IEEE Spectrum July, 2007 - 3

FORUM
"Noonewantstotalk
aboutseriousCO2
control,because
itwouldaffectour
lifestylesandpossiblyevenshiftglobal
wealthandpower"
-JohnJ.Christiano
CONTROL CO2-
NOT CLIMATE

I found William B. Gail's article ["Climate Control," May]
interesting and at the same
time frustrating. It is another
example of us technologists
overengineering a solution. I
was gratified by Gail's acquiescence on the causes of global
warming-basically, "We have
met the enemy and he is us."
But his nine ways to cool the
planet amount to closing the
barn door after the horse has
bolted. And the costs associated with most of those solutions would be astronomical
and never ending.
Attempting to take control
of Earth's weather-or even
to influence it-is frightening.
Suppose we succeeded. Then,
as managers of the biosphere,
we would decide who gets the
rain and which species would
be left to die. And don't think
for a minute that those decisions wouldn't be made based
on political or military goals.
The problem with finding
ways to get rid of carbon dioxide is that the solutions make
it acceptable to keep producing
it. And that has the same logic
as continuing to eat fat juicy
steaks and burgers because we
have Lipitor. No one wants to
talk about serious CO2 control,
because it would affect our
lifestyles and possibly even
shift global wealth and power.

	

And yet on almost every
cont i nent t here a re vast
expanses of empty desert that
could be adapted for solar
power. Meanwhile, Europe and
the Americas are covered with
energy-inefficient buildings.
Our vehicles burn far more fuel
than they need to. And, finally,
better nuclear-power options,
including fusion energy, are
not being given the R&D support they deserve.
John	J.	Christiano
IEEE	Member
Franklin,	N.J.
The geoengineering vision
offered in the article is seductively plausible, because we can
now monitor Earth systems, and
it is tempting, because humans
must respond in some way to
climate change. This vision is
also completely inappropriate, because the major challenges are political and social,
not scientific or technological.
Any regime capable of implementing trillion-dollar space
shields or stratospheric dust
layers could much more easily
manage the whole problem with
prosaic improvements to such
metrics as automotive miles
per gallon, lighting lumens per
watt, commercial energy carbon intensity, and coastal landuse regulations.

Clinton	J.	Andrews
IEEE	Senior	Member
Highland	Park,	N.J.

IEEE	Spectrum	|	July	2007	|	NA		

A FLAP OVER FLYING

The cover of the May 2007 issue
asks, "Would you fly on an aircraft that flapped its wings?"
["Fly Like a Bird"]. I have to
respond: been there; done that;
won't do it again!
In December 2000 I was flying from Toronto to Chicago
on an A ir Canada A irbus
A-340. As usual, I was in my
preferred seat, right behind
the wings where, as an aerospace engineer, I could watch
and appreciate the control
surface movements. When
we approached the destination
airport and the pilot deployed
the flaps, I was shocked to
see them oscillate in torsion
like a flag waving in the wind.
I made a point of being the
last person off the aircraft so
I could mention this to the
flight crew.
Their response was that
this was "normal" and nothing
to worry about. My comeback
was that when I am f lying
onboard a commercial airplane
I want the word "flap" to be a
noun and not a verb!

Andy	Lanouette
IEEE	Member
Appleton,	Wis.	

HIGH ON
HYDROPOWER

My compliments on "Thirst for
Power" by G. Pascal Zachary
[May]. Finally someone in the
IEEE organization has seen the

merits of hydropower, especially small hydropower.
I was the senior electrical
engineer on over 10 U.S. hydroelectric projects with output of
less than 15 megawatts and on
15 to 20 non-U.S. projects with
output below 50 MW. Most of
the smaller hydro projects
were built on existing waterways such as irrigation canals,
municipal waterways, rivers,
and so on. I have always marveled at the small footprint
and short construction schedule for a small hydro project-
and the joy it brings to the
surrounding community.
One f i na l note: i n the
United States, there are over
80 000 existing dams utilized
for flood control, navigation,
municipal water supplies, and
the like, but only 3 percent of
these dams have hydroelectric
power generation associated
with them, according to an
article in the magazine Hydro
Review [September 2006]. At
least 20 000 of these dams
could be utilized to produce
electrical energy.
This means that the United
States could easily increase
the present renewable hydroelectric power generation (zero
emissions) by over 30 000 MW
without building any new
dams if some type of federal
impetus and energy focused
on it.
David	M.	Clemen
IEEE	Senior	Member
Western	Springs,	Ill.

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum July, 2007
