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> > On Feb 1, 2010, at 3:45 PM, S. Artesian wrote: >> >> Fossil fuels provide 98% of the energy for transportation-- now we >> can >> certainly reduce that by knocking down the usage of automobiles-- >> but unless you envision mini-reactors, or solar-sails, on board >> every locomotive, every container ship, ever cargo plane, ever >> tractor-trailer, we are not going to eliminate fossil fuels in the >> near, and probably distant, future. > > > This is unduly pessimistic, because it doesn't consider the (since > 1937) unutilized transport technology of the past and the future: the > airship. But consider the degree of change in heavier-than-air > technology since 1937, and imagine for instance what modern aviation > technology (lightweight ultrastrong carbon-fiber materials for > example) offers to lighter-than-air ships. The (300m long) > Hindenburg's hydrogen unit had less than 700,000 cubic meters > displacement. A 500x125x125m cylindrical unit would have ten times as > much displacement and could achieve more than proportionally greater > lift even with its hydrogen at a much greater pressure. Several of > them would fit on every modern jet runway. The airships would be > driven by engines powered by fuel cells feeding on the ship's own > hydrogen (to be repressurized when necessary from fueling tanks at > each airport) as well as by solar cells on its upper surface during > daytime flights. The hydrogen would be produced through electrolysis > driven by local wind farms located relatively nearby, and by a massive > single-purpose wind farm located near the primary manufacturing > facility (a factory on the scale of River Run, which fortuitously is > entirely disposable for such a purpose!). > > The gondolas of the airships could carry 1,000 or more tons (the > Hindenburg supported 90). A gondola one/fifth the length of the > airship could carry 500 passengers and crew with 6 m.sq. (65 square > feet) per person--the change would be from traveling in a sardine can > to traveling in a spacious lounge (of course all the components of an > airship are scalable, so they can be almost as small or large as > desired). A dirigible undoubtedly will fly much less fast than a > jumbo jet but the stress on every passenger would be less by an even > greater magnitude (and in the age of the internet--that is right now-- > who except a contract killer or the child of a dying parent really > *needs* to get from Moscow to Los Angeles inside of one day?) And as > with passengers, likewise with freight. > > So everything needed for medium and long distance transport can be > supplied with no absolutely no need for fossil fuel or nuclear power > at all. And since automobiles and trucks can all be made electric > (hydrogen fuel cells and batteries charged with wind-farm electricity) > the residual share of fossil and nuclear fuel in transportation would > eventually look like 2, not 98 percent. > > Is this futurism a utopia? Of course, *exactly* as much a utopia as > socialism itself. Because capitalism of any sort will never make the > massive investment needed, nor will it write off the humungous amount > of capital now invested in the--obsolescent--transportation > industries. > > But I do dream of the day when the first of the great airships > (called, of course, the Humanity) makes its maiden round-the-world > voyage and people everywhere look up and exclaim Oh! the Humanity! > > > > Shane Mage > >> This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it >> always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire, >> kindling in measures and going out in measures." >> >> Herakleitos of Ephesos >> > > > > > ________________________________________________ > Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu > Set your options at: > http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/shmage%40pipeline.com Shane Mage Shane Mage > This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it > always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire, > kindling in measures and going out in measures." > > Herakleitos of Ephesos > > > > > > > > > > "L'après-vie, c'est une auberge espagnole. L'on n'y trouve que ce qu'on y a apporté." Bardo Thodol > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
