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The Best Science Writing Online 2012
Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 will change the way...
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U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu offered two predictions during his visit to Cancun last week for the recently concluded climate negotiations.
"The price of oil will be higher in the coming decades...the second prediction is that we will live in a carbon-constrained world."
Why? Because it is now more clear than ever what's behind climate change. "We've got our fingerprints all over. It's humans. Digging up fossil fuels, burning it and releasing it in the atmosphere."
Paired with higher oil prices, that means "the first thing we need to do is use energy more wisely." At the same time, to secure both the nation and its future economic prosperity, the U.S. government must continue to invest in energy innovation via programs like ARPA-e or the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis in California. They try to mimic plants in turning CO2, water and light into chemical energy, only better.
If we don't, we'll be storing up trouble for the future. "The damage we've already done now won't be known for another 100 years. If we wait another hundred years we'll have done even more damage which won't be known for a hundred years."
—David Biello
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2 Comments
Add CommentWell, to some positive aspects, we humans have already behaved much more essentially on environmental protection. Whereas scientists should also put forward their process of exploring new clean energy for fuel. A efficient way to preserve carbon-contained resources must be released to the public while we shall continue finding substitute for those long-used, like coal and oil.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhile fossil hydrocarbons last, we can pyrolyse them to produce clean hydrogen and solid carbon for landfill. We then have a clean energy future for 150 to 200 years, by which time renewables including biomass and geothermics will have taken over. But the change from a carbon economy to a hydrogen one needs to be undertaken urgently, all that is required is to reallocate investments to pyrolysis plant for vehicles, central heating, power stations and refineries. With strong government, this could be rapidly achieved and is economically viable. No doubt the chinese will be the first to take this route....
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