Unstoppable

Harnessing Science to Change the World

Bill Nye with Corey S. Powell 2016 Bvt Lib 363.7387 NYE

• 020 pg 64 April 28 1975 Newsweek Peter Gwynne reported "scientists" claiming global cooling

  • elsewhere 2014 correction https://www.insidescience.org/content/my-1975-cooling-world-story-doesnt-make-todays-climate-scientists-wrong/1640

  • in 1975, aerosol pollution caused a cooling effect
• 025 TV show 1992
• 027 John Stossel from ABC to Fox in 2009, ardent climate denier, demanded then ignored info from Nye
• 037 CO2 280 to 400 ppm by 2014 p43 Humans produce 100x more than volcanoes
• 050 thermodynamic efficiency, gasoline burns 1000C Theoretical Carnot efficiency 77%, real auto 28%

  • 2800F or 1570 C

• 053 Nye Laboratories West (California house)
• 055 why not pale pavement? (answer, tires would darken it)
• 056 hydrosol bubbles in ocean, lowering albedo? (answer, less light for photosynthesis)

• 062 wheaties and ... iron filings? true

• 076 fracking in "New York state where I live part time"
• 078 Methane 80x more "greenhouse" than CO2 after 20 years, 30x more after 100 years
• 086 typo Nils (not Niels) Bohr

• 088 Three Mile Island, p89 Chernobyl "uninhabitable", maybe for centuries but people chose to live there

• 092 breeder reactors, etc. Lots of hypothetical worries

• 106 Ivanpah solar power facility, only 40% of design capacity

• 113 space solar power
• 117 Likes wind power ... doesn't mention negatives
• 134 Electricity losses in the grid ... doesn't understand why, suggests more electronics
• 143 Superconducting power lines (HTS -140C, LN2
• 144 carbon nanotube power lines - BS, NOT superconductors

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_nanotube#Electrical | ... resistive nanotube-to-nanotube junctions and impurities ... ]]

• 146 electric cars
• 153 home battery storage
• 168 sunlight to ethanol is 2% efficient (after subtracting energy inputs), ethanol is 19.9 MJ/kg, gasoline is 45.8 MJ/kg
• 171 Brazil sugarcane to ethanol is more efficient, but forests are destroyed to get it
• 183 Bicycles
• 187 Trains
• 189 hyperloop
• 192 mass transit
• 200 bike tunnels with fan-blon tailwinds (er, power cost?)
• 201 self-driving taxis
• 201 Taxipod Robotruck biofuel
• 210 Flash distillation: evaporate water, collect on cold surface
• 212 Cruise ships, pressurized water (6MPa, 60 atmospheres) through salt-blocking membrane
• 225 well water, depleting aquifers near and far
• 228 GMO, GMF (food)
• 229 "... conspiracy theories are lazy. It's a way to blame one's problems and the problems of the world on someone else, some mystery group that's out to get ya'. I am pretty sure that most of the problems of the world just happen from all of us trying to make a living here."
• 230 we farm on 11% of the dry land on Earth, by 2050 on 9% to feed 9 billion people with GMF
• 231 crank-powered radio for african farmers
• 234 xeriscape (So-Cal dry landscaping)

• 237 Living with Ed 2007-2010

• 241 "...underside of roof is a silvery shiny paint that includes microbeads of a ceramic material, reflecting heat from the underside of the roof."
  • probably not on plywood underneath, it would trap moisture in Oregon

  • https://thepaintly.com/solar-reflective-roof-paint/

• 243 reflector for back of fireplace. Also air duct from outside, pulls firesmoke into house if stove exhaust fan running

• 257 Ch 29 Solar hot water
• 264 Inline hot water heater
• 269 between planters, brown gravel "decomposed granite" with clay minerals mixed in. occasionally use tamping tool
• 270 drip irrigation at night
• 272 Rain runs over the metal cover sheet, and sticks to it the same way water ticks to an unwaxed car hood. The lower or outer side of the cover curves down in a shape reminiscent of curled fingers. The water sticks to the metal as it flows around that bend, then it breaks free and falls into the gutter immediately below. You never have to clean the gutters.
• 281 perfectly efficient rocket, "... need about 500 million joules to lift one tonne of payload to 100 kilometers" (no, 967 MJ)
• 287 into orbit, twice as much energy (NO) into geosynchronous orbit, 50 times as much energy (50*500 MJ = 25000 MJ/T NO)
• some of may be bad communication, 50*twice is in the ballpark
• The actual calculation:
  • The earth makes one extra turn per year, so a geostationary orbit period is T = 24*3600*(365.24/366.24) = 86414 seconds
  • The rotational velocity at the equator is 2*pi*6378 km / 86414 seconds = 464 meters per second
  • The kinetic energy of a kilogram at rest at the equator is 1/2 m V^2 = 1.08e5 Joules, hence 0.108 MJ/kg
  • The earth standard gravitational parameter mu = 3.986004418e14 m3/s2
  • the velocity V of a circular orbit is sqrt( mu / R )
  • the period T of a circular orbit is 2 pi R / V = 2 pi sqrt( R^3 / mu )

  • so the orbit radius cubed is R^{3 = mu ( T / 2 pi )}2 = 3.986e14 * ( 86414 / 2 pi )^2 = 7.54e22 m3

  • and geosynchronous radius Rg us the cube root, 4.22e7 meters or 42200 kilometers
  • orbit velocity is 2*pi*Rg/T = 2*pi*4.22e7 meters / 86414 seconds or 3070 meters per second
  • orbit velocity kinetic energy is 1/2 m V^2 = 4.7 MJ/kg
  • launch to geostationary orbit is easiest at the equator, radius Re = 6.378e6 meters
  • the gravitational potential energy difference between Re and Rg is mu*(1/Re-1/Rg) = 53.1 MJ/kg
  • the kinetic plus potential energy at GEO is 4.7 + 53.1 = 57.8 mJ/kg
  • the energy difference to the rotating equator is 57.8 MJ/kg - 0.1 MJ/kg = 57.7 MJ/kg =57700 MJ/ton
• More rocket launch stuff, Sealaunch, Guiana Space Center
• 287 RP1 is very clean (no paraffin) kerosene, 12 to 15 carbons
• 288 xenon ion engines
• 289 nuclear ... "favorite exotic" is fusion
• 290 solar sailing
• 292 Virgin Galactic p293 X-Cor, ISRO
• 295 Do Humans Have a Destiny in Space?
• 296 Chixalub(sic) Chicxulub impactor
• 299 Explore Mars for perspectives on Earthlife origins
• 301 Planetary Society advocates manned Mars orbital mission in 2033
• 302 written after SpaceX Falcon explosion
• 311 National Geographic TV special about climate change denial (Beaverton Lib DVD)
• 313 Carbon fee and dividend system