Mark Twain once observed that it takes three people to create a work of art: one to inspire it, one to execute the inspiration, and one to shoot the artist before he has a chance to over-do the idea and ruin it. I’m rapidly coming to the conclusion that comment applies to more than just works of art, it seems it also applies to even the best intended works of deliberate changes to culture and society. The very, very real problem of human induced climate change is a sterling example of that concept.
I’m thinking that when the PR pitch changes from “YOU must fix this problem (because we don’ know HOW to fix this problem without destroying the modern way of life)” to “This is HOW to fix the problem (and still live in the 21st century)” things will start getting better in a hurry, maybe even quickly enough to make the Paris goals… or better.
Example, cold off the cuff? Move medium range freight off of long haul trucks and onto hydrogen filled/ hydrogen powered lift body dirigibles. Harvest the hydrogen off sea water using solar and wave energy. Put up some government contest money for the company that can design an effective medium small hydrogen fired turbofan engine for said dirigibles with the prize going to the design that does the best job of using the excess shaft horsepower such engines produce to separate and entrap CO2 and Methane in the passages between the compressor section and the combustion section (H2 fired: net output heat and water), said gasses to be stored in the lift bladder of the rig and transferred to ground based facilities for reprocessing when the craft grounds. Go after the *bleepin* green house gasses the exact same way they got there in the first place: one load at a time. And, in the meanwhile, nothing else changes all that much. The sort of craft I’m talking about would have no problem at all dropping it’s cargo container in the average WallyWorld parking lot (or city/company lot of comparable size) where heavy electric tugs could drag it to destination.
Turning truck drivers into low altitude blimp pilots isn’t that big a jump, and if the fine folks at Peterbuilt and Volvo were to build the dirigibles? Not even culture shock for the drivers and civilization does not need to retreat the 200 years back into the primitive state the fauxLiberal ecoGeeks (risking the climate of Planet Earth by overselling panic wrapped in sack cloth and ashes trying to fix the problem) never, ever seem to admit is a very real possibility of turning that same two hundred years of momentum around in twenty years.
I’m sold on the why of the issue. Now I’m waiting to see if anyone among that sales crew has the chutzpah to go on record about HOW, or if as usual they’re going to leave it up to us country boys to figure out a way and then claim all the glory for themselves.
June 9, 2023 @ 3:10 am
Mark Twain once observed that it takes three people to create a work of art: one to inspire it, one to execute the inspiration, and one to shoot the artist before he has a chance to over-do the idea and ruin it. I’m rapidly coming to the conclusion that comment applies to more than just works of art, it seems it also applies to even the best intended works of deliberate changes to culture and society. The very, very real problem of human induced climate change is a sterling example of that concept.
I’m thinking that when the PR pitch changes from “YOU must fix this problem (because we don’ know HOW to fix this problem without destroying the modern way of life)” to “This is HOW to fix the problem (and still live in the 21st century)” things will start getting better in a hurry, maybe even quickly enough to make the Paris goals… or better.
Example, cold off the cuff? Move medium range freight off of long haul trucks and onto hydrogen filled/ hydrogen powered lift body dirigibles. Harvest the hydrogen off sea water using solar and wave energy. Put up some government contest money for the company that can design an effective medium small hydrogen fired turbofan engine for said dirigibles with the prize going to the design that does the best job of using the excess shaft horsepower such engines produce to separate and entrap CO2 and Methane in the passages between the compressor section and the combustion section (H2 fired: net output heat and water), said gasses to be stored in the lift bladder of the rig and transferred to ground based facilities for reprocessing when the craft grounds. Go after the *bleepin* green house gasses the exact same way they got there in the first place: one load at a time. And, in the meanwhile, nothing else changes all that much. The sort of craft I’m talking about would have no problem at all dropping it’s cargo container in the average WallyWorld parking lot (or city/company lot of comparable size) where heavy electric tugs could drag it to destination.
Turning truck drivers into low altitude blimp pilots isn’t that big a jump, and if the fine folks at Peterbuilt and Volvo were to build the dirigibles? Not even culture shock for the drivers and civilization does not need to retreat the 200 years back into the primitive state the fauxLiberal ecoGeeks (risking the climate of Planet Earth by overselling panic wrapped in sack cloth and ashes trying to fix the problem) never, ever seem to admit is a very real possibility of turning that same two hundred years of momentum around in twenty years.
I’m sold on the why of the issue. Now I’m waiting to see if anyone among that sales crew has the chutzpah to go on record about HOW, or if as usual they’re going to leave it up to us country boys to figure out a way and then claim all the glory for themselves.