Scale of problem with CO2 sequestration

[kristopher]

For example:
The chemical reaction releasing carbon from coal is 4(-CH-) + 5O2 = 4CO2 + 2H2O

At the average efficiencies of our thermal generating plants this results in the release of 0.29 metric TONS of carbon (in the form of CO2) per megawatt hour of electricity generated.

In just th USA in 2006 we generated just under 2,000,000,000 MW hours of electricity just from coal.

That is 580 million tons of carbon to sequester JUST from coal generated electricity in the USA.

You really have to think on a large, large, large scale.

Whatever method is used will require a massive investment in infrastructure. I read recently (somewhere here I think) that a good conceptualization is to think of the infrastructure required to take it out of the ground and assume it is going to require facilities on a similar scale to put it back into the ground.

And even then, we are still tied to a finite, dirty resource and will still need to invest in a transition to renewable technology at a later date.

In other words, it is a bad use of scarce resources.

[pinkpops]

1. All that carbon tucked safely under ground for millions of years -

dug up, burned, and returned to the atmosphere. If there were enough plants, they could draw it from the air with the help of sunlight and water. But is there enough space on the surface of the earth to plant enough plants to take up CO2 at the rate we are producing it?

[bananas]

2. Kudzu?

[pinkpops]

4. Yikes

[NNadir]

3. Wait a minute? A fundie "renewables will save us" anti-nuke talking scale?

Scale?

Scale?

That's too funny.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/solar.renewables/page/trends/table1_1.html

[kristopher]

8. If we invested in wind and solar what we've spent on nuclear and ethanol

If we invested in wind and solar what we've spent on nuclear and ethanol, we'd be halfway to energy independence by now.

[losthills]

9. No shitt.

You get what you pay for.....

[texastoast]

5. I just don't believe that crap

Sequestration is a short-term joke. Sort of like putting dye in the ocean in a paper jug and praying the jug doesn't leak.

[losthills]

6. Carbon sequestration is a smokescreen,

and a dead end street.

[kristopher]

7. This is the type technology that might help, in many ways.

Conclusion

Iron fertilization appears to have the potential to significantly alter plankton blooms, marine ecosystems, and perhaps even the planet. Therefore, understanding the role which iron plays is essential to understanding the biogeochemistry of our oceans and world. Some hope that this has the potential to mitigate global warming while others point out that such large-scale geo-engineering would have many unknown repercussions. Sallie Chisholm, Professor of Environmental Studies at MIT and collaborator in several of the fertilization experiments, asks if unintentional ocean degradation through previous enterprises justifies purposeful large-scale alterations of ocean ecosystems.38 While the debate about global warming and what should be done to minimize its effects continues, we now realize that the oceans have a potentially significant part in that drama. Furthermore, iron plays a definitive role in unlocking some of the secrets the oceans once held.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x147047

What do you think? Should we do it if we can?

[Nihil]

11. Well, as you asked ...

> Iron fertilization appears to have the potential to significantly
> alter plankton blooms, marine ecosystems, and perhaps even the planet.
> What do you think? Should we do it if we can?

I think it sucks and shouldn't be touched even with a very long pole.

Sensible environmentalists managed to abort the dumb-ass plans of the
"entrepreneurs" who wanted to try this in the ocean last time.

I really hope that no-one is stupid enough to attempt this sort of
wilful trashing of the marine ecology again.

[kristopher]

12. So you think the shoreline, where iron is naturally abundant, is trashed

So you think the shoreline, where iron is naturally abundant, is trashed because...?

That's like saying rain in the desert trashes the ecology.

[Nihil]

13. So you think they are about to add iron at the shoreline do you?

Or do you think that they are intending to add iron in the middle
of the ocean where the current lack of it is a long-term feature
of that environment?

> That's like saying rain in the desert trashes the ecology.

Strawman much?

Your analogy would be closer if you'd said "That's like building
a rice paddy in the desert trashes the ecology" but I doubt that
you recognise that deserts have an ecology anyway.

[Fledermaus]

10. I wonder what the weather is like in Amsterdam today?

Apparently, the hashish is really good.

Hey, I have an idea that will make us all filthy rich. On the count of three, everybody in North America use as much energy as the people in Europe and Japan.