Govt economic advisor warns British defence planners that growth is ending... and it's not just the U.K.

[Steven Schear]

The biofuel basis I mention doesn't use land biomass as input but only
solar (or other green energy) and the atmosphere.

On Fri, Jul 13, 2018, 10:20 AM jim bell <jdb10987 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I think the main hurdle to using biofuels is reducing the cost of enzymes
> used to break down cellulose.  ("cellulases").
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulase    Plenty of biomass is
> available, but it is necessary to break down cellulose.  That's hard,
> because nature has evolved cellulose to be very resistant to breakdown:
> (Why else can 1000+ year old trees exist; their central cellulose lasted
> that long without breaking down.)
>
>  This is first done by mechanical crushing, and then by breaking down some
> of the cellulose bonds employing inorganic acids, such as hydrochloric and
> sulfuric acid.  At that point, enzymes (organic catalysts) can be used to
> further break down the cellulose into simple sugars, which are then
> converted (by yeasts) to ethanol and other simple fuels.
> ×
>
> In other words, a lot of biochemistry.
>
>                     Jim Bell
>
>
>
> On Friday, July 13, 2018, 8:24:53 AM PDT, Steven Schear <
> schear.steve at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> >A possible alternative is to transition to biofuels, which harvest all
> their carbon from the atmosphere, and can be net carbon neutral.
>
> On Fri, Jul 13, 2018, 8:10 AM John Newman <jnn at synfin.org> wrote:
>
> On Fri, Jul 06, 2018 at 05:20:30PM +0000, jim bell wrote:
> >  This article sure sounds foolish.  As I see it, the main driver in the
> increase in "growth"  (other than population) is productivity.
> Productivity tends to be driven by gradual adoptions of automation, which
> has been a major factor for 50+ years, and actually far larger.  Automation
> isn't going away, and will only increase in effectiveness for decades
> > Energy is a factor, but society is well on its way to the widespread
> adoption of solar and wind energy.  Solar is useful in most locations, and
> wind will eventually be useable just about everywhere, 24 hours per day,
> with the use of low-resistance materials to conduct that energy, for
> example metallic carbon nanotubes.  (MCNTs).
> >             Jim Bell
> >
>
> Personally I wish the "progressive left" could get over its deep fear of
> nuclear energy, and we could build some modern reactors. Maybe when (if)
> they ever get a fusion reactor that can substain a reaction...
>
>
> https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/iter-nuclear-fusion-reactor-halfway-complete/
>
> Of course, solar and wind power is great :)  Anything to stop burning
> more fucking carbon..
>
> -
> John
>
>
> >
> >
> >
> >     On Friday, July 6, 2018, 9:15:13 AM PDT, Steven Schear <
> schear.steve at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >  "If we extrapolate this trend forward, labour productivity growth would
> reach zero by 2028."
> >
> https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/govt-economic-advisor-warns-british-defence-planners-that-growth-is-ending-abf806f17845
> >
>
> --
> GPG fingerprint: 17FD 615A D20D AFE8 B3E4  C9D2 E324 20BE D47A 78C7
>
>
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