Month: January 2012

USAToday:

On the heels of a disastrous weather year in the USA, and with the long presidential campaign season looming, a new study finds that people who have endured extreme weather events are more likely to support environmental legislation, even if it means restricting individual freedoms.

The study was led by Ann Owen, a professor of economics at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y.

Additionally, the authors write in the study that “our results are consistent with the idea that experiencing extreme weather causes individuals to become more aware of the issue of global warming, and increases their perception of the risk of global warming.”

The study findings are based on an Internet survey of about 2,500 Americans, conducted in August 2009 by Owen and three other Hamilton College economists.

Deniers are sure to fix on the “restricting individual freedoms” phrase.  Allow me to translate what that means in today’s bizarro-world looking-glass political lingo.

“Individual freedoms” no longer means freedom of speech, press, thought, worship, or assembly.  Those are airy-fairy concepts for pointy headed constitutional scholars.
“Laws restricting individual freedoms” means laws that prohibit tobacco addicts from blowing smoke in your baby’s face, Oil companies from poisoning your well, or laws that set a bar for energy efficient products or sustainable energy production, that make companies, and the communities they serve, more competitive, efficient, and prosperous.

 

Bloomberg:

In the Facebook-inspired movie “The Social Network,” Justin Timberlake-as- Sean Parker memorably defines a meaningful amount of money: “A million dollars isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? A billion dollars.”

In the energy world, you’d better multiply all seemingly huge numbers by 1,000. A billion dollars isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? A trillion dollars. Here’s why.

Sometime in the two weeks before the UN climate conference in Durban, the world passed $1 trillion mark in clean energy investment since 2004. That’s a trillion dollars in solar and wind power plants, in bioenergy production facilities, in smart meters and smart grids, in assets, public markets, research and development.

Even for the energy world, it’s a big number, and one that grew quickly. The world invested $52 billion in clean energy in 2004, and $243 billion last year. That’s a 29 percent compound growth rate, sufficient for total yearly investment to double in less than three years. It’s capital deployment that has increased every year even with tremendous macroeconomic headwinds and uncertain policies in Europe and the US. Last year’s $243 billion is right about halfway to the yearly investment which Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimates is necessary to slow climate change.

The  (6 minute long) video above is an excerpt from a longer talk by Lester Brown, founder of the Earth Policy Institute, given in late 2011. Brown is the author of Plan B 4.0, the latest in a series of prescriptions for a new, sustainable society.

The longer talk, highly recommended, is here.  I’ll be posting another excerpt, on the coal industry, tomorrow.

From the American Wind Energy Association:

WASHINGTON, DC, December 27, 2011– Wind power hits 20 percent overall in two states. It contributes a record 50 percent for a period of time in another. And the turbines that pump out all those electrons? Their cost has dropped 33 percent.

The wind power industry never sits still in any given year, and 2011 was no different, as it forged ahead with a slew of benchmarks, policy progress, and hard data that illustrate wind energy continuing its march forward as a mainstream, reliable and affordable energy source made in America.

The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) has established a tradition of taking a look back in December at the events that shaped the year in wind power. Here’s a look at just some of the many happenings that made 2011 yet another big year in the continued evolution of the industry.

1 – Iowa, South Dakota reach 20 percent wind penetration overall.U.S. wind industry observers no longer need look to Europe for examples of huge wind power penetrations. Both Iowa and South Dakota reached the important milestone of 20 percent of their electricity coming from wind power, a first for the U.S.And more projects are coming.

2 – Xcel Energy shatters wind barrier with 50 percent at one time. While Iowa and South Dakota lead the nation with their 20 percent wind penetration overall benchmark, a utility system in Colorado made some noise on the integration front as well. Investor-owned utility Xcel Energy set a wind power world record on the morning of October 6, when subsidiary Public Service Co. of Colorado got 55.6 percent of the electricity on its system at one time from wind power, as reported in the Denver Post. The leading utility for wind power on its wires, Xcel Energy is proving once again that large amounts of wind can be successfully integrated onto the grid.

Continue reading “Wind Power Roars into 2012”

There are many more ways than one to skin this cat – it’s going to be while before they all shake out.

One solution being deployed to increase range and convenience in electric vehicles is from the company Better Place, and currently up-and-running in Israel, Denmark, and soon, Australia.

You don’t have to recharge a car’s battery, because you don’t own the battery – the battery is swappable, and replaced when it’s discharged.

Below, battery swap station in operation in Israel.

Continue reading “Better Place. The Swappable Battery Solution for Electric Cars.”

I’ve reported on Texas’ drought-enhanced Tumbleweed Terror. Now there’s a deluge of abandoned donkeys.

Wall Street Journal:

DALLAS—Law-enforcement agencies in Texas are grappling with an unusual problem: stray donkeys, which are roaming roads and fields in growing numbers and overwhelming animal shelters.
The donkey predicament is one of the odder ramifications of the record-setting drought that has dried up Texas. Hay supplies have shriveled, causing prices for a bale to more than double over the past year.
Now, authorities say, owners who no longer can afford to feed their donkeys are turning them loose.”The donkey problem is epidemic,” said Patrick Bonner, senior sergeant at the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department. “We’re inundated.”
NPR has the  story, see part of the transcript below – Robert Siegel interviews a Donkey-deluged deputy:

Continue reading “Donkey Deluge Dogs Drought Devastated Texas”

From lawareables.com –

This ice-breaking design symbolizes several of the elements identified with global climate change: the Keeling Curve, a graph measuring the rising concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide in the atmosphere since 1958; greenhouse gas molecules representative of CO2, methane, nitrous oxide and ozone; and a perplexed polar bear in a precarious perch atop an ice patch. Many thanks to the members of the Purdue Climate Change Research Center, and its director, Dr. Paul Shepson, for their input on this unique design and for their important work on this timely issue. The Boilermaker gold and black is duly represented!!

Or, to clear a room even faster, check out the Dental Plaque, or MRSA designs.