Global Warming Roundup
Thursday, October 4th, 2007Another week, another spate of global warming-related essays, action and non-action.
At the New York Times last week, former Czech President Vaclav Havel attempted to revive to moral argument for combatting global warming, saying:
It is also obvious from published research that human activity is a cause of change; we just don’t know how big its contribution is. Is it necessary to know that to the last percentage point, though? By waiting for incontrovertible precision, aren’t we simply wasting time when we could be taking measures that are relatively painless compared to those we would have to adopt after further delays?
There can be no doubt that for the past hundred years at least, Europe and the United States have been running up a debt, and now other parts of the world are following their example. Nature is issuing warnings that we must not only stop the debt from growing but start to pay it back. There is little point in asking whether we have borrowed too much or what would happen if we postponed the repayments. Anyone with a mortgage or a bank loan can easily imagine the answer.
Amen to that. I highly recommend reading the entire piece. Every day that passes with no movement on new CAFE standards, or that another non-green building goes up, or that we go without a comprehensive carbon-reduction plan is another day we get closer to seeing irreversible effects from climate change. Recent news reports say that scientists are stunned at how much the Arctic ice has receded this year, and our former colleague Ben Jervey is currently on a boat near Greenland making a journey that has only been made possible by the melting of sea ice.
Posted in Energy, Energy Efficiency, Global Warming, Green Building | Permalink
Lecture This Thursday hosted by Sierra Club NYC
Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007From time to time, we will post notices about non-Solar One events taking place around the city, such as this one coming up this week…..
The Great Change: The World Beyond Petroleum
An evening with Albert Bates
Thursday, October 4, 2007, 7:00 – 9:00 PM
Where:
Friends Meeting House
15 Rutherford Place, Manhattan
between 2nd and 3rd Avenues
between 15th and 16th Streets
(more…)
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Other Events | Permalink
The Race for Biofueled Flight
Monday, October 1st, 2007Last week, the BBC published the news that Air New Zealand will soon be testing a commercial jet powered partially by biofuel and that Virgin Atlantic is also racing to put the first biofueled plane in the air. While biofuel technology is still overcoming hurdles related to availability, potential supply and the carbon intensity of production, it is important that industries such as these are starting to look for workable solutions to the problems associated with fossil fuels (in this case, mostly kerosene). And while air travel accounts for only about 5% of total carbon emissions, it has been the fastest growing sector of emissions in recent years and “the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by air travel doubled between 1990 and 2004.”
As Grist has pointed out, “the best-case scenarios show that flying is no more carbon efficient than driving; the worst-case scenarios show emissions three times higher than driving,” and efficiency gains in the airline industry are much harder to come by than they are for automobiles. But people are unlikely to cut back that much on their air travel out of fear of global warming, so the switch to lower-emission biofuels may be the best solution and could even be encouraged if a carbon tax or cap-and-trade program is put into place. Then, the first airline to significantly lower its carbon output could cut costs and lower fares to gain a competitive advantage. We can dream, right?
Posted in Biofuel, Energy, Global Warming, Pollution | Permalink
New Frontiers for Coal
Friday, September 21st, 2007The folks over at Foreign Policy’s Passport blog (recommended reading for lots of great news analysis) are dishing the dirt on the possibilities of the nascent Coal-to-Liquid (CTL) industry taking off with an assist from the U.S. military. To wit:
For the coal industry, getting access to the American gas tank would be a tremendous boost, giving it a whole new market outside of power generation and heavy industries like steel. The WSJ [Wall Street Journal] filed a must-read report last week, “Coal Industry Hopes Pentagon Will Kindle a Market,” that really gets at the key issues. CTL is a huge emitter of carbon dioxide, and the process uses between 5 to 7 gallons of water for every gallon of fuel it produces. But those inconvenient facts aren’t dissuading some folks…
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Photovoltaics | Permalink
Judge orders White House to produce global warming reports
Friday, August 24th, 2007
(from the AP)
SAN FRANCISCO: A federal judge ordered President George W. Bush’s administration to issue two scientific reports on global warming, siding with environmentalists who sued the White House for failing to produce the documents.
(more…)
Posted in Global Warming | Permalink
