

Libbybapa at wmconnect.com Libbybapa at wmconnect.com
Fri Feb 18 20:24:14 EST 2005

> PS :   CO2    is different  IMHO.   USA could reduce CO2 emmisions fairly 
> painless
> right now.    By the way HOW ?  can a power plant get rid of CO2 ? bottle it 
> ?
> Store it undergrond?  ---I must have been sick  the day that was covered in 
> Chemistry.

There is one easy and significant way to get rid of CO2 that I know of.  Feed 
it to plants in order to create hydrocarbons.  Those hydrocarbons can then be 
used as fuel in those power plants.  The major issue currently is that we are 
producing WAAAAAAYYYYY more co2 than the total plant matter on planet earth 
can absorb.  The issue gets even more difficult as many of the best co2 
converting plant masses (rainforests, swamps, etc.) are being removed or killed off 
for "development" (e.g. grazing for cattle for fast food restaurants) one way 
or another. 
Granted the hydrocarbons that are currently being dug up and burned were 
originally plant matter that was made from a co2 rich atmosphere, but the 
ecosystem was very different than it is now (very few primates).  Do we want to get 
back to a similar ecosystem/atmosphere?  The question is whether or not oxygen 
breathing humans can survive or even the whole ecosystem if we revert back to 
an atmosphere as rich in co2 as it was originally.  We are now closer to the 
sun than we were when plants and other sea life started consuming the co2.
There is a simple solution.  Grow our own fuel.  There is no energy shortage, 
just an availability and cost issue.  We haven't achieved a cycle yet.  
Biodiesel and veggie oil returns only the co2 that is consumed in its production, 
and therefore adds virtually nothing to the atmoshpere that wasn't there before 
it was eaten by the plants used in its production.  It is a complete cycle 
that coincides with our current ecosystem.  It is not even cost prohibitive 
currently.  More expensive, certainly, but not prohibitive.  It all depends on 
what is valued.  I would agree wholeheartedly that currently co2 is a very 
harmful emission.  If we established a cycle then it would become a necessary 
emission.  How's the atmosphere on Venus.  What all is growing there in all that 
co2?  It's a 900°F greenhouse!

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