Carbon is not a Dirty Word

Technocrat

Carbon is not a Dirty Word

zogger

Tue Jul 29 20:07:00 -0700 2008

Environment

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You say carbon today and it is almost like saying terrorist, we are building a climate of fear over carbon. Yes, there are legitmate concerns over excessive carbon in the atmosphere, and this awareness is useful, but we still should step back and take it into perspective. The reality is, it is the basis of life as we know it, it is also the basis of our technological civilization, so learning how to better use carbon as we transition to an even better energy future should be the goal, not just trying to wage a war on it.

"If you think about carbon only in terms of climate change, you're missing out," he says. "If you want to learn about the world, the fastest way is to follow the carbon." ed.z.: And there is part of it. Example: if you are a gardener, especially organic, the first thing you learn is ..you aren't a gardener first, you are a soil builder, you are in the tilth business, and that means you deal in..carbon. You get your hands on carbon and get as much as you can down into the soil. But, it won't stay there forever, you have to keep adding to it. Where does it go? Well, it goes on your dinner plate and also "out there" /waves hands around pointing in every possible direction. So is that good, or bad? Do I want to wage war on carbon, or keep doing things the way I have been doing? I think the more practical notion is to just learn to use it wisely. I like food. Food is carbon. Right now the bulk of our energy is carbon based. We'll have to work on that, but right now there are ways to make that work for us, to keep a more stable amount "out there" without having it be an extra-ordinary amount. And all that extra carbon they plan on sequestering? Remember what food is? And how fast the populations will be rising? See a connection? Maybe we can use what carbon we have more wisely. Maybe. Because it looks to me like we might need it.

Carbon is not a Dirty Word

ColaMan

Wed Jul 30 13:04:56 -0700 2008
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I suspect:

There's a 'climate of fear' over carbon simply because it's a useful front to work upon peak-oil technology without panicking the masses.

"We're going to be out of cheaper-than-$200/barrel oil in 10 years. The American Way will be utterly destroyed. Nobody panic! We're working on the problem. Everyone, use less oil!"

- Equals instant panic buying/hoarding/etc and an even more wobbly enconomy.

However, the phrase:

"We need to combat "Climate Change" and "Carbon Emissions". Let's develop greener, alternate technology and put in legislation that combats this immediate peril. To save the environment (bows head in reverent gesture).

- Those technologies also reduce our dependence on petroleum products. Fancy that.

As for geosequestration? It's a nice sideshow that will provide good entertainment (and *cough*moneyforsome*cough*) for a while. Bread and circuses,we're pretty much there.

Carbon is not a Dirty Word

cowardly dragon

Wed Jul 30 13:52:31 -0700 2008
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This post is essentially a disingenuous obfuscation.

Popular media have shortened "Increased Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere" to "Carbon". Anyone with any awareness knows the context of the word "Carbon" in this case.

By being overly literalist in the treatment of the term, that is, to treat the media term "Carbon" as a reference to carbon, and then explaining all the areas that elemental carbon is beneficial, thereby attempts to undermine the dangerous association given to the term "Carbon" in terms of Global Warming. By undermining the association, the awareness of Global Warming is undermined.

In terms of chemistry and organic chemistry, there is a huge difference between organic carbon bonds and carbon dioxide. Organic carbon is sequestered carbon, and usually has excess energy in the hydrocarbon bonds to convert it to other purposes.

Carbon dioxide is in a low-energy state that requires endothermic reactions to process, or convert to a sequesterable state.

Even carbon in methane, while energy laden, is in a gaseous form that requires effort to extract, or effort to prevent entry into the atmosphere.

If the near-term casualty of "Carbon" being equated negatively with global warming is that stupid people don't understand elemental carbon's essential role in organic chemistry, well, OH WELL, we don't care about stpuid people's understanding of organic chemistry.

We only want them to stop hauling their obese asses around in 10MPG hummers.