Gazetteer Topics

[M Fnord]

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Hmm. To me, though, elegance is irrelevant.

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But it's not elegance, it's necessity.
Let's say you have a car. You take this car out to get it fueled. Once you've topped off the tank, you take it home, siphon off all of the gas you just bought, filter it and sell it on EBay. Then you pop back into your car and go down to the 7-11 for a celebratory Big Gulp. When the car stalls out halfway between your house and the destination, you express surprise.
The analogy is crude, but it's pretty plain. Venus has only trace amounts of water, all of which will be pulled into the terraforming ecosystem very quickly. In order for the ecosystem to survive it needs irrigation. In order for the irrigation to work you need water. In order to make water, you need hydrogen, thus you sign a contract with the Jossies to buy hydrogen from Jupiter.
However. Instead of using the shipment of hydrogen to create water vapor for the irrigation project, you use it to create - surprise, surprise - hydrocarbons for the export market. You immediately ship those hydrocarbons back to Earth to be used to accelerate global warming, you cash the nice fat oil cartel check and wonder why all the plants are dying.
Do you see how this plan of action is suicidal for the terraforming effort? I mean, if all the VTP is going to do is produce hydrocarbons for Earth, then why fucking bother with the whole grand sheme to speed up the planet's spin? Yeah, it's a neat idea but all it nets you is a hell world with a 24-hour day if you don't reduce the fucking atmosphere and add water.
You can talk economics all you want, but if your goal is to terraform Venus, then this is the wrong way to do it. Period.---
Mr. Fnord
http://fnord.sandwich.net/
http://www.jihad.net/
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

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