Amount

Superhero Carbon Footprint

14 Feb 2019 13:48 #62865 by slim36
Superhero Carbon Footprint was created by slim36
An amusing topic. Could Elsa of Frozen make dry ice to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere?  Could be a good way to generate income.   Velorian and Kryptonians should be carbon neutral like Superman

This message has an attachment image.
Please log in or register to see it.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • slim36
  • slim36's Avatar Topic Author
  • Offline
  • Platinum Member
  • Platinum Member
More
14 Feb 2019 16:16 #62866 by shadar
Replied by shadar on topic Superhero Carbon Footprint
Yup, Kryptonians and Velorians contribute exactly zero, what with being either solar powered or drawing their energies from extra-dimensional sources. 

In one of my very old stories, I had a young Velorian who was disgusted by the pollution after waching a rocket launch with solid fuel boosters. So she makes a deal with NASA. If they give up on first-stage and even second-stage boosters, she'll lift all of their launch vehicles and payloads into low Earth orbit for free Just a little redesign needed to support a few million pounds of rocket on a teenage girl's shoulders. 

Interestingly, not everyone was pleased. EarthFirst folks objected to becoming dependent on aliens. And the military had reservations given our idealistic teenage Velorian had her own ideas about what mlitary projects she would lift.  But the commercial satellite guys and their customers were thrilled now that they could get their stuff into at least low orbit for free, and with 100% reliability. Third-stage rockets would still be required to leave Earth or position in higher orbits, which takes time a school girl doesn't have without missing too many classes. 

There are undoubtably more contemporary stories possible along this line. Superhumans living openly among humans is a topic that always fascinates me. Much more than secret identity stories. 

Shadar
The following user(s) said Thank You: Raa, slim36, TwiceOnThursdays

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

  • shadar
  • shadar's Avatar
  • Offline
  • Uberposter par Excellence
  • Uberposter par Excellence
More
14 Feb 2019 23:41 #62875 by TwiceOnThursdays
Replied by TwiceOnThursdays on topic Superhero Carbon Footprint
This is fun and I'm taking in that vein.

The #'s for Flash are wrong .. because like Superman Flash is largely powered by an extra-dimensioanl force (speed force) and it doesn't look like he just calculated some increased food usage -- most modern Flashes are shown to eat more though WAAAAAY less than they'd need to power their powers (becuase there just isn't enough food).  In that they're like Superman and his being "solar powered".  100% conversion of all the sun that hits within 10m of him isn't remotely enough to power his powers (heat vision, flight, strength).  i.e. Flash can't be powered by eating calories any more than Superman is really _solely_ powered by yellow sun radiation something more is going on .... though whatever that is I think it is correct to say that it's zero carbon usage.

And by that margin, Superman isn't zero carbon foot print.  he's still shown to eat (even if he might not have to) and as Clark Kent, he still uses normal transportation (planes, taxies, subway).  _Superman_ might be zero carbon, but the Clark Kent that backs him up has a typical footprint of any reporter.

Likewise, modern Iron Man doesn't fly with Jets, he flies using repulsor tech -- tech that is also closely tied to the power storage/generation in his suit and is described as being carbon friendly (he made a car using it at some point) -- and in the MCU he built a gaint Arc Reactor to offset Stark's energy usage.   It's not talked about too much in the comics, but Iron Man's carbon footprint is probably a lot less than it's assumed here.

I do like calculating Jessica Jones' smoking and alchohol consumpion. ;-)

I would think that Batman has some independent power -- and might use something like a Thorium reactor (much safer than a normal nuclear power plant design).   Waynetech + comic book physics + JLA help to build would mean that Batman would want to be independent of the local power grid.  This would have a side effect of negating a huge chunk of his carbon foot print.  But it's just not a topic that is discussed that much in the comics.

But that's why these things are fun.  It's easy to forget all the electricity Oracle uses to power her computers.

But you can't do too much as any heat/cold generating super really destroys basic physics.  All ice-based heroes must absorb a crap-ton of heat ... but it's never shown to GO anywhere, things just get colder.  The back of your fridge gets hot for a reason. ;-)  I guess that's an idea for a story, where is all that heat dumped?

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
Time to create page: 0.039 seconds