permaculture

[jedd <jedd@progsoc.org>]

On Sat, 12 May 2007, Tommy Tolson wrote:
> Algae is one of the major producers of oxygen to maintain balance in the
> biosphere that gives humans the free gift of their next breath, in lieu
> of temperate rain forests.  Consuming it for fuel is worse than stupid.
> It's ecocidal.

 I don't think the algae proponents are suggesting we round up all the
 wild algae and stick it in tanks -- the stuff they're talking about
 would be grown in addition to the existing, massive, wild herds of
 seafaring algae.

 If anything, and given that algae presumably needs a constant source
 of CO2 for its photosynthesis, the system would likely be a nett
 producer of O2.

 As I understand it, the problem (theoretical or otherwise) with this
 approach to generating energy is not the gas exchange (it's in our
 favour), or the water usage (it's a fairly closed system as far as
 water goes), but that they haven't engineered an optimal variety
 of algae for the purpose yet.

 Jedd.