Originally Posted by Sceadwian

What's with zero carbon emissions? Nothing wrong with carbon, basis of all life on earth after all, we breath it out naturally it's what we do to exist as biological organism. It's what to do with it if there's too much of it. How about just coming up with some method of chemically converting that carbon into a 'stored' physical state instead of having it run around free in the environment. Something like the functions plants play in the environment...

How about large Algae farms which convert carbon into simple sugars? All they need is a little light and air.

How much scientific effort is used to study and understand new methods of producing energy and how much scientific effort is used to study and understand new methods for storing it? Could learn a lot from nature.

We as a species have spent virtually our entire history using and coming up with new ways of 'spending' energy. Using energy is NEVER a problem. Global climate change is a key sign of that. One way or another either from our alteration of nature (deforestation), or our direct carbon output we're disturbing the carbon cycle on earth, in the midst of a time when it appears earths carbon cycle is already on the change.

I like the idea of using simple organisms such as algae to store energy. The only problem that remains is creating dense controlled environments for them to exist in. Even the most polluting modern companies nowadays are using biological assists in their waste treatment. Entire genomes have been patented, they're on the verge of creating outright entirely new organisms, with a microscope and a needle to push things in the right place.

Anyone that thinks there is a plain and simple fix or one 'right' answer to this 'problem' is trying to push snake oil.
We're DAMN good at using hydrocarbons. Extracting them from the environment we've sent them too... Perhaps that's the next step.