the Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate (or COSMIC-2), the mission takes advantage of a weird property of GPS radio signals: They actually bend and slow down slightly as they travel through the atmosphere. This bending doesn’t affect the accuracy of navigation on the ground; it’s only visible from the side by something else in orbit. radio occultation, as it’s known, is akin to launching 5000 additional weather balloons every day—that’s how many more measurements the 6 COSMIC-2 satellites will be able to gather.
Tag: climate
Britain Coal Usage
In Britain, the birthplace of the industrial revolution, no coal has been used to produce power for the last 11 days. This is an arresting chart of how quickly the country’s reliance on coal has been reduced:
Incumbents for CO2 tax
The fossil fuel industry is pushing lawmakers to implement a tax on CO2 emissions, but environmentalists are skeptical of its newfound support for climate action.
Land Animals by Weight
cattle are an insane amount of the biomass of the planet. this has to stop.
Presidential Climate
Of the nearly 24 Democrats running for president, only 2 campaigns have so far laid out deadlines for transforming American life to slash the pollution that is warming the planet’s climate. Washington governor Jay Inslee and Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke want the US to be CO2 neutral within the next 30 years. Both have unveiled detailed climate policy plans. Inslee would set milestones for 3 sectors that could drive major reductions: power, transportation, and buildings. He has earned praise for his specificity. O’Rourke would also spend $5 trillion on green infrastructure.
Beyond Oil Feedstocks
you’d need electrochemical efficiencies of at least 60% and electricity available at 4 cents/kilowatt-hr or better to make these ideas profitable (with the usual 30-year-amortization assumption about the plants themselves). How close are we? Many of the processes are currently in the 40-50% efficiency range, and need further scale-up work: within sight, but not there yet. And renewable electricity costs vary a great deal by region. The best cases are getting down around that figure, though, and continuing to improve. 1 feature of electrochemical synthesis is that it would (as mentioned in the excerpt above) provide a use for the mismatched local excess electrical production that can happen with renewables – it’s storage of energy in chemical bonds as opposed to batteries, flywheels, or what have you. But on the other hand, running a chemical plant 24/7 is by far the most economical way to set things up, so the best solution would be coupling with some steadier source of electricity as well.
Electric VTOL
For trips of 100 kilometers, a fully loaded VTOL carrying 1 pilot and 3 passengers had lower greenhouse gas emissions than ground-based cars with an average vehicle occupancy of 1.54. Emissions tied to the VTOL were 52% lower than gasoline vehicles and 6% lower than battery-electric vehicles.
Nuclear vs Solar
Solar is 50% worse than nuclear for lifetime CO2 emissions per kilowatt-hour. Nuclear and wind tie for the best.
Ice Ball Earth
The Earth has endured many changes in its history. One especially dramatic episode appears to have come between 700 ma and 600 ma ago, when scientists think ice smothered the entire planet, from the poles to the equator—twice in quick succession.
Restarting Nuclear
Despite its advanced age, the average American plant has a generating capacity—a measure of the percentage of time a reactor is producing energy—of more than 90%. Plants abroad have an average generating capacity of 75%. “In terms of the ability to reliably generate electricity and safely generate electricity, the US fleet still sets the standard for performance. The place that the US is falling behind in is in the ability to build a new plant at schedule and at a low cost. A combination of solar, wind, and nuclear led to decarbonization at the lowest cost. New York, New Jersey, and Illinois have introduced subsidies to keep their nuclear power plants profitable and running, rather than trying to meet energy demands with renewables alone. But keeping America’s current fleet running is not enough to decarbonize the electricity sector.”
it wouldn’t need saving if people weren’t so dumb and mood-affiliated.
Gregor J. Rothfuss 