Transportation: Community proposal by Administrator

Although solar photovoltaic power is clean, the energy used to make it may not be thus different levels of carbon emissions can be acknowledged. Solar is not considered to be a Baseload resoruce, however good as it is for many situations. A transition to a Smart Grid is possible where solar could spare or extend other resources such as finite fossil fuels in transportation. The use of Biomass is suggested in a mixed renewable energy grid. Consider, that renewable power from trees can be seen as solar energy storage that is available 24/7 thus a Baseload generating resource. In Africa where our program team has developed also has sufficient technical ability. There is great need for certain exported equipment and the need for local fabrication contracts. The involvement of indigenous people is ideal for the first goal of the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations. Poverty and Hunger Relief. With an income food can be bought from markets, thus poverty relief from job creation and any income from the contracts of growing feedstock is idea. When the poor have a greater income they will eat more healthy and not likely go hungry. With an income goods and services will be in demand thus the improved Global Trade is anticipated. Biofuels for energy for a Smart Grid and Transportation is paramount for our action plans. Biofuels is like the Hamburger Helper is for ground beef, by extending the finite fossil fuels. A transition to other motive force in transportation is by all means necessary, but so to is needed a transition system.

Dennis, I cannot agree when I support Sustainable Forestry and those well known techniques. The fact is that to date, mankind has removed 50% of the forests during the past two hundred years. Forests have been called; "the Lungs of the Earth". How well could Gaia or any creature function with half of their lungs removed? Please give examples of your efficient methods that you mentioned.

Hello Dennis: There are many kinds of Oil Seed trees. Oil Palm is not the greater producer per hectare, by the way. Perhaps I will answer my own question when I read your link for the artificial tree CO2 sequestering method. I wonder where it is stored? Do you know of trees that can be planted once and harvested five times? What about Orchard trees planted that yield products in demand for income for the poor. I am wanting to uplift the poor and one supporter is found in Matthew 25:31 - 46. When the poor can demand a few more goods (food) and services, then more jobs can be created. Global Trade could improve if done correctly with inclusiveness of indigenous people. Demonstrations of greenhouses that have CO2 added helped plants to grow better, what a concept, fertilizing the air near planted things. Switchgrass can be made into ethanol a biofuel. Soybean is a good rotation crop for vegetable oil for biodiesel because of nitrogen fixing. You did not mention that alternative fuel feedstock. Switchgrass can be planted once and the roots are extensive and the harvest once or twice a year.

Helping the poor is certainly important. But I think it's best to consider it a separate problem. Ie., we shouldn't insist that a single solution both help the poor and fix global climate. It's a great bonus if we find such a solution, but the risk is that we'll end up with something that doesn't really solve either problem all that well. The "artificial tree" just collects the CO2, it doesn't sequester it. The idea there is to produce fuel from it, rather than sequestering, and that's what George Olah is advocating. In my 2010 and 2011 proposals I listed some other methods that do sequester the carbon, without making it available for fuel production. Biochar is one well-known example. Anyway, my point is mainly that whatever crop you use, it's going to take an awful lot of land area. That's area that could be reserved for wild forest. If you try to harvest from forest, you can take only a fairly small portion of it without doing damage, and you're just not going to get that much fuel that way, from a given land area. We use an awful lot of fuel. I'd rather minimize land usage, maximize biodiversity, leave all that carbon in the trees, and make fuel from something nice and compact.

There is tremendous synergy between PRT, electric cars, and self-driving cars. Based on experience with autonomous rail, safety is likely to increase by an order of magnitude when a computer drives all cars. When accidents become rare, a motorcycle is almost as safe as an SUV. Thus the average U.S. vehicle weight can drop from 4000 lb to 200 lb. Combined with good aerodynamics, a 10 kg (22 lb) lithium battery can provide a range of 50 km (30 miles), which covers most urban trips. Refueling by battery swap can be faster than filling a gas tank. 1000 mpg is achievable.