So for my last post, I am going to be talking about my second green technology. That being Iron Man's power core. Now many of you may be thinking, is that really even possible? Well, that is one of the main questions which I wish to explore.
Iron Man's power core is called an Arc Reactor. An arc reactor is basically a nuclear fusion reactor. However, the science used in the movie and in cartoons portraying to the reactor is unfortunately incorrect. However, there are many different opinions about whether or not such a device could be made with some tweaking to the science behind it. For instance, look at the history of just the past century or so. We went from barely having cars to having all of the amazing technology there is today. So if we are able to tweak the science, then a portable nuclear fusion reactor such as the are reactor may one day become possible.
Why would this kind of power source be good?
To answer the above question, we have to look at nuclear fusion reactors. Fusion reactors are able to produce all of their energy with just hydrogen atoms and neutrons (the sun is just a big fusion reactor). This reaction would produce no greenhouse gases, and produce no waste that is long-lived enough to matter. So we would have a completely clean, environmentally friendly energy source that is unending.
Scientists expect to have fusion reactors up and running within the next 15 years and have them as a viable power source for the civilized world by the mid-21st century. Nuclear power truly could be the power source of the future.
Unfortunately, the technology to make a small nuclear reactor such as what iron man wears is still quite some time off, if we ever actually can achieve it. However, I think that the ability to make such power cores will one day be made possible (as long as global warming doesn't kill us all off first =p).
Other source:
http://www.ofes.fusion.doe.gov/whatisfusion.shtml
Sunday, November 8, 2009
A Last Post on the Debate
Today I read an article on global warming that talked about the debate going on between the two sides of whether global warming is mostly natural or mostly man made. The article takes both sides and tells about them in a mostly neutral way, which I really liked. So First of all I would like to tell about some interesting facts that I learned from this article that I didn't know about (which just goes to show that there is always more to learn). The first thing is that the earth's average temperature right now is about 60 degrees Fahrenheit (I had honestly not seen another one of my sources report this value, which is kind of surprising to me). The next piece of information that I found interesting, which adds great support to the natural side of the debate, is that between about 1945-1975, there was global cooling, not warming. I had previously thought that since the industrial revolution began over a century ago that temperature and continuously increased, but apparently, I was wrong. This means that even with all of the carbon dioxide emissions that were being added to the atmosphere, along with all the emissions that were already, there was some other force driving the temperature that was greater than the effects of the greenhouse gases. Now this article does not say what was the cause of the warming and cooling, but it does say that it could be because of natural process' such as changes in the sun's radiation.
Even with all of this evidence, there is still much debate going on amongst scientists about global warming. Some say that there is no way a natural force could change temperature as much as it has (which seems unlikely to me since the change is very small and I have seen much evidence for global warming being a natural process). Other's say that scientists are just blaming whatever is going on on humans. They said that in the cooling period of the 20th century, people kept proclaiming global cooling all over the place (which I have to assume is true since I was not alive then and have not seen anything against it), and now that they see a very slight change towards warming, they proclaim warming!
Also one last interesting fact from the articles is that the changing sizes of glaciers is unexplainable by scientists and goes against all models. If the models can not explain it, then either the models are just wrong completely, or there is some force (such as a natural force) that is affecting the temperature that we do not yet fully understand.
I found all of this information at CNN.com
Even with all of this evidence, there is still much debate going on amongst scientists about global warming. Some say that there is no way a natural force could change temperature as much as it has (which seems unlikely to me since the change is very small and I have seen much evidence for global warming being a natural process). Other's say that scientists are just blaming whatever is going on on humans. They said that in the cooling period of the 20th century, people kept proclaiming global cooling all over the place (which I have to assume is true since I was not alive then and have not seen anything against it), and now that they see a very slight change towards warming, they proclaim warming!
Also one last interesting fact from the articles is that the changing sizes of glaciers is unexplainable by scientists and goes against all models. If the models can not explain it, then either the models are just wrong completely, or there is some force (such as a natural force) that is affecting the temperature that we do not yet fully understand.
I found all of this information at CNN.com
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Links That I have Enjoyed Using!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Throughout my blog, there have been several of my links that have really shown to be helpful more than any of the other links and I have really been thankful that I was able to find and use them.
The first of these is Geocraft. This was one of the first sites that I found in my search for information about natural water vapor as a greenhouse gas. Not only did it tell me much of the information that I was looking for about water vapor, it also gave me a lot of information about other natural greenhouse gases. There were many charts, graphs, and explanations that showed me that more of the greenhouse gases are natural than I first thought. It's information was also very clear and easy to understand.
The next link was written by Dr. Spencer. This site taught me a lot more about natural carbon dioxide than I thought I knew and gave a lot more information than geocraft did on carbon dioxide specifically. Dr. Spencer gave explanations, charts, and graphs as well that, while not as clear as geocraft's information to the general public, were still very helpful to my learning. This site showed me that global warming can affect the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, instead of just the other way around. This was some amazing information that answered a previous question I had that was caused by Al Gore's slideshow, An Inconvenient truth. So all in all, this was a very useful link to me.
The next link that I found useful is from Daily Mail Online. This article introduced me to the idea that natural global warming is caused by a lot more than just water vapor. This turned out to be a great link which explained more about the little I had heard about the sun affecting global warming and showed me that it may be affecting global warming more than I had previously thought. I am glad to have found this because it was able to strengthen my argument that global warming is natural significantly by adding another natural cause and explaining the previous cycles and weather patterns that have existed throughout mankind's history.
Another useful and strong link was from NASA. One of the articles I found about studies on water vapor as a greenhouse gas was from the NASA.gov web site. So not only was I able to learn a lot from this site, it was also a very credible source. It emphasized the fact that water vapor is the worst greenhouse gas and taught me more about how it interacts with other greenhouse gases. I learned that water vapor increases the warming caused by other gases. So I was able to learn that water vapor may account for more of global warming than even I had thought!
Another small web page that I found useful was from a meteorologist. This meteorologist wrote about how carbon dioxide and water vapor are both greenhouse gases and even though carbon dioxide is a more efficient greenhouse gas, water vapor is much more important because of it's large quantity. This article showed me the idea that when weathermen make day to day forecasts, they do not even consider the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere when they make predictions. This is because the amount of difference that the carbon dioxide would make compared to the sun and to water vapor is so small that they weathermen know that it is not significant to count in their measurements.
The first of these is Geocraft. This was one of the first sites that I found in my search for information about natural water vapor as a greenhouse gas. Not only did it tell me much of the information that I was looking for about water vapor, it also gave me a lot of information about other natural greenhouse gases. There were many charts, graphs, and explanations that showed me that more of the greenhouse gases are natural than I first thought. It's information was also very clear and easy to understand.
The next link was written by Dr. Spencer. This site taught me a lot more about natural carbon dioxide than I thought I knew and gave a lot more information than geocraft did on carbon dioxide specifically. Dr. Spencer gave explanations, charts, and graphs as well that, while not as clear as geocraft's information to the general public, were still very helpful to my learning. This site showed me that global warming can affect the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, instead of just the other way around. This was some amazing information that answered a previous question I had that was caused by Al Gore's slideshow, An Inconvenient truth. So all in all, this was a very useful link to me.
The next link that I found useful is from Daily Mail Online. This article introduced me to the idea that natural global warming is caused by a lot more than just water vapor. This turned out to be a great link which explained more about the little I had heard about the sun affecting global warming and showed me that it may be affecting global warming more than I had previously thought. I am glad to have found this because it was able to strengthen my argument that global warming is natural significantly by adding another natural cause and explaining the previous cycles and weather patterns that have existed throughout mankind's history.
Another useful and strong link was from NASA. One of the articles I found about studies on water vapor as a greenhouse gas was from the NASA.gov web site. So not only was I able to learn a lot from this site, it was also a very credible source. It emphasized the fact that water vapor is the worst greenhouse gas and taught me more about how it interacts with other greenhouse gases. I learned that water vapor increases the warming caused by other gases. So I was able to learn that water vapor may account for more of global warming than even I had thought!
Another small web page that I found useful was from a meteorologist. This meteorologist wrote about how carbon dioxide and water vapor are both greenhouse gases and even though carbon dioxide is a more efficient greenhouse gas, water vapor is much more important because of it's large quantity. This article showed me the idea that when weathermen make day to day forecasts, they do not even consider the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere when they make predictions. This is because the amount of difference that the carbon dioxide would make compared to the sun and to water vapor is so small that they weathermen know that it is not significant to count in their measurements.
Implications of the Global Warming Debate
In the global warming debate, there are two main sides that I have talked about. They are the side who says global warming is man made and will cause the end of the world, and the side who says that global warming is a natural process (another side is though who say global warming does not exist but that side goes against all scientific evidence so I do not find it necessary to go into detail about it).
If this issue is not settled, then the main consequence will be that the people on both sides will have this divide between them which will cause there to be arguments and cause those on the two sides to not be able to work together. It will affect the whole modernized world because instead of the opposing sides being able to work together to advance technology and humanity, they will be spending more time trying to prove the other wrong and not help anyone near as much as they would working together.
If the two sides were able to come to a consensus, there could be many different consequences, some good, and some bad. The first side is if we come to a an agreement on global warming being natural. If we come to that agreement and are right, then we will be able to further technology and hopefully head in the right direction for humanity (assuming this doesn't cause a robot overlord takeover of the world). If we come to this same agreement but are wrong, well, when the effects of global warming really start to kick in, we will be screwed unless we have some kind of space colonies (this has happened in tv shows from multiple cultures).
If we come to the agreement that global warming is man made and are right, then hopefully we will be able to convince the world that we need to stop releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere so that the world does not end this way, and it will hopefully not end, but this will be hard to do because of the economic costs. If we come to the agreement that global warming is man made and are wrong, then we will probably end up once again trying to convince the world governments to spend billions of dollars on green technology, only this time it will be mostly wasted except for preserving natural resources.
As for the consequences of global warming itself, no one actually knows. The possibilities seem endless. There could be an ice age, or just a smaller cooling period, or the destruction of the northern hemisphere. My personal hope is that the debate will be won by the side who says it is man made, and that we will be right.
If this issue is not settled, then the main consequence will be that the people on both sides will have this divide between them which will cause there to be arguments and cause those on the two sides to not be able to work together. It will affect the whole modernized world because instead of the opposing sides being able to work together to advance technology and humanity, they will be spending more time trying to prove the other wrong and not help anyone near as much as they would working together.
If the two sides were able to come to a consensus, there could be many different consequences, some good, and some bad. The first side is if we come to a an agreement on global warming being natural. If we come to that agreement and are right, then we will be able to further technology and hopefully head in the right direction for humanity (assuming this doesn't cause a robot overlord takeover of the world). If we come to this same agreement but are wrong, well, when the effects of global warming really start to kick in, we will be screwed unless we have some kind of space colonies (this has happened in tv shows from multiple cultures).
If we come to the agreement that global warming is man made and are right, then hopefully we will be able to convince the world that we need to stop releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere so that the world does not end this way, and it will hopefully not end, but this will be hard to do because of the economic costs. If we come to the agreement that global warming is man made and are wrong, then we will probably end up once again trying to convince the world governments to spend billions of dollars on green technology, only this time it will be mostly wasted except for preserving natural resources.
As for the consequences of global warming itself, no one actually knows. The possibilities seem endless. There could be an ice age, or just a smaller cooling period, or the destruction of the northern hemisphere. My personal hope is that the debate will be won by the side who says it is man made, and that we will be right.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
How Have I Grown in my Knowledge of Global Warming?
I have to say, I have gotten a lot more out of this project that I originally thought that I would. I came into this project thinking that I already knew most of what I end up posting about for global warming and that I would not really learn much more. I was more wrong that I could have known. While the central theme of what I knew about global warming still remains true, I have learned so much more information that has been added to what I already knew and fits perfectly with it. For example, I learned that not only is most of the worst greenhouse gas, water vapor, in the atmosphere because of natural processes, but that most of most of the greenhouse gases naturally occur geocraft. Not only that, but I have learned that natural processes can account for a lot of the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere! Dr. Spencer
Other ideas that I have expanded on include possible effects of global warming. This includes hurricanes (Hurricane Info), false extreme ideas about effects of global warming (on The Day After Tomorrow), drought, flooding, higher sea levels (More effects), and even the possibility of another little ice age (Little Ice Age info).
I have also learned more about how common sense can help us to understand more about how water vapor can affect global warming so much (Water Vapor Affecting Humidity).
Also in my research, I have found more varying and weird arguments made by those who blame global warming on mankind. Some have tried to argue that the other greenhouse gases have an effect on how much effect water vapor has on global warming, but their theories lack evidence and have some seemingly obvious flaws (skeptical science).
Also, I have learned that there is even more variance in temerature than I originally thought there was (variance), and that there has always been a lot of variance (variance pic).
I have also learned that greenhouse gases are not the only thing that affects temperature (solar effects).
So in my research, I have learned a lot more about global warming that I had thought there was to know. I have also changed the way I think about global warming to a more open way of accepting new ideas because there are a lot of pieces to the puzzle of global warming out there, and it takes more than just one article to put the pieces together.
Other ideas that I have expanded on include possible effects of global warming. This includes hurricanes (Hurricane Info), false extreme ideas about effects of global warming (on The Day After Tomorrow), drought, flooding, higher sea levels (More effects), and even the possibility of another little ice age (Little Ice Age info).
I have also learned more about how common sense can help us to understand more about how water vapor can affect global warming so much (Water Vapor Affecting Humidity).
Also in my research, I have found more varying and weird arguments made by those who blame global warming on mankind. Some have tried to argue that the other greenhouse gases have an effect on how much effect water vapor has on global warming, but their theories lack evidence and have some seemingly obvious flaws (skeptical science).
Also, I have learned that there is even more variance in temerature than I originally thought there was (variance), and that there has always been a lot of variance (variance pic).
I have also learned that greenhouse gases are not the only thing that affects temperature (solar effects).
So in my research, I have learned a lot more about global warming that I had thought there was to know. I have also changed the way I think about global warming to a more open way of accepting new ideas because there are a lot of pieces to the puzzle of global warming out there, and it takes more than just one article to put the pieces together.
More on Natural Global Warming
In my research, I have found some new interesting information about natural global warming that agrees with previous information I have seen. There are two main things that I have found that I would like to add.
One is about exaggerations about the effects of warming and about the effects of cooling in the earth's natural cycles. For starters, I would like to restate that global warming is just one part of a bigger cycle of warming and cooling. According to this link, the past "two thousand years of global history" shows us that warming periods have been good for mankind. For example, it was the cold period called the little ice age that brought about the deaths of so many people in the middle ages. Also in general cooling periods have killed approximately twice as many people as warming periods.
The other is another possible cause of global warming, changes is solar variation. One climate physicist, Mr. Singer, says that all of our climate change can "be explained by the Sun's activity." Apparently, the number of cosmic rays that hit the earth affect the number of clouds that will reflect heat back into space which amplifies variations in the intensity of the sun's rays. While I have not seen evidence for everything Mr. Singer has said, I have also read in several other places about variations in the sun being able to affect global warming. So I think that it is safe to say that global warming is at least partially affected by variances in the sun's rays.
One is about exaggerations about the effects of warming and about the effects of cooling in the earth's natural cycles. For starters, I would like to restate that global warming is just one part of a bigger cycle of warming and cooling. According to this link, the past "two thousand years of global history" shows us that warming periods have been good for mankind. For example, it was the cold period called the little ice age that brought about the deaths of so many people in the middle ages. Also in general cooling periods have killed approximately twice as many people as warming periods.
The other is another possible cause of global warming, changes is solar variation. One climate physicist, Mr. Singer, says that all of our climate change can "be explained by the Sun's activity." Apparently, the number of cosmic rays that hit the earth affect the number of clouds that will reflect heat back into space which amplifies variations in the intensity of the sun's rays. While I have not seen evidence for everything Mr. Singer has said, I have also read in several other places about variations in the sun being able to affect global warming. So I think that it is safe to say that global warming is at least partially affected by variances in the sun's rays.
Class Links
The first blog that I have enjoyed reading is http://supertechblogger.blogspot.com/ .
This blog is about super weapons and super defenses that our government is currently developing in order to keep up with the other countries in the world and stay a world power. I find this very interesting, especially since the author has promised an article about the future invention of mobile suits like Gundams which I love. This blog also allows us to look at the future of weapons and the direction that wars may be headed in in the future. The author has also mentioned how super weapons may help lead to world peace. I hope that he is right about it leading to world peace instead of world destruction. This blog is definitely worth going to for anyone who is interesting in where the future of military is heading.
The next blog that I have kept up with is http://medicaltech-medtech.blogspot.com/ .
I find this blog interesting because it shows many different technologies for medical purposes that are being developed that need funding in order to be fully developed and completed. I was amazed by some of the technology that we are already building and I am in full support that these medical technologies should receive as much funding as needed. I am also curious about reading more of his blog and future blogs to find out even more about this technology. Our current technology is more advanced now than I thought it would be in years. This blog is great for anyone who is interested in cool technology or anyone who believes that the ill and/or disabled should get help, because they now can.
The last blog that I will mention here belongs to my fellow global warming blogger Igreen at http://igreen13.blogspot.com/ .
One of the first things that I liked about Igreen was her willingness to change her preconceived notions about global warming that I showed her were wrong. I had already known from previous studies that there was a lot of false information out there and she could use some help. In her blog, she has discussed much about global warming from a different but still good perspective than I have. So for anyone interested in my blog, hers would also be good to go to to fund out more information about global warming. One of the main qualities of her blog that I like is how I can tell in her posts how she has an earnest desire for everyone to go green. I too think that going green is important, because it will cause less pollution and save our natural resources from being depleted to nothing. So for anyone who cares about the environment, IGreen's blog is a great place to go.
This blog is about super weapons and super defenses that our government is currently developing in order to keep up with the other countries in the world and stay a world power. I find this very interesting, especially since the author has promised an article about the future invention of mobile suits like Gundams which I love. This blog also allows us to look at the future of weapons and the direction that wars may be headed in in the future. The author has also mentioned how super weapons may help lead to world peace. I hope that he is right about it leading to world peace instead of world destruction. This blog is definitely worth going to for anyone who is interesting in where the future of military is heading.
The next blog that I have kept up with is http://medicaltech-medtech.blogspot.com/ .
I find this blog interesting because it shows many different technologies for medical purposes that are being developed that need funding in order to be fully developed and completed. I was amazed by some of the technology that we are already building and I am in full support that these medical technologies should receive as much funding as needed. I am also curious about reading more of his blog and future blogs to find out even more about this technology. Our current technology is more advanced now than I thought it would be in years. This blog is great for anyone who is interested in cool technology or anyone who believes that the ill and/or disabled should get help, because they now can.
The last blog that I will mention here belongs to my fellow global warming blogger Igreen at http://igreen13.blogspot.com/ .
One of the first things that I liked about Igreen was her willingness to change her preconceived notions about global warming that I showed her were wrong. I had already known from previous studies that there was a lot of false information out there and she could use some help. In her blog, she has discussed much about global warming from a different but still good perspective than I have. So for anyone interested in my blog, hers would also be good to go to to fund out more information about global warming. One of the main qualities of her blog that I like is how I can tell in her posts how she has an earnest desire for everyone to go green. I too think that going green is important, because it will cause less pollution and save our natural resources from being depleted to nothing. So for anyone who cares about the environment, IGreen's blog is a great place to go.
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