

Ask YC: How will you solve the problem of climate change? - moog

Don't ask me
======
Alex3917
There is something like a 90% chance of getting a cap-and-trade system passed
within the next two months. McCain-Warner is going up for vote in a couple of
months, and if it passes then Bush is going to be under a lot of pressure to
sign it since A) McCain is the Republican nominee and B) both Obama and Cinton
have their own versions of a cap-and-trade system. This bill isn't perfect,
but it's a pretty good start toward fixing the problem. If it doesn't get
passed in two months then almost certainly it will in another year, or failing
that, Obama's bill will.

It's gotten to the point where even many of the major industrial companies in
the US support a cap-and-trade system. Risk costs serious money for
entrepreneurs. When taking out a loan on these billion-dollar power plants
their weighted average cost of capital goes up a lot since they know there are
going to be new rules in place but they don't know what the rules will be.
It's actually better for these companies to get the rules in place ASAP
because their cost of capital goes down so they get a much better return on
their investments. That's partially why Duke and Alcoa and Caterpillar and
Dupont and all these companies are lobbying for cap-and-trade.

I think we are going to see more progress on this issue than anyone can
possibly imagine within the next couple of years. Once a cap-and-trade system
is put in place, expect solar photovoltaic to achieve price parity with coal
within 24 months.

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Prrometheus
With a solution that passes a cost-benefit analysis. None of the most popular
proposals do. Seriously.

~~~
davidbirk
Efficient markets will weed out ideas that fail this analysis in time.

Incentives like the Automotive X-Prize will accelerate this process, leading
to solutions that are smart for the planet and smart investments, too.

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DaniFong
Help make the most enjoyable kind of life less dependent on stuff, space and
transport by returning centeredness to urban existence.

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gscott
I believe the single biggest problem is that planes fligh so high they are
burning Ozone which has 2 parts oxygen rather then flying lower. Since the
engines run better burning ozone rather then just plain oxygen that we breath
they save money flying higher and will keep doing so.

[http://space.newscientist.com/article/mg14219232.100-saving-...](http://space.newscientist.com/article/mg14219232.100-saving-
ozone-with-a-nogo-zone-jumbo-jets-are-spending-moretime-in-the-stratosphere-
than-previously-realised-and-their-emissions-aredamaging-the-ozone-layer-
should-flights-in-the-stratosphere-be-banned.html)

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gaika
The one that is caused by aliens? ([http://www.crichton-official.com/speech-
alienscauseglobalwar...](http://www.crichton-official.com/speech-
alienscauseglobalwarming.html))

Learn, ignore politics, care about real issues that affect you and people that
you know.

------
Retric
Paint all roads white.

~~~
xirium
Major urban areas, such as London, can be three degrees centigrade warmer than
the surrounding region partly due to dark synthetic surfaces which absorb
extra energy. Dark tarmac roads cover a significant proportion of urban areas
and therefore contribute significantly to this effect.

------
auferstehung
Wait around for the end of the current interglacial period?

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interglacial>

------
davidbirk
Global warming will be defeated by incremental increases in efficiency across
the board.... think of it as the death of a thousand cuts.

Everything from better internal combustion engines, electric motors, improved
solar energy technology, carbon capture to my affliction, aerodynamic drag,
will make “small” but significant progress.

Combined, those incremental advances will add up to a serious threat to the
threat of climate change.

------
c1sc0
Massive decrease of earth's human population. Biological, Nuclear or Nano,
pick your delivery method ... Stop worrying and learn to love the extinction
event.

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dmoo
Just thinking, we are told oil, gas etc. are running out and also that these
items are causing global warming. Now I reckon that all the economical carbon
in fossil fuels is going to be used up and is going into the atmosphere anyway
so is it not just a question of timing?

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patrickg-zill
If you mean "global warming", don't worry, it will be discredited soon enough,
(for those who don't already know it is a pile of crap, and I mean that in the
most rigorous mathematical sense).

I don't fear "climate change" as in most temperate zones climate changes every
6 months, just as it has for thousands of years.

~~~
simianstyle
How do you discredit global warming mathematically?

~~~
patrickg-zill
You examine the current mathematical climate models and determine their
limitations in terms of available CPU power, RAM, disk on even the largest
supercomputers.

Then you take into account the lack of any accurate model at all being
available for the operation of the seas and oceans - we don't have an accurate
mathematical model for even the Gulf Stream, for instance; much less the rest
of the world.

Then you realize that all prediction models are so error-prone due to the
above that they cannot be relied upon with a reasonable degree of certainty.

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TrevorJ
As a resident of one of our lovely northern states recently digging out of a
cold winter into a colder spring, my only concern is that by the time it gets
notably warmer , I'll be long dead.

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darjen
How will I solve it? Persuade the government to force every citizen to live in
grass huts and ride horses to work. Or electric scooters.

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dangoldin
Fly ice in from asteroids and dump them in the ocean. And they say you don't
learn anything from television.

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Tichy
Number crunching with Google Earth to find the best places to be in in the
future.

~~~
nazgulnarsil
why is this getting voted down? I think speculating on which real estate is
going to be the future tropical beaches is valid.

------
techbusiness
what climate problem?

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inklesspen
Ice cubes. Lots of them.

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mpc
The singularity and nanobots will take care of that for us.

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dkokelley
Solve it? Why do that when we could ignore it and go away?

<http://www.google.com/virgle/index.html>

 _Note: This is an April Fool's Joke._

