Environment Pollution and Climate Change
Open Access

Abstract

A series of propositions are developed for controlling the carbon cycle by changing the way that we dispose our wastes. By defining contemporary biological carbon as neutral, fossil carbon as positive, and biochar as negative, an ideological framework can be easily developed for the creation of carbon negative societies. The capitalism vs. communism debate is revisited, but neither system addresses the waste problem, “linearity”, the nature of money nor the need for sustainability or even what to do with waste (mostly carbon-based) which normally ends up in the air, water or landfill. Economics, as a mechanism for evaluating the movement of goods and services throughout society, in terms of energy expenditure and waste generation on a cyclical basis is a relatively unexplored field. Waste can be defined as associated with a negative cost and economic entropy. Entropy can be reversed by inputting energy into a system. A range of potential analogies for the development of global carbon neutrality can be discussed. These include cellular biology and ecology as viewpoints for generation of ATP (used as the currency of any cell, whether autotrophic or heterotrophic). For human society (a superorganism based on many municipal “cells”) the development of a currency based on the “species” of alternative (electrical) energy, would be analogous to ATP. King Darius, used water dockets as currency in desert oases. By also referencing successful, premodern, economies, it may be possible to build an “alternative economy” based on wasteland, wastewater, waste-derived energy, wasted energy, etc., and most importantly, wasted people. This “second tier” economy would depend on the waste stream from the existing economy for its manufacturing, building materials, fertilizer, etc. and hence would complement the existing economy. Application of these simple ideas might also be appropriate in the building of a lunar base. Recent Publications 1. Comet, P.A. (2017). Academia Journal of Environmental Science 5(9): 151-160, September 2017 DOI: 10.15413/ ajes.2017.0516, ISSN: 2315-778X 2. Wilkinson T (2010) The rise and fall of Ancient Egypt. Bloomsbury Publishing., London, New York & Berlin. ISBN 978 0 7475 9949 4 Comet,P.A.,(2016),http://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajep.s.20160 50301.13.pdf. 3. Fawzi M (2009). http://p2pfoundation.net/P2P_Energy _Economy. 4. Georgescu-Roegen N (1971) The entropy law and the economic process (Maxwellian demon quote, pg. 307; pg. 282). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

Biography

Paul Alexander Comet has a MS in Geology from London University UK. &Ph.D from Bristol University UK. in Organic Geochemistry. He has extensive international experience in petroleum research & has published or coauthored some 50 papers. He was shipboard geochemist on ODP Leg 101 (Blake Bahama Plateau). He has worked at Core Labs. Singapore & Indonesia. Then at Texas A&M (GERG) where he was an associate research scientist working on mapping the Gulf of Mexico oils. His present interests include alternative energy, particularly as it relates to the waste stream, as well as the monetization of alternative energy for the building of a complementary “alternative society” for the disenfranchised. He has also worked at Sperry/Halliburton, where as a log analyst using XRF & XRD, on “unconventional reservoirs” he investigated some of the major oil producing basins of the USA.

E-mail: pcomet@prodigy.net