Bill McKibben is based.
Bro just ignoring all the ships we’ll need to carry all that wind and sunlight
Another way to look at it: the shipping industry will take a beating while everyone transitions.
If anyone is left wondering why there’s so much institutional resistance to changing our energy diet, its institutions like this that are lobbying and generating the propaganda behind it. Energy companies are just one faction.
Or they’d just ship something else? They’d lose some money and scrap a few ships, but the drop in costs would make it more economical to ship whatever else people want, like lumber and funko pops.
Good lord I hate Funko Pops. Them and Minions™ are are the false idols of consumerism.
Look, let me tell you something. A Minion died for you. A Minion paid the price of sin for you and me that we deserve. Why? Because they love you. And if you think Minions are a false idol, then keep on scrolling. But if you know that a Minion died for your sins, type ‘wonderful savior’ and smash that upvote button
Why don’t we just have one or two very big ships, powered by nuclear reactors. Like, 40-50 kilometers long each, with hydrofoils, top speed just under mach one. Zip around and deliver everyone’s shit with big deck-mounted gauss guns that fire packages right to your doorstep as the ship screams past the nearest coastline.
What if I live in the geographic center of a continent? How do I know which coastline cannon to order from?
You have me thinking of like… A ring around the equator with space elevators on it (with stations at the top), and “rail” tracks, with trains traveling between all the stations. Gaussian launchers sending packages to your nearest delivery depot.
Project Atlantis would be an excellent start. Not much in that for Europe though
It’s a ring around the Pacific rim, held aloft by centrifugal effects like a whirled billy
I haven’t had billy tea in too long
Believe it or not, that’s a feasible (ish) plan for a space elevator we could build right now. Instead of having a counterweight at GEO that’s pulling on a carbon nanotube rope, you have a ring spinning inside another ring in LEO. The outer ring could be made of Kevlar, and IIRC, it would take something like a year or two of all current Kevlar production. You then need four stations approximately equidistant apart around the equator to act as counterweights.
The station for the Pacific would itself be quite the engineering challenge. Not a lot of land you can use at the place you need.
Okay, trying to wrap my brain around this one at 4:15am.
Is the idea that a ring around earth basically floats there because it’s around the whole planet? Like, when it attempts to fall towards earth on one side, it would require it to move up on the other, away from gravity? So it’s perpetually falling towards earth, but balanced because it’s also falling in the opposite direction on the other side of the of the planet?
Or have I completely misunderstood?
Also, one of the videos mentioned it would need to be filled with something (I forget now), in a vacuum tube that ran its whole length… What happens if the vacuum tube gets a hole in it? Does the whole thing break apart and crash to earth?
I want the future they describe, but I can’t say that I understand it lol
Currently seeking angel investors for 500m buy-in, or I’ll take a 200kg of plutonium, if you’ve got that.
I don’t know about all of you, but I know I wouldn’t want to cross oceans without a good engine.
Storms are not cool. Not being in the age of sail anymore seems good.
Nuclear submarines already exist. Why not use that technology for shipping purposes?
But the point of this meme is that by reducing our use of coal and oil on land, our need for those ships would also dwindle.
Why would you pick a submarine for civil purposes? Just use a “normal” freighter and “slap” nuclear power on it.
(Ignoring the glaring issues from nuclear power on land that would be exacerbated at sea)
Ships can register any nation as their flag state, so they often choose flags of convenience based on whoever has the lowest fees or regulations – or more insidiously, whoever has the least ability to hold companies accountable.
This is why so many shipping companies register in Liberia, Panama, and the Marshall Islands. Also Mongolia, which is landlocked.
So unless we want to fill the oceans and ports with ships that have nuclear reactors with no regulation, no safety measures, and no accountability, we’re gonna have to fix the last hundred years of international maritime law.
You say that, but modern sail concepts are a thing and are already in place as hybrid shipping solutions. Boats require a LOT of energy to do their thing, so any savings translates to big numbers.
https://cinea.ec.europa.eu/news-events/news/new-wind-powered-cargo-ship-sets-sail-2023-08-22_en
Yes, I’m only bothered by the notion that we should ask sailors to start faffing with sails again. It was harder and more dangerous. It’s a good addition, but relying on it seems not worth it when we’ve gotten past it.
I’ve personally raised sails at sea, it’s not that hard. But going up into the mast, especially when the weather starts getting serious, is not something sailors should have to do again if they they don’t have to. It’s practically more suitable as an extreme sport. Human lives were just worth less back then.
But having them as efficiency assists, maybe even just sailing with the engine as a backup, that would be great.
The sails used by large ships now are rigid. They are angled by motors, they are depowered by being stalled
These ships can use wind to push them forward or rearward, accelerate or brake. They don’t need additional crew, they don’t need any specially trained crew
I don’t think this is about what’s powering the ships but rather their cargo.
But at least the ships need a non-renewable source. And they are going to need some of it in every country they visit. How do we get oil to every country if not by ship? That’s a lot of pipelines if we go that route. But maybe that is the answer.
But at least the ships need a non-renewable source.
Why would they? Seems like a solveable problem to me, most likely via green H2, but also with big ass batteries (most likely for shorter ranges at first).
We have to reach net 0 come what may, so there will have to be clean power in any port they visit at some point.
