Our Green Streets Blog

We received this uplifting correspondence from Maxine Mitchell, working at communications outreach for Steven Apfelbaum’s Applied Ecological Services (AES).

Steven Apfelbaum, founder of AES Photo: AES

Mitchell writes, “For more than three decades, Steve, and the AES team have developed land-use solutions to help farmers, companies, landowners, and communities around the world strike a balance between cost and ecology. From transforming dismal landfills and dusty iron mines into pristine preserves and prairies, Steve continues to show how ecosystem services result in healthy wild, rural, and urban landscapes while boosting the triple bottom line of people, planet and profit.”

She included an article for Green Streets to share that Mr. Apfelbaum recently wrote concerning the Gulf of Mexico and its unhealthy status even before the oil drilling disaster caused by the Deepwater Horizon accident. What he proposes here should be seriously considered by all communities, landowners, businesses and farmers wanting to help turn overwhelming problems into solutions. And while this post is longer than usual, it is very much worth reading and sharing.

Apfelbaum’s article follows (our emphasis marks provided):

Read more of this >>

The following story was posted by the Environmental News Service:

“SAN DIEGO, California, February 20, 2010 (ENS) – A panel of eminent U.S. and European scientists has confirmed the widespread scientific consensus that the Earth’s climate is warming due to human activities, but said they and their colleagues should have responded more quickly and effectively to news of an error in a major climate report and hacked researcher e-mails.

“In a symposium Friday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement Science, AAAS, the scientific leaders acknowledged errors in a 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and possibly impolitic email exchanges by East Anglian University climate researchers.

“”But they expressed shock at the political effects of the disclosures and said the impact was far out of proportion to the overwhelming evidence that human activity is changing the Earth’s climate.

Jerry North (Photos by Edward Lempenin courtesy AAAS)

“There has been no change in the scientific community, no change whatsoever,” in the consensus that global average temperatures have been steadily climbing since the mid-20th century,” said Jerry North, a professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University.

“The panel also included: Ralph Cicerone, president of the National Academies of Science and chair of the National Research Council; Lord Martin Rees, president of the Royal Society in the U.K.; James J. McCarthy, chairman of the AAAS Board; Alexander Agassiz, professor of Biological Oceanography at Harvard University; and Philip Sharp; a Nobel laureate and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“Some climate science critics and media reports have suggested that the e-mails, stolen from an East Anglican University server and released last November, show evidence of tinkering with climate change data. But many scientists say comments from the emails were taken out of context and used in misleading ways.

“An independent investigation is ongoing. The Royal Society will provide advice to the University of East Anglia in identifying assessors to conduct an independent external reappraisal of the Climatic Research Unit’s key publications.

“

Lord Martin Rees

“Rees said on February 12, “It is important that people have the utmost confidence in the science of climate change. Where legitimate doubts are raised about any piece of science they must be fully investigated – that is how science works. The names being put forward by the society will be acting as individuals, not representatives of the Society and the Society will have no oversight of this independent review.”

“In January, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations organization that has involved thousands of scientists from around the world in producing four major reports since the 1990s, acknowledged that it had included unsubstantiated data on Himalayan glacier melting in a 2007 report.

“Cicerone said “the appearance, if not the reality,” of a rift within the research community has “corroded” the climate debate in a way that “may spread over to other kinds of science.”

James J. McCarthy

“”Scientists need to redouble their efforts to share the implications of climate change with the public, he said, by breaking down the numbers and showing how the often-cited global average temperature rise of three degrees Centigrade could actually send temperatures over the land soaring nearly to nearly nine degrees in the next few decades.

“”A lot of what we need to do,” said Cicerone, “is translate basic information into terms the public can understand.

“Several of the scientists acknowledged that some of the details of climate change remain uncertain. But “we think despite all the uncertainties … action is justified and indeed imperative” to avoid the worst effects of climate change, said Rees.

“The IPCC conclusions are subject to rigorous peer review. Indeed, said Rees, some IPCC researchers did catch the erroneous statement that accelerated melting could lead to the disappearance of Himalayan glaciers by 2035. Still, the error slipped through.

“McCarthy, who formerly served as co-chair of an IPCC working group, predicted that the organization would certainly redouble its efforts to catch mistakes in the future.

Sunset in Germany, July 29, 2009 (Photo by Juergen Kuprat)

“He said the IPCC’s prestigious reputation as a Nobel Peace Prize winning organization was a factor in many news reports. “The greater the stature of the institution,” he said, “the harder the fall.”

“Some scientists were also not prepared to discuss the data in ways that were useful to the press and public, said North. While the diversity of data – from pollen samples to satellite data to computer modeling – is a key strength of climate change conclusions, the “culture” of each discipline is equally varied, he said.

“”Some of these [groups] are not really well organized to handle relations with the press,” North said.

“Climate change is “diffuse and international and remote in time,” two special hurdles that make it “very hard to get the public exercised on the matter,” said Rees.

“Wider access and transparency for research data is a step toward better communication, Cicerone said. The National Academies released a report last year on building specific standards for sharing research more broadly with scientific colleagues and the public.

“The controversy will probably play only a small role whether the U.S. Congress will pass a climate change law this year, said McCarthy and Cicerone, who said Americans remain more concerned about a sluggish economy than about climate change.

“So far, McCarthy said, scientists have not done “a sufficiently good job” of persuading the American people and their congressional representatives of the potential economic and health benefits of a comprehensive climate change law.”

Counting and measuring carbon, although a daunting and remarkably puzzling undertaking, is a fundamental skill an increasing number of people will need to garner in the effort to understand and mitigate the effect of greenhouse gases and global warming. Especially so, since the world population continues growing by quantum measures and all of those folks are going to need survival basics such as heat and refrigeration, plus multitudes of electrical extras, such as mobile phone and computer power, broadband Internet capacity, etc.

We applaud the development of alternative energies but add this caveat for all supporters: it will be an extraordinary feat if the percentage of alternative energy powering the world’s grid comes anywere close to reaching five percent of supply in the next 20 years.

That brings us to the subject of power plants. Here are some power plant facts, according to the PowerPlantCCS website: 

“There are over 50,000 power plants in the world. These power plants constitute the single largest emitting industry for CO₂ emissions.” Read more of this >>

A world turning with low carbon energy is no small feat, even if everybody wants such a clean place. Poised before the open of the the summit at Copenhagen, there is no better time than now to equip oneself with the correct information in setting goals to switch to low-carbon energies. Implementing change for world climate issues, no matter how good it might be for all, is an action requiring an extraordinary amount of time, infrastructure, and will.

In the December 3 issue of Nature, Gert Jan Kramer and Martin Haigh point to this reality in their article, “No quick switch to low-carbon energy.”

In the first of two pieces on reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, the two writers analyze historic growth in energy systems in explaining why deploying alternative technologies will be a long haul that could span multiple decades.

Below is a summary of their content, plus highlights of facts all should consider.

* There are physical limits to the rate at which new technologies can be deployed * Governments need to design policies targeted at specific technologies to accelerate deployment
* More action is required on demand side to increase efficiency and curtail consumption.”
“To combat climate change, the world’s entire energy system needs a major overhaul before the middle of the century. But can we build new energy supplies that quickly? …… Because the scale of the energy system is so huge, it takes time to build the human and industrial capacity to achieve substantial deployment.” Read more of this >>

A note from Peter Olins, co-founder of the Northern Colorado Entrepreneurs Network, my emphasis provided:

Glenn:

“Almost certain you’re on Al’s list, but just in case.
It’s almost worth a blog article about the next generation of nonpartisan “political” speech and action.
It also helps to be Nobel laureate :~)

Regards,

P.”

REPOWER AMERICA

When a clean energy economy finally becomes a reality in America, people will look back to the day that together, you and I launched The Repower America Wall.

The Wall is a place where literally thousands and thousands of people committed to a revolutionary new energy future for our nation and the world are coming together — to express our hopes, share our resolve, and step up to a leadership role in building a grassroots movement for change like nothing America has ever seen. It’s an opportunity for you to be part of the climate movement in a new way, in a way that takes us beyond ourselves.

Read more of this >>

These notes come from the World Bank Press Review on rising CO2 emissions coming from 40 industrialized countries:

“Carbon emissions by industrialized nations increased one percent in 2007, a ‘worrying’ rise ahead of a crunch climate summit in Copenhagen in December, the UN climate agency said Wednesday. Emissions in 2007 by 40 industrialized countries with reporting obligations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) were around four percent below 1990 levels, the UN Climate Change Secretariat (UNCCS) said….” [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

AP adds that “…EU countries did cut their emissions year-to-year, by an average of 1.6 percent, led by Denmark’s 6.1 percent reduction. But the US, the biggest emitter in this group, increased its emissions by 1.4 percent, and the output of heat-trapping gases by Japan, Canada and Australia also rose, the data show….” [Associated Press/Factiva]

Greenwire reports that “…emissions in 2007…were around 4 percent below 1990 levels, the secretariat said. However, from 2000 to 2007, emissions rose 3 percent….Much of the decrease in CO2 emissions from 1990 levels is due to the economic decline of countries in Central and Eastern Europe after the fall of communism….” [Greenwire (US)/Factiva]

News on the fourth annual Solar Decathlon from Environmental News Service . (NOTE: previous link does not work; use DOE site. ) I would love to be there and see the many solutions.

from Environmental News Network: “More than 800 students in 20 teams from the United States, Canada, Spain and Germany will compete all week in ten contests that evaluate the architecture, engineering, comfort, marketability, appliances and lighting of the solar houses. The teams will perform everyday tasks, such as cooking, laundry, and washing dishes, to test the energy efficiency of their homes.”

Read more of this >>

After developing a promising technology to recycle carbon dioxide (CO2) into gasoline, Santa Barbara, CA – based Carbon Sciences, Inc. has announced developing key enzymes that will accelerate its biocatalytic process and significantly lower the cost of fuel production.

One potential large supplier of such captured CO2 might be coal-fired electrical power generating plants.  The impact could be  significant, said Carbon Sciences CEO, Byron Elton. “We strongly believe we are developing the most efficient and viable renewable fuel technology in the world. We estimate tat that with less than half of the the CO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants, we can produce 30 percent of the world’s fuel supply.”

The conversion of captured CO2 to liquified fuels Source: Carbon Sciences

Read more of this >>

President Obama spoke at the United Nations today about climate responsibilities. This post comes complements of Consequence09.org:

Join the National Youth Climate Call Day on Thursday

President Obama is right: This is OUR battle

President Obama spoke on Tuesday at the UN Summit on Climate Change, and his words perfectly encapsulate what we have at stake:

“Our generation’s response to this challenge will be judged by history, for if we fail to meet it–boldly, swiftly, and together–we risk consigning future generations to an irreversible catastrophe.”