely constrained by their nutrient supply. Though it’s kinda a brute-force, engineering-style solution, it’s a straight-forward one, and doesn’t depend on convincing millions of people just getting accustom to a first world lifestyle that they should scale back, or convincing long-time first worlders to give up their wide-screen plasma TVs.

This solution is only applicable on an individual level to individuals with some expectation of having influence or involvement with giant engineering projects. For the majority of people who don’t … did I mention plasma TVs?

DON’T GET ONE! Or, if you must, get the smallest one you can bear to, and be sure not to leave it turned on when unnecessary. At 0.3 to 0.4 W/inch^2, a typical 55” TV consumes 200-300 W, compared to 125 W for a “standard” 27” TV. A gigantic, 102” Plasma TV can consume up to 2500 W, or about 2/3 of the power a typical US residential circuit can supply!

A good quality laptop at, … ehm, laptop distance, is about equivalent in viewing quality to a giant screen across a room, and draws about 20 W.