Suggestions
I don’t think we will solve the global warming with rooftop photoelectric rays, or by giant windmills. Nor do I think pure hydrogen is part of the equation. Hydrogen is the worst greenhouse gas of all if it escapes, and its tiny molecules can slip through the tiniest cracks. Plus, it has to be both cooled and pressurized to keep it liquid.
First, it is important to know that a new design for nuclear reactors takes care of all the problems we had with the older designs. It doesn’t create long-lasting radioactive waste; in fact, it can use such stuff for fuel. It doesn’t create fissile material; indeed, it can use all the plutonium and enriched uranium as fuel. It can take all those expended fuel rods sitting in tanks of water (which slows down the neutrons), and can use them as fuel as well. It can take barely refined yellow cake, not enriched at all, and burn both U-235 and U-238, as well as Plutonium, radium and all the other heavy neuclei, and the resulting expended fuel rods cannot be used for bombs; nor are they dangerously radioactive. This design is the fast neutron sodium cooled reactor. There may be other names for it. 10 reactors, each 1 terawatt, should be plenty for North America and maybe for Mexico as well.
Ban cars and most other internal combustion devices from the Metropolis. Taxis too. This would make traffic flow safe for bicycles, motorscooters, and motorized tricycles, useful as taxis, and as delivery vehicles. Without cars, I think there will be a great need for delivery vehicles which fit into the bicycle – scooter traffic mix. There will be multi-car automated, robotic electric buses running up and down the major streets all day and all night. These will draw power from overhead wires. At rush hour, long trains of the same kind of vehicles will be hooked together to take commuters into or out of the metropolis, and far into or out of the surrounding penumbra of communities.
Outside the metropolis, cars will be confined to battery power. Such cars have been built, using the lithium e-squared technology. It takes about 6000 of these for a car. The car itself must be as light as possible. I recommend panels of plastic and a frame of aluminum, and a minimum of additional gadgets, with a price ceiling of $5000 without the battery. The battery should last about 2 years. With a full charge, it will go 250 miles. So I suggest “filling stations” where you can drop off the drained battery and pick up one which is fully charged. And anytime you stop somewhere for an hour or so, you could recharge it for free, from the plugs available at all parking spaces. These batteries last longer if they are kept at half charge, in a refrigerated place.
We still need liquid fuel for airplanes and boats. There is something called Synthfuel made by solar power from natural gas. Tests show that B-52s fly just fine on synthfuel.
We still need something like natural gas for heating houses in winter. It can be generated from the huge amounts of waste produced by feedlots, factor chicken farms, and pig farms. Or it might be better to convert it into methanol, a liquid at normal temperatures and pressures. I wonder if airplanes could fly on methanol. Coal can also be converted to methanol without burning it. The methanol would produce no pollution from sulfur, mercury, or particulates. Particulates reduce longevity where it is prevalent. Mercury winds up in the wild sea creatures we capture and eat. Sulfur produces a haze which dims the night time light.
There are many forms of pollution. It isn’t just in the air and water. There is light pollution, noise pollution and so forth. I say turn off the streetlights. They consume about 1/3 of electrical energy, yet have no visible effect on crime. Stop hunting the wild fish and sea creatures in the ocean. Stop it altogether. At this rate, they will be all gone in 50 years. Use fish farms instead.
Use the facts, and use your imagination. Global warming is not an insoluble problem.
~~Dr.H — master of the forbidden sciences