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Hall of Famer [20518]
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Give people an engineering problem...
Oct 3, 2019, 5:43 PM
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...and it inevitably gets fixed.
The prototype mechanical worm that was designed to eat the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is apparently finally working. Which is pretty durn kewl.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/02/tech/ocean-cleanup-catching-plastic-scn-trnd/index.html
At some point these plastic-eating worms are going to be in every harbor, lake, and ocean in the world. And in keeping with the theme of the day...they will be automated.
Like I said, stuff like this is why I just don't understand climate-change denial. Yes, in a straight-line extrapolation, we're effed. But people - like the 25-year-old inventor of the Ocean Cleanup, Boyan Slat - can be clever little creatures, too, and we don't wanna burn up and die. Or live in Waterworld.
So we'll figure it out. As long as our heads are not in the sand, or up our butts. Which looks ridiculous, by the way.
Reduce carbon emissions? We can do that...and we can do that, IMHO, without going all crunchy-granola and leftist, we just need to develop some better tech like cleaner energy production and carbon-capture technology...all of which are more than attainable.
Just my .02 worth. The ironic part is, even as the old folks who allegedly run things are busy arguing about and politicizing environmental issues, kids like Slat are booming forth on their own and fixing it themselves.
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Hall of Famer [24694]
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Cool, but strictly for surface use... There is so, so much
Oct 3, 2019, 7:34 PM
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more already sunk... Just the same, it's a good start.
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Oculus Spirit [93609]
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No prob.
Oct 3, 2019, 11:10 PM
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The fish will eat it.
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110%er [6101]
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CU Guru [1596]
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### does that have to do with anything?
Oct 3, 2019, 11:59 PM
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You are an idiot.
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All-In [48078]
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Re: Just 10 rivers...and none are in the US
Oct 4, 2019, 7:12 AM
[ in reply to Just 10 rivers...and none are in the US ] |
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The Sun is tabloid news and not a reliable news source. That might be accurate and it sounds rationally believable, but The Sun isn't a source to post a link from.
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Oculus Spirit [93609]
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I hope Trump makes Mexico pay for it.***
Oct 3, 2019, 11:09 PM
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Legend [16646]
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The 'worm' is a solid idea
Oct 4, 2019, 5:56 AM
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But, the bashing of old to brag on the young is tiresome at best...disrespectful, for sure. Every old person you see was once young...and had a hand in what you see today...good or bad. The young, didn't get smart on their own...the 'old' gave them a helping hand.
Bottom line: get off the age bashing kick. It's worthless...it's a PITA and those who stand behind such 'beliefs', it's not a flattering position to take. Ideas come from all points on the age compass, but the ones that succeed, are the result of collaborative 'listening' and the pursuit to build upon and improve the 'idea'. The ones that fail, generally are the result of an 'ego' that wants 'glory' more than the result of the idea.
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Hall of Famer [20518]
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Re: The 'worm' is a solid idea
Oct 4, 2019, 7:04 AM
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But, the bashing of old to brag on the young is tiresome at best...disrespectful, for sure. Every old person you see was once young...and had a hand in what you see today...good or bad. The young, didn't get smart on their own...the 'old' gave them a helping hand.
Bottom line: get off the age bashing kick. It's worthless...it's a PITA and those who stand behind such 'beliefs', it's not a flattering position to take. Ideas come from all points on the age compass, but the ones that succeed, are the result of collaborative 'listening' and the pursuit to build upon and improve the 'idea'. The ones that fail, generally are the result of an 'ego' that wants 'glory' more than the result of the idea.
Friend, I'm not exactly a young man myself either anymore.
Again, though, look no further than the posts above and you will see prime examples of what I speak: our usual arch-conservatives herping and derping about how the garbage came from places other than the USA...like that matters. Does it make the Great Pacific Garbage Patch any smaller, or the problem any less pressing?
Slat didn't point fingers or debate whether or not cleaning up all that garbage was even possible. And make no mistake: that task is daunting, on the face of it: an ever-growing pile of garbage twice the size of Texas? No matter - just an engineering problem. And Slat came up with a viable fix, crowd-funded the durn thing, and voila, there's his proof of concept, floating around and solving the problem before our eyes. It's going to be a trivial thing for him to get the money together to get rid of the GPGP (and other smaller patches across the globe) now...he's shown his concept works.
He did that before he turned 25.
That's what's missing from all these proclamations of doom and gloom and global catastrophe: the human factor. Our ability to cause problems is exceeded only by our ability to come up with solutions.
And that is my point. These environmental issues are just one of the many gifts we Baby Boomers and Gen X'ers are bequeathing the younger generations...and while we're sitting here pointing fingers and debating whether these issues even exist, the younger generations are already rolling up their sleeves focusing on how they're going to fix those very same problems. Mind, a lot of their ideas are feel-good tripe and wholly impractical and sometimes just plain silly...but precisely because they're focused on the issue, they'll figure out something that works, too.
At the end of the day: CO2 in our atmosphere causing rising global temps? Just another engineering problem. How do we get rid of that CO2 before it does bad things we don't want to have happen?
Doesn't a significant chunk of Clemson University's educational curriculum equip young people to solve problems exactly like this? Where do you suppose the Boyan Slats of the world come from?
In the words of Heinlein, it's amazing how much "mature wisdom" can sometimes resemble being too tired.
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Legend [16646]
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You're missing my point...
Oct 4, 2019, 7:26 AM
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Every generation bequeaths...the good...the bad. And, in a lot of ways, 'bad' isn't bad...it simply hasn't been improved upon. And yet, once the improvement is made, too often it's "Oh, look what the young man/woman did!"...when in fact, what happened previously, let to that point. That's not to detract what's happened in the present...not at all. But, ignoring what came before...or belittling the effort...that's not good.
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