In a recent article in the Globe & Mail, we saw the latest flareup in the raging WikiLeaks firestorm that has pointed out some key hotspots right here on Canadian soil. This particular leak not only disclosed a list of Canadian sites that the United States considers essential to preserving its own “interests”, but also served to remind us of of a little known tri-lateral security agreement called the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, where unbeknownst to most Canadians, political forces have already aligned to undermine national trade and sovereignty issues in order to assure future security, under terms that have never been presented publicly, let alone offered up for legislative debate. So, inadvertently, this particular WikiLeaks flareup is also inadvertantly showing Canadians how any perceived security threats in an unknown Future would most certainly and quite radically impact our seemingly false sense of national sovereignty – if Terrorists were to ever actually use this newly disclosed list of prime Canadian targets.
It would seem that the commodification of carbon is now well and truly in its final throes, and that the remediation of Climate Change will need to seek out a better method of self-correcting itself via the various (Consumer?) Markets. The death knell for carbon trading in North America is the significant, yet curiously under-publicized news that The Chicago Climate Exchange (Inc.) will close down its cap-and-trade market by the end of the year, as announced by spokeswoman Brook McLaughlin via CNN.
What’s curious, is that hardly anybody else out there in the more Mainstream Media is so much as batting an eye, let alone packaging this news (and it’s deeper implications) for easy public consumption. It seems that this letdown in the domestic trading of carbon credits is primarily due to political and public opinion shifts in the U.S. resulting in the failures of last years disappointingly de-clawed U.S. Clean Air Act.
The decision also coincided with a significant Republican victory and the loss of Democratic Control in the US House of Representatives. However, if you look abit deeper, we can all see that the Carbon Cap and Trade concept was indeed flawed at a much deeper level…and that this failure might also betray some underlying motivations for this financial scheme to begin with!
Diesel Power was a revolution that still inspires new innovations even today.
Bridging the gap for Industry and Transportation as they seek out a sustainable Future.
Check the Green History of Diesel!
Upon operating his first successful engine design back in 1897 Rudolph Diesel changed the world in ways that most people still don’t fully appreciate today. Especially now, as we begin the long process of moving out of the petroleum-powered era, we should pause to take lessons from visionaries like Tesla and Diesel, and consider how they harnessed natural forces and physical phenomena to revolutionize existing technologies, and enabled enormous leaps into the Future by allowing others to build upon the solid foundations that they laid. The venerable diesel engine was an innovation of the internal combustion engine that continues to be improved upon even today, with the new methods and materials that are offered by modern science.
Many of us associate diesel power with loud smelly trucks and buses, so it might come as a great surprise that Diesel technology is actually still being improved upon after all this time. In fact, in just the past few years we’re seeing a level of improvement to efficiency and emissions that are actually positioning diesel as a sustainable interim solution for our transportation needs…While other options continue to be researched for that quantum leap in technology that will slingshot both Industry and Society towards the next century. So If you’re ready to see how diesel power still holds a few tricks up it’s sleeve, then let’s start exploring, by looking at railway locomotives as our prime motivator!
BTW: If you’re curious about Rudolf Diesel’s sense of environmental and social responsibility, as it was well over a century ago…Just pop-open another window by clicking HERE for further insights.
Our various electrical grids have been built, rebuilt, and patched up in an ongoing process that began when electric power first began to be generated well over a century ago. Of course plenty of new power plants and transmission towers have been patched into the existing infrastructure since those early days, and the costs of maintaining these have been paid for (repeatedly) by ratepayers who would presumably like to benefit from these fully amortized assets (at least for awhile) before incurring any new costs, or adding to already enormous public debts. So why exactly should anybody be bothered to consider the staggering expenses of undertaking a major upgrade of our various electrical grids at this particular point in history?
Most people are in fact much more interested in the development of newenergy (re)sources, rather than in understanding the boring details of delivering existing electricity into our homes and commercial spaces, so why worry about the distribution of power in a ‘smart’ electrical grid, when the old grid seems to be doing an adequate job ?
Now it stands poised to fuel a limitless Future if we can change the course of history !
The nuclear debate continues to put forward large scale alternatives to fossil-fueled Society, but has never included a much better option, when it comes to managing the waste and risks. This tragedy is essentially the result of politics, not science, since there likely isn’t a more misunderstood and overlooked element on the Periodic Table than Thorium.
Despite its enormous potential to safely power both the developing world and our modern societies through the self-regulating energy production of the little known “Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor” (LFTR). This long-mothballed reactor design is gaining great new attention in other parts of the world because it produces only small amounts radioactive waste (which fully decay in a few hundred years, rather than many thousands), offers no realistic potential for easy weaponization, and in fact enables the destruction of weapons grade materials. Thorium astoundingly still remains an elemental mystery to most people to this very day however. Mainly because it’s early and successful development in the U.S. was nixxed in favor of the Uranium-based weapons programs in the 50′s and 60′s.
At the beginning of the Cold-War era, America focused it’s nuclear programs on Breeder reactors that produced materials for weapons, as did the Soviets. When the Oil Crisis hit in ’72, all newly built reactors fell in line with this objective, and Uranium has dominated since.
As a result of this Tipping Point, the best Energy Alternatives were sidelined up until just recently. During a Nuclear Renaissance, we’re free to correct past mistakes, and re-examine Thorium as the safer, cleaner fuel of the Future !
Thorium: Fueling a Limitless Future
As we all continue to waste enormous amounts of precious time and energy on re-hashing the nuclear debate, while continuing to poison and destroy our natural (and even socio-political) environment with all the toxic byproducts of the pre-dominant methods of fossil-fueled based energy production, perhaps we could also consider some of the cleaner alternatives which ironically have been waiting in the wings since they were first discovered way back at the dawn of the Cold War Era.
To learn about the historical mistakes that caused Thorium Energy to be delayed until now… CLICK HERE
(opens in a new page)
Just below, is quite possibly the very best, most condensed and comprehensive explanation of not only how nuclear energy is derived, but also how Thorium-based reactions are a superb alternative to Uranium based energy. This video also covers the tragic reasons why Thorium energy was buried by Uranium-based fission, and includes a complete explanation of how liquid fluoride Thorium reactors (LFTR) could in fact be the magical silver bullet that will enable a sustainable version of our highly industrialized Society! If you’re curious, then just continue reading about how and why ( a long suppressed) Thorium-nuclear based energy grid could be our best and possibly last chance for surviving the Fossil-Fuel age.
WARNING:
This material is dense, fast, and superbly comprehensive !
Are you ready to explore the Future?
Then click below for MORE…
So what will the immediate effects of this event be upon air and ground transport as we know it?
What does this mean for the Automobile, Aereonautic, and Airline industries?
Is this the kickstart they they need to start participating in building the Future? Or will the EPA simply try to entrench itself in a political imbroglio, that some right-wingers are already threatening to tie up in endless litigation?
The jury is still out on just how ecologically friendly electric cars really are, once you factor everything in like the increased production of rare and heavy metals for batteries, and the added GHG’s produced to generate that electricity needed to recharge. Surely there is no ‘electric alternative’ out there for the airline industry, which presumably has nothing but the purchase of dubious carbon credits to fall back on in order to stabilize itself in whatever turbulence will be generated from this event in a very rapidly changing climate for business and travel.
Where’s the EPA Going with Airliners and Automobiles?
In decisive and well publicized move to strengthen the U.S. position on Global Warming, just in time for the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) threatens to upstage the U.S. Congress by stepping in (with a compliant Department of Transport) to begin placing regulations of it’s own on Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions in America. This event has also allowed Barack Obama to maintain his political poise and environmental commitments when assuring the World that the United States is indeed prepared to take clear and decisive actions against Global Warming. The significant risk in establishing this alternate legal route to the regulation of Greenhouse Gases (GhG’s) via the EPA, rather than waiting for any similar Bills to finally clear Congress, means that a political gauntlet has been tossed down that could either spur U.S. lawmakers to regain their role in this fight, or possibly generate a severe backlash from those who see this as an affront to their authority and who can also control the EPA’s funding and functions, depending upon who picks up this tossed challenge and rises to the occasion.
This bold opening move is based in a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling (from a deeply divided decision) that the Clean Air Act granted EPA the authority to regulate automobile emissions, and furthermore that GhG’s could fit within the Clean Air Act definition of air pollutants according to subsequent EPA reports. At the risk of sideswiping industrialists and lawmakers throughout the land, on December 7/09, The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) came forward to issue its formal findings that greenhouse gasses (GhG’s), including carbon dioxide emissions, do indeed “threaten the public health and welfare of the American people”. This statement effectively sets the stage for the EPA to regulate a list of GhG under provisions of the 1970 Clean Air Act, and CO2 is now at the top of that confirmed list.
Under the provisions of the 1970 Clean Air Act, EPA is obligated to address declared pollutants. Jackson explained that the “premise” of the Act is that “once you know you have a pollutant and you know it’s endangering public welfare, then EPA must act.” The question remains what is teh EPa’s next move?
In an effort to wrap our collective heads around all the Causes that can Effect Climate Change, perhaps we could go up into Space to gain some seriously wide-angle perspectives on the subject, and then come back down to Earth with a more grounded view of what’s driving this change.
The first layer of atmosphere that we encounter upon re-entry is the Mesospehere, and it’s a frontier zone that’s only now being better explored for it’s peculiar properties. What’s driving this curiosity are visible signs of changes going on up there, which are impacting some wild theories about geo-engineering the skies, to counteract climate change down here.
More than 120 years after their discovery, Noctilucent Clouds (from the Latin words for “Night Shining”) remain a mysterious enigma that only appears up at the very edge of space – or about 75-85 kilometers (50 miles) straight up! This area is called the Mesosphere, and it’s not only very cold (-193F/-125C), but it’s also incredibly dry. Studies show that the mesosphere is about 100 MILLION times drier than the Sahara, so one of the questions that we find 80 kms above us is: just how do these eerie clouds form under such poor conditions? Just to contrast abit, the highest clouds that we normally see are called Cirrus, and form at only about 11 km (36,000feet) where it only gets down to about -40C.
So…Let’s consider what makes clouds to begin with? Basically ice crystals, or rain need to two things to form. A dust (1)particle that allows (2)water vapor to collect/condense around the particle in a process called “nucleation”. The theories on Noctilucent Clouds are that the dust required to form them at that altitude is either coming from space, or somehow coming up from the surface far, far below. Water vapor is also incredibly scarce at that altitude, which suggests theories that the water is actually coming from rocket exhaust. An even more fascinating theory suggests that oxidized Methane* is at the supply base for the components of water since atmospheric methane levels have been increasing since the 19th century, and have more than doubled in the past century! So we might be just seeing the early signs of some new form of climate change at work up there at the edge of space…
You’ve discovered a Mission Category that still hasn’t been used yet…
If this notice is still appearing at the top of the page then this empty Mission Category is wide open to new explorations…
Feel free to submit any ideas for new Mission Profiles that you’d like to bring to our attention in the Comments fields below. If you’d like to propose your very own Mission, please make sure that you create a WordPress account for yourself (see the “Enlist Now” page for info), and then state your intent with a full summary of your Mission below with a comment entered via your WordPress account, in order that we can upgrade your access credentials.
From there we will create a Mission Profile Stub for you, and assign full Contributor privileges to your account, so that you can write/edit your new Mission Profile, as well as contribute to any other Mission Categories. Once your contribution is approved, you’ll have attained the role of Mission Specialist here at Environauts!
If you haven’t joined us yet, then feel free to either Follow Us or subscribe to our RSS Feed, or “Synch Up” (right-side) to safely follow our Future progress.
If you’d like more info first, then feel free to review the “JOIN US” pages.
In a recent article in the Globe & Mail, we saw the latest flareup in the raging WikiLeaks firestorm that has pointed out some key hotspots right here on Canadian soil. This particular leak not only disclosed a list of Canadian sites that the United States considers essential to preserving its own “interests”, but also served to remind us of of a little known tri-lateral security agreement called the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, where unbeknownst to most Canadians, political forces have already aligned to undermine national trade and sovereignty issues in order to assure future security, under terms that have never been presented publicly, let alone offered up for legislative debate. So, inadvertently, this particular WikiLeaks flareup is also inadvertantly showing Canadians how any perceived security threats in an unknown Future would most certainly and quite radically impact our seemingly false sense of national sovereignty – if Terrorists were to ever actually use this newly disclosed list of prime Canadian targets.
It would seem that the commodification of carbon is now well and truly in its final throes, and that the remediation of Climate Change will need to seek out a better method of self-correcting itself via the various (Consumer?) Markets. The death knell for carbon trading in North America is the significant, yet curiously under-publicized news that The Chicago Climate Exchange (Inc.) will close down its cap-and-trade market by the end of the year, as announced by spokeswoman Brook McLaughlin via CNN.
Upon operating his first successful engine design back in 1897 
The nuclear debate continues to put forward large scale alternatives to fossil-fueled Society, but has never included a much better option, when it comes to managing the waste and risks. This tragedy is essentially the result of politics, not science, since there likely isn’t a more misunderstood and overlooked element on the Periodic Table than Thorium.
This bold opening move is based in a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling (from a deeply divided decision) that the Clean Air Act granted EPA the authority to regulate automobile emissions, and furthermore that GhG’s could fit within the Clean Air Act definition of air pollutants according to subsequent EPA reports. At the risk of sideswiping industrialists and lawmakers throughout the land, on December 7/09, The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) came forward to issue its formal findings that greenhouse gasses (GhG’s), including carbon dioxide emissions, do indeed “threaten the public health and welfare of the American people”. This statement effectively sets the stage for the EPA to regulate a list of GhG under provisions of the 1970 Clean Air Act, and CO2 is now at the top of that confirmed list.
The first layer of atmosphere that we encounter upon re-entry is the Mesospehere, and it’s a frontier zone that’s only now being better explored for it’s peculiar properties. What’s driving this curiosity are visible signs of changes going on up there, which are impacting some wild theories about geo-engineering the skies, to counteract climate change down here.
