D.I.Y Planet Cooling

[Michaelangelica]

There must be lots of things we can do on an individual level to slow Global Warming.
There are lots of clever people here so any ideas?
I wonder about the following
1) If we paint roads and roofs white won't this reflect a lot of heat into space?

2) See Terra preta Thread. This is one way we can all sequester a bit of carbon.

3) A ban on Office (and MacDonald's et al) Plastic plants (see my post in What Bugs You thread suggesting a Terror campaign against PP).We all need to carry a bundle of nice big stickers which say "This is a dead plant please grow a live one" something that sticks with industrial strength glue. Eco-terrorists could attack plastic plants everwhere with these stickers.
Plastic plants cost CO2 and oil in production and don't give anything back.
Why do we need "perfect looking" plants anyway. They are fantasies, illusions of a green space.

4) Massive Greening of our cities. streetscapes, offices, rooftop gardens all spilling over with plants soaking up CO2.

Any other suggestions?

( PS This is worth reading , or listening to, GAIA AND ACCELERATING CLIMATE CHANGE (Science Show: 02/09/2006) http://www.abc.net.au/rn/scienceshow...6/1726869.htm# )

[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.

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by CraigD

...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.

Excellent points Craig! Waste less, want less. I recently heard a statistic quaoted that most our household electronics when swithced to "Off" continue to use as much as 40% of the current they draw when "On"; that is to say, standby mode, microwave/VCR clocks and/or anything with a remote. I encourage everyone to UNPLUG everything not in use. Not only smallen your carbon footprint, it's money in your pockets folks!!

Originally Posted by Michael

Michaelangelica
There must be lots of things we can do on an individual level to slow Global Warming.
There are lots of clever people here so any ideas?
3) A ban on Office (and MacDonald's et al) Plastic plants (see my post in What Bugs You thread suggesting a Terror campaign against PP).We all need to carry a bundle of nice big stickers which say "This is a dead plant please grow a live one" something that sticks with industrial strength glue.

I agree on action to stop McDonalds et al wasteful use of plastic in toys. On the plastic plants, I hesitate because real plants need water & you have just exchanged one resource use to another. Ixnay on the ickerstay as the stickers & glue waste resources themselves. I suggest writing e-mails to companies you wish to influence. You know, of the lotso' people writing kind? Proven effective method.

[Mercedes Benzene]

We do need to stop using so much energy...
...or we need to do away with gasoline engines.
An article on CNN.com notes that scientists predict a 2-6 degree C increase in global temperature by 2100!
We need to do something right away.

[InfiniteNow]

Is it still bad if you use lots and lots and lots of energy, but you supply it all through solar?

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by InfiniteNow

Is it still bad if you use lots and lots and lots of energy, but you supply it all through solar?

"Bad" is such a relative term, as is "use". If you are using that energy to sequester carbon, then we will call you good. On the other hand, if you are using it to pump an aquifer dry, then we must call you bad.

I was thinking of hooking a 12Volt auto fan to my solar panel/battery setup & leaving it on stupid just pointing up in the air. If a Butterfly can affect the weather, why not me. I know....I am bad. Moreover, it's to the bone.

[InfiniteNow]

Originally Posted by Turtle

I was thinking of hooking a 12Volt auto fan to my solar panel/battery setup & leaving it on stupid just pointing up in the air. If a Butterfly can affect the weather, why not me. I know....I am bad. Moreover, it's to the bone.

LOL. Good points, all. Basically, my question was because I have a plasma tv. Is it still negatively impacting the environment (per Craigs well articulated post) if I use solar energy to give it the juice it drinks?

[Michaelangelica]

Originally Posted by CraigD

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.
TVs.

Fascinating idea.
How would it be done in practice?
What about sewerage? Would that be a good, cheap, plentiful solution?

One problem with DDT(and similar) is that it floats on the top micron of the water and interferes with phytoplankton's reproductive capacity.(See DDT sould it be used (sic) Thread). Because of this (floating) you need very little DDT (etc) to do a lot of damage as the chemical is kept 'cheek by jowel' with the phytoplankton (Multiply area of sea surface by one micron then throw in trillions of tons of DDT type compounds==?)
I was amazed to read that phytoplankton are our major source of oxygen so you wonder what contribution DDT has, and is, making to global warming.(?)

Phytoplankton seems to be 'Below the Radar' of most Earth Scientists.

[Michaelangelica]

Originally Posted by Turtle

I agree on action to stop McDonalds et al wasteful use of plastic in toys. On the plastic plants, I hesitate because real plants need water & you have just exchanged one resource use to another.

Yes you do use water but at least the plants transpire this back into the atmosphere. (You can save 17% water by using Terra preta potting soils see that thread).
There is some suggestion that plant exhudations actually cause rain. (see Weather thread
So the increasing lack of vegetation here (which is nearly as bad as Brazil for de-forestation) and worldwide might go some way to explaining the many droughts the earth is experiencing.
(Locally we are down to 15% water in the local dams, Sydney dams are down to 45%,
97% of the state is "Drought Declared" as the nation is going though its worst drought in history.)

Originally Posted by Turtle

the stickers & glue waste resources themselves. I suggest writing e-mails to companies you wish to influence. You know, of the lotso' people writing kind? Proven effective method.

The stickers would only be a short term device to draw public attention to the issue.
No one reads emails anymore. You need something that gets you on the news. What about kidnapping plastic plants and a public burning? (Would burning the owners of the plants release less CO2 than burning the plants?)

[CraigD]

Originally Posted by InfiniteNow

Basically, my question was because I have a plasma tv. Is it still negatively impacting the environment (per Craigs well articulated post) if I use solar energy to give it the juice it drinks?

No. You can have a plasma screen the size of a house (if you can afford to get a manufacturer to build one – I think the biggest one you can buy today is 102”) as long as the electricity to power it is generated from a clean source like solar, with effective zero ecological impact. Semiconductor manufacturing is roughly as ecologically damaging as glass manufacturing, so a big TV has roughly the same impact as an equal mass of glass bottles, electrical wires, and plastic.

Unless you want to confine your viewing to daylight hours, though, you’d best have a big energy storage system along with your solar panels – a 400 W TV would need nearly a 200 kg lead-acid battery to run all night.