With Donald Trump’s appointments leaning to climate change deniers, it is interesting to note that China is being very aggressive about addressing climate change.
See “China emerges as global climate leader in wake of Trump’s triumph”, Isabel Hilton, The Guardian, 2016-11-22.
Showing posts with label alternative energy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label alternative energy. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
Thursday, April 24, 2014
World Peace in Four Easy Steps
OK! Maybe the following aren’t easy steps, but compared to the money and effort that have gone into weapons, wars, and stock market manipulation, these should be child’s play.
First, invest heavily in the development and deployment of alternative energy, both small-scale and large-scale. The main benefits are reducing poverty, slowing global warming, and reducing the power of petro-dictators. This investment is already happening in many places and at many levels.
You don’t have to look hard to find news about a large array of solar panels, a new purchase of wind turbines, or some large-scale energy savings. Germany gets over ten percent of its energy from wind, and some German states get half from wind. Overall, Europe gets about eight percent of its electricity from wind, up from seven percent in 2012. I won’t bore you with a long list of statistics, but you can easily find many sites that describe the deployment of wind energy.
Energy is being generated many places on a small scale. Last week’s Reader had an article from the Christian Science Monitor about Greenlight Planet, a company that is making low-cost solar lamps. If the article is to be believed, Greenlight Planet’s Sun King lights do better than my solar shed light for our outhouse. The Sun King light supposedly lasts 30 hours without recharging. If I leave my shed light on overnight, the batteries drain to the point that they won’t even recharge! Unfortunately, according to the Greenlight Planet website, you can only buy a sample if you live in India. Otherwise, you have to find a dealer.
And some renewable energy projects start even smaller. William Kamkwamba, age 14, of Malawi started creating windmills just to have a light to read by at night, he then provided light for all in his village, and then a water pump.
Second, invest heavily in moving water to where it is needed, either by rain or by moving desalinated seawater.
One of the problems Kamkwamba’s village faced was periodic droughts, some of them deadly. With his windmills, he was able to pump water from a dug well. This also saved women from making long treks to water sources.
But we know that we can stress our water sources, from overusing wells to draining lakes. Remember the Aral Sea that almost dried up. It is coming back, slowly.
China is working on some huge desalination projects, but these will meet only some of the demand of its large cities. Israel depends on desalination for half of its fresh water.
Desalination (also called desalinization) works best near oceans and can cost a lot to move inland or to higher elevations. I don’t know what moving water inland costs, but consider that desalination can cost three dollars for one thousand gallons, but the same amount of bottled water would cost nearly eight thousand dollars!
I often wonder if spraying seawater into offshore winds could induce rain inland. Will the evaporation drop out the salt sufficiently that it won’t harm the land? If a lot of moisture is introduced this way, will it cause damaging thunderstorms? Will we sow the wind and reap the whirlwind?
Third, invest heavily in soil building either by using natural fertilizers or by planting more trees. Increasing the amount of fresh water doesn’t do us much good if it only washes the soil away. Dumping lots of chemicals on soil is only ruining it over the long term. Clear-cutting larger and larger tracts of land is allowing more soil to be blown away.
Animal waste can either be a contaminant or a sustainable fertilizer. Dairy operations and feedlots can either let the wastes infiltrate our fresh water or improve the soil for other farmers. Even human wastes can be used to improve soil. The Western Lake Superior Solid Waste District (WLSSD) processes garden waste, food waste and human waste into fertilizer. The first two are made into garden fertilizer; the second into farm fertilizer. WLSSD produces over 30,000 tons of the latter every year. What would our drinking water be like without that treatment? What would our health be like? Too many people in the world find these answers the hard way. How do we ensure that these techniques are scalable all around the world?
The fourth step is that we could probably pay for all these improvements all over the world just with what the United States spends for all kinds of military equipment. The Nuclear Threat Initiative estimates that the United States could spend one trillion dollars to upgrade its nuclear arsenal. My guess that such upgrades in other countries combined would be half as much. Let’s put that in numerals. My guess of worldwide upgrades would be $1,500,000,000,000!! Some readers would like to have savings of $15,000; others would be glad to have $150 in savings. That $1,500,000,000,000 is over $200 for every man, woman, and child in the world. Some of them would like to have that $200 just to survive for a year.
So, what are our world leaders doing about this over-abundance of killing equipment? Dithering about cutting back what they have and posturing with it whenever they don’t like what others are doing. Do we have any grown-ups around to get these big kids to stop playing games with other people’s lives? This is the hardest step of the four steps to world peace!
Also published in the Reader Weekly of Duluth at http://duluthreader.com/articles/2014/04/24/3274_world_peace_in_four_easy_steps
You can find more of my thoughts at
http://magree.blogspot.com
First, invest heavily in the development and deployment of alternative energy, both small-scale and large-scale. The main benefits are reducing poverty, slowing global warming, and reducing the power of petro-dictators. This investment is already happening in many places and at many levels.
You don’t have to look hard to find news about a large array of solar panels, a new purchase of wind turbines, or some large-scale energy savings. Germany gets over ten percent of its energy from wind, and some German states get half from wind. Overall, Europe gets about eight percent of its electricity from wind, up from seven percent in 2012. I won’t bore you with a long list of statistics, but you can easily find many sites that describe the deployment of wind energy.
Energy is being generated many places on a small scale. Last week’s Reader had an article from the Christian Science Monitor about Greenlight Planet, a company that is making low-cost solar lamps. If the article is to be believed, Greenlight Planet’s Sun King lights do better than my solar shed light for our outhouse. The Sun King light supposedly lasts 30 hours without recharging. If I leave my shed light on overnight, the batteries drain to the point that they won’t even recharge! Unfortunately, according to the Greenlight Planet website, you can only buy a sample if you live in India. Otherwise, you have to find a dealer.
And some renewable energy projects start even smaller. William Kamkwamba, age 14, of Malawi started creating windmills just to have a light to read by at night, he then provided light for all in his village, and then a water pump.
Second, invest heavily in moving water to where it is needed, either by rain or by moving desalinated seawater.
One of the problems Kamkwamba’s village faced was periodic droughts, some of them deadly. With his windmills, he was able to pump water from a dug well. This also saved women from making long treks to water sources.
But we know that we can stress our water sources, from overusing wells to draining lakes. Remember the Aral Sea that almost dried up. It is coming back, slowly.
China is working on some huge desalination projects, but these will meet only some of the demand of its large cities. Israel depends on desalination for half of its fresh water.
Desalination (also called desalinization) works best near oceans and can cost a lot to move inland or to higher elevations. I don’t know what moving water inland costs, but consider that desalination can cost three dollars for one thousand gallons, but the same amount of bottled water would cost nearly eight thousand dollars!
I often wonder if spraying seawater into offshore winds could induce rain inland. Will the evaporation drop out the salt sufficiently that it won’t harm the land? If a lot of moisture is introduced this way, will it cause damaging thunderstorms? Will we sow the wind and reap the whirlwind?
Third, invest heavily in soil building either by using natural fertilizers or by planting more trees. Increasing the amount of fresh water doesn’t do us much good if it only washes the soil away. Dumping lots of chemicals on soil is only ruining it over the long term. Clear-cutting larger and larger tracts of land is allowing more soil to be blown away.
Animal waste can either be a contaminant or a sustainable fertilizer. Dairy operations and feedlots can either let the wastes infiltrate our fresh water or improve the soil for other farmers. Even human wastes can be used to improve soil. The Western Lake Superior Solid Waste District (WLSSD) processes garden waste, food waste and human waste into fertilizer. The first two are made into garden fertilizer; the second into farm fertilizer. WLSSD produces over 30,000 tons of the latter every year. What would our drinking water be like without that treatment? What would our health be like? Too many people in the world find these answers the hard way. How do we ensure that these techniques are scalable all around the world?
The fourth step is that we could probably pay for all these improvements all over the world just with what the United States spends for all kinds of military equipment. The Nuclear Threat Initiative estimates that the United States could spend one trillion dollars to upgrade its nuclear arsenal. My guess that such upgrades in other countries combined would be half as much. Let’s put that in numerals. My guess of worldwide upgrades would be $1,500,000,000,000!! Some readers would like to have savings of $15,000; others would be glad to have $150 in savings. That $1,500,000,000,000 is over $200 for every man, woman, and child in the world. Some of them would like to have that $200 just to survive for a year.
So, what are our world leaders doing about this over-abundance of killing equipment? Dithering about cutting back what they have and posturing with it whenever they don’t like what others are doing. Do we have any grown-ups around to get these big kids to stop playing games with other people’s lives? This is the hardest step of the four steps to world peace!
Also published in the Reader Weekly of Duluth at http://duluthreader.com/articles/2014/04/24/3274_world_peace_in_four_easy_steps
You can find more of my thoughts at
http://magree.blogspot.com
Thursday, January 02, 2014
Resolutions, predictions, and premonitions
First, here are my guaranteed true predictions:
I won't break any of my New Year’s resolutions.
The stock market will go up and the stock market will go down.
The nation-wide turnout for the November elections will definitely be less than 70% and maybe even 60%.
There will be no new major national political party. I really hope I am wrong on this.
There will be updates for major fixes in almost all major computer software.
The first prediction is easy. I won’t break any New Year’s resolutions because I don’t make them. I do make plans and to-do lists, some of which I accomplish or do, but too often the items get pushed down and forgotten.
I have made a major commitment to be on a plant-based diet, aka vegan diet. In one of those little bits of randomness, when I saw the animation in the DVD “Forks over Knives” of plaque going off an artery, I was hooked on trying it. Essentially it’s avoiding meat, eggs, and dairy. There went yogurt on my oatmeal and my once a week omelet.
For the most part I’ve stuck to it. Within a week of starting, a friend sent us some Alaskan salmon. It is a standing joke with my wife and I that I get the bones and she doesn’t. Would you believe that almost every piece I ate had a bone and one had three!
The Freethinkers had their December monthly social at Gannucchi’s. Just my luck that every item on the menu had cheese and/or meat. So I went with a turkey sandwich, figuring that was the leanest meat that I could get. The organizers of the monthly social plan to go back in January. I think I better call ahead to Gannucchi’s.
We have our three-year-old grandson from Japan with us. At one visit to the grocery store, he chose a sushi tray. Four of the pieces had salmon. But then he didn’t want those. He wanted only the rice under the salmon. So, Grandpa “had to eat” one of those pieces of salmon.
I hope I don’t get stuck in any of these situations again before my next cardiologist visit. I would like to see an improvement in my flow rate.
The prediction on turnout is easy, because we have so many people who don’t bother to show up, even when they have registered to vote. I don’t know if they are just plain lazy or don’t like any of the candidates. They don’t seem to realize that by not voting, they increase the odds of seeing the candidate they favor least elected.
There will be no new major party unless some national leaders create it. The Green Party has been around for years, but it has not become a major force in politics. The Independent Party of Minnesota has been around since Jesse Ventura won as a Reform Party candidate. There will be a “Forum for Building Progressive Political Power” on January 11 at “Copper Top”. But will the usual “liberal” suspects be able to engage more than each other? The only real hope is that a large number of “moderates” at the national level say enough is enough. It happened in 1854 with only thirty people meeting in Ripon, Wisconsin. The result was the Republican Party had a winning presidential candidate in 1860. Aren’t we past due for a re-alignment? Wouldn’t those who met in Ripon because they didn’t want to compromise on slavery be surprised to learn that their party has morphed into a party that doesn’t want to compromise on corporate interests?
What else can I predict than the no-brainers above?
No major advances will be made on abating global warming, at least at the government level. Many people will do their part on using less energy, but these people will only make a small dent in the emissions. Some municipalities or counties will plant more trees to absorb some of the carbon dioxide.
The sleeper may be China. As the complaints increase about the air pollution in many Chinese cities, the authorities may make a major push for alternative energy sources. This might include major grants to universities and companies to produce more efficient and cheaper energy sources. If they do so, the United States will be a major loser on the manufacturing side. Something the U.S. should have taken seriously, would you believe, in Jimmy Carter’s presidency!
There probably won’t be any major wars, but there will be plenty of local wars and terrorist attacks. Let’s hope Russia can take sufficient steps to thwart any who want to upset the Winter Games at Sochi.
I seriously doubt that there will be any major propaganda push to negate the appeal of hardline Islamists. The Qu’ran, like the Bible, certainly has many passages that call for peace and warn against violence.
My premonition is that China and the U.S. will continue their power play to assert their authority wherever they think their “vital interests” are at stake. Even though it is much more in either’s interests to avoid conflict, hardliners in either capitol could escalate the situation to the point of open war. Think Sarajevo and World War I.
I doubt if any leaders are going to step forward and say “enough”. “We really need to cut down on military expenses. We all could make better use of our resources.”
To end on a brighter note, may you have a happy and prosperous new year!
This was published in the 2014-01-02 edition of the Reader Weekly at http://duluthreader.com/articles/2014/01/02/2696_resolutions_predictions_and_premonitions.
I won't break any of my New Year’s resolutions.
The stock market will go up and the stock market will go down.
The nation-wide turnout for the November elections will definitely be less than 70% and maybe even 60%.
There will be no new major national political party. I really hope I am wrong on this.
There will be updates for major fixes in almost all major computer software.
The first prediction is easy. I won’t break any New Year’s resolutions because I don’t make them. I do make plans and to-do lists, some of which I accomplish or do, but too often the items get pushed down and forgotten.
I have made a major commitment to be on a plant-based diet, aka vegan diet. In one of those little bits of randomness, when I saw the animation in the DVD “Forks over Knives” of plaque going off an artery, I was hooked on trying it. Essentially it’s avoiding meat, eggs, and dairy. There went yogurt on my oatmeal and my once a week omelet.
For the most part I’ve stuck to it. Within a week of starting, a friend sent us some Alaskan salmon. It is a standing joke with my wife and I that I get the bones and she doesn’t. Would you believe that almost every piece I ate had a bone and one had three!
The Freethinkers had their December monthly social at Gannucchi’s. Just my luck that every item on the menu had cheese and/or meat. So I went with a turkey sandwich, figuring that was the leanest meat that I could get. The organizers of the monthly social plan to go back in January. I think I better call ahead to Gannucchi’s.
We have our three-year-old grandson from Japan with us. At one visit to the grocery store, he chose a sushi tray. Four of the pieces had salmon. But then he didn’t want those. He wanted only the rice under the salmon. So, Grandpa “had to eat” one of those pieces of salmon.
I hope I don’t get stuck in any of these situations again before my next cardiologist visit. I would like to see an improvement in my flow rate.
The prediction on turnout is easy, because we have so many people who don’t bother to show up, even when they have registered to vote. I don’t know if they are just plain lazy or don’t like any of the candidates. They don’t seem to realize that by not voting, they increase the odds of seeing the candidate they favor least elected.
There will be no new major party unless some national leaders create it. The Green Party has been around for years, but it has not become a major force in politics. The Independent Party of Minnesota has been around since Jesse Ventura won as a Reform Party candidate. There will be a “Forum for Building Progressive Political Power” on January 11 at “Copper Top”. But will the usual “liberal” suspects be able to engage more than each other? The only real hope is that a large number of “moderates” at the national level say enough is enough. It happened in 1854 with only thirty people meeting in Ripon, Wisconsin. The result was the Republican Party had a winning presidential candidate in 1860. Aren’t we past due for a re-alignment? Wouldn’t those who met in Ripon because they didn’t want to compromise on slavery be surprised to learn that their party has morphed into a party that doesn’t want to compromise on corporate interests?
What else can I predict than the no-brainers above?
No major advances will be made on abating global warming, at least at the government level. Many people will do their part on using less energy, but these people will only make a small dent in the emissions. Some municipalities or counties will plant more trees to absorb some of the carbon dioxide.
The sleeper may be China. As the complaints increase about the air pollution in many Chinese cities, the authorities may make a major push for alternative energy sources. This might include major grants to universities and companies to produce more efficient and cheaper energy sources. If they do so, the United States will be a major loser on the manufacturing side. Something the U.S. should have taken seriously, would you believe, in Jimmy Carter’s presidency!
There probably won’t be any major wars, but there will be plenty of local wars and terrorist attacks. Let’s hope Russia can take sufficient steps to thwart any who want to upset the Winter Games at Sochi.
I seriously doubt that there will be any major propaganda push to negate the appeal of hardline Islamists. The Qu’ran, like the Bible, certainly has many passages that call for peace and warn against violence.
My premonition is that China and the U.S. will continue their power play to assert their authority wherever they think their “vital interests” are at stake. Even though it is much more in either’s interests to avoid conflict, hardliners in either capitol could escalate the situation to the point of open war. Think Sarajevo and World War I.
I doubt if any leaders are going to step forward and say “enough”. “We really need to cut down on military expenses. We all could make better use of our resources.”
To end on a brighter note, may you have a happy and prosperous new year!
This was published in the 2014-01-02 edition of the Reader Weekly at http://duluthreader.com/articles/2014/01/02/2696_resolutions_predictions_and_premonitions.
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Energy – picking winners and losers
"In addition to legislative aid, Excelsior also has received a large share of financial assistance from the public sector. The company received about $22 million in development funds from the U.S. Department of Energy before the federal agency decided to cut off its support for the morphing project this summer. Initially, Excelsior had been slated to receive $36 million in support of the “clean coal” technology it aimed to develop, but the federal agency chose to stop its funding $14 million shy of that original earmark when Excelsior’s focus shifted to natural gas."
– "Key land auction for Excelsior Energy slated for today", Peter Passi, Duluth News Tribune, 2012-12-19
See also "Report: Excelsior Energy project could run out of gas", Minnesota Public Radio, 2011-08-23.
Rather than decry all these subsidies, the Minnesota State Legislature passed a law in 2008 that made the financial records reported to state agencies secret.
It is interesting that many hold alternative energy companies to a different standard than fossil fuel companies. In the one case it is crony capitalism on the part of government, and in the other case it is creating jobs. "'At the end of the day, this is a project that has not hired one full-time worker on the Iron Range. Only lawyers, lobbyists and professional meeting attenders have gotten jobs,' said Rep. Tom Anzelc, D-Balsam Township, the only Iron Range legislator who opposes the project." See MPR article.
– "Key land auction for Excelsior Energy slated for today", Peter Passi, Duluth News Tribune, 2012-12-19
See also "Report: Excelsior Energy project could run out of gas", Minnesota Public Radio, 2011-08-23.
Rather than decry all these subsidies, the Minnesota State Legislature passed a law in 2008 that made the financial records reported to state agencies secret.
It is interesting that many hold alternative energy companies to a different standard than fossil fuel companies. In the one case it is crony capitalism on the part of government, and in the other case it is creating jobs. "'At the end of the day, this is a project that has not hired one full-time worker on the Iron Range. Only lawyers, lobbyists and professional meeting attenders have gotten jobs,' said Rep. Tom Anzelc, D-Balsam Township, the only Iron Range legislator who opposes the project." See MPR article.
Monday, December 17, 2012
Disconnect on subsidies
Why is it bad to subsidize an industry such as wind or solar but it is all right to subsidize a company for locating in a particular spot?
There are many who call for an end to subsidies for alternative energy, but do they complain about subsidies for fossil fuel companies? For example, Sasol is getting a $2 billion subsidy from Louisiana to build a gas-to-liquid plant. See "Sasol Betting Big on Gas-to-Liquid Technology", John M. Broder and Clifford Krauss, New York Times, 2012-12-17.
I wonder if any economist has ever done a long-term study on the value of subsidies. I know there have been subsidies to get companies to locate in a particular city or state, and many companies abandon that city or state before the locality has even recouped its investment. I also know that government subsidies have transformed the economy mostly for the benefit of many. Lincoln called for subsidies to the transcontinental railroad which greatly improved the U.S. economy. Would we have computers and the Internet without many other government subsidies?
What we really need are some metrics that show whether a government subsidy will provide a huge social benefit or will only be a drain that lines the pockets of a few.
There are many who call for an end to subsidies for alternative energy, but do they complain about subsidies for fossil fuel companies? For example, Sasol is getting a $2 billion subsidy from Louisiana to build a gas-to-liquid plant. See "Sasol Betting Big on Gas-to-Liquid Technology", John M. Broder and Clifford Krauss, New York Times, 2012-12-17.
I wonder if any economist has ever done a long-term study on the value of subsidies. I know there have been subsidies to get companies to locate in a particular city or state, and many companies abandon that city or state before the locality has even recouped its investment. I also know that government subsidies have transformed the economy mostly for the benefit of many. Lincoln called for subsidies to the transcontinental railroad which greatly improved the U.S. economy. Would we have computers and the Internet without many other government subsidies?
What we really need are some metrics that show whether a government subsidy will provide a huge social benefit or will only be a drain that lines the pockets of a few.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Gloom and doom or bloom and boom?
Even among well-off people one hears talk of the bad economy. Yes, there are too many people without jobs or too many people that are earning far less than they would like. This is not good. But not all people are without jobs and not all people are earning less than they would like. These are not only the one percent.
As I read about manufacturing increasing, about companies not finding enough skilled employees, about all the new brew pubs being opened, seeing so many apps for iPhones being produced, and so, so many people with cell phones, lap tops, and tablets, the economy can't be that bad.
Of course it's bad if you've been kicked out of your house and lost all your equity. But there are many others still in their houses.
Daniel Gross wrote "Good News for Jobs: Rising Demand", Yahoo Finance, 2012-03-28, giving numbers for increased housing starts, increased remodeling permits, and increased sit-down restaurant business.
As more people are working, more people are spending money, which puts more people to work.
Did Bush's or Obama's stimulus packages lead to this improvement? Probably not. Well, stabilization of a bad situation helped, and once things are stable they can improve. Did high taxes hinder this improvement or low taxes encourage this improvement? Probably not. Many economic ups and downs happen independently of the tax situation.
I've often said that the government shouldn't be providing tax breaks for certain industries or subsidizing others. These often have limited impact and often backfire. What it should do is increase and target its buying. Replace vehicles and computers more frequently. Want higher gas mileage nationally, increase the fuel economy requirement for government cars. Want to promote alternative energy; put alternative energy sources on government property, even if they are only supplements. Alternative energy was set way back when Reagan took Carter's solar panels from the White House.
I think the problem is that we expect Presidents to micro-manage, not govern. That is, favor this group or that group instead of providing a broad, stable framework for people to make decisions.
As I read about manufacturing increasing, about companies not finding enough skilled employees, about all the new brew pubs being opened, seeing so many apps for iPhones being produced, and so, so many people with cell phones, lap tops, and tablets, the economy can't be that bad.
Of course it's bad if you've been kicked out of your house and lost all your equity. But there are many others still in their houses.
Daniel Gross wrote "Good News for Jobs: Rising Demand", Yahoo Finance, 2012-03-28, giving numbers for increased housing starts, increased remodeling permits, and increased sit-down restaurant business.
As more people are working, more people are spending money, which puts more people to work.
Did Bush's or Obama's stimulus packages lead to this improvement? Probably not. Well, stabilization of a bad situation helped, and once things are stable they can improve. Did high taxes hinder this improvement or low taxes encourage this improvement? Probably not. Many economic ups and downs happen independently of the tax situation.
I've often said that the government shouldn't be providing tax breaks for certain industries or subsidizing others. These often have limited impact and often backfire. What it should do is increase and target its buying. Replace vehicles and computers more frequently. Want higher gas mileage nationally, increase the fuel economy requirement for government cars. Want to promote alternative energy; put alternative energy sources on government property, even if they are only supplements. Alternative energy was set way back when Reagan took Carter's solar panels from the White House.
I think the problem is that we expect Presidents to micro-manage, not govern. That is, favor this group or that group instead of providing a broad, stable framework for people to make decisions.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)