12
Can we really fuel planes with fat and sugar?
(www.bbc.com)
Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.
As a starting point, the burning of fossil fuels, and to a lesser extent deforestation and release of methane are responsible for the warming in recent decades:
How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world:
Recommended actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the near future:
Anti-science, inactivism, and unsupported conspiracy theories are not ok here.
We could also scale synthetic fuel made from atmospheric carbon, we’ve had the tech for decades after all, it’s just a lot more expensive than stealing it from the ground. While algae might be easier, i have doubts as to plant based biofuel owing largely to the land and water use required to scale up to the levels we need. I don’t doubt that with greenhouses and desalination it could be done, but labor, capital, and effort wise i would expect algae or chemical systhasis to come out on top.
Problem is that either way it takes more energy to make than it receives, which when we constantly burn oil for power is a net loss, but at the same time it’s the only long term solution for applications like long term flight.