MIT Energy Storage Discovery Could Lead to ‘Unlimited’ Solar Power

Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have discovered a new way of storing energy from sunlight that could lead to ‘unlimited’ solar power.

The process, loosely based on plant photosynthesis, uses solar energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. When needed, the gases can then be re-combined in a fuel cell, creating carbon-free electricity whether the sun is shining or not.

According to project leader Prof. Daniel Nocera, “This is the nirvana of what we’ve been talking about for years. Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now, we can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon.”

Read more here.

Scientists Find New Way to Produce Hydrogen

“The ability to produce hydrogen at room temperature is significant because it means that we did not use any heat or energy to trigger the reaction,” said Khanna. “Traditional techniques for splitting water to produce hydrogen generally require a lot of energy at the time the hydrogen is generated. But our method allows us to produce hydrogen without supplying heat, connecting to a battery, or adding electricity. Once the aluminum clusters are synthesized, they can generate hydrogen on demand without the need to store it.” Read more here.

World Carbon Dioxide Emissions Since the year 1750

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World CO2 since 1750 (cubic feet)

Since 1750, humans have emitted over 5 trillion pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Roughly half of this has ended up in the oceans where it is beginning to damage the coral reefs. The other half is still in the atmosphere and causing global warming.

Now, imagine if that carbon dioxide was separated back into carbon and oxygen- imagine if the carbon was turned back into a solid form and deposited back onto the surface of the earth- a black hail covering the surface of the earth with a ubiquitous layer of carbon dust.

News story:UFOs in UK, US called ‘octopus, jellyfish, amoeba, cocoon, biological’

Dont worry. This isnt us link

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nuff said...

When Scientists Realized they needed a carbon extraction geo-engineering solution to the problem of Climate Change

This post intercepted from Steve Connor, Independent UK. January 2, 2009.

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Levels of CO2 have continued to increase during the past decade since the Kyoto treaty was agreed and they are now rising faster than even the worst-case scenarios from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations body. In the meantime the natural absorption of CO2 by the world's forests and oceans has decreased significantly. Most of the scientists we polled agreed that the failure to curb emissions of CO2, which are increasing at a rate of 1 per cent a year, has created the need for an emergency "plan B" involving research, development and possible implementation of a worldwide geoengineering strategy.

Just over half -- 54 per cent -- of the 80 international specialists in climate science who took part in our survey agreed that the situation is now so dire that we need a backup plan that involves the artificial manipulation of the global climate to counter the effects of man-made emissions of greenhouse gases. About 35 per cent of respondents disagreed with the need for a "plan B", arguing that it would distract from the main objective of cutting CO2 emissions, with the remaining 11 per cent saying that they did not know whether a geoengineering strategy is needed or not.

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