Another idea

Consider one of the issues that is in the news every day: global warming. Despite the controversies that those two words inspire and how we each feel about them, readings over the last 30 years or so indicate the amount of CO₂ in our atmosphere is rising as are the oceans' water levels. How can any individual contribute to the solution?

What natural process uses CO₂ and coverts it to O₂? Photosynthesis, of course. This especially happens when new plants are just beginning to grow and when trees put on new leaves in the spring. So, one tiny part of the answer is to plant more plants, and to have new plant growth all year long, not just in the springtime. Most of California, for example, is brown from when the spring rains end until late in the fall, when the rains begin again. Why can't those California hills be watered all year long, since it's right next to the ocean? There's not enough fresh water to do that, of course, with it being less than 3% of the total water on earth.

Since the oceans' water levels are rising, why not use the water from oceans? That reason, of course, is that plants require fresh water, not salt water. The technology for desalination is steadily improving, with many technological changes. Carbon nanotubes, for example, offer a very promising solution. They can be made so that they allow the small molecules of water (H₂O) to pass through single-file, but the larger salt (mostly NaCl) molecules and other impurities cannot. Clearly, there would need to be a lot of them! A lack of Carbon is certainly not an issue, noting that it is the very element in CO₂ that needs to be removed from that molecule to form O₂.

Passing water through a semi-permeable barrier is called "reverse osmosis" (RO). There would need to be a lot of pumps and controls for both them and the RO process necessary to desalinate water on a large scale. There would need to be a lot of automated control (i.e., SCADA) systems to be programmed. There would need to be quite a few programmers to implement and maintain these SCADA controls. The fire risk each fall is also reduced when plantlife is kept green and watered, instead of being allowed to go brown.

So, where to begin? Plant a lot of plants and learn how to do SCADA programming. Automated control systems are not going away. As companies look for ways to reduce their human workforce, it creates so many openings for people that know how to program. Some jobs are lost because those tasks no longer need to be performed. Consider this: there used to be phone operators or electric meter readers. Those jobs were lost to automation. Many new types of jobs that require a couple specific skills are created: logical thinking and programming. The need for programmers is only going to increase in the future.

We've been involved with SCADA systems for over 30 years. We're offering to show you, to teach you, how to begin learning about this type of programming. It can start small, by learning how to build and program something useful for your home, and grow into a career - one that is interesting and that you can be certain will never go away. Would you allow us to help you get started being part of the solution?

Maybe you've heard the phrase, "Don't give a man a fish, teach him to fish, and he'll be able to eat all his life." We're delighted to "teach you to fish." All you need to buy is the "fishing pole."