Part I showed how ice core drillings in Vostok/Antarctica going back 420,000 years show undeniable correlation between CO2 and temperature in the atmosphere throughout numerous cooling/warming cycles. However, the temperature changes occurred 800 years ahead of the CO2 changes; not the other way around. It’s noteworthy that Al Gore used this same data in support of his core argument that carbon is driving global warming in his movie, An Inconvenient Truth, but failed to point out that CO2 changes lagged behind temperature changes by 800 years (perhaps another inconvenient truth). Part II discusses how some scientists see solar and clouds (water vapor) as alternative (to CO2) drivers of climate change.
Continue reading about Climate Change – Part II – Looking Beyond Carbon
If you try to sort through the clutter of fact and fiction surrounding climate change, much of what you hear and read is all too often seen through the distorted lenses of “believers” and “deniers”. Believers approach climate change with the glazed over ferver of religious zealots. Ever try to have a rational conversation with a true believer? Now there’s an oxymoron. Deniers on the other hand, while they give off an entirely different vibe, are just as vested in their own earnest beliefs that climate change is a fabricated hoax.
Continue reading about Climate Change – Part 1 – The Scientific Debate
In his book “Blackout”, Richard Heinberg concludes……..”There isn’t nearly as much coal left as most people think. “Clean coal” will run down limited reserves even faster. If humanity doesn’t begin massive, sustained investment in renewable power sources immediately, civilization could be at risk before the end of the century. And that’s without considering the impacts of climate change.”
The “tragedy of the commons” articulated by Garrett Hardin in 1968 is now being played out on a planetary scale on our ultimate “commons”, the global climate in which we all live.
Continue reading about Climate Change and Tragedy Of The Commons
Is it futile for the U.S. to move away from fossil energy, at great economic cost and risk to ourselves, while the rest of the world ramps up cheap, carbon intensive energy, more than undoing any good we might have done, and use it to beat us senseless in the competitive global marketplace?
For real change to happen on energy policy, we need federally mandated energy portfolio standards, including one for clean coal, with big teeth and no safety valves. It will cost what it needs to cost in order get clean energy and we’ll all adjust to this new reality accordingly. Our newly minted President Obama has arrived in Washington at a time in our history when the country if open to changes, even big changes. Time will tell if the man from Yes-We-Can can turn his mandate into a Yes-You-Will for the energy industry.
Continue reading about Getting Clean Coal Done – Yes You Will
Now and then I will post items written by others because they are articulate, visionary and compelling and above all informative and practical. A few years back I had the pleasure of working for David Crane at NRG Energy where we pursued real clean coal development in the Northeast – IGCC with carbon capture and [...]
Continue reading about Putting the Common Sense into Sustainability
