I think the truly scary part is that our emissions today continue to have an effect on the climate for decades - centuries, so to affect today’s climate we needed to change our emissions decades ago or find feasible, economically and ecologically viable massive carbon sequestration techniques yesterday.

That’s why I believe we are locked into massive unsurvivable changes as a best case scenario, and a mass extinction of anything bigger than a large cat. Much worse if we continue the current course.

>> ^newtboy:

The written description said 'with no electricity for power', but the video clearly shows an electric light in the center of the tank...not bioluminescent, electric. They tell you it only works 'in a lighted aquarium'. You even see the operator plug it in and the light turn on at :32, and again at :40, with the electric cord also clearly visible. The audio never claims the device or the algae MAKES light or electricity, only that it takes in CO2 and releases O2. The video of the garage version also shows this clearly, with the plain fluorescent lights turned on while they add the algae to a fish tank.


If you follow the chain of reposting and adding more sensational claims that goes through shashdot and their source geek.com you eventually arrive at this site, which has already redacted it's claims about the algae in the lamp producing any light or power.

Going only from what's said in the video, I think the entire point is carbon sequestration. But keep in mind the algae is also absorbing some of the light from the lamp, requiring the use of more lamps to light the same area.

I 100% agree. I've seen several "Clean Coal" billboards, and they make me angry. Carbon sequestration is simply delaying the inevitable. It's still a fossil fuel, should not even be mentioned in the same sentence as renewable energy, such as hydro, solar, wind.

If we burnt every last bit of fossil fuel in the earth, the atmosphere would revert to the way it was before photosynthesis existed. The reason Earth has free oxygen is biological carbon sequestration. We're gonna have to switch to nuclear, wind, solar, and hydro power. Solar power is the simplest and safest variety of nuclear power

Global consumption of oil averages around 4 quadrillion watts, which is roughly the amount of electricity that would be produced on average by a 200km * 200km square of photovoltaics.