Jeff Davis wrote:
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> >Like you I am not sure why there is so little effort in this area. I suppose for most people this goal is still to far out to be considered realistic. Others have suggested that it would not be to the advantage of a company, but I don't believe that to be correct. The trick is to define intermediate goals that don't have this all or nothing flavor.
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> >Klaus Lackner
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> I can't shake the irksome feeling that shortly, someone with the vision and indomitable drive of a Bill Gates will seize this opportunity and make it into a reality, and I will be left thinking, "That could have been me."
>
My question is more environmental. What is the albedo of an Arizona sized solar power plant, compared to the wild saharan terrain? The Sahara Desert is the largest fast injector of heat into the earth's atmosphere, the whole North Atlantic weather system is dependent on it far more than the El Nino phenomenon. If we increase or decrease in a big way the amount of heat being put into the atmosphere at that point, what is the effect that is going to have on the weather? If it cools by reflecting more light back into space, this could possibly be a good thing to counteract global warming. But if it absorbs more light than normal sand and radiates this energy as heat, we could have some serious problems with this concept.
Mike Lorrey