Suggested Discussion Outline

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johnkarls
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Suggested Discussion Outline

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Suggested Discussion Outline


The following outline is respectfully suggested –


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Section A: Comments About Bill Gates’ “How To Avoid A Climate Disaster – The Solutions We Have and The Breakthroughs We Need”

Our tradition is to devote the first portion of each monthly meeting to going through the focus book, chapter by chapter, to invite important comments that are specific to a particular chapter. After all, each participant (except, perhaps “first timers”) have taken the time to read the focus book and her/his opportunity to opine on anything in the focus book should NOT be denied.

Introduction: 51 Billion to Zero

Chapter 1: Why Zero?

Chapter 2: This Will Be Hard

Chapter 3: Five Questions to Ask in Every Climate Conversation

Chapter 4: How We Plug In

Chapter 5: How We Make Things

Chapter 6: How We Grow Things

Chapter 7: How We Get Around

Chapter 8: How We Keep Cool and Stay Warm

Chapter 9: Adapting to a Warmer World

Chapter 10: Why Government Policies Matter

Chapter 11: A Plan for Getting to Zero

Chapter 12: What Each of Us Can Do

Afterword: Climate Change and COVID-19


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Section B: Do You Favor Invading Militarily Any Country That Refuses To Combat Global Warming – Such As China Which Brings On Line A New Monster-Size Coal-Fired Electric-Generation Plant Every Week

B-1. This is the question with which we have begun every meeting over our 15.5 years on Global Warming (aka Climate Change) – BTW, in all of those meetings, not one participant has raised her/his hand.

B-2. Does this mean, as a practical matter, that a carbon-free energy source that is CHEAPER than oil & gas is needed, so that every country will adopt it in their own economic self-interest, rather than as a result of military action for which nobody has the stomach?

B-3. The Paris Climate Accord exempts the world’s two largest carbon polluters, China and India, from taking any action until 2030!!!

B-4. The Kyoto Protocol of 1997 also exempted China and India until 2030 even though our chief negotiator, Vice President Al Gore, had been instructed by a 95-0 vote in the U.S. Senate NOT to agree to anything (A) that would adversely affect the U.S. standard of living, or (B) THAT WOULD EXEMPT CHINA OR INDIA.

B-5. Vice President Al Gore promptly defied the U.S. Senate on both counts which is why Bill Clinton never submitted the Kyoto Protocol to the U.S. Senate for ratification by a 2/3 vote as required by the U.S. Constitution.


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Section C: Clean Energy Sources and Whether They Are Cheaper Than Oil & Gas

C-1. Hydroelectric dams – cheaper but severely limited vis-à-vis total worldwide energy demand because the world has only a limited number of rivers.

C-2. Solar and wind – neither has ever been cheaper than oil & gas meaning that governmental subsidies and/or mandates are required for them to displace oil & gas (and, for solving global warming, engaging in military action).

C-3. Hydrogen – the 8/19/2019 announcement of Proton Technologies at the Goldschmidt Conference that they had invented (and obtained patents for) a method of obtaining vast amounts of hydrogen economically by injecting oxygen into reservoirs of heavy oil and tar sands and into coal seams in order to separate the hydrogen from the oil/tar/coal thereby enabling the hydrogen to float to the surface through hydrogen filters that will trap behind all remaining material including carbon for sequestration in situ.

• Our calculations indicate the Proton Technologies method of producing hydrogen is approximately 50% of the cost of oil & gas products with an equivalent amount of energy.
• On 11/13/2019 we launched one of our Six-Degrees-Of-Separation E-mail campaigns to the Assistant U.N. Secretary General for UNEP and also to the Director General of the UN’s Worldwide Intellectual Property Organization entitled “Saving Global-Warming Solution From Being Killed.”
• The point of our 11/12/2019 e-mail campaign was that there are zillions of owners of oil & gas (think Saudi Arabia) that might like to kill the new hydrogen technology and that could offer Proton Technologies (or its shareholders in a corporate takeover) much more than they could hope to earn from deploying the hydrogen technology – but would be a “drop in the bucket” from the viewpoint of a Saudi Arabia in preserving the profitability of its tremendous oil & gas reserves.
• Bill Gates is ignorant of the Proton Technologies technology even though it was announced 18 months before his book was published – his book still claims that the only way of obtaining hydrogen is electrolysis of water which is incredibly expensive!!!

C-4. Nuclear – WHICH HAS ALWAYS BEEN LESS EXPENSIVE THAN OIL & GAS

• Oil & gas producers have been able to combat nuclear by preying on the public’s fear of nuclear – for which, in large part, we have to thank Jane Fonda and Michael Doulas for their 1979 Hollywood blockbuster movie “China Syndrome”!!!
• The only 3 significant nuclear accidents in the world’s 76-year nuclear history have been the result of unpardonable human actions (please see the discussion of Three-Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima Daichi in Q&A B-3-D of the Second Short Quiz available at viewtopic.php?f=638&t=2055&sid=623e2aa8 ... ef69b2a28e).
• Bill Gates is an unabashed supporter of nuclear energy and he was the “moving force” behind the 1/14/2019 enactment of the “Nuclear Energy and Modernization Act” and the 3/27/2019 introduction of the “Nuclear Energy Leadership Act” – both supported by a bipartisan group of Senate leaders including two Presidential candidates – Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO).
• HOWEVER, Bill Gates is a “johnny come lately” to Global Warming (aka Climate Change) and, INEXPLICABLY, supports uranium-fission rather than thorium-fission despite the latter’s long list of advantages over uranium-fission such as thorium’s inability to explode and such as thorium’s vast amounts of cheap supply (e.g., India’s “sand” beaches comprise thorium) – (please see the long list of thorium advantages, vs. NO DISADVANTAGES, available in Q&A B-3-G of the Second Short Quiz available at viewtopic.php?f=638&t=2055&sid=623e2aa8 ... ef69b2a28e).
• BTW, the earth itself is a giant thorium-fission nuclear reactor which is why the earth’s core is 7,000 degrees Fahrenheit which is hotter than the sun’s surface and which is why molten lava billows out of any fissure in the earth’s thin surface.

C-5. Harvard U’s Proposal To Seed The Earth’s Atmosphere

• It is well known that large volcanic eruptions will throw into the atmosphere gases and dust particles whose shading of incoming solar radiation can cool the earth for months and even years.
• This has caused some wags to remark (however, true) that Global Warming can be solved by occasional, small nuclear wars which, of course, will be much more likely if a nuclear-arms race occurs between “The World’s Greatest ‘State Sponsor of Terrorism’” (The U.S. State Department’s long-standing legally-required description of Iran) and “The Gulf Cooperation Council” (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, The United Arab Emirates, and Oman).
• In a similar vein, Harvard University has proposed seeding the earth’s atmosphere with various substances to achieve the same effect as volcanic eruptions or small nuclear wars – as featured in an interview of Harvard’s David W. Keith (Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics at Harvard’s Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science (aka SEAS) and a Professor of Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government) by the PBS Newshour’s anchor and managing editor, Judy Woodruff https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/as-pl ... pheric-co2.
• Judy Woodruff was apparently so “star struck” by the claim of Harvard University that seeding the earth’s atmosphere COULD BE IMPLEMENTED IMMEDIATELY and COULD SOLVE GLOBAL WARMING COMPLETELY like a thermostat that could cool the earth’s temperature to any desired level – that she failed to ask the Harvard Professor the obvious question of whether Harvard’s “world thermostat” could be adjusted back upwards again if desired/necessary.
• For example, what if Pres. Biden succeeds in groveling his way back into the Iran Nuclear Deal which has always guaranteed Iran nuclear weapons by 2030, as a result of which the “Gulf Cooperation Council” (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, The United Arab Emirates and Oman), as widely expected, goes nuclear with weapons from Pakistan, North Korea or a variety of “black market” sources – resulting, as widely feared, in a nuclear war requiring the “world thermostat” to be adjusted back upwards again because of all the particles put into the earth’s atmosphere by the nuclear explosions???
• Yes, following the nuclear holocaust caused by The Iran Nuclear Deal and the massive “global cooling” caused by that nuclear holocaust, it might be nice to be able to turn up the “world thermostat”!!!
• And Judy Woodruff was also apparently so “star struck” that she failed to ask the Harvard Professor the obvious question of whether some of the world’s nations would object to seeding the earth’s atmosphere, perhaps leading to military conflict.
• After all, The Russian Federation refused to ratify The Kyoto Protocol for many years because Global Warming would increase Siberia’s growing season -- until the European Union finally agreed to subsidize Russia’s economic loss. [BTW, The Russian Federation’s ratification was necessary to achieve the minimum number of country ratifications to bring the Kyoto Protocol into effect.]
• Bill Gates appears to be ignorant of the Harvard approach.


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Section D: The Reasons For Concern About Global Warming (aka Climate Change)

This section may seem misplaced.

HOWEVER, it was necessary to first frame the discussion in terms of what is needed in terms of a carbon-free energy source that is CHEAPER than oil & gas, and then to review the existing carbon-free energy sources vis-à-vis whether they are cheaper.

D-1. Sea-level rises and whether this is better addressed by Dutch-style dykes for the areas that are threatened even if the world’s oceans rise by a few feet.

D-2. The earth’s “Sixth Extinction” by Elizabeth Kolbert which documents that the earth is currently in the middle of its sixth extinction in the last 500 million years in which as many as 50% of the world’s species are becoming extinct and this extinction is caused almost wholly by human activity.

NB: At our 1/13/2016 meeting focusing on Elizabeth Kolbert book, the U/Utah’s Radiology Research Professor and the retired U.S. Air Force Doctor who had headed the medical staff at the U.S. Defense Department’s Regional Medical Center at Landstuhl Germany, the first hospital to which wounded American service personnel in the Middle East have been taken since Gulf War I (1990-91), both informed Yours Truly that WE SHOULD NOT LAMENT THE LOSS OF 50% OF THE WORLD’S SPECIES because, contrary to what I thought, when a pandemic hits, Big Pharma does NOT BOTHER to ascertain whether the species causing the pandemic had been held in check by another species that had become extinct in order to ascertain what there was about the checking species that kept the fatal-to-human species in check.

Both said that medical research is limited to Big Pharma reviewing their current roster of cures for other diseases to ascertain which of them would be effective against the new threat.

BTW, neither offered any other reason to lament the loss of 50% of the earth’s species.

D-3. Global warming rendering vast areas of the earth uninhabitable deserts that can no longer support farming, etc., causing mass migrations that can NOT be stemmed unless governments are willing to close their borders and watch millions of human beings perish on their doorsteps.

NB: This bears no relationship to the current crisis on America’s southern border which has little or nothing to do with the areas from which the migrants are coming, having become uninhabitable deserts.

QUERY HOW WATCHING MILLIONS OF HUMAN BEINGS PERISH ON YOUR NATION’S DOORSTEP COMPORTS WITH THE JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN COMMANDMENT TO “LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF”??? [BTW, when Christ says this commandment is one of the TWO commandments for “inheriting eternal life,” Christ immediately tells the story of the Good Samaritan to drive home the point that EVERY HUMAN BEING is your neighbor!!!]

D-4. Other Reasons For Concern About Global Warming (aka Climate Change)???

• Q&A B-6 of the First Short Quiz noted that there is a plethora of RELATIVELY-UNIMPORTANT reasons offered for such concern.
• HOWEVER, Q&A B-6 respectfully suggested that if any RSVP-er wants to discuss one or more of them at our May 12 meeting, s/he post a “reply” that identifies the relatively-unimportant reason(s) and that explains why it/they are worth addressing in a meeting that only lasts 120 minutes. No such reply has been posted to date. As a courtesy to other RSVP-ers, it is respectfully suggested that any such postings (A) take the form of a reply to this Suggested Discussion Outline, AND (B) that the reply be posted at least 24 hours before our meeting this coming Wed evening May 12.


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Section E: Exploding Population Growth

Most Global Warming (aka Climate Change) activists do NOT recognize the underlying dynamics of how the problem is caused by exploding population growth.

And would probably recoil in horror from the thought that population growth will continue to explode -- and what can/should be done to curtail population growth.

And perhaps even reduce the earth’s human population.

Which may be the unspoken but “real politik” reason for Pres. Biden groveling his way back into the Iran Nuclear Deal which guarantees nuclear weapons by 2030 to the world’s “greatest sponsor of state terrorism” (a legally-required designation that the U.S. State Department has given to Iran every year since 1984) – which experts believe will cause “The Gulf State Six” (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, The United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman) to immediately go nuclear and will inevitably lead to a nuclear holocaust in the Middle East.

E-1. Malthusian Economics -- Thomas Robert Malthus’ famous 1798 “Essay on the Principle of Population” posited that the earth was only capable of supporting a finite human population.

E-2. BTW, the world’s population has grown from 0.8 billion in 1798 to 7.9 billion today.

E-3. Without a nod to Malthus, Bill Gates posits that global warming is due to the massive amount of carbon in the earth’s atmosphere -- much, if not most, of which is the result of the world’s mushrooming human population which has now passing through 8 billion.

E-4. All those 8 billion human beings are all breathing in oxygen and breathing out carbon dioxide. Not to mention the methane (CH4) in their flatulence.

E-5. And all the animal herds that have been created to help feed those 8 billion human beings are also breathing in oxygen and breathing out carbon dioxide. Not to mention the methane (CH4) in their flatulence.

E-6. And what about all those forests and plains containing all those plants that could help absorb the atmosphere’s carbon molecules and convert them back to oxygen (6CO2 + 6H2O > C6H12O6 + 6O2)? Haven’t they been destroyed in large part to make way for farms whose plants are destroyed as they are consumed by human beings and their animal herds – rather than left intact to balance the carbon in the earth’s atmosphere?

NB: Thank God that the Amazon Rain Forest has such a thin layer of soil that it has not long since been destroyed to make way for farming!!!

E-7. After recognizing that much, if not most, of the carbon in the earth’s atmosphere is the result of mushrooming human-population growth, does Bill Gates recognize that the earth’s human population is likely to continue to mushroom? And what that means?

E-8. Whether or not Bill Gates recognizes and has a solution to the problem of exploding population growth, our organization long-since recognized that thorium-fueled nuclear reactors can solve the problem.

E-9. After all, plants use their chlorophyll (the green in plant leaves, etc.) TO USE SOLAR POWER in order to convert carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and sugar (6CO2 + 6H2O > C6H12O6 + 6O2) – which is the energy that animals access in breathing oxygen to burn the sugar, creating carbon dioxide in the exact reverse chemical reaction (C6H12O6 + 6O2 > 6CO2 + 6H2O).

E-10. Accordingly, nuclear energy, say from small thorium-fission reactors, should be able to SUBSTITUTE FOR SOLAR POWER in driving that chlorophyll-photosynthesis reaction (6CO2 + 6H2O > C6H12O6 + 6O2) in a food-production factory - making conventional farms obsolete.

NB: It should not be that difficult to ascertain what there is about chlorophyll (since it consists of chemicals) that enables it to harness light to drive the chemical reaction 6CO2 + 6H2O > C6H12O6 + 6O2.

E-11. There should be no limit to the amount of carbon dioxide that could be removed in this fashion from the earth’s atmosphere!!! [Though wiseacres may point out that we are limited by the amount of CO2 that exists in the earth’s atmosphere.]

E-12. So like the Harvard approach of seeding the earth’s atmosphere to comprise a “world thermostat” that can turn down the temperature of the earth’s atmosphere to any desired level, nuclear-powered food factories that remove carbon from the earth’s atmosphere should be able to do the same thing.

E-13. And if the PBS Newhour’s Judy Woodruff is not “asleep at the switch” when she interviews us, we are ready to tell her that our method of reducing carbon in the earth’s atmosphere is readily curtailed/reversed if desirable/necessary.

NB: After all, the output of our carbon-reduction (food producing) factories be easily be reduced.

And if all of the output of our carbon-reduction (food producing) factories isn’t needed for human-population growth, would it be so tragic if all the excess sugar that has to be produced to cool the earth’s temperature, had to be stored in a manner that would not adversely affect the environment?

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