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A vast supertanker, plying the world's oceans, delivering immense quantities of global-warming-producing oil, but with the ironic twist that the supertanker itself is carbon neutral. Its deck will be covered in about a metre or two of soil and thickly planted with trees - if 10 big trees are burnt per
day in the steam engine which drives the supertanker and the trees take 20 years to reach maturity, then about 70,000 trees are needed. If they're spaced 5 metres apart, then a deck 250 metres by 7000 metres will do (Hmm, that's quite big - maybe this ship should just rely on refuelling at forests it plants at strategic points around the world - not nearly so much fun though..)
Like this, but with a forest on top
http://www.popularm...tation/1289186.html
[hippo, Mar 12 2007]
C4's flawed "documentary"
http://news.indepen.../article2347526.ece
...there may be trouble ahead... (sung to a familiar tune) [xenzag, Mar 12 2007]
C4's controversial Documentary
http://www.channel4..._swindle/index.html
Unfortunately the site doesn't list many of the points raised by the programme. [zen_tom, Mar 12 2007]
Overbaked
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/overbaked/
A Yahoo group where off-topic stuff can sometimes end up... [zen_tom, Mar 12 2007]
C4 documentary
http://www.guardian.../0,,2032571,00.html
George Monbiot response [hippo, Mar 13 2007]
Ideal fuel trees
http://www.unep.org...ArticleID=4845&l=en
I suggest we start by planting a small grove of combustible Bois Dentelle, and maybe a stand of Wollemi pine - resinous and fast-burning. [MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 14 2007]
Will Ferrell as Bush on Global Warming
http://www.youtube....watch?v=b1wogkDmLlQ
[imaginality, Mar 14 2007]
A Return to the Age of Sail?
http://www.worldcha...rchives/001706.html
[piwoslaw, Sep 18 2008]
Sail-powered cargo ship test
http://news.cnet.co...8_3-9898347-54.html
[piwoslaw, Sep 18 2008]
See the picture at the bottom of the page
http://www.geekolog...2008/09/post_54.php
[hippo, Sep 19 2008]
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Annotation:
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Great idea - a floating island. |
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Not to hijack the idea - but did anyone see that C4 documentary the other week called "The Great Global Warming Swindle"? I found some of the arguments very persuasive and am not quite so sure what to think now (having been a staunch pro CO2 neutralist before) |
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I'll take it to overbaked. |
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[zen_tom], can you link it if you have taken it to overbaked? |
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C4 are now in trouble over that
"documentary" .....see yesterday's
Independant on Sunday. (in link) |
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A bun for covering the surface with trees, A bone for burning them all. |
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hippo - you might want to look at the
illustrations of Bruce McCall sometime if
you don't already know them. He has done
some seriously large ships in his
wonderful book of images "Zany
Afternoons" (+) for your own idea by the
way. |
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[xenzag] Nice illustrations
[zen] Useful rebuttal of the C4 thing in the Grauniad (link) |
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To add to the irony, one should
presumably grow only critically
endangered tree species on the boat, for
combustion. |
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The onboard forest would, therefore,
represent a uniquely valuable ecological
resource, created and maintained (in a
state of flux) only in order to be destroyed. |
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They'd want to be some well hardy trees, to cope with being grown upon the open seas, as well as traversing so many different climatic zones. |
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This would be a wonderful system for a completely non-ironic floating city. |
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A large sailing boat, carrying a small quantity of oil would be a way to bake this in the interim while waiting for the trees to reach maturity on the full-size tanker. |
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If the ship were really that large, it might make more sense to cover the deck with cargo, eliminating a number of other ships plying the seas. The reduction in traffic might pay for the super-duper tanker. |
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The trees on the deck might make the tanker more tippy during a storm. The largest problem I see is: Where to get enough fresh water for the trees? The trees won't grow on salt water, while evaporative distilling will strip the water of any nutrients, minerals and other micro-elements the trees need. |
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[david_scothern]: //A large sailing boat, carrying a small quantity of oil would be a way to bake this in the interim while waiting for the trees to reach maturity on the full-size tanker.// |
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Recently a few cargo ships have started experimenting with small sails, actually more like kites, attached to the bow. It's supposed to give up to 20% fuel savings at practically no cost. See links. |
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Mangroves will grow in salt water. |
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Container ships could have solar photo voltaic panels
installed on all of the top layer containers. |
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The newest MAERSK ships have 2 x 6 Mwatt auxiliry
control/manouvering drive engines anyway,.. |
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