X-Message-Number: 20257 Date: Sun, 06 Oct 2002 15:40:41 -0700 From: James Swayze <> Subject: Energy and leadership to reach the future References: <> > Message #20253 > Date: Sat, 5 Oct 2002 14:54:35 -0700 > Subject: Re: CryoNet #20208 Nuclear energy > From: (Tim Freeman) <snip> > I'm more afraid of global warming than nuclear power, so I hope > economics forces the shift soon. I'm with you Tim. I've watched as the weather here in the Northwest has gotten hotter and hotter over the years. When I first moved here we had a colossal record breaking ice storm. That was over two decades ago. Nothing like it has occurred since. In the immediate years to follow there were some snowy winters with snow lasting longer than a week and piling up a few inches but none of those for the past 12 years that are of any note. If one looks around a bit with an open mind one sees the effects of warming all around us. As the environment gets hotter more moisture is pulled into the air. This adds density to the air which adds to the force of winds making more storms and those storms stronger. There are more and more frequent hurricane class storms now then in the past and tornados are seemingly on the rise and increasing in intensity. Likewise where moisture is low drought is the problem. El Nino' and La Nina' once only heard of infrequently now seem to be a yearly phenomenon. I agree nuclear is a better choice over coal. If one includes recharging electrical vehicles then it's a better choice over fossil fuel powered vehicles as well. I would welcome hydrogen technology but that's going to take a government not in the pocket of Big Oil. Infrastructure for hydrogen will, unfortunately, require a governmental boost. It's not going to get one with the strange bed fellows currently existing between Big Oil and 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. One also wonders how different the middle east situation would be if we and the rest of the world could live without their oil. They'd sure have less money to fund terrorism with and buy weapons of any level of destruction with. Let's take the wind from their sails by weaning ourselves from their oil. Whether oil is a fossil related resource or really a reoccurring geological phenomenon it is depleted too rapidly for either to keep up with production. Even if methane hydrates, a renewable resource so long as life keeps decomposing on the sea floor, could be safely extracted and thereby not dramatically increase global warming it would still amount to air pollution through its use. With the Asian Brown Cloud looming ominously it's painfully clear burning combustibles, other than hydrogen, cannot continue as our primary energy sources. I wonder how nanotechnology plays into solutions for clean, not just cleaner but absolutely clean, use of these resources? How could nano devices process and convert the combustibles from crude form directly to energy without allowing release of or even production of, without parallel conversion from deleterious to harmless, harmful byproducts? Could nano management of these compounds remove the specter of harmful byproducts? Could the same occur for nuclear? Could nanobots manipulate the guts of radioactive atoms so to convert them to other non radioactives? Or is the level of the whole atom the lowest nano could operate with? Is femto then the next step to that smaller scale and lower level? Either way we can't wait for these magical technologies to fix the problem. Future friendly rather than apocalypse expecting national and global leadership is needed for our futuristic dreams to come to fruition. James -- Cryonics Institute of Michigan Member! The Immortalist Society Member! The Society for Venturism Member! MY WEBSITE: http://www.geocities.com/~davidpascal/swayze/ While there follow the links to photos of me and some of my artwork and a radio interview on Dr. J's ChangeSurfer Radio program with me and the father of cryonics Prof. Robert Ettinger, author of "The Prospect of Immortality". A RELIGION I actually recommend: http://uk.geocities.com/venturist2001/index.html A FAVORITE quote: Last lines of the first Star Trek the Next Generation movie. Capt. Picard: "What we leave behind is not as important as how we've lived, after all Number One, we're only mortal." Will Ryker: "Speak for yourself captain, I intend to live forever!" Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=20257