I think bio-engineering and habitat engineering are smarter

I posted this in the comments section of a science post about the current thinking that the only solution to climate change is climate engineering. I think that is a bad idea. Not just because it encourages the fantasy of terraforming other planets and wild irrational space travel. But also because it's a wrong headed idea based on a premise that we don't have the technology to survive and thrive in any environment. It is in our best interests to engineer our way out of our current environmental mismatch. My TEDTalks.com fueled diatribe follows.

Geo-engineering is a bad idea and a waste of resources that should be going to bio-engineering and habitat engineering research, development, and manufacturing. The threats to our existence on our planet are much farther ranging than climate change. Climate change is a natural process. Ice ages are where the glaciers that created the great lakes and that have recently melted away in other places come from. We've got a swing by the gravitational force of the black hole at the center of our galaxy through direct alignment with our Sun. Which should be an interesting demonstration of just how powerful the magnetic and gravitational field of a black hole at that distance is when focused through a gravitational field as powerful as our Sun's. We've got the possibility of several disasters that are happen on a cyclical basis around that same time. The two super volcanoes. One right here in or I should say that is Yellowstone Park. The occasional reversal, polarity flipping, and 1000 year disappearances of the earths magnetic field that coincidentally keeps the Sun from burning off our atmosphere. There is also the Atlantic shelf that should wipe the Americas clear of anything not bedrock if it shifts significantly. And that is not even mentioning the many untracked solar and stellar objects that could really ruin our day or the fact that the moon is slowly floating away and will have a massive effect on our climate.

My point is that if we are planning to survive beyond our infancy. Yes I say infancy because it is infantile to chase after the idea of money as a life goal. And yes I say idea because that is all money or any possession is. Let us come up with a plan that lays out exactly what kind of technology we would need to survive all of these events. No, not survive, but thrive in the face of all of these events and more. The "rich" are holding back the future because they incorrectly believe it is unprofitable to them to have everyone off the grid and living free. If you could satisfy all of your energy needs from the Sun via locally and communally generated wind power, water power, sea power, thermo-electric, magnetosphere, solar collector, or what have you. And you dealt with others as equals. Everyone being responsible for themselves and the world as a whole without arbitrary governance by ignorance encouraged by profiteers. And you were educated about the realities of our ability to harness even the simplest of technologies to solve all of our problems like drought, famine, hunger, transportation, shelter, communication, and survival. You would no longer be a consumer. In fact for the cost of a car (~$20,000) you could buy all the equipment needed to setup a micro-factory and be a manufacturer. We need to collaborate on using the technology that is already available to build the technology needed to thrive during extreme adversity. We must evolve beyond the womb of the Earth. To do so we don't need to travel to other planets and terraform them to match our requirements. What we need is to evolve by raising the bar and saying we aren't dependent on a very fragile environment to survive. We have the technology we need the will.

Solar Concentrators vs. Photovoltaic

I did a little research into a pet peeve of mine, solar power. I always say that it is a joke to say that solar can't replace oil. Everybody who has played with a magnifying glass in the sunlight knows what a powerful energy source the sun is. I recently stumbled across my steam powered turbine idea as someone else's old news. Like those Tivo DVR commercials where the guy says he came up with the idea for DVR first.

Turns out there are already power plants in use around the world that use solar concentrators rather than over priced and inefficient solar panels AKA photovoltaics. To my delight I also googled practical home applications that you can have installed and more importantly, schematics and instructions on how to build some of these things yourself.

I'm going to read through the projects on these pages and pick one as my first solar project.

Concentrating Solar Collectors

Solar Cooking and Food Drying and Solar Stills and Root Cellars

Build a Solar Cooker

Looks like I can get away with a discreet solar cooker project without attracting anyone's attention. I think I've seen people doing solar barbeque and I remember thinking to myself either they are nuts or they just love putting aluminum foil over everything. I guess it's going to be my turn to wear the tin foil hat.

Solar Power

We are told so much junk about everything we are and how things work and our place in the universe. I found these video podcasts about our stuff and consumerism here:

The Story of Stuff Part 1

The Story of Stuff Part 2

It pretty much lays out the lies about so many things we are told and how most of it ties together. I say buy a farm and be self sufficient.

We are constantly being sold that solar power will never be able to provide the energy needed to repace oil. What a racket! Solar power just doesn't work unless you are Las Vegas and you have a desert with tons of sun and space. Then solar power is a very practical way to generate electricity. Look ma no solar cells. Just mirrors used like magnifying glasses to heat water to run a turbine. You know like you used to use to burn ants and start fires when you were a silly little kid!. What a joke our lives have become that special interests come before common sense.

Check out the solar power here:
http://www.eere.energy.gov/news/daily.cfm/hp_news_id=102

They call it solar power concentrating.

Here's the results of using solar panels:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellis_Solar_Power_Plant

Solar panels are much more expensive than just converting that heat into energy. It looks like it is also producing more power, using less space, and doesn't require expensive equipment.

Let's see.

Solar Concentration:
$3 million to generate 64 mega-watts at a cost in pennies per a kilo-watt hour.

Solar Panels
$100 million to generate 15 mega-watts at a cost of 2 dollars and change per a kilo-watt hour.

Guess what. The department of defense created the solar concentration power plant as research. While the Solar panel power plant was created for a military base.

I like this article:
http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/biz/content/business/SOLARUPDATE1213.html
177 mega-watts in one square mile. They call the technology solar thermal.

This is just crazy talk:
Jimmy Stewart & Jean Arthur on Solar Power in You Can't Take it With You


End Diatribe.

Here's some solar resources I found while researching this post. I might play around with one of the kits.

http://del.icio.us/danplawson/solar