Vardaman Virtual Forestry Company
FRIDAY REPORT OF 03/09/07
The Most Direct, Frequent Link to Knowledge Workers in the Eastern Forest Economy
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“SPLITTING WATER MOLECULES THE NEXT ‘GREEN’ POWER SOURCE?
Part of article by Brian Handwerk in 03/05/07 National Geographic News
“A limitless renewable energy source that can wean humans off fossil fuels has existed for billions of years, according to the latest report from a ‘green’ scientist. The trick to using it is figuring out how to make our power sources more like plants – and a recent discovery may bring scientists closer to the goal.
“Plants use photosynthesis to capture energy directly from the sun, a feat that humans have been striving to achieve for years via solar cells. ‘How will mankind be able to supply itself with the levels of energy it needs?’ asked James Barber, a biochemist at Imperial College London. ‘Really, there is only one solution…to use the enormous amount of sunlight available to us.’
“An hour of sunlight falling on Earth equals all the energy that humans use on average in a year. But to date solar cells have been inefficient energy converters – the most efficient plastic solar cells on today’s market convert only 6 percent of sunlight into usable energy.
“Another option is to mimic the chemical reactions in photosynthesis, Barber said, specifically a step known as water splitting. Water splitting is a complex chemical reaction that takes places in leaves, algae, phytoplankton, and other green organisms. The plants use the sun’s energy to break down water into its components: oxygen and hydrogen. The oxygen produced is released into the atmosphere. The hydrogen is used to convert carbon dioxide taken from the air into the carbon-based organic molecules that form plants’ tissues…Barber notes that recent research has identified the structure of water splitting’s key enzyme, photosystem ll…
“‘This is a very difficult chemical problem and nature solved it,’ said Gary Brudvig, a biophysical chemist at Yale University who has also been researching photosystem ll. ‘We’ve first been trying to figure out how nature does the chemistry and – once we’ve obtained a reasonable idea of how the natural system works – we [will try] to replicate that in artificial systems.’
“Hydrogen produced by artificial water splitting could be used as a stand-alone fuel…Alternatively, scientists could further mimic plants and combine the hydrogen with carbon compounds to produce fuels. Many of today’s carbon-based fuels are currently derived from photosynthesis that took place millions of years ago. That energy is stored in the form of oil, gas, and coal. But, Brudvig said, a more efficient energy solution depends on duplicating natural systems rather than relying on dwindling supplies of
fossil fuels…I think to get really high efficiency, we’ll have to have artificial systems come on at a later point…
“Imperial College’s Barber agreed, noting that plant ‘biology solved its energy problem a very long time ago by using sunlight to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. If the leaf can do it, we can do it.”
“PLANNED TO DEATH
by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
“A strange culture of emergency has taken over this country, and the slightest provocation triggers it. It could be an expected terrorist or just an old-fashioned weather warning. The officials are quick to swing into action, and tell you what to do.
“The problem is that these demands are often based on nothing other than government plans that are not in your best interest. It behooves all of us to think carefully about genuine preparedness, which might involve bucking the system and telling the emergency nazis to mind their own business.
“A case in point is the disastrous weather emergency that befell Enterprise, Alabama, last week. The first warnings about a tornado came at 10:30am, and that’s when the disastrous ‘preparations’ began. The school could have permitted the students to leave. After all, we are talking about a High School here, and most students could drive. Those who couldn’t might have gotten a ride. Parents would have been glad to pick up their kids, and many tried but were turned away…
“So instead of just letting the kids go, the officials herded them all in hallways, where it was said that they would be ‘safe.’ There they sat in crowded conditions for hours and hours, just waiting for the moment of death to come. It finally did: at 1:30pm. The twister slammed into the building, the walls caved in, and eight kids were killed, with many more injured. Parents who had come to pick up their kids at the earliest possible moment (the school announced that this was 1:00pm) sat helplessly by. They weren’t allowed in before, and when they showed up, the police demanded that they come inside and still wouldn’t let the kids go…
“At some point in the coming years, you will probably face this problem. There will be some emergency in which you will be told to put your life or that of your children in the hands of experts, who pretend as if they know what is best for you. Chances are that they don’t, and this emergency will be the time when you need to think seriously about fundamental values. Is obedience to authority more important than life itself?”
To read the complete article, click on http://www.mises.org/story/2508
“MOUNTAIN GLACIERS MELTING FASTER THAN EVER, EXPERT SAYS”
Part of an article by Blake de Pasino in 02/16/07 National Geographic News
“Mountain glaciers are melting faster than ever, a leading climate expert announced yesterday, and eerie effects of the thaw are being seen from the summits of South America to the highest peak in Africa. In Peru alone, ice fields are disappearing so quickly that giant lakes have formed where meadows recently stood. And retreating glaciers are exposing ancient plants that haven’t been seen in 5,000 years. Lonnie Thompson, an expert in ancient climates at Ohio State University, announced his findings yesterday.
“Thompson’s latest research has focused on measuring glaciers in the Andes mountain range, which spans seven South American countries, and on Mount Kilimanjaro in eastern Africa. ‘One of the things that’s very clear…is that the climate changes in those areas are unusual – unprecedented- in the thousands of years of history that we can look at in these places,’ Thompson said.
“Kilimanjaro’s glaciers are melting so quickly, he said, that the mountain lost nearly a quarter of its ice from 2000 to 2006. Meanwhile, some glaciers in the Andes are melting ten times faster than they did just 20 years ago. The massive melts are among the most provocative evidence yet that the world is getting too warm too fast to be the result of natural forces alone, Thompson said. ‘If you look at what’s happened to these glaciers, they’re not just retreating, they’re accelerating [their retreat],’ he said. ‘And it raises the question of whether this might be a fingerprint of [human-caused global] warming…’
“In all corners of the world, Thompson said, the effects of rapid mountain melts are uniformly grim. So much of Peru’s giant Qori Kalis glacier has vanished, for example, that the retreating ice has exposed patches of 5,000-year-old cushion plants, a kind of wetland vegetation typically found in valleys. ‘It’s only because of the recent warming and the retreat of the glaciers that they’ve been exposed again,’ Thompson said…”
Thompson also reported the many economic effects of this melting, but we do not have enough space to quote him.
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