Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 08/10/2009 10:14:57 AM PDT by neverdem
German carbon capture plan appears to be a victim of 'numbyism' - not under my backyard
It was meant to be the world's first demonstration of a technology that could help save the planet from global warming – a project intended to capture emissions from a coal-fired power station and bury them safely underground.
But the German carbon capture plan has ended with CO2 being pumped directly into the atmosphere, following local opposition at it being stored underground.
The scheme appears a victim of "numbyism" – not under my backyard.
Opposition to the carbon capture plan has contributed to a growing public backlash against renewable energy projects, raising fears that Europe will struggle to meet its low-carbon commitments. Last week, the Danish firm Vestas blamed British "nimbies" opposing wind farms for its decision to close its turbine factory on the Isle of Wight.
Many countries continue to use coal for generating power as it is the cheapest and most readily available fuel in the world. It will probably power the development of China and India. But coal is also seen as the dirtiest fuel. So, Vattenfall's Schwarze Pumpe project in Spremberg, northern Germany, launched in a blaze of publicity last September, was a beacon of hope, the first scheme to link the three key stages of trapping, transporting and burying the greenhouse gases.
The Swedish company, however, surprised a recent conference when it admitted that the €70m (£60.3m) project was venting...
--snip--
Stuart Haszeldine, a CCS expert at the University of Edinburgh, warned of the danger of opposition towards CCS snowballing into a "bandwagon of negativity" if too many early projects were rejected. "Once you've screwed up one or two of them, people are going to think 'if they rejected this in Barendrecht, there must be a reason'," he said...
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Tee-hee-hee! Serves ‘em right for signing up to Kyoto! My only regret is so did New Zealand...
Maybe we can find a brilliant way out of it yet!
I read the whole article and couldn’t find any explanation of what the opponents are objecting to. This seems like a pretty innocuous project, although arguably a waste of money.
They have to permanently remove two oxygen atoms from the atmosphere to sequester one carbon atom from the fuel. That’s a really bad deal. It won’t be long before lab instruments start measuring falling O2 levels.
What complete IDIOTS! What’s next, whipping the ocean?
Hey if CO is bad then CO2 has to be twice as bad, right?
“Carbon Dioxide is a powerful cerebral dilator. At concentrations between 2 and 10%, Carbon Dioxide can cause nausea, dizziness, headache, mental confusion, increased blood pressure and respiratory rate. Above 8% nausea and vomiting appear. Above 10%, suffocation and death can occur within minutes. “
From: http://www.uigi.com/MSDS_gaseous_CO2.html
Fortunately, CO2 is only 300-400 ppm in the atmosphere. At that concentration, it is harmless to humans. And of course, it is essential to plants and therefore to all life on earth.
The party’s over
It’s time to call it a day
They’ve burst your pretty balloon
And taken the moon away
It’s time to wind up the masquerade
Just make your mind up the piper must be paid
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