vakibs’s Recent Comments

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  Representative Ed Markey is a crusader for coal masquerading as a supporter of green cause. He even wrote a couple of articles for grist, selling his weasel-worded plans.On Markey/Waxman = Roadmap for Coal posted 7 months, 2 weeks ago 2 Responses

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  The fact is there will be a huge population of USA who subscribe to her views, and she knows that she will keep her constituency by repeating this kind of rubbish on public television. Rep Michelle Bachmann has nothing to fear. Green activists or scientists cannot actually hurt her or penalize her for doing this kind of disservice. When Dr Hansen calls that such misleading propaganda should be punished by law, the opponents paint him as a maniac against free-speech ! There needs to be a solution for dealing with such problems. We should remove the incentive in our political system where such stupid positions are voiced and get rewarded materially. That will be by having a stringent requirement that any politician in public office voicing opinions related to science or the environment should actually hold a science degree, or have worked in a scientific position. A better solution would be by discarding with our current elected representative system altogether, and having a more direct internet democracy of the people. That will, however, be a longer term target .On Bachmann again calls for revolution against climate action posted 7 months, 2 weeks ago 6 Responses

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  Actually, the actors that hurt the environment are embedded within our economic and political systems. They might be as deep as (1) our political norm that we hold elections every 5 or 6 years (2) we use money that can entirely be produced upon the whims of the US Federal Reserve (3) That there exists a symbiotic relationship between the US dollar and OPEC (which quotes petrol entirely in US dollars) providing extra-leverage for USA to produce inflation ... It is impossible to pinpoint the enemy in a single political party or human being. If it were as simple as that, the problem would have been solved by now. We are in such a mess because what we are dealing with is not simple human beings, but complex animals which have evolved over 60000 years (our current political and economic systems). These systems can be looked upon as an artificial life, with a mind of their own, and a metabolism of their own. Individual human beings or organizations would be just actuators that these life-forms use to achieve their objectives. There exists a complex give-and-take between the different systems, just like in a natural biome. We should be better aware of our adversaries.On Myth: Democrats support good climate policy and Republicans oppose it posted 7 months, 2 weeks ago 13 Responses

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  amazing.. read and learn about the technology

  And fusion looks like it will actually work.  I heard recently that some waste will come from fusion in the form of gighly radioactive worn out reactor parts.

  Nuclear waste from fission is of two types. Actinides and fission products. Actinides decay slowly and thus are radioactive for thousand years or higher. Fission products decay rapidly, in a span of 100 to 300 years. Both these emit high energy radiation, which is deadly for atleast the first couple of decades.

  Now the waste-processing nuclear reactors of the 4th generation produce no actinides, but only fission products. This means they need no long term storage of radio-active waste (such as yucca mountain) but they need short-term storage nevertheless.

  With fusion, the situation is similar to the 4th generation fission reactors. The fusion products are radioactive only for a few hundred years. But in the short term, they too need to be stored carefully. What is more significant is that the fusion reactor containment material would be bombarded by high energy particles and would be unusable in a matter of decades. This has to be replaced thus making fusion, as it stands now, very unappealing economically. It is not the problem of storing radioactive waste. Well, this is all assuming fusion actually works with a positive EROEI, which isn't yet demonstrated in practice.

  All your guys' criticism on nuclear power is riddled with errors like this. Prejudice is not a substitute for knowledge.
  

  Let's think in terms of eco-dollars.

  On Nukes may become troubled assets, ruin credit ratings posted 10 months, 2 weeks ago 69 Responses

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  Selective love of Dr Romm

  How does the your choice of Severance differ from the method employed by the Wall Street Journal op ed page to determine whether climate change is a worry?

  Karen, that was a brilliant retort :)

  What I find the most hilarious is that every criticism that Romm uses (from his reading of Severance article) is applied 10-fold to renewable energy generation : high capital costs, deterioration in cash flow, operating risks blah blah blah..

  Probably this criticism is not applicable to energy efficiency measures (and conservation a.k.a starving yourself obviously) but wind, CSP and every other renewable kid gets the same criticism.

  What escapes unscathed is natural gas generation (never mind the astronomical fuel costs). There are too many vested interests in keeping the natural gas empire alive - what with the geopolitical games they are playing in Iran, Russia, Central Asia, South America etc..

  Let's think in terms of eco-dollars.

  On Nukes may become troubled assets, ruin credit ratings posted 10 months, 2 weeks ago 69 Responses