Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Comment Re:Low externality baseload Solar (Score 1) 478

(you cant hide it with your sock puppets)

that is blatantly false.
solar has already shown itself capable of powering entire nations.

a solar grid ~140 miles on a side could power the globe.
not useful in a literal sense, but gives a starting point of the amount of surface area required.
as it is, every residential roof in the US alone would provide that much area.
add in commercial buildings, which are less likely to have suboptimal roof lines and angles (being typically flat), and the rest of the world, and you've taken into account the need for more than that minimum area (cause the earth spins you know).

and while a "smart grid" would help greatly in distribution, it's not required.

meaning the problem is solvable.
today.
with current technology.
and without all the downsides of nuclear.

the only thing lacking is the political and human will to make it happen.

Comment Re:Low externality baseload Solar (Score 0) 478

that is blatantly false.
solar has already shown itself capable of powering entire nations.

a solar grid ~140 miles on a side could power the globe.
not useful in a literal sense, but gives a starting point of the amount of surface area required.
as it is, every residential roof in the US alone would provide that much area.
add in commercial buildings, which are less likely to have suboptimal roof lines and angles (being typically flat), and the rest of the world, and you've taken into account the need for more than that minimum area (cause the earth spins you know).

and while a "smart grid" would help greatly in distribution, it's not required.

meaning the problem is solvable.
today.
with current technology.
and without all the downsides of nuclear.

the only thing lacking is the political and human will to make it happen.

Comment Re:Hey! McFly!... (Score 1) 367

usual denialist talking points.

(a) The Earth's climate has always changed and always will.

Not this fast; the delineation between natural change and what we're seeing is readily apparent.

(b) The Earth's climate is EXTREMELY COMPLEX and cannot currently be accurately modeled in a computer.

False.

(c) While humans, like EVERYTHING ELSE, have SOME effects on climate, there are plenty of other causes of change including many we probably do not know/understand. Some of these other sources, like the sun, have a far greater impact than humans.

A) Sun: False. We are currently in a solar minimum. If the sun were driving it we would be cooling
B) Volcanoes: False. Volcanoes only emit ~ 300 million tonnes of CO2 per year, LESS THAN 1% of what humans emit per year (which is in excess of 40 billion tonnes annually).
C) The implication that we don't know everything that goes into climate: False.

I will state it clearly: Human activity is the primary driver of current changes in climate we see. This is indisputable.

(d) The Earth has been both significantly hotter and extremely cold many times in the past before there were enough humans to have had ANY effect on any of those previously very extreme changes.

Irrelevant because (a) the current biosphere of life did not exist at those times. Current life evolved for current changes over the extremely long terms that
(b) Those changes occurred over.

Slashdot Top Deals

Always draw your curves, then plot your reading.

Working...