Environmentalism, steampunk, and the WTF Prize.

[winneganfake]

Now, don't get me wrong before I really start in on this post- I like steampunk. I think it's a great aesthetic, and the potential for fantastic and awesome stuff to come out of it is definitely there.

At the same time though, I have to admit that there's some people into the same aesthetic, like any subculture, that really make me wonder if they're coming from anything approaching the same reality as the rest of us. Mostly because I keep seeing the same argument being made in different forums and elsewhere by them, and just about every time I see it, I end up falling out of my chair. Here- let me try to sum it up in a sentence:

"Steampunk is an environmentally positive movement."

Ok, let me get back up in my chair now.

For those not following yet, let me continue- the gist is that steam power is a wonderful, clean energy source, and that those following a "steampunk lifestyle," are actually doing their part to help out the environment, especially if steam technology is getting adapted to take the place of current-day technology.

Sorry, gotta climb back up into the chair again.

Steam technology as a clean energy source- this one gets me damn near every time. Why? Because we're talking about a system that absolutely requires fuel to be burned. In order to make steam, (and if you don't know this part, really, get offline, go find your high school physics teacher, and beg him to kick your ass) you have to heat water. That takes the consumption of fuel at some stage, even if you're doing it via electrolysis. It also depends on keeping that steam in gas form- which means you need to consistently keep it hot. Since no engine has yet been developed that can perfectly store and recycle all the heat from the initial fuel burn, that means you need to keep burning fuel, as heat will eventually be lost out of the system.

And what's the fuel, you may ask? Well, steam tech does have one advantage- just about anything that burns is usable. What's going to be available to most people though is not stuff that's very environmentally friendly- it's the same fuels available back when steam power was truly the high point of technology. Wood. Coal. Big, smoky, gassy, combustibles that, just like before, leave behind tons of particulate in the air. Making the landscape look like an entire crew of chimney-sweeps decided to roll all over it is not exactly what I'd call an environmentally sound move.

Now, don't get me wrong- you can actually engineer a steam engine that burns fuel a lot more efficiently than an internal-combustion engine. You can even build one that has a better exhaust output than internal combustion. But you can't dump thermodynamics by the wayside- fuel has to be consumed- consumption of said fuel creates exhaust, since there is no such animal as a 100% burn fuel.

So until your airship actually has a working cold fusion generator under the hood, and your soot-stains are merely there for cosmetic purposes? Can it. You're about as much of a stalwart of the environment as an Halliburton executive.


In fact- I would seriously love to see someone put their money where their mouth is. Any would-be steampunk engineer reading this want to prove me wrong? By doing more than flapping their fingers at me on the internet? here's a building challenge for you:

(In the spirit of the X-Prize) THE WTF PRIZE!

Build an airship capable of carrying four or more people into flight, and do it with an engine that produces less pollution than a standard internal combustion engine. And by build it, I mean that you, the entrant and pilot, must actually undertake the fabrication and construction of this device. Prefabricated parts may be used for your construction, but pre-built, purchased engines are right out. You must build your propulsion system, not just install it.

This ship must be capable of true directed flight, rather than simple wind-directed flight, so the ship must include a propulsion and navigational system in addition to basic lift.

Build it, fly it to Seattle, and land it safely at the venue location for Steamcon '09. For those already in the area, you need to prove that your airship can sustain flight for more than three hours. On landing, your engine will be inspected by a team of judges to consider the following: fuel type, fuel consumption-power ratio, and exhaust output. This means you will have to present your blueprints as well.

Winners will receive the following:
A metric fuckton of notoriety for landing an airship at a public convention.
Women swooning at your air-piratical feet.
The satisfaction of me apologizing and having to eat my words in public.
Permanent advertising for any of your endeavors via Tormented artifacts, the LXB, etc, etc... (It's not much, but it's something at least.)
if any sponsors want to step forward and offer a prize to this, I'll gladly include them.

...Hell- you built yourself a working airship- what kind of prize do you need when you've got one of those?

Anyone seriously willing to take up this challenge had best contact me, however, in order to make sure I actually put together stuff for this. And also contact the FAA- wouldn't want to see you get shot down for failure to register your aircraft.

Comments

[kadath.livejournal.com]

Build an airship capable of carrying four or more people into flight., and do it with an engine that produces less pollution than a standard internal combustion engine.

External combustion is more efficient than internal combustion. Your challenge is trivial, assuming someone has the money to throw around.

(Not that I don't almost entirely agree with you, mind. But the math's against you on the challenge part.)

[prairieflower.livejournal.com]

I'm not really into the whole steampunk thing (although I've loved seeing what some of my friends who are into it have created!), but I've gotta say, I love your response to the environmentalism part.

:)

[cynickal.livejournal.com]

NUUUUUUUUUKES!

[porkshanks.livejournal.com]

actually, I know the people who started the notion that steampunk is environmentally friendly and you are off the point on this one.

Ive never seen *anyone* claim steampunk is positive because of the steam power aspect, because who even uses that? I can think of one, maybe two groups of steampunks I've met who use real steam power. Most steampunks couldn't build a real steam engine if you pointed a gun at their heads and gave them a kit.

The point is about returning to hand crafting rather than factory-created-and-shipped-thousands-of-miles-to-a-distribution-point-and-then stored-and-finally-flown-hundreds-or-thousands-of-miles-again-once-its-sold. It is socially more responsible to buy from craftspeople locally (or at least people who build things like you and me and sell them to small online communities) because it cuts out all that. Plus, artisans working in their shops don't produce the kind of waste that massive factories do. Plus the factories tend to be located in China, where the environmental standards are nearly meaningless due to rampant bribery, and the workers are treated poorly nearing the point of abuse.

There is a lot more to it than that one issue of course, but I fear if I type any more I am simply wasting my time on you again... I just didn't want to see this kind of silly nonsense go uncorrected.

[kat1031.livejournal.com]

On the whole, I agree with you... but you're forgetting one major source of heat energy - the sun. While obviously solar panels are out of period for general steampunk usage, they are using a solar steam variant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevada_Solar_One)[Wikipedia] in the desert near me which is generating utility-capacity solar energy with liquid and parabolic mirrors.

It's a pretty impressive thing to see, especially from the air.

[fly-boy-jon.livejournal.com]

Keep a weather eye out for Galeatus AerNavis. The project was begun last month that will meet your challenge. Not by 09, but maybe 10.

;)

/agree

[lilibat.livejournal.com]

For fuck's sake the industrial revolution, which is what most of this stuff is based on, was the single most polluted time in our existence. Most of the steam power was make from wood and coal.

Aside from that...

Yeah I do recycle a lot of old junk, but I also use new parts, very ungreen chemicals and I make as much trash as I do with making anything else.

Almost any kind of 'art' is going to produce ungreen crap, even if all you use is old junk there are adhesives and welding gasses.

[technomancer-f.livejournal.com]

Werrl, sticking with the steam power, probably the cheapest thing to get your hands on and burn is plain old waste biomass -- the stalks of grain plants, the bagasse from sugar cane processing, etc. Perhaps it's not as efficient in terms of the engine performance as coal, it's certainly not as green as solar, wind or fusion (and I personally have reservations about fusion), but it's a big step up from coal and oil. The best you can do with an internal combustion engine is to substitute for ethanol, which is currently made either from petrochemicals (unbelievable, but, alas, true; there was some trouble over it over here not so long ago), or with low efficiency and high energy cost in separation from food biomass. It ain't the best, but it is better.

Realistically, however, how many steampunks have a steam-driven lifestyle? For those who don't, that statement is pretty well true. There is a tendency to make, to mend, and to scrounge items from junk/thrift shops. An aesthetic rejection of plastic is still a rejection of plastic.

I have never leapt up and say "I'm steampunk! I'm green!", but I can see where someone saying it might be coming from, and I think it is not as ridiculous a statement as it appears at first glance.

[vasillis-childe.livejournal.com]

I can't believe how blind you all are. Here's you answer.

Orphans.

There is nothing steampunk that can't be solved via the application of sufficient amounts of orphans. Need a major crime ring in central London? Orphans. Need small hands to get into your steam powered giant robot's Marvellous Mechanised Mobility Mechanism and remove a broken spar so your plans of world domination go unhindered? Orphans. Need a plucky hero? Orphan in goggles.

So, having cracked the fundemental building block upon which the revolution is built, let us apply it to the problem.

Now, I'm sure there are people out there who ould be disapointed with me, irate even, should I suggest burning orphans as fuel, so I shall avoid that discussion (although I think it is the most realistic). So, what we do is harness their power in a selection of lage tradmills at the bottom of the ship, somewhere below the bilges. These treadmills, of course, feed straight into the generators that power the Elyctrical elements that heat the water. The best thing is? Runs on gruel and whippings!

A perfect solution to a simple problem!

[gothbunnyodoom.livejournal.com]

Now that was a funny one.
My finace and I started to discuss building an airship just for the hell of it.
Of course, not per your challenge as the math is just not coming together.
But building a working airship could be done. But we have a wedding to pay for first.

I have never heard the enviromentalbit applied to Steampunk. I would think by it's very nature, no one would be a prat enough to say Steampunk was enviromentaly sound movement.
Besides, all the modern Steamies out there are not exactly going back to steam power.So how does eviromentalism even come into it?

Where there's a will.......

[angryangeltoo.livejournal.com]

http://www.eskimo.com/~ghawk/rotary.html

There might very well be a way :)

Something being worked on by some people in New Zeland.

I enjoyed your a post a lot and I am pleased someone has actually pointed this out. After all the Industrial Revolution is meant to be one of the reasons for the Greenhouse Effect, if you are inclined to belive it is a man made problem that is.

Sadly I won't have the money or the resources to build a Rotary engined hydrogen air ship at any point soon but it's a nice idea. :)

Besides I need to finish my Time Machine ;0)

Oh Sorry

[angryangeltoo.livejournal.com]

I forgot about Hydrogen Peroxide as a potential but probably very combustable fuel source.

http://www.peroxidepropulsion.com/

[darkmane.livejournal.com]

Magic Steam. That is the solution.

Just like gluing watch parts to an iPod makes it steampunk.