Category: Enviroment

Global Warming’s Real Inconvenient Truth

Global Warming’s Real Inconvenient Truth
From 2003 to 2050, the world’s population is projected to grow from 6.4 billion people to 9.1 billion, a 42 percent increase. If energy use per person and technology remain the same, total energy use and greenhouse gas emissions (mainly, carbon dioxide) will be 42 percent higher in 2050. But that’s too low, because societies that grow richer use more energy. Unless we condemn the world’s poor to their present poverty — and freeze everyone else’s living standards — we need economic growth. With modest growth, energy use and greenhouse emissions more than double by 2050.

Just keeping annual greenhouse gas emissions constant means that the world must somehow offset these huge increases. There are two ways: Improve energy efficiency, or shift to energy sources with lower (or no) greenhouse emissions. Intuitively, you sense this is tough. China, for example, builds about one coal-fired power plant a week. Now a new report from the International Energy Agency in Paris shows all the difficulties (the population, economic growth and energy projections cited above come from the report).

The trouble with the global warming debate is that it has become a moral crusade when it’s really an engineering problem. The inconvenient truth is that if we don’t solve the engineering problem, we’re helpless. Coal is predicted to have the biggest increase, but there is promising technology , with more here and some questionable ones.

Are You a Global Warming Skeptic? Part IV

Are You a Global Warming Skeptic? Part IV: BLOG: SciAm Observations

If you are ready for a patient, scholarly analysis, part of an ongoing blog that was featured here earlier, then read on…

When climatologists run the fingerprinting analysis for different historical epochs, they find that temperature fluctuations prior to the Industrial Revolution were driven primarily by solar and volcanic forcings. In the early 20th century, natural and anthropogenic forcings seem to contribute equally. From midcentury onwards, greenhouse gases rule.

So unless I’m missing something, it seems to me that the case for anthropogenic warming is pretty strong. Is it unequivocal? Well, nothing in life ever is. There might be some low-frequency natural forcing. Plenty of i’s in fingerprinting analyses remain to be dotted. Based on the knowledge we have so far, however, I have to call ’em as I see ’em.

Wal-Mart Warms to Al Gore

Washington Wire » Wal-Mart Warms to Al Gore
Former Vice President and environmental activist Al Gore is planning to address Wal-Mart Stores Inc. executives next week at the retailer’s quarterly conference on sustainability.

it outfitted its trucks with an alternative power unit that uses 90% less fuel than its engines do while idling. The company created 14 internal networks to explore and implement more environmentally sound business practices. The 14 groups, made up of both Wal-Mart executives and outside experts, focus on different business areas, including operations and logistics, food and agriculture, textiles, global greenhouse gas and jewelry and mining. Called the sustainable value network, the groups meet individually throughout the year. They also hold their own conferences. Last month, for instance, Wal-Mart held a two-day conference on sustainability and textiles. It brought together Wal-Mart executives, environmental consultants and members of nonprofit groups to discuss issues surrounding organic textiles, including certification and standards. Next week’s meeting, held at the company’s home office in Bentonville, Ark., is one of four where all the company’s internal groups working on sustainability issues get together to discuss progress, stumbling blocks and other issues.

National Commission on Energy Policy | Energy Independence: A Dry Hole?

National Commission on Energy Policy | Energy Independence: A Dry Hole?
The U.S. may be addicted to oil, but many of its politicians are addicted to “energy independence” — which may be among the least realistic political slogans in American history. The term “energy independence” should be dropped. He wants policy makers to focus on curbing oil consumption — specifically the amount to produce each $1,000 of gross domestic product.

The truth is, our consumption per thousand dollars of GDP has declined dramatically over the past 30 years, making oil far less crucial to our economy. In 1973 it stood at roughly 1.4 barrels/1kGDP. Now it stands at roughly 0.7 barrels, or a decline of roughly 50 percent. Not bad for “oil addicted” America, whose only true sin is growing our economy so dramatically since 1973.But even there our total oil consumption has risen only from about 17 million barrels a day in 1973 to about 21 today. Again, not bad.

The problem is tha imports made up 35% of the nation’s petroleum supplies in 1973 and 59% in the first four months of 2006, according to the Department of Energy. Moreover, 66% of the oil consumed in the U.S. is used in the transportation sector.

Where are all the birds?

Where are all the birds?
12 percent of existing species — about 1,250 — are threatened with extinction by 2100.

Up until now, scientists had documented the extinction of about 130 bird species since the year 1500. But the study’s authors — from Stanford University, Duke University and the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis — say the more accurate estimate is about 500 extinctions out of more than 10,000 known bird species. That would be about one extinction per year over the last 500 years.

Bird Extinction Estimates May Be Too Low

Device Burns Fuel with Almost Zero Emissions

Georgia Institute of Technology :: News Room :: Device Burns Fuel with Almost Zero Emissions
Georgia Tech researchers have created a new combustor (combustion chamber where fuel is burned to power an engine or gas turbine) designed to burn fuel in a wide range of devices ― with next to no emission of nitrogen oxide (NOx) and carbon monoxide (CO), two of the primary causes of air pollution. The device has a simpler design than existing state-of-the-art combustors and could be manufactured and maintained at a much lower cost, making it more affordable in everything from jet engines and power plants to home water heaters.

The moral flaws of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth

The moral flaws of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. By Gregg Easterbrook
This raises the troubling fault of An Inconvenient Truth: its carelessness about moral argument. Gore says accumulation of greenhouse gases "is a moral issue, it is deeply unethical." Wouldn't deprivation also be unethical? Some fossil fuel use is maddening waste; most has raised living standards. The era of fossil energy must now give way to an era of clean energy. But the last century's headlong consumption of oil, coal, and gas has raised living standards throughout the world; driven malnourishment to an all-time low, according to the latest U.N. estimates; doubled global life expectancy; pushed most rates of disease into decline; and made possible Gore's airline seat and MacBook, which he doesn't seem to find unethical.

The big question is how can we alleviate global poverty and its associated ills while simultaneously trying to avert the consequences of global warming?