tricalum Posted April 24, 2005 Report Share Posted April 24, 2005 (edited) Well, I have been thinking very hard lately about the effects we are having on the world by; running cars on petrol, using massive amounts of electricity whan we dont actuly need to for example leaving the television on stand by or leaving lights on when we are not actuly in the room. I have been trying to remember to turn lights, computers, and television off when i am not actuly using them. I have been copping rather well, but it seems very hard when the rest of my family always seem to forget. I feel that perhaps when I am older the world will be a mess. Apparently it is affecting the weather systems and there will be more rain in britain and other countries. Now i am not a big fan of rain for several reasons and if it will be raining mainly all year round on a constant basis I dont think England will be as pleasant. What are evryone elses opions on the topic? I belive the world needs to sit back and understand what they are doing to it, the culprates are the dominat powers of the earth like americar and china also britain is contributing alot. For futre genarations the planet earth may not be as atractive as it should be. Calum P.S please treat this as a serius thread Edited April 24, 2005 by tricalum Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trials Tom Posted April 24, 2005 Report Share Posted April 24, 2005 Yeah, I agree. I try to do as you say you do, but the family isn't so keen on the idea and don't seem to care. To be honest all this stuff about climate change and other alterations really scares me. I'm still gonna drive when I'm 17 though. Think about TRA though! All the acid rain we produce floats over in clouds to Germany (where the black forest is dying) and Norway and countries like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomm Posted April 24, 2005 Report Share Posted April 24, 2005 Think about TRA though! All the acid rain we produce floats over in clouds to Germany (where the black forest is dying) and Norway and countries like that. ← As long as we still get the gateaux (Y) I try not to use electricity unnecessarily, but at the end of the day I really don't believe we're gonna destroy the world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Nichols Posted April 24, 2005 Report Share Posted April 24, 2005 One thing that bugs me about all the research and funding going into finding out how the world is going to change (climate etc), how the sea level is rising, how everything we do is ruining the world... But nothing is ACTUALLY done. I don't mean things like not leaving your TV on standby or whatever (don't get me wrong this helps) but I mean on a worldwide scale. Why is nothing being done by governments? Why are we still using fossil fuels? Why are we still using nuclear power? Did you know that every two minutes the sun gives off more energy that is used in the entire world annually! Why the hell isn't the government spending money on building solar power stations to harness the suns power, wind farms also and wave power plants! All these things seem a hell of a lot more useful than research into the inevitable. Yes Mr Scientist, we know that global warming will affect the climate. We know what causes climate change. But to be perfectly hones... what use is telling us if nothings going to be done about it! Basically what I'm trying to say is - whats the use in getting a phone call telling you you have one the lottery (2 million or summit) if you're not even going to bother to collect the money! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Hardman Posted April 24, 2005 Report Share Posted April 24, 2005 One thing that bugs me about all the research and funding going into finding out how the world is going to change (climate etc), how the sea level is rising, how everything we do is ruining the world... But nothing is ACTUALLY done. I don't mean things like not leaving your TV on standby or whatever (don't get me wrong this helps) but I mean on a worldwide scale. Why is nothing being done by governments? Why are we still using fossil fuels? Why are we still using nuclear power? Did you know that every two minutes the sun gives off more energy that is used in the entire world annually! Why the hell isn't the government spending money on building solar power stations to harness the suns power, wind farms also and wave power plants! All these things seem a hell of a lot more useful than research into the inevitable. Yes Mr Scientist, we know that global warming will affect the climate. We know what causes climate change. But to be perfectly hones... what use is telling us if nothings going to be done about it! Basically what I'm trying to say is - whats the use in getting a phone call telling you you have one the lottery (2 million or summit) if you're not even going to bother to collect the money! ← here here, im for policeis that make driving expensive and public transport good, cheap and the only viable form of transportation. The government speak of sustainablity but they dont have any idesa what the 's' word means, its a buzzword that gets them votes. Ill stop now beofre I cause a massive arguement. Last word this country is f**ked up and the day the government realise they have screwed the country over when transport grounds to a halt and the economy dies as a result the better and more I can laugh at them while Im living in some other country Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Extreme_biker0 Posted April 24, 2005 Report Share Posted April 24, 2005 The sun might give off as much energy in two minutes as we use annually, but if what you are saying is true, it's looking pretty dismal for us. We are a small planet millions of miles away, and so most of that energy, which is radiated in all directions, will just spew out into outer space. I think we might even be running an energy defecit with all the fossil fuels, im not sure. And what's wrong with nuclear power? Christ people you are typical of this country, wanting things done but not having any ideas as to how to get it done. You're winging about how we are polluting the earth with greenhouse gasses by burning fossil fuels, but at the same time winging about the only viable alternative at the minute; nuclear fuel. Nothing else can produce energy in this country on a large enough scale to feed our energy needs. There are alternatives for other more sunny countries though. But guess what, America doesnt want to know. One of the biggest projects going on at the minute is the construction of a massive solar tower in Australia. See here for some information on the project, but google for better information. These things are the (maybe short term though) future in clean energy production in sunny countries. They will also be some of the tallest structures on the planet! In addition to the solar power plants, a new type of nuclear power plant is also under developement, called nuclear fusion. This is opposed to the nuclear fission plants we have now. The big difference is that the fuel for the new fusion plants is hydrogen, which is not radioactive, making these plants safer to operate (hopefully). They produce massive amounts of energy really cheaply. One has not been successfully built as of yet though, partly due to an argument by the scientists working on the project as to weather or not the first one should be built in Japan or France. The projects name is ITER, google for it if you want some more info. Anyway there is my summary of whats going on in the clean energy production research labs of the world! I think we should be ok. I mean look out into outer space and you can't think for the sound of advanced alien civilizations that lived long enough to broadcast messages into space. None of them wiped themselves out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cant_ride Posted April 24, 2005 Report Share Posted April 24, 2005 Well global warming ismaily caused by the o-zone hole and not by all the trapped carbon dioxide .... the switch between these 2 cause being the most effective happened about 3 or 4 years ago. CFC's that eat the atmosphere away dont start degrading til at least 300 years old which means we have bigger problems than providing electricity. As for the nuclear power thing ... I'm totally for it... radioactive or not.. on the wholes its incredibly safe and very efficient... but that hydrogen fusion plant sounds ruddy interesting. Ah and one more point.. whoever talked about why doesnt the government spend money on wind farms etc... one. because they dont actually have that much easlily spared money and two. look on google for the off shore wind farm project currently in the pipeline.. very interesting. "kill all people 'cause the have killed the earth!!! " quote from a drunk friend. oli Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluegrass Posted April 24, 2005 Report Share Posted April 24, 2005 I find it funny how the USA contribute the most to global warming by emitting the highest amounts of green hourse gases, yet they seem to do the least to stop the global warming process (Y) I don't know what to believe really...i expect you've all heard the masses of theories on global warming? I've heard that: 1) The earths warming is a totally natural process. We went through an ice age millions of years a go, well this is just the warm age. Fact of life. 2) The sea levels will rise for obvious reasons: melting of ice caps 3) sea levels will drop. (this one interested me) They say that because water expands when frozen to form solid ice. Therefore if you melt the solid ice back into its liquid state the sea levels 'should' drop 4) Because of the main constituant in green house gases being CO2, carbon dioxide, plant life should flourish as plants take in CO2 and give out O2. Not sure of the in depth details on that one... So yeah, its definately a serious matter! I seriously doubt all countries will pull together to sort it as a whole, pretty much impossible i'd say. But what can we do on a bigger scale to help? I mean yeah we can be more efficient with electricity and other means of power/transport etc....but isnt the bigger picture down to the governments? Just wish we as the 'small fries' could do more. Well thats my thinking done for the day, im spent. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sameer Posted April 24, 2005 Report Share Posted April 24, 2005 (edited) But nothing is ACTUALLY done...on a worldwide scale. ← Well that's not entirely true. There's the ol' Kyoto Agreement, which basically sets ceilings on the CO2 emissions of each member country. It sounds like an awesome plan, but it has a couple of flaws. Firstly, if a country results with lower emissions than was agreed via the protocol, they're allowed to sell the remainder quota to other countries who may need it. The problem with that is that it's not completely reducing CO2 levels, really. If they don't reach their quota, so what?! They should be happy that their country is leading the way in reducing pollution, not bung the rest of it on eBay. Secondly, not all countries are obliged to sign up. So basically while practically every country is aiming towards better sustainability and more efficieny, the USofGay are allowed to continue being the highest global polluter. Apparantly there are more important things to Bush than reducing CO2 emissions. And, looking at things a little more nationally, the government has several tax policies which indirectly reduce pollution levels. There's something called the 'Pigou' tax (or Green tax), which basically operates on a 'corporate polluter pays' principle. Then there's all the other little taxes on, say, petrol which should reduce the amount people use their own vehicles and opt for public transport instead (which isn't actually the case, though...). If people cared about the environment more than their bank balance, we'd have a Green victory this coming election, seeing as they're the ones who are more centralised about environmental issues, as opposed to the majority of other parties who sort of have ecology there in the back somewhere. Anyway, I don't care. Even though the UK will be one of the first to submerge in water, Slough's fairly far down in the South'ish so I'll have longer to dance around than everyone else. Yay. edit: One more thing, I do think the threat of global warming has definately been hyped up hella-mounts, just to install the fear element into society. Ain't nothing gonna happen for a long time, methinks. Edited April 24, 2005 by Sameer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JT! Posted April 25, 2005 Report Share Posted April 25, 2005 Why the hell isn't the government spending money on building solar power stations to harness the suns power, wind farms also and wave power plants! ← Because the inital costs are insane. I charge my mobile phone on a solar pannel. I would love to see windfarms been built on the east cost. It's impossible to know whats going to happen if it gets out of hand, did anyone watch that program about 'global dimming' if not seek google. Theres so many different things that you have to take into consideration, we will never know what happens, till it does. We should learn how to convert mass to energy, e=mc^2 says that 20 paints of water will power the world for a day. Also make nice bombs aswell. (Y) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Extreme_biker0 Posted April 25, 2005 Report Share Posted April 25, 2005 E=mc squared already applies to nukes so the bombs have already been made. It also applies to nuclear power plants, but they are dangerous. The new fusion plants will be safer and be able to convert move mass into energy. By the way I think e=mc squared applies to the burning of fossil fuels as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Nichols Posted April 25, 2005 Report Share Posted April 25, 2005 The sun might give off as much energy in two minutes as we use annually, but if what you are saying is true, it's looking pretty dismal for us. We are a small planet millions of miles away, and so most of that energy, which is radiated in all directions, will just spew out into outer space. I think we might even be running an energy defecit with all the fossil fuels, im not sure. ← Think about it though... For arguments sake let's say that only 1% of the suns power actually reaches us on planet Earth (which is ridiculous, the actual percentage will be much higher) Anyway, the Sun gives off enough power in two minutes to run the world for a year. So, 1% of that would mean the Sun could power the entire world for 3.65 days! Thats still bloody good! Think about how much daylight there is in a day - for arguments sake we'll go with 8 hours. 8 hours = 480minutes 480mins / 2 = 240 240 * 3.65 days = 876 days. This means that in 8 hours of sun you can power the ENTIRE Earth for 876 days. How's that for awesome? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Extreme_biker0 Posted April 25, 2005 Report Share Posted April 25, 2005 Lets get mathematical then. The amount of power that reaches the earth from the sun will be equal to: The suns total power x proportion of area that the earth covers of the sphere surrounding the sun at the earths orbit Firstly, the sphere at the earths orbital distance: surface area of sphere = 4pi x r^2 radius of earths orbit = 4 x 3.1415 x 149,000,000,000^2 =2.79 x 10^23 meters squared Secondly, lets compare this to the tiny surface area (imaging the earth as a disk looking at it from far away) of the earth: area of circle = pi x r^2 = 3.1415 x 6,380,000^2 = 1.28 x 10^14 This is several orders of magnitude lower than the surface area of the sphere that represents the suns output. Now for the final answer, the percentage: 1.28 x 10^14 / 2.79 x 10^23 x 100 = 0.000000045% Well now, thats slightly less than 1 percent! There may be some massive errors in the above by the way, its ages since i did physics! The actual estimated energy output of the sun is 4 × 10^26 watts. So the amount that reaches earth must be about 1.83 x 10^17 watts. f**k me I take back what I said earlier about an energy deficit on earth. That there is a lot of energy. We are all trials minded here, so here is a comparison: In one second, enough energy hits the earth to make one thousand million 15stone (95kg) trials rider and bike combos jump 190km into the air, assuming a constand gravitational field as you go up. In ONE second! No wonder I ride better on a sunny day with all that energy behind me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benno Posted April 25, 2005 Report Share Posted April 25, 2005 (edited) For arguments sake let's say that only 1% of the suns power actually reaches us on planet Earth (which is ridiculous, the actual percentage will be much higher)← you are joking right? think about it like this... the sun radiates that energy in all directions. think of the earth as a point on the sphere surrounding the sun at the distant the earth is from the sun (you follow me?). This area is ridiculously small compared to the rest of the sphere right? Now we get that miniscule percentage of the energy minus whatever clouds and the atmosphere take away for only half the day and you're saying this is going to be bigger than 1%? think more like 0.00000000000000000000000000000001% mate ben (Y) EDIT: beaten to it. fair play for bothering to do the maths at this time of night! (Y) Edited April 25, 2005 by benno Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Extreme_biker0 Posted April 25, 2005 Report Share Posted April 25, 2005 (edited) Stops the brain from turning to mush. At least I can sleep tonight knowing the earth wont be in a deep freeze when I wake up dead. That would be shit. Edited April 25, 2005 by Extreme_biker0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bucky Posted April 25, 2005 Report Share Posted April 25, 2005 sorry but i am just one of those people that you have been talking about. IMO. it'll be reet.......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spunkey_monkey_boy Posted April 25, 2005 Report Share Posted April 25, 2005 1) The earths warming is a totally natural process. We went through an ice age millions of years a go, well this is just the warm age. Fact of life. ← true but humans have speeded the process up something sutpid like 1,000 times. basically the amount of damage we have doen in the last 100 years is equivalent to about 10,000 years of natural warming... its all to do with the in efficient rotating of the earth on its axis... basically everyone needs to stop driving cars, using electric and start living how they do in the 3rd world if we want to survive, otherwise we'll kill oursleves off with the most complez form of suicide ever and the planet will recover (Y) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spunkey_monkey_boy Posted April 25, 2005 Report Share Posted April 25, 2005 sorry but i am just one of those people that you have been talking about. IMO. it'll be reet.......... ← yeah but bucky mate, your a yorkshire man, we'd expect nowt less (Y) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smo™ Posted April 26, 2005 Report Share Posted April 26, 2005 Bring on the warm weather. I'll be dead before the world is f**ked anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Nichols Posted April 26, 2005 Report Share Posted April 26, 2005 Extreme_biker0 I'm not gonna bother reading through all your calculations and checking them over becasue if I'm honest I can't get my head round it. I will point out that there is always sunlight on the Earth (24/7) and also I am 99% sure that you're calculations aren't correct... how can it possibly be such a small percentage of the Earths rays that hit the Earth?? I wish I really had the motivation to prove you wrong... But alas I don't (Y) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomm Posted April 26, 2005 Report Share Posted April 26, 2005 I will point out that there is always sunlight on the Earth (24/7) and also I am 99% sure that you're calculations aren't correct... how can it possibly be such a small percentage of the Earths rays that hit the Earth?? ← Because there's a f**king bollock load of space between here and the sun. 6 light minutes ish - that's a lot of miles. I've not checked the calculations, but it looks about right, and the answer is about what I would have expected (Y) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Nichols Posted April 26, 2005 Report Share Posted April 26, 2005 (edited) Ok, I hate being proved wrong.. so here it is :- Extreme_biker0, you're calculations showed that there wasn't much power hitting the Earth Well here's some confilicting evidence :lol: Although you are right, the sun doesn't bring a great deal of energy to the Earth’s vicinity in relation to the amount released... The energy in sunlight at the top of the atmosphere is around 1.4 kilowatts per square meter. This reduces to about 1 kW/m2 by the time it reaches the Earth’s surface. The size of the target is p RE2, or about 1.2 x 108 km2 (1 RE is defined as one Earth radius, or about 6378 km). That means the total solar energy hitting Earth is about 1017 Watts! Touché. Edited April 26, 2005 by nichols_sam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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