Global warming-fact or fiction and how do you propose we tackle it?

[famousringo]

Some people have pointed out a couple of potential solutions to the problem, I'd like to point out a couple policies that are presented as solutions but which are Bad Ideas.

The first is hydrogen as an energy medium. While it may have some useful attributes that are worth continued research, it has a host of issues that make it a less than ideal replacement for fossil fuels. Since it's a medium, not a source, it requires an electric power source to extract the hydrogen in a slightly inefficient process. Most applications of hydrogen would use fuel cells to convert the energy back into electiricity in a very inefficient process. It compares poorly to batteries as a means of storing energy.

This chart illustrates the inefficiency of hydrogen quite well:

In addition to efficiency drawbacks, hydrogen energy distribution would require massive investments in infrastructure. Pipelines, storage tanks and electrolysis facilities would need to be built, while battery storage could simply take advantage of the existing power grid with a small charger.

 

 The other solution which is overhyped is ethanol, particularly when it uses grain. Growing crops to brew ethanol is highly inefficient in terms of energy return on investment. Even though ethanol itself is carbon neutral, the inputs used to grow feedstock is not, and using carbon neutral fuels to grow the feedstock would further harm the efficiency of the process.

Of even greater concern, much of the ethanol development we see now is at the expense of the food supply. A planet with a population that's expected to peak at around 10 billion can't afford to sacrifice good farmland to produce energy. Even the limited work being done on ethanol fuel today has caused a noticable decrease in food supply and a corresponding rise in prices.

Ethanol may have potential if used to extract energy from waste materials, but it could never be a broad industrial replacement for fossil fuels.