Primary source of mercury in our environment at present is the burning of coal, processing of metals, and volcanos. Two of those factors we can do something about.
So we can stop the world from burning coal (the most abundant, cheapest and widely used fuel source), and stop the processing of metals (used in everything from computers to houses all over the world)....
1.
Amazing, a semi-literate post from gslack.
And replace them with what exactly? Solar power? a 10-17% conversion rate at best and limited by the weather and sunlight as well as complications regarding energy storage.
2.
Those are the present rates. Due to go up by double rather quickly as the nano-tech panels start being manufactured. And the price will drop to half of the present lowest price, less than a dollar a watt.
Beaverton firm will produce cheaper quantum dots | Oregon Business News - OregonLive.com
Beaverton firm will produce cheaper quantum dots
By Chris Spitzer
August 10, 2009, 5:12PMThe price of dust is about to drop.
Not exciting, you say? This isn't ordinary dust - look very close, and you'll see billions of identical crystals, each speck just one-thousandth the width of a human hair. These "quantum dots" efficiently convert between light and electricity. They will play a key role in next-generation solar panels, photodetectors, video displays and lighting.
Voxtel Inc., a private Beaverton company just 10 years old, has developed a new manufacturing process that promises to significantly decrease the cost of dots. Their aim is to grab a role, for themselves and Oregon, in the emerging quantum dot market, projected to grow to more than $700 million by 2013.
Quantum dots are extremely flexible and efficient when it comes to gathering sunlight for cheap, clean solar energy. Voxtel's breakthrough could pack the power-generating potential of large traditional solar panels into packages small enough to carry. Imagine discreet solar panels woven in to your shirt or handbag. Dead cell phone and iPods would be a thing of the past.
"Solar power is exciting because you can create the energy where it's needed," says Brian Bower, who handles technical communications.
The high cost of quantum dots, $5,000 per gram at the low end, has been a barrier for two decades. Dots are conventionally made by a chemist one batch at a time.
Voxtel invented a continuous system that automatically pumps out dots in large quantities, and even works with materials more environmentally friendly than those before. Their target is around $10 per gram with the capacity to fabricate kilograms of dots per week from a single production line. It takes about a tenth of a gram to make a square foot solar panel.
3.
And you also have thermal solar, capable of delivering power 24-7.
maybe wind power? Limited by available winds, EPA regulations and environmental concerns as well as safety issues.
4.
Damned few safety issues, and cheaper even than dirty coal, now. And wind is capable of supplying a double digit percentage of power.
How about Hydrodynamic? Limited by availability of enough flowing water, building dams and facilities to harness it being dangerous to the local eco-systems, and the same types of EPA and environmental concerns.
5.
Dams are hardly the only way to harness the power of water. Bouy generators are being tested off the coast of Oregon right now. There is a new technology being tested that will take advantage of currents in the ocean.
Vortex Hydro Energy
Vortex Hydro Energy has exclusive license to commercialize a University of Michigan patented, hydrokinetic power generating device, the VIVACE converter, which harnesses hydrokinetic energy of river and ocean currents. This converter is unlike water turbines as it does not use propellers. VIVACE uses the physical phenomenon of vortex induced vibration in which water current flows around cylinders inducing transverse motion. The energy contained in the movement of the cylinder is then converted to electricity.
The VIVACE converter is a transformational technology. It taps into a vast new source of clean and renewable energy, that of water currents as slow as 2 to 3 knots previously off limits to conventional turbine technology that target rivers with water currents greater than 4 knots. The vast majority of river/ocean currents in the United States are slower than 3 knots.
6.
And, if you care to do the research, you will find that there are many more projects with promise being tested.
Okay then Nuclear? Dangerous, at best and possibly catastrophic if something went wrong, toxic nuclear waste and the trouble of getting rid of it, the threat to local eco-systems and water supply limitations.
7.
Actually, the primary charge against nuclear is it's cost.
And the simple fact coal is the most abundant and cheapest, easily accessible fuel we have right now. And in most third world countries the only source they can afford or have the ability to use.
8.
Wrong. Many of the third world countries are in areas that have either abundant Geo-thermal or solar resources. Both of these are or will be cheaper than coal, without the attendant poisoning of the surrounding environment.
So coal has to stay for now.... What about metal processing?
9.
There is no reason that the metals industry cannot prevent this pollution. Known technology.
Well we could use more plastics? Plastics which use dangerous chemicals in their processing, including those that can only be gotten from oil refining. Which again is like coal a fossil fuel. How about composites and carbon fiber products? Expensive even in the limited applications used today, also requires the use of dangerous chemicals and processes in the manufacture, often "classified" or trade secrets still and the process not shared globally yet, and most third world countries couldn't afford or be able to even do it yet. Which leaves us with wood, and that comes from trees which are what we are trying to save after all. At the core of all this we are still faced with the same problems we had with the coal issue. Cost prohibitive, technologically unfeasible for the developing countries, and just not practical right now.
And that describes the entire line of ECO-BS legislation they want to pass. If they pass their legislation it won't change anything but the costs to the end user, and create a new system of taxation easily manipulated by a wealthy few on the inside to create wealth from nothing. While they tell you how its saving the planet, they will still fly in private jets powered by petroleum, electric will still be predominantly generated the same ways, and oil will still power the worlds transportation until its either gone, or a newer, cheaper and better alternative is found... All that will change is a select few and government will get money from the taxation and regulations, and that will come from the people.
oil, coal, and all other energy companies and related industries will pass the new costs on to the end user. And a tax on CO2 IS a tax on life make no mistake....
