An alternative annual report for Chevron was drafted. It highlights the human and environmental cost of Chevron's activities around the world and shines light on why we want a different system of procuring energy. Check out the site and the report.
With Obama in the whitehouse new coal fired power plants were supposed to not be built again, but the administration is rescinding and now in the Markey-Waxman bill new coal plants will be allowed to be built under certain conditions due to the coal industry's new lobbying effort that touts "clean coal" as the way of the future. The real gem behind "clean coal" is not an effort to protect the health of humans and our environment but is a desperate grasp at the remaining coal reserves that are large enough to power the US and China for the next 350 years. Clean Coal is a sham.
Check out this "off grid" home, it costs over $500,000 to make but it is more environmental than your home. It is shocking to me that people are so willing to spend money on luxury items, many people have homes worth over 1/2 million dollars so why not demand low emissions with your luxury goods? A note about the article: hydrogen power is a technology that is not developing quickly and it emits water vapor, many people do not know that water vapor is a more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2.
Check this funny thing out, the video is gross but helps your imagination become more active about the wide-reaching changes that Climate Change will bring. Apparently mucus blobs occur in the ocean and with recent changes these blobs are becoming more popular; they house dangerous bacteria and viruses and suffocate sea-life.
Climate Change Science needs to be as accurate as possible to help non-believers alter their beliefs. This article from Science reveals a recent study finding that CO2 emissions have been increasing for thousands of years due to natural processes, the earth is naturally heating up as it arises out of an ice age and we are speeding up that process making earth inhospitable to us.
To our knowledge Earth has been through 5 mass extinction periods, this is the 6th. The loss of habitat is the greatest threat, World Resources Institute provides some commentary, figures and facts.
Companies and scientists are trying to harvest hydrocarbons from algea, it would mean oil forever! This article follows a recent college graduate that tried to get a job with one of these projects and was unable. The promises from algae seem to be inflated and the government is throwing millions at it, and like hydrogen battery cells commercial viability is so far off we might be better off focusing on more promising technologies.
The developing world is spending its energy on growing their economy out of poverty, they have been demanding money from the industrialized countries to little avail. These countries will increase emissions greatly for the next several decades with or without our help. We can give them the tools to develop environmentally or we can leave them to act like poor people; poor people do what is necessary for survival today, not tomorrow. If I was in their position I would do no different.
River Delta's are sinking and Science reveals some new studies about it.
Showing posts with label coal fired power plants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label coal fired power plants. Show all posts
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Change for the better, Politicizing for the worse
With the US government taking climate change as a serious threat politicians and lobbyists now step in to ruin a good intention. The deffinition of "renewable" is now being lobbied. Lobbyists for energy companies that ruin our environment are trying to get federal money for doing what they have always been doing like burning spent coal or capturing methane and re-using it or for burning food waste. The point of subsidizing renewable energy is to help wind and solar and wave to gain a footing in the energy market. Certainly we want companies to do things like capture their waste and re-use it but a federal subsidy is not needed to encourage this. We will see how watered down this vital effort gets.
The world business summit on climate change will occur next weekend and companies like shell are using the rhetoric of change while changing little. Shell's big plan is to just wait for carbon capture technology to develop in the next 10-20years and then use it when it is cheap enough for them to want to use it. Climate Change has a time line and waiting that long to reduce emissions is ineffective in mitigating Climate Change. This summit should be amusing as businesses come together to explain why we should do something about Climate Change while they do very little.
Steven Chu is the US Energy Secretary and he is making some contentious decisions. First, Chu is favoring the building of new coal fired power plants. This is unacceptable because every coal plant built today will burn coal until at least 2050. The understanding of environmentalists was that Chu would not allow another to be built under his watch, Chu is not gung-ho about coal plants, but is giving the nod to build more. Chu is also trying to get some reactors going that turn spent nuclear waste into a form that has a drastically smaller radioactive half-life. By doing this Chu would be making the spent nuclear fuel storage facility planned for mountains in Nevada unneeded. Finally, Chu is reducing the government funding of the hydrogen car, many are mad about this but hydrogen is a nowhere technology that was loved by GM and Bush because they could talk about it all day without the risk of having to make a single hydrogen car because there are too many obstacles for this technology. Also, to get fuel for these cars is so energy intensive it makes the car not the environmental thing that people want it to be.
Restructuring our infrastructure to be more "environmental" creates a lot of jobs!
Pollution damages our bodies we all know, but a study that is highlighted by National Geographic explains some of the newest research on the subject.
Canada is pulling oil out of a thing called the Alberta Tar Sands. It is drastically more energy intensive to get oil from sand fields then from tar deposits. The Alberta Tar Sands have 350 years of extraction left but it is expensive to extract and very costly to the environment as these sands lay below a forest and multiple meters of soil. In the Pacific NW of the US 10% of all oil comes from these sands, this topic is very important and you should research it more.
The world business summit on climate change will occur next weekend and companies like shell are using the rhetoric of change while changing little. Shell's big plan is to just wait for carbon capture technology to develop in the next 10-20years and then use it when it is cheap enough for them to want to use it. Climate Change has a time line and waiting that long to reduce emissions is ineffective in mitigating Climate Change. This summit should be amusing as businesses come together to explain why we should do something about Climate Change while they do very little.
Steven Chu is the US Energy Secretary and he is making some contentious decisions. First, Chu is favoring the building of new coal fired power plants. This is unacceptable because every coal plant built today will burn coal until at least 2050. The understanding of environmentalists was that Chu would not allow another to be built under his watch, Chu is not gung-ho about coal plants, but is giving the nod to build more. Chu is also trying to get some reactors going that turn spent nuclear waste into a form that has a drastically smaller radioactive half-life. By doing this Chu would be making the spent nuclear fuel storage facility planned for mountains in Nevada unneeded. Finally, Chu is reducing the government funding of the hydrogen car, many are mad about this but hydrogen is a nowhere technology that was loved by GM and Bush because they could talk about it all day without the risk of having to make a single hydrogen car because there are too many obstacles for this technology. Also, to get fuel for these cars is so energy intensive it makes the car not the environmental thing that people want it to be.
Restructuring our infrastructure to be more "environmental" creates a lot of jobs!
Pollution damages our bodies we all know, but a study that is highlighted by National Geographic explains some of the newest research on the subject.
Canada is pulling oil out of a thing called the Alberta Tar Sands. It is drastically more energy intensive to get oil from sand fields then from tar deposits. The Alberta Tar Sands have 350 years of extraction left but it is expensive to extract and very costly to the environment as these sands lay below a forest and multiple meters of soil. In the Pacific NW of the US 10% of all oil comes from these sands, this topic is very important and you should research it more.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Moving Forward
China burns the most coal out of any country and is taking steps to reduce their CO2 emissions while continuing to be crutched on coal energy. Their performance is not ideal, but it will be impactful.
One of Obama's budget cuts will be the hydrogen energy project. Bush II supported a hydrogen economy without acknowledging the obstacles, Obama is now stepping away from it to focus on more likely alternative fuels.
Solar energy harvesting technology is advancing, making it cheaper; cheaper than oil. This the point at which alternative fuels can overtake fossil fuels, when the market signals via price people respond, and in this case they stop using oil.
The Pika (a cute little mammal) might be listed as endangered due to global warming.
One of Obama's budget cuts will be the hydrogen energy project. Bush II supported a hydrogen economy without acknowledging the obstacles, Obama is now stepping away from it to focus on more likely alternative fuels.
Solar energy harvesting technology is advancing, making it cheaper; cheaper than oil. This the point at which alternative fuels can overtake fossil fuels, when the market signals via price people respond, and in this case they stop using oil.
The Pika (a cute little mammal) might be listed as endangered due to global warming.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
The world steps up to the Climate Change Challenge
The US is fast tracking climate change legislation in the federal Congress, US industry supports it, now only republicans that are repeating old arguments are the opposition and many republicans are giving up the old rhetoric so they can become involved in the shaping of the legislation.
China is investing more in renewable energy than the US and is figuring out how to become more environmental within Chinese Politics. But, the path will not be smooth as China steps away from their project of building the world's first"green city".
The British government has mandated that every coal fired power plant built from now on has to have a carbon sequestration device attached to it. This will raise the price of coal energy and clear the path for renewable energy to be cheaper for consumers. Also, the US is looking towards never building another coal fired power plant or nuclear power plant ever again.
The downturn is slowing and the world's leaders are looking to establish some permanent changes to create a more stable world economy. The recovery of the global market will decide the inertia for environmentalism and social justice. The world economy stabalizing is good for consumption and can be good for the environment, we will see the results in the next several decades.
Wave technology is developing; with large projects being started now they may be a cornerstone of our energy production in the next decade.
China is investing more in renewable energy than the US and is figuring out how to become more environmental within Chinese Politics. But, the path will not be smooth as China steps away from their project of building the world's first"green city".
The British government has mandated that every coal fired power plant built from now on has to have a carbon sequestration device attached to it. This will raise the price of coal energy and clear the path for renewable energy to be cheaper for consumers. Also, the US is looking towards never building another coal fired power plant or nuclear power plant ever again.
The downturn is slowing and the world's leaders are looking to establish some permanent changes to create a more stable world economy. The recovery of the global market will decide the inertia for environmentalism and social justice. The world economy stabalizing is good for consumption and can be good for the environment, we will see the results in the next several decades.
Wave technology is developing; with large projects being started now they may be a cornerstone of our energy production in the next decade.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
2/15/09: The bailout bill is covered in green. Is it enough? No, but it is something, $60 billion of something.
The stimulus package being passed currently carries $60 billion for the development of a green economy. This large pulse of money was made possible by a financial crisis and an environmental crisis. Disturbance yields progression.
Bio-fuels have been a large controversy because they either divert farm land from food production to fuel production or they convert land from wilderness. Cellulosic ethanol is the new thing. It is amazing because it uses the inedible parts of plants to create fuel. This article discusses the rise of this fuel, but it views it as a process that does replace food crops instead of portraying cellulosic ethanol as a way to make fuel out of plant waste. This article however does discuss this aspect of cellulosic ethanol.
This article from The Guardian is a letter from Jim Hansen, a climatologist at NASA, explaining that coal fired power plants need to be shut down and no more should be built. He also defends the theory of Global Climate Change, but this article is important because it gets to one of the biggest roots of our problems: the existence of coal fired power plants.
Two satellites have been put into Earth's orbit to record green house gas concentrations in our atmosphere. To know the solution we need to know the problem. These two satellites will greatly aid us in intelligently deciding what to do about global warming.
As sarcastic as the Economist can be, this article shows what happens when an environmental movement is fractured and has activists that are unwise. Why are extremist environmentalists unwise? Because they demand perfect outcomes for the environment and by not negotiating they lose out on doing any good at all. Environmentalism should never forget the needs of humans, we are our environment.
Populist American support for prosecuting Bush II is on the rise.
Also, Halliburton is being prosecuted for their illegal actions. Read about it.
Bio-fuels have been a large controversy because they either divert farm land from food production to fuel production or they convert land from wilderness. Cellulosic ethanol is the new thing. It is amazing because it uses the inedible parts of plants to create fuel. This article discusses the rise of this fuel, but it views it as a process that does replace food crops instead of portraying cellulosic ethanol as a way to make fuel out of plant waste. This article however does discuss this aspect of cellulosic ethanol.
This article from The Guardian is a letter from Jim Hansen, a climatologist at NASA, explaining that coal fired power plants need to be shut down and no more should be built. He also defends the theory of Global Climate Change, but this article is important because it gets to one of the biggest roots of our problems: the existence of coal fired power plants.
Two satellites have been put into Earth's orbit to record green house gas concentrations in our atmosphere. To know the solution we need to know the problem. These two satellites will greatly aid us in intelligently deciding what to do about global warming.
As sarcastic as the Economist can be, this article shows what happens when an environmental movement is fractured and has activists that are unwise. Why are extremist environmentalists unwise? Because they demand perfect outcomes for the environment and by not negotiating they lose out on doing any good at all. Environmentalism should never forget the needs of humans, we are our environment.
Populist American support for prosecuting Bush II is on the rise.
Also, Halliburton is being prosecuted for their illegal actions. Read about it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
