Very often discussions about renewable energy focus on solar and wind power, and other sources fall into the background. To be sure, these two will form a significant part of the new system, but they are not all there is. Aside from geothermal energy, tidal energy, and various forms of crop-based biofuels, we also have an abundant form of energy available that is directly proportional to the number of people living nearby.
Sewage.
Case in point: Advanced Rail Energy Storage – a company that stores energy by moving heavy trains uphill when there’s excess power, and letting them roll downhill again when more power is needed.
And there’s a LOT of political action needed. Our government’s policy, on the whole, is still in limbo on what’s happening in our climate, with one of the two parties in power having denial as a crucial part of its science platform.
Conventional wisdom is that if we can threaten their ability to get re-elected, the Republicans will come around on the issue, and it seems likely that that’s the case. Gingrich, Romney, Bush, McCain, and many others have all acknowledged the reality of our warming climate at one point or another, so it’s clear that at least some members of the GOP are aware of what’s going on. What’s less clear is how long it will take for public pressure to override the flood of money unleashed by recent relaxations in campaign finance laws.
In time, however, we will get there. In time, and with continued pressure and protests, we will come to a national recognition that there is a problem, and that we have put it off too long for anything but drastic measures to be taken. In time, we will begin the work, as a nation, of dealing with global climate change.
And here is where climate change differs from every other important issue in history. With labor laws, there was a long, hard fight, lives were lost, livelihoods destroyed, and in the end, the battle was won, laws were passed, and employers were required to treat their workers with a minimum amount of respect and dignity. With Segregation, the battle was won, and laws were passed changing how humans were allowed to treat each other, and providing legal frameworks to give some power to those who had none, and some defense to the defenseless. With leaded gasoline, there was a nasty political fight with powerful, wealthy corporations misleading the public and politicians alike, but in time, laws were passed, tetraethyl lead was banned, and the amount of lead we were exposed to began to fall almost immediately.
On many of the problems we’ve solved there is still much work to be done, both in America and in the rest of the world, but in the end, as tangled and complex as human interaction is, these problems all improve as people stop taking certain actions. On the surface, global climate change may seem the same. If we stop burning fossil fuels, we will have “solved” the problem, right?
Wrong.
If we had addressed global warming in the 1980’s, a couple decades after the first warnings came, or even in the 1990’s, after it became unequivocal that the planet was warming and humans were to blame, then we might have been able to follow the old model. We could have passed laws, phased out fossil fuels, and been done.
Now, in 2014, it’s too late for that. The amount of CO2 we’ve added to the atmosphere would keep warming the planet for another 20 years or so even if we stopped adding to it today, but even that isn’t the whole story. The heat we’ve already added to the planet has been enough to trigger a number of feedback loops that are increasing the rate at which the planet warms. Lowered albedo, melting of the permafrost, increased evaporation through higher temperatures, and decreased photosynthesis through heatwaves and droughts – all of these may to be enough to drive continual warming for centuries to come.
So, if the protest movement is successful, and the problem is acknowledged, what comes next? If we can’t stop the warming, then is there any point in trying?
In a word, yes. There is a point. But the goal has changed. We are no longer fighting to stop the warming, we’re fighting for the long-term survival of our species, and of our civilization.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be writing about what that means, the kinds of action we can take, and the sort of changes we need to make in how we think as a society. In this series, I’m going to cover topics like food production, energy generation, energy storage, water use, disaster preparedness, and the art of thinking generations ahead.
Posted in Building the future we want, Off the Deep End: An Inexpert Guide to Dealing With Global Climate Change.
Tagged 350, climate action, climate change, climate march, cost benefit, doom, feedback loop, future, global climate change, global warming, green energy, issues, long-term, long-term thinking, net zero, new york, people's climate march, planning, planning for the future, progressive action, progressive behavior, progressive thinking, renewable energy, social issues, societal change, stop, thinking ahead, warming, what's next?
The panel has arrived, along with a battery and an inverter so I can plug appliances into it.
Over the next few months, I’m going to document my experience using this system, what I use it for, what I CAN’T use it for, what the ups and downs are, and how I can use it as a platform from which to make other improvements.
I’ll use photos, review the individual pieces, and post exact prices of how much all this costs me so any readers can, if they want, figure out what’s worth copying, and what they could do better or cheaper.
This video more or less speaks for itself. Wind power is something we’ve been using for centuries. It’s affordable, reliable, and clean. “Going back to the old ways” is often not a great idea. Most of us, myself included, generally LIKE the idea of keeping our modern way of life, and quite frankly, using oxen to drive farm machinery wouldn’t produce enough food to feed all of us.
This is a case where the old ways – using the abundant power source that is the wind – can be merged with the new. One compliments the other, and provides us with a better way of doing things.
Posted in Building the future we want
Tagged alternative, alternative energy, anthropogenic, clean, clean energy, clean power, clever, climate change, family business, global, global climate change, global warming, green, green energy, green power, man-made, old ways, reliable, reliable energy, renewable, renewable energy, texas, water, wind mill, wind power
Now, I have a lot to say in response to that argument (It’s basically another way to abdicate responsibility. It’s on the same level as saying “God will end the world soon and I’ll go to heaven, so really we should put more effort into prayer”), but that’s not what I want to talk about here.
For this post, I want to go into what it will take to colonize space.
(apologies for the archaic gender roles)
Posted in Building the future we want
Tagged climate change, doom, doomed, doomed planet, efficiency, food, global warming, human body water, hydrofracking, indoor agriculture, mars, mars colonization, mars colony, potable water, reconstituting water, renewable energy, space, space colonization, space colony, space travel, sustainable agriculture, water
Thanks to Peter Sinclair for making me aware of this.
This is one thing that state and local governments can do about climate change – make it more economical for normal people to install solar and wind. Basically, turn utilities into more of an open market where anybody can be a power plant feeding into a common utility that buys power from anybody feeding it into the grid at a flat rate, and sells it for a slight profit.
Of course, there would have to be some regulation of the system – in order to be registered as a “power plant”, you’d have to have something other than a gas-powered generator that you filled up at the local gas station. Basically, require it to be renewable energy.
At the same time, once this has been set up, there could also be incentive for people to store power, or to have other methods of generating it. Chances are, we will ALWAYS need large, centralized power plants of some kind – wind farms, concentrated solar plants, sewage-based methane generators, and so on. That means that there will be times when those plants will be shut off. There will be times when storms take out parts of the grid.
There will be blackouts and brown-outs, and during those times, the price at which the grid buys power from producers can go up, and that is the opportunity for people who have invested in batteries, or in household methane generators, or plug-in hybrids or EVs, or even in storing compressed air can earn money off their investment by selling power when it’s needed most, and keeping the lights on for everybody else.
Part of signing up as an emergency provider would involve getting help from the state to make sure your system is hooked up in such a way that the grid can start pulling power the instant supply is low.
Not only would this result in a more stable power grid, it would also provide a business opportunity for those with capital, a profitable hobby for those who are curious, and much-needed extra income for those who are short on cash, and can use their ingenuity to generate and store power.
Not to get all political, but this sort of thing fits right in with America’s national motto: “E pluribus unum” Out of many, one. One of our strengths is that there are a lot of us, and there are many different approaches to the same problem. a grid setup like I’m describing would open up the production of energy to everybody, and really, when the stuff is literally falling from the sky, why shouldn’t we all be able to profit from it?
Posted in Rants and Musings
Tagged air pressure, anthropogenic, biogas, centralized grid, centralized power, centralized utility, climate change, compressed air, cooperative utility, distributed grid, distributed power, electric cars, electricity storage, emergency power, energy storage, EV, global climate change, global warming, hybrid, local action, man-made, methan energy, methane cooking, methane heating, methane power, power storage, pressurized air, reliable electricity, reliable power, renewable, renewable energy, sewage, solar electricity, solar energy, solar power, solutions, state action, sustainable, sustainable energy, wind electricity, wind energy, wind power
Today, we’re talking air power.
Compressed air is, in some ways, one of the best-kept secrets of the clean energy movement. I don’t hear it talked about much, and frankly, that’s a crying shame. Compressed air can be used to run not only any tool you can find in a machine shop, from drills to power hammers , you can also use it to generate electricity, or even for refrigeration.
As power storage goes, it’s not the most efficient way to do things – batteries can hold more power for longer, hands down. What it IS, however, is easily accessible to anybody with a bike and a cheap air compressor. It means that you can store energy without having to be a chemist or an engineer, or even much of a maker.
This is energy storage for the masses, and energy is key – you can use it to do just about anything.
Posted in Building the future we want
Tagged air compressor, bicycle, bike, climate change, compressed air, DIY, DIY energy storage, DIY power storage, energy, energy storage, generator, global warming, johnny payphone, pneumatic, power, power hammer, power storage, rat patrol, renewable energy, vortex tube
By the 2050s, between 27 million and 59 millionpeople in Britain are likely to be living in areas suffering problems with water supplies, the report claims. Britain is predicted to have a population of about 77 million by 2050.
There a numerous other impacts listed, but one commenter focused on the water shortage claim, and more specifically, the span of 27-59 million people affected.
slinkybro:
“By the 2050s, between 27 million and 59 million people in Britain are likely to be living in areas suffering problems with water supplies.” – Well which is it? 27 or 59? How worried should I be? Will I be one of them? If I’m not, what will cost me? If I am, I’m moving.
After getting the initial snark out of my system, I ended up giving more of a useful answer: Continue reading
Posted in Discussions
Tagged 2050, Britain, climate change, deniers, deslination, drought, England, global warming, Great Britain, impacts, impacts of climate change, impacts of global warming, Ireland, planning, population, population increase, renewable energy, Scotland, skeptics, UK, United Kingdom, Wales, water, water security, water storage
Oceanoxia 