It’s the first day of summer and already the DC metro area is nearing a record high, but what else is new? Sadly these increasing record highs could prove fatal for many in the area in the years to come.
According to a report released by the NRDC and based on a study in the American Meteorological Society journal, 2,900 Baltimoreans and 3,000 Washingtonians will die prematurely from heat exhaustion due to global warming in the next century.
“On July 28th, 2012, we invite community members and organizations everywhere to join us in Washington, D.C. for a rally at the Capitol to demand no more drilling that harms public health, water, and air. . . Elected officials and public agencies must insist that the industry stop all drilling that is dirty and dangerous, and put communities and the environment first, starting by removing special exemptions and subsidies for the oil and gas industry. Join community leaders, celebrities and policymakers and add your voice to the call for a clean, fossil fuel free energy future.” -Call to Action at www.stopthefrackattack.org
The push for the Keystone XL pipeline puzzles me. Society is foolishly increasing its dependence on oil by investing more and more in this diminishing dirty resource. Meanwhile, many of the clean and renewable alternatives that our future requires already exist and continue to improve in both efficiency and cost.
The fact of the matter is that we must begin to reorient our entire energy system away from fossil fuels. To that end, there is very exciting news about five new advances coming out of MIT that look to utilize solar energy just about everywhere. In other news there was a great breakthrough in transportation; for the first time a German engineered electric vehicle traveled 1000 miles on a single charge!
While there may be some doubt about current energy conversion rates with solar energy, wind is quite the proven technology for replacing fossil fuels in a very big way. For example, Denmark currently gets about 20% of its total electrical need from wind alone, generating jobs and reducing green house gas emissions all along the way. In the bigger picture, Europe is producing 5.5% of its electricity from wind as of 2010, but has plans for massive investment. According to the European Wind Energy Association, strong EU regulatory framework is guiding 194 billion Euros of investment with the goal of tripling wind energy production to over 15% by 2020.
And here we sit investing in expanding an oil pipeline that already exists. To put it in a wider perspective, the general estimate for the Keystone XL pipeline rings in at around 7 billion. Instead, we should invest that money installing clean, renewable sources of power right near major coastal populations where it is needed most. Or, we can continue to delay the inevitable and invest in a dwindling dirty fuel while ignoring its litany of
Yes, there are those who still curiously regard fossil fuels as the only realistic energy sources for our world. It is a dead-end if there ever was one; an idea largely propagated by the fossil fuel biz and their political front men and women. Thankfully, for those who understand the inescapable necessity of renewable clean energy, the options just keep growing.
Meet the solar tower, a solar-based energy source that is an intriguing mix of solar and wind energy. A company named “Enviromission” has its sights on Arizona to build this massive tower. It’s essentially an enormous greenhouse that traps air heated by the sun’s rays. Hot air naturally rises, and as the air does so it is funneled through a central point (the tower), the base of which sports an array of fans that are turned by the current just like a windmill.
A detailed description of the tower can be found here including its numerous advantages. For starters, it is low maintenance, continues to work at night, has zero GHG emissions, makes use of essentially useless desert, and the list still goes on. This earlier, smaller version in Spain recently achieved the huge milestone of generating twenty-four hours of uninterrupted supply, proving solar energy can provide power well into the night!
This is just one of many options that are currently available and make the reality of renewable energy all the more imminent. Add some wind energy, solar thermal and solar PV, some geothermal for good measure, and we’re well on our way to a cleaner, sustainable future.
In case you had not heard, Republicans recently attempted to push through legislation to repeal a law regarding light-bulb efficiency from 2007. Thankfully, they failed (H.R. 2417). The bill, authored by Texas Republican Joe Barton, was aimed at a modest bit of law mandating a 30% increase in efficiency of incandescent bulbs by 2012. Who could argue with that? After all, many of the more expensive CFL and LEDs are cheaper in the long run anyway. They consume less energy and last much longer. That’s a win-win, right?
Not surprisingly, Republicans cried foul under their time-honored tradition of predictable rhetoric, insisting it’s really about consumer choice and opposing Big Government. Big Government is going to choose your light bulbs for you! No freedom! No freedom to do what? Choose inferior, more wasteful products that are more expensive in the long run?
That such a preference is assumed of us isn’t just insulting to our intelligence, but to our character as well. It expects and encourages consumers to not have any broader sense of responsibility or concern for our resources and environment. We can’t even be bothered to use efficient light bulbs. It’s basically the opposite of a “ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country,” type mentality. Not only are energy-efficient light bulbs better for the environment, but they’re better for the wallet as well. CFLs pay for themselves in about 9 months time, after which they begin saving you money on your energy bills as they use about one-fourth of the energy of a regular incandescent. They typically last about 10 times longer. LEDs use about a quarter of the energy of incandescent bulbs, and can last as much as 25 times longer! How was this even an issue?
Attempts at legislation like this are hardly indicative of leadership in the face of widespread environmental degradation and the mounting challenges of climate change. Much more extensive initiatives are needed to really put a dent in man-made climate change and to improve our long-term energy security. Meanwhile, we have a number of representatives opposed to something as simple as higher standards in light bulbs! As if this uphill battle wasn’t steep enough.
Lately, the news is ablaze with reports about the wildfires burning out west. Climate scientists, to the chagrin of many climate change deniers, have published studies that indicate how climate change is exacerbating wildfires, as noted recently in the Huffington Post and New York Times, just for starters.
Surely, environmental activists have been repeatedly frustrated by the denial crowd’s steadfast rejection of anything implying a more complicated dynamic in nature than they would allow, as a means of abasing concern and therefore action on environmental issues.
No academics are saying explicitly that global warming caused this fire, that drought, or those tornadoes. In the world of anthrogenic climate change, change happens over time, one subtle increment after another resulting in different long-term trends. And, as we all know by now, in the world of politically tainted discourse, subtlety knows no quarter. Perhaps debating with deniers is a lost cause, but what about the many who are “on the fence” so to speak, and the many more who are simply apathetic to the necessity of renewable energy?
The thing is, for the sake of conveying urgency in climate and renewable energy action, there exists an abundance of not so subtle, perhaps even ridiculous examples of environmental degradation that tie directly into fossil fuel consumption and thus global warming. From entire mountains disappearing in Appalachia and the ensuing toxic runoff, to people apparently being able to ignite their tap water on fire as seen in the 2010 documentary, “Gasland”, to the now infamous Gulf Spill, what exactly does it take to get people to engage?
Unfortunately, a major hurdle appears to be that only when a community is unambiguously and dramatically affected by some form of environmental issue do they take action. But, massive grassroots action is needed immediately to curtail the eventual dramatic consequences of say, a subtle increase in global temperature. Icecaps and glaciers worldwide are already melting at alarming rates, threatening our coastal cities. By the time these cities are inundated and there is no room for apathy, it will be too late. Ideas anyone?
Yes, the world’s major economies are powered first and foremost by dirty fossil fuels.
In case you missed it, Annapolis
Number of earthquakes worldwide in 1990: 16,590—-number in 2008: 31,777
-U.S. Geological Society National Earthquake Information
I have to say that when I first started hearing about this possible connection a couple of years ago, I was kind of a skeptic. Part of me reacted, “Hey, we’re already contending with head-in-the-sand people Continue reading
For the last several months CCAN has been actively involved with a new national alliance of climate, religious, environmental, labor, public interest and community-based groups. It was formed after the passage of the cap-and-trade, Waxman-Markey climate legislation in the House of Representatives last June to advocate for “solutions to climate change that withstand the reality check of the best scientific evidence, the precautionary principle, the values of fairness and justice, the polluter pays principle, and the need for U.S. policies to be consistent with robust international responses.”
The CRC alliance’s statement of purpose went on to say:
“We are committed to speaking out about these failures of leadership, supporting real progress from elected officials and regulatory agencies, and doing all we can to change our country’s political response until it is consistent with environmental justice and the reality of what is needed to avoid potentially catastrophic climate change and energy impacts.
“Our groups have a variety of strengths, and we believe that by working together, we can leverage these strengths to contribute to a broader movement for climate justice and true climate and energy solutions.”
One of CRC’s first actions was to organize an open letter to Senator Barbara Boxer and others in the Senate in late August, 2009 signed by close to 400 organizations. It called for Senate legislation on climate much stronger than Waxman-Markey, legislation that “provides the transformational change and greenhouse emissions reductions required to avert catastrophic climate impacts.”
In mid-July of 2010 CRC coordinated a July-August “No More Oil Spills” month of action, which included a demonstration on the three month anniversary of the BP Gulf disaster by about 150 people on Capitol Hill. CCAN played a major role in this action.
About 25 organizations have joined so far, with an outreach campaign to enlist additional groups about to be launched. Some of the member groups include: Friends of the Earth, Center for Biological Diversity, 350.org, Church World Service, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Greenpeace, Labor Network for Sustainability and Public Citizen.
The coalition has established several active committees to advance its work. It meets weekly via national conference calls. It is an important new development and shows every indication that it will be a growing and increasingly visible part of the climate movement next year and in coming years.
For more information go to http://www.climaterealitycheck.org.