clair031

Summary .   Increased burning of fossil fuels leads to greater global warming, resulting in disasters from extreme weather events.   These carry heavy financial burdens.   An important, but unproven technology for mitigating global warming is removal and burying waste carbon dioxide using carbon capture and storage.   Worldwide research, development and demonstration, while active, is considered inadequate to lead to industrial implementation by about 2020.   Expanded support by government funding and private investment is needed to attain commercialization of this technology.   Considered as a zero-sum undertaking, current investment expenditures in capture and storage would abate future expenses of responding to extreme weather disasters. Introduction. Increased Use of Fossil Fuels .   Energy use around the world is projected to continue increasing in coming decades, due mostly to use by developing countries, especially China and India , as they p...

I've created a video entitled Light and Heat - The Greenhouse Effect .  It’s a pictorial explanation of the greenhouse effect. Gases in the atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide, that absorb heat radiation, then re-emit it, serve as greenhouse gases. The notion of a one-way Carbon Arrow of carbon from fossil fuels in the earth to extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is set out. Additionally a Carbon Dioxide Bathtub is a good model for the accumulation of extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Please have a look! This video expands on material I’ve previously posted here: Light And Heat – The Greenhouse Effect and The CO2 Bathtub .  This is the second in a series of videos that also includes:                       Our Invisible Energy and             Fossil Fuels and Global Warming .     © 2012 Henry Aue...

Summary .   The world is burning fossil fuels at an ever-increasing rate, resulting in increased release of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.   This results in an increase in the long-term globally averaged temperature.   Consequently there is great interest in developing carbon capture and storage in geological repositories to help abate the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide. Zoback and Gorelick have just published a paper that a) emphasizes the vast amounts of carbon dioxide that need to be captured and stored, and b) analyzes in detail the likelihood that small-scale earthquakes may be induced at the injection sites because of the increased fluids introduced into the storage sites.   Their concern is that even small to medium scale earthquakes may destroy the integrity of the sites, leading to significant leakage of carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere.   They conclude that extensive deployment of carbon storage involves conside...

I've created a video entitled Our Invisible Energy , in the format of a pictorial tutorial, which expands on the ideas expressed in this post .  The video makes the point that most of our uses of energy in our daily lives are second nature, so that we don't think much about them.  Nevertheless, the energy in question is mostly obtained from burning fossil fuels, thereby releasing the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Please have a look! This video is the first in a series that also includes           Light and Heat - The Greenhouse Effect   and           Fossil Fuels and Global Warming   © 2012 Henry Auer