Comments on: Who Is Steven Chu? A Nobel Physicist Who Believes In Bold Energy Transformation

By: JBaddo

JBaddo — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:28:13 +0000

Either Obama is showing his inexperience or simply indulging in political deal-making. Corzine, a lifelong Wall Streeter, is the elast person qualified to head the EPA.

By: LeaderofMen

LeaderofMen — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 14:59:33 +0000

ckyleif Says:

====

Sorry. Real scientists don’t get their cues from Rush Limbaugh.

By: Keith

Keith — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 05:56:40 +0000

ElBruce, don’t get me wrong, I am totally on your side—-but why can’t scientists get the conversion from C to F right?
5C is most definitely NOT 11F, it is 9.00F!!!

By: JimboSlice

JimboSlice — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 05:19:55 +0000

Sorry, I meant to say Kelvin is an absolute temperature scale, which is it.

By: AlphaLiberal

AlphaLiberal — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 03:27:08 +0000

Chu is a great pick. Hopefully, he will be not be engineer-only biased.

By: tbone

tbone — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 03:25:26 +0000

Luckyleif:
So, are you saying that 96% of all the CO2 in the atmosphere is natural and 4% is “manmade” (I didn’t know man was in the creation of matter business)? Or are you saying that 96% of the recent increase in CO2 (150 yrs or so) is natural? I think you mean the former, and if that is the case, I’d like to know why a 4% change can’t make a difference. I would love to see evidence that a 4% change in CO2 cannot cause a temperature difference. In other situations (e.g. non-linear threshold responses) a 4% change can make all the difference in the world. For example, if my body temperature increases or decreases by 4%, I could be in big trouble. I know that is an apples and oranges comparison to global temperatures and CO2, but you provide no rationale for why a 4% change is meaningless. So, if you could point me in the direction of some scientific literature that demonstrates your supposition, I would appreciate it.

By: ElBruce

ElBruce — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 03:24:37 +0000

JimboSlice Says:

Keith that is all fine and good, but telling people what the dangers are is meaningless, you need to tell them what the solutions are, and so far Obama/Gore/Chu have not put out any workable solutions that would mitigate future CO2 emissions and adapt to changes we have already “bought” from our past emissions.

I think the public generally agrees that global warming / climate change is real and is bad, what they don’t agree on is what to do about it. If you can’t agree on what to do about it, and don’t do anything about it then your s * t out of luck.

When the Executive branch of government refuses to admit that the problem exists, that kind of prevents any problem-solving from going forward, from the get-go. This is the sort of situation in which no one company or even industry is in any position to tackle; only a signal from government that it is willing to get involved will move any kind of progress forward. That signal has not heretofore been given.

The first step is to recognize the scope of the problem; that opens the doors to working out solutions to the problem. I have a feeling that very soon we’ll be inundated with more ideas than will be workable, and the next task will be to winnow them down and prioritize them.

However, sitting back and say “don’t even talk about it until we have a complete solution” is actually a way to prevent anything from being done. It’s also one that has been employed by the Bush administration repeatedly, particularly in talking about “silver bullet” technological solutions to energy dependence. As in, “Just sit down and wait, someday technology will fix everything. Until then, go buy another SUV!”

By: ElBruce

ElBruce — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 03:18:37 +0000

I think he meant to say 5C the first time, as he did in the second. 5C would convert to 11F.

luckyleif Says:

Sure hope Dr. Chu will remember that 96% of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is natural, not manmade.

The problem is the margin in that remaining 4%. A little makes a lot of difference. Using red herrings to discredit the importance of this issue is… bad.

luckyleif Says:

Temperature is going down, as measured worldwide by NOAA satellites. Nice to see we have someone who understands physics in this position

http://www.global-warming-and-the-climate.com/images/150-yr-global-temperatures.gif

Kindly explain what you’re talking about in relation to the link above.

luckyleif Says:

unlike Jimboslice. “Kelvin is an absolute pressure scale”????? Good grief.

I think the Kelvin system assumes pressure remains constant – well, there’s no point in arguing about such things on the tubes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelvin

Kelvin = Centigrade + 273.15

But then again, you’re the guy who thinks the planet is cooling, so…

By: green

green — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 03:15:18 +0000

I agree JonKnight – having done a lot of public speaking myself through the years – and then the video taping to boot. It’s easy to mess things up a bit. The detractors will use whatever they can to suggest that this quite distinguished and intelligent man is not right. What were they saying when Heck uv a job Brownie was letting New Orleans drown? Nothing. Silence. What is wrong with people who do not want this administration to succeed and begin to solve the problems we are facing? They called us war protesters unAmerican and unpatriotic — how should we appropriately identify them?

By: JonKnight

JonKnight — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 03:07:41 +0000

Amazing how many folks will just rant about a misspoken word.

IF you watch the video, you’ll see that the chart used at the time he spoke clearly shows 5 degrees C…

As is common with many folks when speaking publicly, the good doctor simply misspoke. It is OBVIOUS that he should have said ‘5′ instead of 3.

For those of you who can speak in public perfectly: do it.

By: green

green — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 03:05:15 +0000

oops, shoud have been asses – oh well, my excitement is beyond measure – for all of us and our children, grandchildren and the great ones…. Peace to all.

By: green

green — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 03:00:08 +0000

We’re getting our country back!! No more stupid, unqualified. kiss assess to sing the dead songs of the right wing nut cases. Real science, real intellect – oh my god, we have come home again. Thank you Obama – and thank you to the people of the United States.

By: luckyleif

luckyleif — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 02:37:08 +0000

Sure hope Dr. Chu will remember that 96% of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is natural, not manmade.
Assuming he does, he will quickly focus on engineering and ignore the Gorons who believe climate model fantasies.
Temperature is going down, as measured worldwide by NOAA satellites. Nice to see we have someone who understands physics in this position – unlike Jimboslice. “Kelvin is an absolute pressure scale”????? Good grief.

By: web_geek

web_geek — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 02:29:20 +0000

After the last eight years, I’m utterly dumbfounded by this appointment. Not that I expected less from Obama.

But, wow.

Just. Wow.

By: Neal

Neal — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 01:50:43 +0000

I hate discrimination!!!

Why is he selecting a smart guy for this job?
Couldn’t he pick another lawyer, some lame former politician, a golfing buddy, or a director of some horsing association?

They need a job too you know… and they don’t have a Nobel Prize to help them either.

By: JimboSlice

JimboSlice — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 01:41:01 +0000

I would have liked Obama to pick someone focused on developing and implementing mitigation and adaptation strategies. I am delighted that he didn’t pick Al Gore who is focused on way too heavily on impacts. It is nice that Chu is focused on mitigation, but it seems like he is a theoretical scientist, and that doesn’t always translate well into figuring out what strategies are the best in wide-scale application.

By: Keith

Keith — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 01:28:59 +0000

NASA scientist James Hansen said (Feb 2007):
“…The last time a large ice sheet melted sea level went up at a rate of five meters per century. That’s one meter every 20 years. And that is a kind of sea level rise, a rate which the simple ice sheet models available now just cannot produce because they don’t have the physics in them to give you the rapid collapse that happens in a very nonlinear system.”

Tufts Univ study:
FOUR DEGREE RISE IN GLOBAL TEMPERATURE

“Melting of the West Antarctic ice sheet will gradually increase sea levels by five to six meters, putting vast tracks of land underwater and producing millions of environmental refugees. In Bangladesh, where half the population lives in areas less then five meters above sea level, permanent flooding and shortages of drinking water could result in 30

40 million people being displaced from their homes. Elsewhere entire regions will have no agricultural production whatsoever as a result of the changing climate.”

http://www.foe.org/new/releases/october2006/climatechange10132006.html

By: dbadass

dbadass — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 01:10:28 +0000

No doubt those freedom fries are the white trash industrially produced no taste no sophistication type. Might I suggest Pomme Frits?

By: JimboSlice

JimboSlice — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 01:03:46 +0000

Oh and the metric system hasn’t existed for sometime now. Shall we call it SI?

I will call it SI when I start calling my freedom fries french fries again.

By: Keith

Keith — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 01:03:24 +0000

JimboSlice Says:
Quick convert 175 ft into miles, now try converting 175m into km.

Right Jimbo. Inches, feet yards, miles is very hard to calculate. So are ounces, pints, quarts, gallons.

I lived a lot in London and they were resisting change, especially the police headquartered at New Scotland Meter. :)