cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/64402908

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/64402838

TLDR:

• Theoretical and experimental evidence now strongly supports the possibility of energy extraction from spinning objects, including black holes.

• Creating a “black hole bomb” is no longer just science fiction—lab-scale analogs exist.

• Realizing a full-scale version (especially around a real black hole) is still far in the future, but the groundwork is being laid.

Main Idea

It is theoretically and experimentally possible to extract energy from spinning black holes, and under specific conditions, this could be amplified to create what’s known as a “black hole bomb.”

Theoretical Background

Penrose Process (1969)

• Proposed by Roger Penrose.

• Energy can be extracted from a spinning black hole via its ergosphere.

• The ergosphere is a region just outside the event horizon where spacetime is dragged due to the black hole’s spin.

• Inside this region:

  • Objects cannot remain stationary.
  • Energy can be gained if mass is ejected in the right way.
  • A spacecraft, for instance, could enter the ergosphere and leave with more energy than it had.

Zeldovich Effect (1971)

• Proposed by Yakov Zeldovich.
• Rotating bodies (not just black holes) can amplify electromagnetic waves via rotational energy.
• Predicted that light or sound aimed at a spinning object could gain energy upon reflection.
• Required extremely high rotational speeds—nearly relativistic—for noticeable effects.

Experimental Verification

Sound Waves (2020)

• Spinning absorptive disc increased the energy of low-frequency sound waves.
• Proved the Zeldovich effect using acoustics.

Electromagnetic Waves (2023–2024)

• A spinning aluminum cylinder with surrounding magnetic coils showed energy amplification of EM waves.
• Rotation direction affected energy gain/loss.
• First real-world proof of the superradiance concept from Zeldovich's theory.

Black Hole Bomb Concept (1972)

Key Mechanism

• Enclose a spinning black hole (or any rotating energy source) with a reflective mirror.

• Waves bounce between the mirror and ergosphere, each time gaining energy from the black hole’s spin.

• This creates a positive feedback loop:

  • Energy builds exponentially.
  • Could result in an enormous explosion (i.e., a “black hole bomb”).
  • Or energy could be released in a controlled burst, like a black hole plasma gun.

Recent Experiments (2024)

• Miniature black hole bomb analog was created:

  • A metal cylinder was rotated.
  • Surrounded by coils acting as magnetic mirrors.
  • EM waves were amplified exponentially when rotation threshold was met.
  • Verified theoretical predictions experimentally for the first time.

Challenges & Future Research

For Actual Black Holes

• Creating a real reflective mirror around a black hole is still theoretical.
• Stabilizing such a structure near a black hole is currently beyond our technology.

Next Step: Quantum Foam

• Researchers aim to attempt amplification using quantum vacuum energy (quantum foam).

• If successful:

  • Could demonstrate energy extraction from spacetime itself.
  • Would confirm another Zeldovich prediction.
  • Potential Nobel Prize-level breakthrough.

source

Vancouver, Canada heats a neighbourhood with sewage

Trump issued an executive order Thursday declaring that U.S. policy includes “creating a robust domestic supply chain for critical minerals derived from seabed resources to support economic growth, reindustrialization, and military preparedness.” He described seabed mining as both an economic and national security imperative necessary to counter China.

Increasingly, mining companies have been eager to scrape the ocean floor for cobalt, manganese, nickel and other metals that could help make batteries for cellphones and electric cars. But scientists have warned that the process could irreparably alter the seabed, kill extremely rare sea creatures that haven’t been named or studied, and — depending on how the metals are carried up to the surface — risk introducing metals into fisheries that many Pacific peoples rely upon.

The order aims to jump-start the industry that has been spearheaded by small Pacific nations like Nauru seeking economic growth, but has been facing growing pushback from Indigenous advocates who fear the lasting consequences of mining the deep sea.

“This extraction has no thought in mind about caring for resources,” said Solomon Kahoʻohalahala, who is Native Hawaiian and has been a vocal critic of the potential seabed industry at the United Nations. “It seems that there’s no vision for what we do in the long term,” he said. “It doesn’t speak to how we’re looking to take care of resources for the generations that are unborn. That’s a very different perspective that I hold as an Indigenous person.”

Trump officials are analyzing whether to remove federal protections for national monuments spanning millions of acres in the West, according to two people familiar with the matter and an internal Interior Department document, in order to spur energy development on public lands.

Interior Department aides are looking at whether to scale back at least six national monuments, said these individuals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because no final decisions had been made. The list, they added, includes Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni-Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon, Ironwood Forest, Chuckwalla, Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante — national monuments spread across Arizona, California, New Mexico and Utah.

Interior Department officials are poring over geological maps to analyze the monuments’ potential for mining and oil production and assess whether to revise their boundaries, one individual said.

https://archive.ph/53hlu

Here at Ask NYT Climate, we usually dive into specific questions, from the greenest ways to dispose of pet waste to the most eco-friendly workout clothing. But because Tuesday is Earth Day, we’re tackling one of the big questions: What is the single best thing I can do for the planet?

We put this to half a dozen experts who shared their advice on how to be the best planetary citizen possible.

https://archive.ph/U3G0C

For those living in Asia and other parts of the world where big cities generally = bad to dangerously bad air, the idea of putting more stuff in the atmosphere because global warming sounds like an intuitively bad idea. That is before getting to the fact that there is no meaningful regulation of geoengineering, that there are serious questions as to whether the effects of any operations can be contained, and the standards for determining effectiveness versus harm. This like GMOs is on its way to become a great experiment upon the general public without consents or controls.

On top of that, the Israeli angle gives me the willies. Since this is a commercial operation, if any of its experiments actually do prove to be harmful, the odds seem high that those approaches would be repurposed as weapons. In fact, it’s almost certain that these applications would produce faster and greater profits than the climate-change-combatting geoengineering sort.

The world’s largest meat company, JBS, looks set to break its Amazon rainforest protection promises again, according to frontline workers.

Beef production is the primary driver of deforestation, as trees are cleared to raise cattle, and scientists warn this is pushing the Amazon close to a tipping point that would accelerate its shift from a carbon sink into a carbon emitter. JBS, the Brazil-headquartered multinational that dominates the Brazilian cattle market, promised to address this with a commitment to clean up its beef supply chain in the region by the end of 2025.

In a project to understand the barriers to progress on Amazon deforestation, a team of journalists from the Guardian, Unearthed and Repórter Brasil interviewed more than 35 people, including ranchers and ranching union leaders who represent thousands of farms in the states of Pará and Rondônia. The investigation found widespread disbelief that JBS would be able to complete the groundwork and hit its deforestation targets.

“They certainly have the will to do it, just as we have the will to do it,” said one rancher. But the goal that all the cattle they bought would be deforestation-free was unreachable, he said. “They say this is going to be implemented. I’d say straight away: that’s impossible.”

https://archive.ph/iS7pg

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/28679985

Am I the only one to be deeply depressed by the absurd behaviour of major powers (who would have thought?!).

All of that is seen through the prism of "economic opportunities" (🤮), as said in the video, sovereignty is just a bargain in the world free market.

But it goes beyond sovereignty and ideological concerns. If exploitation of Greenland soils (even if that is by locals) starts the environmental impact will be terrible, rare earth materials produce shit load of toxic radioactive water; to develop the infra for the extraction you would need an insane amount of energy and emit a lot of carbon in a world already burning.

We already breached 6 of the planetary boundaries and are heading for the seventh with ocean acidification, but powers in place are still using their limited neoliberalist behavioural capabilities to handle our world changes...

🤦

archived (Wayback Machine)

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/32656229

China recently approved the construction of the world’s largest hydropower dam, across the Yarlung Tsangpo river in Tibet. When fully up and running, it will be the world’s largest power plant – by some distance.

Yet many are worried the dam will displace local people and cause huge environmental disruption. This is particularly the case in the downstream nations of India and Bangladesh, where that same river is known as the Brahmaputra.

[...]

The Yarlung Tsangpo begins on the Tibetan Plateau, in a region sometimes referred to as the world’s third pole as its glaciers contain the largest stores of ice outside of the Arctic and Antarctica. A series of huge rivers tumble down from the plateau and spread across south and south-east Asia. Well over a billion people depend on them, from Pakistan to Vietnam.

Yet the region is already under immense stress as global warming melts glaciers and changes rainfall patterns. Reduced water flow in the dry season, coupled with sudden releases of water during monsoons, could intensify both water scarcity and flooding, endangering millions in India and Bangladesh.

The construction of large dams in the Himalayas has historically disrupted river flows, displaced people, destroyed fragile ecosystems and increased risks of floods. The Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Dam will likely be no exception.

[...]

Heavily polluted by nearby industries, scientists are using plants to decontaminate the soil around the sea.

archived (Wayback Machine):

• article
• research cited

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/20771863

archived (Wayback Machine)

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/20675754

archived (Wayback Machine)

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/20636883

This indirect use of palm oil is often overlooked in the zero-deforestation accounting process, despite its growing use, according to a report by U.S.-based advocacy group Rainforest Action Network (RAN). The report found that palm oil-based animal feed is now the single largest palm oil product category imported by the U.S., accounting for 36% of all palm oil imports into the country by weight.

archived article (Wayback Machine)

archived report from RAN (Wayback Machine)

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/19354588

A marine rewilding initiative to restore an underwater kelp forest in West Sussex is celebrating "remarkable" results, a wildlife trust has said.

The project was launched after the implementation of a new bylaw prohibiting trawling in a 117 sq mile (302 sq km) coastal area between Shoreham-by-Sea and Selsey in March 2021.

Celebrating its fourth anniversary, Sussex Kelp Recovery Project (SKRP) researchers have reported positive signs of recovery, including an increase in the populations of lobster, brown crab, angelshark and short-snouted seahorse.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/20534437

Thorn forest once blanketed the Rio Grande Valley. Restoring even a little of it could help the region cope with the impacts of climate change