Antigravics

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A BILL OF RIGHTS FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS
DECLARES THAT:
Article 1. Future generations have a right to an uncontaminated and undamaged Earth and to its enjoyment as the ground of human history, of culture, and of the social bonds that make each generation and individual a member of one human family.

Article 2. Each generation, sharing in the estate and heritage of the Earth, has a duty as trustee for future generations to prevent irreversible and irreparable harm to life on Earth and to human freedom and dignity.

Article 3. It is, therefore, the paramount responsibility of each generation to maintain a constantly vigilant and prudential assessment of technological disturbances and modifications adversely affecting life on Earth, the balance of nature, and the evolution of mankind in order to protect the rights of future generations.

http://www.physorg.com/news187896509.html

>> Ever since scientists were able to demonstrate in the early 1990s that supplementing regions of the world ocean with minute quantities of iron could quickly generate massive booms of phytoplankton, there has been controversy surrounding proposals to commercialize this strategy as a potential means to regulate climate by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Adding iron to large regions of iron-deficient but otherwise nutrient-rich, ocean waters stimulates massive blooms of phytoplankton (photosynthetic, microscopic plant-like organisms), thereby increasing carbon dioxide uptake and removal from surface waters as these cells die and sink, or are eaten by zooplankton and then sink as faecal pellets, and sequestering the excess carbon flux into the deep sea for many years to come.

In a new collaborative study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), oceanographers and students from Canada and the United States have demonstrated that iron enrichment sharply increases the chances of developing toxic diatom blooms. The phytoplankton species of concern belong to the pennate diatom genus Pseudo-nitzschia, a group of species known to be responsible for the death and illness of thousands of marine mammals and birds along the west coast of North America since its initial discovery as a neurotoxin producer in Atlantic Canada in 1987.

Using deckboard experiments in the Gulf of Alaska, the researchers found that water samples enriched with iron developed into the population of the toxic algae Pseudo-nitzchia, doubled the level of toxin in each cell, and created conditions that give the toxic species an advantage over non-toxic species; all factors that increase the chances of an ecologically harmful outcome to iron enrichment.

“It is an indication that we are not the masters of nature when it comes to large-scale ecological manipulations. Any positive carbon sequestration must be balanced against the evident and unforeseen environmental consequences” says Charles Trick, Beryl Ivey Chair for Ecosystem Health, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at The University of Western Ontario, and lead author of the research report. >>>

>> New research led by The University of Western Ontario warns of the potential for ecological harm caused by the fertilization of oceanic waters with the trace element iron. This fertilization method is being proposed to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and sequester it into the ocean depths.

Ever since scientists were able to demonstrate in the early 1990s that supplementing regions of the world ocean with minute quantities of iron could quickly generate massive booms of phytoplankton, there has been controversy surrounding proposals to commercialize this strategy as a potential means to regulate climate by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Adding iron to large regions of iron-deficient but otherwise nutrient-rich, ocean waters stimulates massive blooms of phytoplankton (photosynthetic, microscopic plant-like organisms), thereby increasing carbon dioxide uptake and removal from surface waters as these cells die and sink, or are eaten by zooplankton and then sink as faecal pellets, and sequestering the excess carbon flux into the deep sea for many years to come.

In a new collaborative study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), oceanographers and students from Canada and the United States have demonstrated that iron enrichment sharply increases the chances of developing toxic diatom blooms. The phytoplankton species of concern belong to the pennate diatom genus Pseudo-nitzschia, a group of species known to be responsible for the death and illness of thousands of marine mammals and birds along the west coast of North America since its initial discovery as a neurotoxin producer in Atlantic Canada in 1987.

Using deckboard experiments in the Gulf of Alaska, the researchers found that water samples enriched with iron developed into the population of the toxic algae Pseudo-nitzchia, doubled the level of toxin in each cell, and created conditions that give the toxic species an advantage over non-toxic species; all factors that increase the chances of an ecologically harmful outcome to iron enrichment. >>>

http://www.physorg.com/news187896509.html

>>> UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF GREEN ENERGY

In mid 1980s, solar water heaters were the rage in FL. They were usually copper pipe and ran at the water system pressure of 50 to 80 psi.

Cities started putting in double check valves in the 1990s to isolate the houses from the water distribution system. If someone used some hot water, and then went away for a day or two (or on vacation).... The water heater and solar panels would raise the water temp to over 180F.

The closed system pressure could reach 110 to 160 psi due to the solar heated water temperature. Pressure was relieved only by the expansion of the piping until the WH temp/pres relief valve either opened or something in the house burst.

The weakest part in house plumbing is usually the hot water hose to the washing machine. People started having devastating water damage which sometimes cost thousands of dollars ... They came home from vacation to find water running out under the front door.

In Florida there was considerable copper pipe leakage and more than a quarter of all houses (in Altamonte, FL) built between 1978 and1981 had to be re-piped. People thought it was defective copper pipe. They replaced copper pipe with polypropylene and that leaked at the fittings... more damage and a huge class action lawsuit resulted

I calculated that the total energy required to mine the copper ore, smelt the copper, process copper into pipe, ship the copper pipe, manufacture and assemble the solar collector, ship the collector, install the collector ... ALL THAT ENERGY ADDED UP TO MORE ENERGY THAN THE COLLECTOR WOULD PROVIDE IN ITS USEFUL LIFE ... and that was low value energy in the form of hot water.

The useful life of the solar collectors was frequently limited by the fact that FL houses need to be re-roofed as frequently as every 12 years. Roofers will remove the solar collector, but they do not re-install them. Few solar collectors remain from all those collectors which were installed in 1985 to 1990. Those solar collectors resulted in a NET LOSS of fossil fuel energy to produce, ship, and install them. >>

>> A Harvard physicist has proposed the Earth could be cooled by pumping vast numbers of tiny bubbles into the sea to lower ocean temperatures and increase the water’s reflectivity. The same strategy could be used in rivers and lakes to reduce evaporation.

The bubbles in turbulent water already provide “undershine” beneath the surface, and these contribute around 0.1% of the Earth’s reflectivity, or albedo. Harvard University scientist Russel Seitz’s proposal is to use ships to pump tiny “microbubbles,” about 0.05 mm in diameter, into the sea as they travel, in a strategy he terms “Bright Water”. Seitz said the bubbles would, in effect, act as tiny mirrors containing air, and could be created by mixing water supercharged with compressed air with swirling jets of water. This would emulate and amplify a naturally occurring phenomenon.

Using computer modeling, Seitz discovered that a concentration of only one part per million of microbubbles can double the reflectivity of water, and could cool Earth by up to 3°C if the system could be deployed. Adding microbubbles to a square kilometer of ocean is feasible, but Seitz admitted that scaling it to cover an entire ocean would be technically difficult, not because of the energy requirement, which he said would be equivalent to about 1000 windmills, but because of the fact that the bubbles may not last long enough to effectively spread over large areas.

Geoengineering is a field that studies methods of making large-scale changes that may affect the entire globe, with the aim of reducing the effects of climate change. Other geoengineering ideas include adding small particulates to the air to increase the reflectivity of the atmosphere, and adding thousands of tons of iron oxide to the surface of the sea, or pumping nutrients to the surface to make phytoplankton numbers increase, carrying carbon dioxide to the bottom of the ocean with their bodies when they die. The long-term effects of all these proposals is unknown. See PhysOrg articles here and here for more on geoengineering ideas.

http://www.physorg.com/news189059955.html