Category: Global Climate Change

Categories
Environment Global Climate Change Population

Anticipate Industry’s Aid with Global Warming

A friend avoids anything with General Electric’s name on it because he thinks the company is environmentally unfriendly. When our younger son was considering working for GE I tried to persuade Bryan to look elsewhere. Now it appears that GE may actually be wearing a white hat!
The world’s corporations have driven the industrial revolution and economic growth. Without capitalism we might still be back in the dark ages, burning very little fossil fuels. We would still be traveling by horse and buggy, heating with wood and reading by firelight. Not a comfortable thought!

It is shocking to think that the coal and petroleum that we rely on are causing climate change on an enormous scale. Our temperate world with good growing conditions may heat up and dry out. According to some, our home will be transformed into a desert within this century. Certainly we cannot succeed in stopping global climate change without stopping our population growth.
Shortly after Bryan started working for GE he told us about their “Ecomagination” program. We were dubious at first, thinking that this program was probably just “greenwashing”—marketing by an industry that is environmentally unfriendly.
There is strong evidence that GE’s program is serious, however. In 2005 the Ecomagination program had $10 billion in sales. This includes household products such as my favorite energy saver, compact fluorescent bulbs. GE also makes power-saving refrigerators and clothes washers. Their larger ticket items include green electricity generating windmills and solar panels.
Energy saving procedures at GE kept a quarter million tons of greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere in 2005. The company’s objective is to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30 % by 2008—a reduction that is much more stringent than the Kyoto protocol. These are significant achievements and goals.
GE has become aware of the importance of environmentally friendly products. It has realized that it can make money from being “green”. I am also sure that it is preparing for the future when companies that emit excessive greenhouse gases, or make products that do, will be penalized.
Xcel Energy is another company that is turning green. Xcel supplies electricity to over three million customers in eight states, including parts of Colorado. Fifteen percent of their generation is greenhouse gas free; it comes from nuclear reactors, hydro, wind and refuse. But they generate the majority of their power with coal. Not only do coal fired power plants release untold tons of carbon dioxide, but they are responsible for spreading other poisons, including mercury.
Xcel is taking two commendable actions. The first is planning a unique coal fired power plant. Most power plants shove CO2 plus toxics such as mercury, particulates and sulfur dioxide up smokestacks into the air we breathe. Legislation has forced power plants to include scrubbers that remove some of these toxics. Other laws would have required additional measures to remove mercury. Unfortunately, the Bush administration has deferred these rules.

Xcel has committed money to design an Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) generating plant here in Colorado. Not only is this design very efficient, it also allows capture of CO2 before it is emitted into the atmosphere. A portion of the CO2 from this proposed plant will be sequestered—pumped underground into depleted oil wells. This will be the first IGCC plant at high altitude, and the first in the USA to capture carbon.

In 2007 Xcel will build the country’s largest solar power plant in the San Luis Valley. On a more personal level, Xcel will reimburse part of our own home’s photovoltaic system that has been generating electricity since May. Through their Renewable Energy Credit program, they are buying credit for the renewable energy that we produce, as required by Colorado Amendment 37. Harnessing the sun’s energy directly, rather than through fossil fuels, decreases greenhouse gas emissions.

Insurance is the latest industry to combat global warming. Because global warming increases the risks that insurance companies underwrite (such as the damage caused by Katrina), they are taking measures to decrease greenhouse gas emissions. For instance, several companies give incentives for ecofriendly cars and buildings by reducing insurance premiums.
It remains to be seen whether industry’s efforts will be sufficient to stave off global climate change. Those who believe this seem to think that improved technology will allow people in developed countries to continue our profligate lifestyle. I find it difficult to believe that the same attitude that is causing global climate change will also save us from global calamity.

© Richard Grossman MD, 2006

Categories
Family Planning Global Climate Change Population

Cool Off the Planet

“The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.”
Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Writing last month’s article depressed me. The article predicted run-away global warming within this century.
This series on global warming is long overdue. The vast subject is crucial because climate change will affect our progeny so severely. The ultimate cause of global warming is our outsized population and extravagant use of fossil fuels.
The first article defined positive feedback loops—which have very negative effects. The second was about the problem itself, and this one offers suggestions to slow greenhouse gas emissions—the problem’s cause.
Certain common gases in the atmosphere (especially carbon dioxide and methane) hold in the sun’s heat. Global warming is caused by unprecedented rises in the concentrations of these gases.
This article is easier to write because of a book that contains much more information than I could put in 750 words. You Can Prevent Global Warming (and Save Money): 51 Easy Ways is brief and to the point. Not all 51 ways will apply to every reader, of course, but this $11 investment will pay for itself many times over. The authors claim one can save over $2000 the first year by just following the easy tips!
You can buy a copy from Maria’s Bookshop, 960 Main, Durango. The Durango, Bayfield and Ignacio public libraries also have copies.
Unfortunately, the book has two shortcomings. I’ll criticize them at this article’s end.
The book starts with my favorite way to save electricity (and thus decrease CO2 emissions). Compact fluorescent bulbs use only a quarter of the energy of the more common incandescent bulbs, and last many times longer. That also saves money, of course. Since CO2 is released when most electricity is generated, CFs prevent huge quantities of the greenhouse gas CO2 from being added to the atmosphere. These bulbs are smaller and cheaper than just three years ago when the book was written. There is almost no reason not to use them to replace the old-fashioned energy hogs.
It also soundly trounces my pet peeve—oversized, inefficient vehicles needed to bolster an undersized ego, rather than required for utility. To accentuate the positive, however, this book includes the advantages of high-mileage vehicles, public transportation, biking (including information about electric bikes) and walking.
In addition to the 51 tips, the book includes basic information about greenhouse gases and global climate change. There are also Internet references for those who want more information.
The two shortcomings of You Can Prevent Global Warming are major. The book includes 51 ways to decrease emissions of CO2 and methane. However, it does not compare the end result (even if you followed all the tips) with the goal—actually stopping global warming. It does state that the aim of the Kyoto Accord would be reached if just a third of all people in the USA followed the 51 tips.
The other obvious failing of this book is that it never looks at the effects of human numbers. We could live our accustomed profligate lives with much less effect on the environment, and little risk of changing the climate, if the population of the USA were just 100 million rather than 300 million. Choosing to have a small family, or no children at all, is still the most important step we can take to slow climate change.
If you haven’t seen “An Inconvenient Truth”, you must. It is an amazingly persuasive and accurate film, seeking to convince unbelieving U.S. citizens that global warming is a titanic problem. Stay to the end, because the closing lists some of the steps that an individual can take to slow greenhouse emissions. It also refers you to its website www.climatecrisis.net.
We are in for a hell of a future if global warming is as bad as scientists forecast. The planet will be hotter, drier and less productive. For every degree Celsius the temperature increases, grain output on the planet will decrease 10%, leading to massive famines. Moreover, the fossil fuels that have been our virtual slaves for the past two centuries will become scarce. Their byproducts (carbon dioxide, mercury and others) will linger for centuries, thus changing the world that we leave our grandchildren.
Watch Al Gore’s movie and read You Can Prevent Global Warming to learn actions you can take to minimize the problem—and save money. Next month’s article will focus on ways some communities are already using to combat global warming.

© Richard Grossman MD, 2006