Comments Asteroid Miner has made

Extinction of Homo Sapiens

October 2006 Scientific American

"EARTH SCIENCE
Impact from the Deep
Strangling heat and gases emanating from the earth and sea, not
asteroids, most likely caused several ancient mass extinctions.
Could the same killer-greenhouse conditions build once again?
By Peter D. Ward
downloaded from:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=00037A5D-A938- ...
....................Most of the article omitted......................
But with atmospheric carbon climbing at an annual rate of 2 ppm
and expected to accelerate to 3 ppm, levels could approach 900
ppm by the end of the next century, and conditions that bring
about the beginnings of ocean anoxia may be in place.   How soon
after that could there be a new greenhouse extinction?   That is
something our society should never find out."

Press Release
Pennsylvania State University
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, Nov. 3, 2003
downloaded from:
http://www.geosociety.org/meetings/2003/prPennStateKump.h ...
"In the end-Permian, as the levels of atmospheric oxygen fell and
the levels of hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide rose, the upper
levels of the oceans could have become rich in hydrogen sulfide
catastrophically. This would kill most of the oceanic plants and
animals. The hydrogen sulfide dispersing in the atmosphere would
kill most terrestrial life."   That extinction would include humans.

www.astrobio.net is a NASA web zine.   See:

http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modload&n ...

http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modload&n ...

http://www.astrobio.net/news/article2509.html

http://astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modload&name= ...

These articles agree with the first 2.   They all say 6 degrees C or
1000 parts per million CO2 is the extinction point.   The human race goes extinct.

The global warming is already 1 degree Farenheit.   11 degrees
Farenheit is about 6 degrees Celsius.   The book "Six Degrees" by
Mark Lynas agrees.   If the global warming is 6 degrees
centigrade, we humans go extinct.   See:
http://www.marklynas.org/2007/4/23/six-steps-to-hell-summ ...On Edwards puts the coal issue into the Dem debate posted 1 year, 10 months ago 20 Responses

CO2 Sequestration Worse than Yucca Mountain

Al Gore's Live Earth Pledge has a fatal flaw: "the capacity
to safely trap and store the CO2."   There is no safe way to
confine trillions of tons of CO2 at high pressure for ever.  
For Ever is a lot longer than the 100000 years that people
want nuclear "waste" to be stored.   The CO2 WILL
leak out and suffocate millions of people.   CO2 is denser
than air and displaces air at ground level.   CO2 has caused
suffocation in Africa.   See:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1155057.stm    

"Cameroon's 'killer lake' degassed"
"More than 1,700 people died after deadly gases spewed
from Lake Nyos 15 years ago. "
"In August 1986, the lake released a cloud of carbon
dioxide which hugged the ground and flowed down
surrounding valleys to suffocate thousands of local villagers
and animals.

The rare phenomenon also occurred at Lake Monoun in the
same volcanic zone two years earlier killing 34 people. "

The CO2 storage facilities proposed by Al Gore, besides
being prone to leak, will be a target for terrorists.      A
terrorist has only to cause a leak to kill more people than a
nuclear bomb would.   Leaks are very easy to cause in high
pressure containers.   CO2 storage is a silent disaster
waiting to happen.      

The pledge Should read: "I will learn enough about nuclear
physics so that I will no longer be paranoid about nuclear
power.   I will advocate the replacement of coal fired power
plants with the newest nuclear power plant designs."

    I [Asteroid Miner] have no financial or other interest in
nuclear power and no connection with the nuclear power
industry.

It is HOT CO2 that goes up smolestacks.   Being hot it is
less dense so it goes up and disperses.   Stored CO2 is cool.  
A gas gets colder as it leaks out from high pressure to low
pressure.   That is the secret of air conditioning.   CO2 at
the same temperature as air is denser than air because CO2
is a heavier molecule than N2 or O2.   The cold CO2 will
stick to the ground and suffocate people and other animals.  
No other gas is required to explain the deaths in Cameroon.  
Here in the US, more CO2 will leak out into areas with
more people, so the death toll could be in the millions.On Edwards puts the coal issue into the Dem debate posted 1 year, 10 months ago 20 Responses

Coal contains Uranium

Nuclear "waste" is valuable fuel that is being wasted.   Nuclear
"waste" should be reprocessed into fuel and put back in nuclear
reactors.   We already have enough fuel stored in Yucca Mountain
to last for centuries.   It just needs reprocessing and breeding.  
Thorium can be bred into fissionable Uranium233 and
Uranium238 can be bred into Plutonium.   Plutonium is excellent
fuel.   We also have tens of thousands of bombs that could be
converted to fuel.  

Refining and reprocessing use trivial amounts of energy.  
Building wind turbines and solar cells uses energy also.

Reference:
OUR NUCLEAR FUTURE:
THE PATH OF SELECTIVE IGNORANCE
by Alex Gabbard
The truth is, all natural rocks contain most natural elements.   Coal
is a rock.   The average concentration of uranium in coal is 1 or 2
parts per million.   Illinois coal contains up to 103 parts per
million uranium.   A 1 billion watt coal fired power plant burns 4
million tons of coal each year.   [The difference between coal and
nuclear is the 4 Million tons of carbon/coal which makes 14.7
Million tons of CO2.   Of course, Mining 4 Million tons of coal
takes a lot more energy than mining 1 ton of uranium.]   If you
multiply 4 million tons by 1 part per million, you get 4 tons of
uranium.   Most of that is U238.   About .7% is U235.   4 tons =
8000 pounds.   8000 pounds times .7% = 56 pounds of U235.   An
average 1 thousand million watt coal fired power plant puts out 56
to 112 pounds of U235 every year.   There are only 2 places the
uranium can go: Up the stack or into the cinders.   Since a reactor
full fuel load is around 11 tons of 2% U235 and 98% U238, and
one load lasts about 10 years, and what one coal fired power plant
puts into the air and cinders fully fuels a nuclear power plant.

Compare 4 Million tons per year with 1.1 tons per year.   1.1
divided by 4 Million = 2.75 E -7 = .000000275 =.0000275%.  
Remember that only 2% of that is U235.   The nuclear power
plant needs 44 pounds of U235 per year.   The coal fired power
plant burns coal by the weekly trainload.   The nuclear power
plant consumes U235 in such small quantities yearly that you
could carry an equal weight in a brief case.   [Actually, nuclear
power plants are not fueled that often.   In some designs, the fuel
is left in the reactor for ten years and then changed all at once.   In
other reactors, 10% of the fuel is changed once each year.   That is
why terrorists can't steal nuclear fuel.   It stays sealed inside the
machine for long periods of time.]   We can fuel our nuclear
power plants just by extracting uranium and thorium from coal
cinders and smoke.   See:  
http://www.ornl.gov/ORNLReview/rev26-34/text/coalmain.htm ...

At least 73 elements found in coal-fired plant emissions are
distributed in millions of pounds of stack emissions each year.  
They include:
Aluminum              Chromium              Molybdenum
Antimony               Cobalt                   Nickel
Arsenic                 Copper                 Selenium
Barium                   Fluorine                Silver
Beryllium                Iron                      Sulfur
Boron                    Lead                    Titanium
Cadmium               Magnesium            Uranium
Calcium                 Manganese             Vanadium
Chlorine                Mercury                 ZincOn Umbra on nuclear vs. coal posted 1 year, 10 months ago 25 Responses

Nuclear battery for heart pacemaker

Great damage has been done, but we still have 8 years before natural positive
feedbacks lead to our extinction.   Sea level will continue to rise even if we
disappear right now, but that is "minor" compared to poison gas bubbling out of
the ocean and killing almost everything including all of the people.
See the chart on page 274 of "Six Degrees" by Mark Lynas.   We have until 2015
to BEGIN REDUCING our total CO2 output and we have until 2050 to actually
reduce our CO2 output by 90%.   The curve has to start down by 2015, not we
have to think about it by then.   The peak of our CO2 production has to happen in
the next 8 years.  
How are YOU going to do it?   Go ahead and invest YOUR money.

If we don't follow the schedule in Six Degrees, we will encounter positive
feedbacks which will take the control of the climate out of our hands.  
Civilization may fall anyway well before 2050, but we can avoid going extinct by
2100.   We have to hold the CO2 level to 400 parts per million to have a 75%
chance of avoiding the positive feedbacks.   The natural positive feedbacks are
explained in Six Degrees.

We don't recycle nuclear fuel because spent fuel is valuable and people steal it.  
The place it went that it wasn't supposed to go to is Israel.   This happened in a
small town near Pittsburgh, PA circa 1970.   A company called Numec was in the
business of reprocessing nuclear fuel.   I almost took a job there, designing a
nuclear battery for a heart pacemaker.   [A nuclear battery would have the
advantage of lasting many times as long as any other battery, eliminating many
surgeries to replace batteries.]   Numec did NOT have a reactor.   Numec "lost"
half a ton of enriched uranium.   It wound up in Israel.   The Israelis have fueled
both their nuclear power plants and their nuclear weapons by stealing nuclear
"waste."   It could work for any other country, such as Iran or the United States.  
It is only when you don't have access to nuclear "waste" that you have to do the
difficult process of enriching uranium, unless you have a Canadian "Candu"
reactor that runs on unenriched uranium.  
Numec is no longer in business.   The reprocessing of nuclear fuel in the US
stopped.   That was the only politically possible solution at that time, given that
private corporations did the reprocessing.   My solution would be to reprocess the
fuel at a Government Owned Government Operated [GOGO] facility.   At a
GOGO plant, bureaucracy and the multiplicity of ethnicity and religion would
disable the transportation of uranium to Israel or to any unauthorized place.  
Nothing heavier than a secret would get out.On Umbra on nuclear vs. coal posted 1 year, 10 months ago 25 Responses

Rape of nature or Rape of Gaia [Mother Earth]?

I agree with Jesse Ausubel.   I like the phrase "pasture for
cars and trucks."   The land around wind turbines can NOT
be used for anything else because there have already been
cases of the 60 ton machine at the top of the tower coming
off and landing as far as 1/3 mile from the tower.   Safety
requires that people and structures be kept at least 1/2 mile
from any wind turbine.

Coal: Download from:
http://www.ornl.gov/ORNLReview/rev26-
34/text/coalmain.html

Oak Ridge National Laboratory REVIEW
Volume 26  Numbers Three and Four, 1993

Coal Combustion: Nuclear Resource or Danger?
Alex Gabbard
Emissions from burning coal include uranium and other
nuclear materials--potential hazards and resources.  

 If breeding is allowed, enough uranium and
thorium goes up the smokestack of an average coal fired
power plant to FULLY fuel 500 nuclear power plants of the
same capacity.   A 1 billion watt coal fired power plant
burns 4 million tons of coal each year.   If you multiply 4
million tons by 1 part per million, you get 4 tons of
uranium.   Most of that is U238.   About .7% is U235.   4
tons = 8000 pounds.   8000 pounds times .7% = 56 pounds
of U235.   An average 1 billion watt coal fired power plant
puts out 56 to 112 pounds of U235 every year.   That is
enough U235 to keep one nuclear power plant of the same
capacity running for a year, not counting the U238 to breed and the thorium to breed.   There are only 2 places the
uranium can go: Up the stack or into the cinders.   We Can
extract uranium and thorium from the smoke and cinders of
coal fired power plants.  
Besides carbon, coal also contains:
Aluminum    Chromium    Molybdenum
Antimony    Cobalt    Nickel
Arsenic    Copper    Selenium
Barium    Fluorine    Silver
Beryllium    Iron    Sulfur
Boron    Lead    Titanium
Cadmium    Magnesium    Uranium
Calcium    Manganese    Vanadium
Chlorine    Mercury    Zinc
Thorium
Chinese industrial grade coal contains so
much arsenic that when people steal it for
cooking, the whole family dies of arsenic
poisoning.

We have only 200 years before we go extinct if
we keep on burning coal.   See:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=00037A5D-
A938-150E-A93883414B7F0000&sc=I100322
from the October 2006  issue of Scientific American
article:  "Impact from the Deep"

Carbon sequestration has 2 fatal flaws: "the capacity to
safely trap and store the CO2" and "permanently."   There
is no safe way to confine trillions of tons of CO2 at high
pressure for eternity.   Eternity is a lot longer than the
100000 years that people want nuclear "waste" to be
stored.   The CO2 WILL leak out and suffocate millions of
people.   AND the leaked CO2 will be right back where we
didn't want it, causing human extinction by global warming.  
CO2 is denser than air and displaces air at ground level.  
CO2 has caused suffocation in Africa.   See:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1155057.stm    

"Cameroon's 'killer lake' degassed"
"More than 1,700 people died after deadly gases spewed
from Lake Nyos 15 years ago. "
"In August 1986, the lake released a cloud of carbon
dioxide which hugged the ground and flowed down
surrounding valleys to suffocate thousands of local villagers
and animals.

The rare phenomenon also occurred at Lake Monoun in the
same volcanic zone two years earlier killing 34 people. "

Other gasses that were present in the CO2 were irrelevant
to this story because the CO2 alone was sufficient to do the
killing.

The CO2 storage facilities proposed by politicians who are
owned by coal companies, besides being prone to leak, will
be a target for terrorists.      A terrorist has only to cause a
leak to kill more people than a nuclear bomb would.   Leaks
are very easy to cause in high pressure containers.   CO2
storage is a silent disaster that can't avoid happening.  

[Why does CO2 not suffocate people near coal fired power
plants now?   It is HOT CO2 that goes up smokestacks.  
Being hot it is less dense so it goes up and disperses.  
Stored CO2 is cool.   A gas gets colder as it leaks out from
high pressure to low pressure.   That is the secret of air
conditioning.   CO2 at the same temperature as air is denser
than air because CO2 is a heavier molecule than N2 or O2.  
The cold CO2 will stick to the ground and suffocate people
and other animals.   No other gas is required to explain the
deaths in Cameroon.   Here in the US, more CO2 will leak
out into areas with more people, so the death toll could be
in the millions.]

I have NO connection with or financial interest in the
nuclear power industry.   I am NOT a spokesman for
anybody other than myself.On An interview with Dennis Kucinich about his presidential platform on energy and the environment posted 2 years, 3 months ago 34 Responses

Extinction of the human race in 200 years

Please read:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=00037A5D-A938- ...

Several previous mass extinctions were caused by global warming.   When the oceans get warm enough, sulfur-eating bacteria take over and make enough hydrogen sulfide gas to kill us all.
On An interview with Hillary Clinton about her presidential platform on energy and the environment posted 2 years, 3 months ago 32 Responses

Carbon "sequestration" at high pressure

Al Gore's Live Earth Pledge has a fatal flaw: "the capacity
to safely trap and store the CO2."   There is no safe way to
confine trillions of tons of CO2 at high pressure for ever.  
For Ever is a lot longer than the 100000 years that people
want nuclear "waste" to be stored.   The CO2 WILL
leak out and suffocate millions of people.   CO2 is denser
than air and displaces air at ground level.   CO2 has caused
suffocation in Africa.   See:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1155057.stm    

"Cameroon's 'killer lake' degassed"
"More than 1,700 people died after deadly gases spewed
from Lake Nyos 15 years ago. "
"In August 1986, the lake released a cloud of carbon
dioxide which hugged the ground and flowed down
surrounding valleys to suffocate thousands of local villagers
and animals.

The rare phenomenon also occurred at Lake Monoun in the
same volcanic zone two years earlier killing 34 people. "

The CO2 storage facilities proposed by Al Gore, besides
being prone to leak, will be a target for terrorists.      A
terrorist has only to cause a leak to kill more people than a
nuclear bomb would.   Leaks are very easy to cause in high
pressure containers.   CO2 storage is a silent disaster
waiting to happen.      

The pledge Should read: "I will learn enough about nuclear
physics so that I will no longer be paranoid about nuclear
power.   I will advocate the replacement of coal fired power
plants with the newest nuclear power plant designs."

    I [Asteroid Miner] have no financial or other interest in
nuclear power and no connection with the nuclear power
industry.

It is HOT CO2 that goes up smolestacks.   Being hot it is
less dense so it goes up and disperses.   Stored CO2 is cool.  
A gas gets colder as it leaks out from high pressure to low
pressure.   That is the secret of air conditioning.   CO2 at
the same temperature as air is denser than air because CO2
is a heavier molecule than N2 or O2.   The cold CO2 will
stick to the ground and suffocate people and other animals.  
No other gas is required to explain the deaths in Cameroon.  
Here in the US, more CO2 will leak out into areas with
more people, so the death toll could be in the millions.
The Live Earth Pledge reads:

I PLEDGE:

-To demand that my country join an international treaty
within the next 2 years that cuts global warming pollution
by 90% in developed countries and by more than half
worldwide in time for the next generation to inherit a
healthy earth;

-To take personal action to help solve the climate crisis by
reducing my own CO2 pollution as much as I can and
offsetting the rest to become "carbon neutral;"

-To fight for a moratorium on the construction of any new
generating facility that burns coal without the capacity to
safely trap and store the CO2;
On An interview with Hillary Clinton about her presidential platform on energy and the environment posted 2 years, 3 months ago 32 Responses

Coal contains uranium, arsenic, lead, thorium...

Did you know that enough URANIUM goes up the smokestack of a coal-fired power plant to Fully fuel a nuclear power plant with the same output?   See:  http://www.ornl.gov/ORNLReview/rev26-34/text/coalmain.htm ...
If breeding of thorium into uranium and using plutonium as fuel are allowed, enough uranium and thorium go up the smokestack of one coal-fired power plant to fully fuel 500 nuclear power plants of the same size.   That isn't all that goes up the smokestacks of coal-fired power plants.   Arsenic and lead are also among the 73 elements in coal smoke, and the quantities are worthy of commercial production.   Did you know that you get 100 times as much radiation from a coal-fired power plant as from a nuclear power plant?  
Have you ever heard of background radiation?   The natural background radiation that has been there since the beginning of time is 1000 times what you get from a nuclear power plant or 10 times what you get from a coal-fired power plant.   See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Background_radiation
or  http://www.unscear.org/unscear/en/publications/2000_1.htm ...
  If the safety level of nuclear power plants were LOWERED to the same level as coal-fired power plants, the resulting [nuclear] electricity would be very cheap indeed and nuclear power would be very efficient.
   I have NO connection with the nuclear power industry.   On Interviews and info on the presidential candidates' environmental positions posted 2 years, 4 months ago 53 Responses

carbon dioxide storage

Al Gore's Live Earth Pledge has a fatal flaw: "the capacity
to safely trap and store the CO2."   There is no safe way to
confine trillions of tons of CO2 at high pressure.   It WILL
leak out and suffocate millions of people.   CO2 is denser
than air and displaces air at ground level.   CO2 has caused
suffocation in Africa.   See:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1155057.stm    

"Cameroon's 'killer lake' degassed"
"More than 1,700 people died after deadly gases spewed
from Lake Nyos 15 years ago. "
"In August 1986, the lake released a cloud of carbon
dioxide which hugged the ground and flowed down
surrounding valleys to suffocate thousands of local villagers
and animals.

The rare phenomenon also occurred at Lake Monoun in the
same volcanic zone two years earlier killing 34 people. "

The CO2 storage facilities proposed by Al Gore, besides
being prone to leak, will be a target for terrorists.      A
terrorist has only to cause a leak to kill more people than a
nuclear bomb would.   Leaks are very easy to cause in high
pressure containers.   CO2 storage is a time bomb.      

Americans are paranoid about all things nuclear.   NMR had
to be renamed MRI to get sick people into the scanner.  
Perhaps somebody's response is to let the millions die in the
carbon dioxide so that the survivors will listen to reason?      
Nuclear power is the safest kind.      Killing millions of
people with CO2 is a sick, genocidal way to end the
paranoia over all things nuclear.     I have no financial
interest in nuclear power and no connection with the
nuclear power industry.
On Interviews and info on the presidential candidates' environmental positions posted 2 years, 4 months ago 53 Responses