carbon mitigation

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Getting (A Lot) More Done Per CO2 Molecule

August 19, 2008 in carbon mitigation, consumption, energy efficiency by nils | Add your comment

CIA World Factbook 2007 figures of total nomin...Image via Wikipedia

According to a McKinsey Global Institute report released at the end of July, the world economy will have to improve its "carbon productivity" - the amount of gross domestic product (GDP) created per unit of CO2 - by a factor of ten by 2050 to stop global climate change in its tracks while continuing to enable a healthy level of growth. The report predicts that the cost of this transformation will amount to 0.6% - 1.3% of global GDP by 2030. They note that this compares favorably to the cost of insurance born by economies, which amounts to more than 3% of GDP.

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Carbon Mitigation Through Carbon Fiber?

August 18, 2008 in carbon mitigation, transportation by nils | Add your comment

A cloth of woven carbon filamentsImage via Wikipedia

Here's an idea - let's just suck the excess CO2 out of the atmosphere and turn it into carbon fiber to build superlight cars! These superlight cars would significantly reduce our demand for gasoline in the short term, and enable a right-sized hydrogen-based transportation fuel economy in the long term! Sounds great, right? But it's a pipe dream right now - today carbon fiber is made from PolyAcryloNitrile (PAN), which is made from petroleum, and it's an expensive and time-consuming process to make the fiber, and to make automobile parts from it.

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