Bill USA
Profile Information
Member since: Wed Mar 3, 2010, 05:25 PM
Number of posts: 6,436
Number of posts: 6,436
About Me
Quotes I like: "Prediction is very difficult, especially concerning the future." "There are some things so serious that you have to laugh at them.” __ Niels Bohr Given his contribution to the establishment of quantum mechanics, I guess it's not surprising he had such a quirky of sense of humor. ......................."Deliberate misinterpretation and misrepresentation of another's position is a basic technique of (dis)information processing" __ I said that
Journal Archives
the Grass roots level information war - on Discussionist ---
Posted by Bill USA | Sat Mar 28, 2015, 05:56 PM (4 replies)
Liquid 3-D Printing cuts print time by up to TWO orders of magnitude
Posted by Bill USA | Fri Mar 27, 2015, 04:48 PM (0 replies)
Are "Pro-Lifers" against killing germs, as interfering with "God's plan"? Germs are forms of life.
Posted by Bill USA | Fri Mar 27, 2015, 04:34 PM (6 replies)
22 Examples of Major Technology Advances That Stem From Federal Research Support (e.g. Google search
Posted by Bill USA | Fri Mar 20, 2015, 04:40 PM (1 replies)
Cotton and cohorts don't mind your criticism - it gives their lives meaning.
Posted by Bill USA | Tue Mar 17, 2015, 05:44 PM (4 replies)
Matthew Dowd parrots GOP Propaganda re Clinton on PBS Newshour
Posted by Bill USA | Thu Mar 12, 2015, 06:04 PM (1 replies)
Big oil moves into the Amazon rainforest - what's the cost of losing large swaths of the rainforest?
[font size="+1"] There is a new role for biofuels that hasn't been considered before. [/font] As oil companies, looking for additional sources of oil, move into the tropical rainforests - in a big way - the role of protecting the rainforests may become as significant a consideration for the increased use of biofuels as it's role in reducing GHG emissions (although in the end they are one in the same). I think people should start considering what will be the impact and costs of losing large swaths of the rainforest as drilling for oil becomes a larger fact of life in the tropical rainforests. Ethanol (and methanol if we invested in it) by competing with gasoline reduces the price of petroleum/gasoline. If we added methanol to the mix, we could more rapidly replace gasoline as the fuel for light vehicle transportation *. Increased use of biofuels and the decreased demand for gasoline will drive down the price of gas even more than it already has. A decreased price for petroleum would make drilling in the rainforests a less viable business plan. While the benefits of reducing GHG emissions from increased biofuel use by themselves make expanded use of biofuels imperative, the benefits of saving large swaths of the rainforest have not been calculated and could very well be of enormous import to the effort to fight Global Warming. (note: the effects of significant increases in deforestation are not linear. Significantly larger losses of rainforest would most likely have much larger impacts than have been considered so far). --- I am not aware of any studies considering the impacts on the climate of significant losses of tropical rainforest. Considering the jeopardy the tropical rainforests are in, this makes rejection of non-empirically based, hysterical fables about ethanol and oil industry disinformation on biofuels an eminent imperative. * Our ethanol supply from plant sources is probably limited to about 15% of our needs for light transportation fuel, barring any considerable improvements in manufacturing processes. Methanol is currently made from natural gas, but can also be made from agricultural and forestry waste in much larger volume than ethanol. We could increase methanol production much more quickly than other alternative fuel sources and blend it with gasoline and ethanol. Increased substitution of methanol for gasoline could reduce our demand for petroleum by an additional 10% in possibly a decade (with a serious commitment to this course) and another 10% to 20% in another decade - achieving a 30% to 40% reduction in our demand for gasoline. A reduction in demand for gasoline of 20% would have a very significant impact on the price of petroleum. A reduction in demand of 30% would have an even larger impact - greater than a linear relationship (between demand and price) would produce. This is without consideration of adaptation of engine designs which take advantage of alcohol's higher octane which could significantly increase engine performance - increasing the reduction in demand for gasoline. [font size="+1"]Also check out: Deforestation: What’s driving it? Oil in the Rainforest [/font] |
Posted by Bill USA | Thu Mar 12, 2015, 04:42 PM (0 replies)
Dept of Energy Report: Wind power could be 35% of power supply by 2050
Posted by Bill USA | Thu Mar 12, 2015, 04:33 PM (0 replies)
Re HRC's emails: Give me facts, not innuendo
Posted by Bill USA | Sat Mar 7, 2015, 04:20 PM (41 replies)