why cant polloution be solved by incineration in chimneys that reach from earth to well into outer space?

Answer 1

Didn't Fred Dibnah die a while back.

*Looks down*
I believe he also spent a lot of time repairing them

Answer 2

You know when you drop coloured crystals (potassium permanganate for example) into a beaker of water and after a while all the water has a uniform colour, that's caused by diffusion - the way the water circulates.

The same thing happens with the atmosphere, if gases are released in one part of the atmosphere they become diffused and spread throughout the whole atmosphere.

To prevent gases mixing into the atmosphere it would be necessary to release them at a level above the atmosphere (or above most of it) and that would mean constructing chimneys that were at least 10 miles high and ideally 50+ miles high.

Such a construction would be impossible, the sheer weight of the chimney woud mean that it would collapse under it's own weight and even if it were possible to develop an incredibly strong, lightweight material, the chimney would need to withstand windspeeds of several hundred miles per hour (when you get a few miles up into the atmosphere you encounter the Jet Stream, it has been recorded at speeds in excess of 500mph).

It's from ideas like this that practical solutions to many problems have been developed so keep thinking about the problem.

Answer 3

I don't believe the heat from incineration would carry the smoke to outerspace even if you could build the chimney.. so you are looking at expending even more energy to have blowers in the chimney to keep it moving up and out.. then you have to build it far enough out into space to break the Earths gravitation pull... which would mean we would have a straight dump of our atmosphere (because not just the pollution would be sucked up) .... not good for the things trying to still live here....

but at least you are thinking.

P.S. they are formulating building a space elevator near Ecuador using carbon fiber ribbons... it's still a decade or two off... but they could move solid waste away once it's finished.

Answer 4

Interesting question! Reading through the answers proved to me once again how concrete most people's thinking is. (no pun intended ;-)

Everyone sees a picture of a chimney in their mind and it is steel or concrete or maybe brick. But really a chimney could be a long sleeve of fabric or plastic that extends up 10 miles and is held up by balloons or maybe some helicopter-like device. The chimney is fairly easy but wind is going to be a problem as well as that "Suck our atmosphere off the planet" thing.

Take this idea back to the drawing board for a while and you may make something of it!

Kudos for at least thinking of something that doesn't involve solar panels, CFL's, or Buying a Prius!

Answer 5

Hmmmm that could do a lot of damage if it collapsed. I assume you will need several thousand of these 20 mile high chimneys. What an excellent terrorist target they would make.

Has anyone done the maths on how many bricks you would need just for one?

However, nice train of thought. At least you are thinking in the direction of how to use technology to solve the problem unlike these environmental bean eaters who just want to turn the clock back on civilisation by 500 years.

Answer 6

Because no material on Earth is strong enough to build the chimneys. Not even close.

Think about the force of the weight a 100 mile high chimney on the lowest part of the chimney. Our strongest materials can't stand up to it, no matter how much you taper the chimney from bottom to top.

There's a reason why the tallest buildings are about 1/8 of a mile high. That's pretty much the maximum for something of reasonable cost.

Answer 7

Good question. Many have the idea this is the way we may dump radioactive materials.
Encapulate the material and shoot it into the sun.

Gravity is too great to do such a thing.

This idea is in practice. We have pipelines running out into the oceans dumping our sewer waste into the deep ocean trenches.
The idea that the ocean can absorb and recycle the waste has been a huge mistake.
The idea that the ocean is so large that it can take an infinite amount of waste with no negative side effects. Wrong!

One aspect of the question is very correct. We need to change what we are doing, and it may be an original idea, so, keep thinking.

Answer 8

Could you imagine the task, the resources or the man power needed to construct a 50 mile high chimney. To imagine Everest is only 5 miles high in comparison and you have some idea of this unfeasible task. By the way!, Fred Dibnah knocked chimneys down for a living, so why would anyone want to look for him. Try Heaton cemetery!?.

Answer 9

I went on my roof to implement your plan but I fell off and broke my leg

Is there anyone out there who can Finnish of my 4 mile high chimney

Answer 10

Husker Du clearly discussed the pros and cons of this very problem when they did the following cover:

Eight miles high and when you touch down
You'll find that it's stranger than known
Signs in the street that say where you're going
Are somewhere just being their own

Nowhere is there warmth to be found
among those afraid of losing their ground
Rain gray town known for its sound
In places small faces unbound

Round the squares huddled in storms
Some laughing some just shapeless forms
Sidewalk scenes and black limousines
Some living some standing alone

b

Answer 11

Because it is impossible to build a chimney that tall that would not collapse under its own weight like a house of cards.