Perpetual Innovation

Category: CO2 footprint

  • GenAI on Earth Day 2024: Part 2

    Earth Day, April 22.  See the OVERVIEW. This is Part 2 of 2 of the discussions with GenAI ChatBots.

    GenAI on Earth Day 2024: Part 2


    Q:  What is the consensus on how
    soon we have to phase off of fossil fuels and move to carbon neutrality?

    Q: What are the key factors that agreements like the Paris agreement
    promote in order for the world to become carbon neutral? 

    #EarthDay #Sustainability #RE100 #ReduceReuseRecycle 

    #RegenerativeDynamicArticle #RefractiveThinker #SustainZine
    #ScenarioPlans.com #DelphiPlan.com

    YOU: What is the consensus on how soon
    we have to phase off of fossil fuels and move to carbon neutrality?

    Gemini (2024, April 22)

    There’s no single answer on the exact timeline for phasing out fossil
    fuels, but there’s a strong consensus on the urgency. Here’s a breakdown of the
    key points:

    • Paris Agreement
      Goals:       The Paris Agreement aims to limit global warming to well below
      2°C (3.6°F) compared to pre-industrial levels. To achieve this,
      substantial reductions are needed this decade.
    • Net Zero by
      2050:       The UN and many countries target net-zero emissions by 2050.
      This means balancing any remaining emissions with carbon capture
      technologies or natural processes.
    • Technical
      Feasibility for Faster Transition:       Experts believe a much
      faster transition than 2050 might be possible, with complete replacement
      of fossil fuels for energy by 2035 being a theoretical possibility.

    There are challenges to a rapid transition, including:

    • Political Will: Aligning
      international efforts and overcoming resistance from vested interests are
      crucial.
    • Infrastructure
      Upgrade:       Replacing existing infrastructure with renewable energy
      sources requires significant investment.
    • Economic and
      Social Impact:       A just transition that minimizes job losses and ensures
      affordability for developing countries is essential.

    Overall, achieving carbon neutrality requires significant and rapid
    action. While the exact timeline is debated, experts agree we need a dramatic
    reduction in fossil fuel use within this decade.

     

    You: What is the consensus on how soon we have to phase off
    of fossil fuels and move to carbon neutrality?

    Copilot (2024, April 22)

    The United Nations Climate
    Change Conference (COP28)    , which concluded recently, has marked
    a significant milestone in the global effort to combat climate change. Here are
    the key takeaways:

    1.     
    Beginning of the End for Fossil Fuels:

    2.     
    Global Stocktake:

    3.     
    GenAI and Climate Action:

    4.     
    Immediate Actions:

    In
    summary, while the fossil fuel era isn’t over yet, COP28’s outcomes signal a
    determined shift toward carbon neutrality. The urgency is clear, and all
    governments and businesses must turn their pledges into real-world outcomes
    without delay. Let’s choose the planet over fossil fuels and work together for
    a sustainable future! 🌎🌿🔥

    References:

    1. COP28 Agreement
      Signals “Beginning of the End” of the Fossil Fuel Era      1
    Learn more

    1

    unfccc.int2phys.org3theconversation.com4weforum.org

     Q: What are the key factors that
    agreements like the Paris agreement promote in order for the world to become
    carbon neutral?

    Gemini (2024, April 22)

    Agreements like the Paris
    Agreement promote several key factors to achieve carbon neutrality:

    • Ambitious
      Emissions Reduction:
      • The
        agreement sets a long-term goal of limiting global warming to well below
        2°C compared to pre-industrial levels, ideally aiming for 1.5°C. This
        necessitates significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions,
        particularly from fossil fuels.
    • Nationally
      Determined Contributions (NDCs):
      • The
        agreement relies on individual countries setting and periodically
        strengthening their NDCs, which are national plans outlining their
        emission reduction targets and strategies. This fosters a global effort
        with national ownership.
    • Transparency
      and Accountability:
      • Countries
        are required to regularly report their progress towards achieving NDCs.
        This transparency allows for monitoring and encourages collective action
        if targets are not being met.
    • International
      Cooperation:
      • The
        agreement promotes collaboration between developed and developing
        countries. Developed nations are encouraged to provide financial and
        technological support to developing countries to facilitate their
        transition to clean energy sources.
    • Innovation
      and Technology Development:
      • The
        agreement recognizes the need for technological advancements in clean
        energy, carbon capture, and energy efficiency. It encourages research and
        development to accelerate the availability and affordability of these
        solutions.
    • Adaptation
      and Resilience:
      • While
        achieving carbon neutrality is crucial, some degree of climate change is
        already unavoidable. The agreement emphasizes the importance of helping
        countries adapt to the impacts of climate change and build resilience to
        future threats.

    By promoting these factors, the Paris Agreement aims to create a framework for a
    global transition towards a low-carbon future. It’s important to note that
    achieving carbon neutrality requires not only national efforts but also strong
    international cooperation, innovation, and adaptation strategies.

  • Trump of Sustainability – Paul Bunyan tromps again!

    Sustainability efforts take a big hit with the Trump election to president.
    Some forces are bigger than he, however.
    Congress didn’t act on most things sustainable-ish, so much of the Obama efforts have been by executive order and by regulations. The EPA on coal, for example. The right way to regulate emissions in general — and fossil fuels specifically — is by a carbon tax (or cap n trade). With a carbon tax, then all subsidies of all kinds can be readily removed and let the markets take care of resource allocation. New power and retirement of existing production takes care of itself.
    So now, we can expect the EPA restrictions to be systematically eroded.
    But, even if the EPA is removed from the picture, we should never expect to see another coal power plant. NatGas is so much cheaper — in all the spellings of the word — and dirt cheap. See our blog post on coal here.
    One would hope, however, that Trump would take on bigger and more immediate issues before attacking the Paris agreement on climate change (COP21, and COP22 starting as we speak in Marrakesh). That is taking on a big segment of the US population and the will of the entire world that, up until Paris a year ago, has never agreed on many thing since the Montreal agreement on reducing fluorocarbons (and the recent extension of this in Oct-Nov 2016).
    When we saw Virginia coming in all red, and only flipping blue based on metro areas (DC), you knew that Trumps message had really grabbed traction with the blue collar coal miners and such.
    Sadly, the idea of putting coal back to work, is a painful lie to the mining community. Coal is never going to come back. Countries like Germany have totally retired the coal power. Even China may not put any more coal power plants to work; they’re trying to get the air clean enough for people to breath.
    The idea from Hillary was that she would make efforts to transition the “dead and dying back in my little [coal] town”. The promise from Trump to put coal miners back to work is sadly a very cruel promise. Wishing it were true, does not make it so.
    You have to feel for the miners though.
    First we backed out of the Kyoto protocol, now we will back out of Paris. You have to really feel for those countries 200 countries that have been pushing so hard to address the huge footprint we are having on the planet, while the US, the Paul Bunyan of footprints, is putting on his BIG boots to go tromping again.
    An added note is the horror story of a team that has been advising Trump on Energy and Environment, aka the agency formerly know as the EPA. This Scientific America article was in Sept 26th.

  • Skeptical Science on a Skeptical Scientist: Patrick Moore on climate change

    Is there really a debate as to whether humans are contributing to Global Warming?

    This will take you some time, so if you are looking for a couple quick sound-bites, skip this entire post, and absolutely, skip the videos.

    Dr. Patrick Moore was recently pointed out to me as a qualified scientist and a active skeptic of Global Warming. Read about Moore on Wikipedia. He was an active founder of Greenpeace, but left the greenie organization when they become too radical. He thinks that Greenpeace has moved toward more social and anti-capitalistic agendas, not so much the protection of the environment that Greenpeace was founded on.

    Now he is very skeptical of many things, especially the man-made contribution to global warming.

    Moore has become a PR guy for some of the most criticized companies and industries by environmental groups. Working, and consulting for ‘the enemy’ is not at all a bad thing. Being in the economic engine side of energy production, metals, etc., can give people detailed insight into complete solutions to major issues. But this does not seem to be how Moore functions; his interviews and books seem to actually be an extension of his job as a PR guy. See the criticism at the end of his Wikipedia page.

    (Wiki note: The Wikipedia entry seem mature, with about 700 edits, 21 over the last 30 days and the most recent edit today. No editorial complaints. Note that there are no articles outside links to this page, so Moore does not seem to be the indisputable expert he might lead us to believe.)

    There are many interviews of Moore that seem rational and reasonable enough on the surface: Hannity Feb 2014, and Fox Business Network with Stuart Varney pushing his book, Confessions of a Greenpeace Dropout. But, don’t watch these videos unless you are willing to go look that the scientific breakdown of what Moore has to say. Point by point, issue by issue.

    This is a blog by John Mason (2012, Aug 25).
    Unpicking a Gish-Gallop: former Greenpeace figure Patrick Moore on climate change:

    Mason takes on the details of an interview in which Moore lavishes on facts, figures, assumptions and conclusions. And Mason breaks it down point-by-point with the best facts that exist today. Mason gives some of the best, and most factual, address of the issues associated with “Global Warming” and those who would say their “ain’t no such thing”. And he did it all without “sensationalist scare tactics”.

    When you are done, ask yourself: Who was the most shrill and panic? Who presented the facts with the most facts? Who’s probabilities are most probable, give the facts?

    This SustainZine blog does not devote much time to the debate over “Global Warming”. Life’s too short. There is global warming. Moore and Mason agree on this. Humans contribute to global warming. Moore says only a little; Mason (and the IPCC scientists) say humans contribute a lot to global warming. One of the last skeptical climate scientist Richard Muller, said that there was global warming and that humans are a major cause. Blogs here. Muller’s research was funded by the Koch brothers.

    This blog, however, focuses on Sustainability. Sustainability is good. Activities and business models that are non-sustainable are broken models. (Hah, you thought I was going to say “Bad”.). A steady move toward 100% sustainability is not only a good plan, it is a sane plan. (Hah, you thought I was going to use the words “insane not to do so…”.)

    So let’s get past this foolish debate and have real people and real companies start making real progress toward sustainability. If businesses and communities and individuals take long enough to get started on serious efforts to become sustainable, then governments will (start to) take charge.

    What probably scares people more than Global Warming itself, actually, is that Governments far and wide will jump into the mix to “fix” things.

    We especially like efforts that will save money, save time, save resources and reduce our impact on the environment. Usually, we “don’t need no government” for that. (Actually that, not entirely true, but subject of another story.)

    Responsible vs. Irresponsible.
    You choose?

    ‘via Blog this’

  • EarthDay2013: Reflections on Sustainability: Earth Day, April 22, 2013

    Reflections on
    Sustainability:     Earth
    Day, April 22, 2013     (www.EarthDay.org) … (or International Mother Earth Day)


    Earth
    Day 2013: The Face of Climate Change

    It’s not so much that people
    don’t care. . .
    Being green, and being
    sustainable, is something that we all would happily do, if it wasn’t
    inconvenient to do so. And if it was easy to do. And if we knew the best place
    to start. And if it wasn’t too complicated to do so, we would all be more
    sustainable.
    That’s a bit of a problem because
    there is no sense of urgency. There is, however, a sense of urgency about
    getting the economy going stronger and getting more people back to work. But
    reducing pollution and improving our water footprint and addressing our carbon
    footprint, not so much so.
    This is something like saving for
    retirement. There’s no urgency to save for retirement until age 65, but it’s a
    whole lot easier if you started 35 years earlier. $:-)  We need to get the
    magic of compounding working for us, not against.
    There is no question that we all
    have to get sustainable, sooner or later.  “Achieving sustainability will
    enable the Earth to continue supporting human life as we know it”
    (Sustainability, 2013, Blue Marble caption). That’s the definition of
    “sustainable”, something that can be done indefinitely and that does not have
    external costs or place a burden on future generations.
    The
    American Planning Association’s four sustainability objectives are to use
    planning approaches that:
    1. Reduce dependence upon fossil fuels, underground metals, and
    minerals
    2. Reduce dependence upon synthetic chemicals and other unnatural substances
    3. Reduce encroachment upon nature
    4. Meet human needs fairly & efficiently (James & Lahti,
    2003).
    We all have to get started.
    Sustainable starts at home, at church, in business, in government and at
    school.
    We need to take better care of
    God green earth. Stewardship is a responsibility, not a luxury.
    See these topics below:
    I. Global Warming/Climate Change
    II. What BIG Feet you Have! … The Human Footprint
    III.  Sustainable Solutions
    IV. Global Acts of Green on Earth Day 2012
    V. Become More Informed


    Safety & Recycling.
    Carefully and correctly dispose of stuff like electronics, paints, oil,
    florescent light bulbs. Visit     www.Earth911.com
    to see how to recycle stuff, and extremely local details of recycling centers. Eventually
    everything will be recycled; until then, let’s try to work it out together.
    This is the 43rd Earth
    Day event since it started in 1970. And still we have yet to take significant
    measures to protect the earth we all so clearly need for survival. We all need
    to become more informed, as a great place to start. See the book outlined below,
    created from the best information anywhere about sustainability issues,
    Wikipedia. (Free book, no advertising in it.)
    Sustainability is a journey that
    is started by us today, but continued by future generations.
    “The earth is the Lord’s, and
    everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.” (    Psalm 24:1)
    God bless,
    —————————-
    Elmer Hall
    Strategic Business
    Planning Company
    Planning
    for Sustainable Success™
    954.704.9100    www.SBPlan.com    www.SustainZine.com
    (blog)
    P Before printing this e-mail think if it is
    nec    essary.   Think Green!
    I. 
    Global Warming & Climate Change. The statistics for climate
    change and global warming seem to only be getting worse, with all continents
    experiencing extreme weather of hot-cold, wet-dry, often in the same year. We
    have the hottest decade in modern history (based on land, water and air
    measures). April 2012 was the 5th hottest April on record, April
    2010 was the hottest (CO2Now, 2012). Glacial ice is melting, and melting at an
    accelerating rate. There’s evidence the ice in Antarctica, which should be
    expanding, is shrinking, and it appears to be melting from the inside out!
    What about Greenhouse Gasses
    (GHGs) that trap sunlight in the atmosphere and cause warming, just like a
    greenhouse in winter? By burning fossil fuels we are pumping gigatons of GHGs
    such as Carbon Dioxide (CO2)  and Methane (CH4) into the atmosphere, GHGs
    above and beyond what the earth systems were used to processing prior to
    industrialization starting more than a century ago. And carbon dioxide persists
    in the atmosphere for some 100 years. Many scientist had high hopes of
    reversing the steady climb of CO2 in the atmosphere and bringing it back down
    to 350 parts per million (ppm) that we blasted through in 1985. The hope was
    that the US, slowed by a sluggish economy, combined with a switch to cleaner
    natural gas would help to lower the CO2 buildup in the atmosphere. Nope. China
    and India with their coal-power craze, more than wiped out any slowing from the
    US and Euro-zone. As measured by the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii we just
    blasted through 397 on our way to 400 ppm. (See     CO2Now.org).

    This chart, and what it
    represents, scares the bejeebers out of me!!!!!      I
    don’t know about you?

    In the 1990s, the IPCC came up
    with many projections from the best case where countries was very proactive and
    reduced greenhouse gases to the worst case with business as usual (BAU). The
    estimates then showed an increase in temperatures of 2 to 6 degrees centigrade
    by the end of the century. Since water expands as it warms in addition to
    glacial melting, this atmosphere increase would eventually result in about a 3
    to 10 foot rise in sea levels. That would be devastating to coastline areas.
    Maybe half of the Florida Keys would be underwater, for example.  Right
    now, about half of the greenhouse gasses are produced by China and the USA,
    with the US pretty much going as BAU and China totally out of control. China
    now burns half of the world’s coal and adds another new coal power plant each
    week. In short, the
    problem is real, it is big, and it is getting worse. Not only that, but it is
    getting worse at an increasing rate.
    With all that gloom and doom, what
    are sustainable solutions?
    II.
    What BIG Feet You Have! … The Human Footprint
    A picture is worth 1,000 words, a
    video must be worth millions. We humans have been having a gigantic impact on
    our environment. How big, you might ask? Really BIG.  A couple of the best visual representations
    of this are the     Human Footprint
    series by National Geographic, which follows two humans from birth to death, as
    well as,     The Story of Stuff and The Story of
    Bottled Water     (Leonard, 2010a, 2010b). 
    There are a couple things I don’t think to be totally accurate, but you
    be the judge.
    ·        
    The Human Footprint, by National Geographic
    Special. Several 10 minute episodes.     http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/videos/human-footprint/ (10 minute segments;
    87 minutes total, easy to find on YouTube as well). Note that it is a couple
    years old. They say 6+B population, but it is now >7B. Watch #1 and #8.
    ·        
    The Story of Stuff (www.StoryOfStuff.com, ~18min)
    ·        
    The Story of Bottled Water (http://www.storyofstuff.org/movies-all/story-of-bottled-water/). 
    III.  Sustainable
    Solutions    . We all – everyone, everywhere –
    have to start being more sustainable. Well, dah! But that is easier said than
    done. We have our entire life and economy and culture built around
    non-sustainable practices.
    To start, it is relatively easy, and profitable, to cut back on 25%-30%
    of utilities. Start with an energy audit from your friendly local power
    company.
    Smarter transportation will save
    huge amounts. Telecommuting saves $30,000 to $50,000 per full-time equivalent
    employee, with more than $20,000 savings to the employer. Yes, you might want
    to read that sentence again. The actual savings seem to be, all things
    considered, are at least 10 times the savings in fuel… That is, $5,000 in fuel
    saved related to telecommuting really represents $50,000-$60,000 in total
    savings.
    Or we could build more roads, buy
    more cars, spend more of our lives in gridlock traffic and continue to
    accelerate our increase in GHG emissions? I vote for taking our foot off of the
    GHG accelerator, and starting to tap on the brake. Just because we may have
    another 100 years of fossil fuels left, doesn’t mean that we have to try to
    burn what’s left over the next century.
    IV.  A Billion Acts of
    Green    . Earth Day commitments are
    entered into the earth day website under the “Billion Acts of Green”
    campaign. The campaign in 2012 world-wide brought in 1,021,021,112 pledges.
    See http://www.earthday.org/take-action.
    These were the commitments last year at the university!:-)
    Re-cycle- 9 people
    Eat Local Food- 2
    Wash clothes in cold water- 3
    Use re-useable shopping bags- 3
    Pick up litter- 6
    Turn off the water tap when brushing teeth- 4
    Turn off the computer and the x-box when not in use- 5
    Turn off the lights when not in use- 10
    Eat all the food on my plate – 3
    Re-cycle water bottles- 3
    Don’t buy anything new for a month- 3
    Share rides- 4
    Encourage others to pledge an act of green- 3
    Plan a green event- 2
    Print on both sides- 2
    Use cloth napkins- 2
    Write your legislature- 2
    Use energy-efficient light bulbs- 1
    Eat vegetarian; Plant a tree; Plant a garden; Collect plastic from the
    neighbors for 2 weeks;
    Reduce beef consumption; Repurpose; Conserve fuel; Plant a tree; Walk
    or bike instead of driving; 
    V.
    Become More Informed
    It is critical to become more
    informed. Companies and governments have millions – trillions, really – worth
    of revenues to lose. Think about who wins, when you spend $.005 per gallon for
    water from the tap. You win. The environment wins. Coke and Pepsi (the largest
    producers of bottled water) lose. 
    Companies can make healthy
    products that are sustainable, and they will. Eventually. We could try to get
    the government more involved; but I generally don’t like that. We all need to
    become informed and let our money do the voting for us.
    The trick is to only accept
    accurate facts. The first question of the Four-Way Test from Rotary
    International (    www.Rotary.org)
    is critical:     1) Is it the truth?
    Of
    course the rest of the Four-Way test is pretty important too – it is kind of
    the definition of sustainability when you think about it.     Of the things we think, say or do
    1.     
    Is it the TRUTH?
    2.     
    Is it FAIR to all concerned?
    3.     
    Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
    4.     
    Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
    Contact: Elmer Hall.
    I do consulting and coaching on Sustainability and sustainable innovation.
    Please feel free to contact me for help, advice, or just moral support on your
    sustainability issues.
    References & Links
    Climate
    Changes and Sustainability. (2013, April 22). A WikiBook created in Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
    Retrieved April 22, 2013, from     http://en.wikipedia.org and downloadable from: http://tinyurl.com/SharedStuffZ
    James,
    S. & Lahti, T. (2003).     Eco-municipalities: Sweden and the United States: A Systems approach
    to creating communities. Retrieved April 22, 2013
    from:     http://www.knowledgetemplates.com/sja/ecomunic.htm
    Leonard,
    A. (2010, March 22). The story of bottled water: How “manufactured demand”
    pushes what we don’t need and destroys what we need most. Story of Stuff.
    Retrieved from:     http://www.storyofstuff.org/movies-all/story-of-bottled-water/
    Leonard,
    A. (2010b). The story of stuff: How our obsession with stuff is trashing the
    planet, our communities, and our health – and a vision for change. New York,
    NY: Free Press. 
    LINKS:
    www.Earth911.com
    (Info about recycling, including local drop-off.)

    http://www.un.org/en/events/motherearthday/   (International Mother Earth Day)

    http://www.earthday.org/take-action
    (Actions you can take to make a difference.)
    http://tinyurl.com/SharedStuffZ
     (WikiBook: Climate Changes and
    Sustainability    )
    www.CO2Now.org
    (Monitors GHG emissions.)
    www.WaterFootPrint.org
    (Calculate how much water you use.)
    www.CarbonFootPrint.com
    (Calculate how much CO2 you use.)
    www.WaterMatters.org 
    (Great, including Florida specific info.)
    www.UNWater.org
    (All about water and economic development.)
    www.savewaterfl.com 
    (For details & water-saving tips.)
    WikiBook: Climate Changes
    and Sustainability    . Following is the outline of a WikiBook created
    from 38 Wikipedia articles on Earth Day, April 22, 2013.  Because of all
    the graphics, the book is 60MB as PDF (or 8MB as ePUB). Note that the ePub has
    Earth Day and World Water Day included. Please downloading it, but you can get
    the most recent version of each article by going to     www.Wikipedia.com
    and enter the article title in blue below.
    Each article has high ratings for
    accuracy and reliability.     The entire WikiBook is
    downloadable from:     http://tinyurl.com/SustBook
    (63MB).

    Climate Changes and Sustainability
    Table of Contents
    Introduction
    to Sustainability Issues     1
    Sustainability
    1
    Population
    density 22
    Ecological
    footprint 24
    Earth
    Systems and Climate Change     31
    History
    of climate change science 31
    Atmosphere
    of Earth 36
    Global
    warming 45
    Climate
    change 64
    Scientific
    opinion on climate change 75
    The
    Carbon Cycle     101
    Organic
    compound 101
    Carbon
    104
    Carbon
    dioxide 120
    Carbon
    cycle 134
    Greenhouse
    gas 139
    Photosynthesis
    156
    Hydrocarbon/Fossil
    Fuels     169
    Fossil
    fuel 169
    Redox
    174
    Coal
    181
    Petroleum
    197
    Gasoline
    218
    Natural
    gas 230
    Power
    and the Nexus of Energy, Water, Paper, Plastic, etc.     241
    Electricity
    generation 241
    Water
    248
    Water-energy
    nexus 266
    Plastic
    267
    Carbon
    Emissions and Sinks     280
    Carbon
    dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere 280
    List
    of countries by carbon dioxide emissions 286
    Carbon
    sink 293
    Sustainable
    Solutions     304
    Education
    for Sustainable Development 304
    Office
    of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy 308
    Recycling
    313
    Recycling
    by product 325
    Paper
    recycling 330
    Plastic
    recycling 334
    Sustainable
    development 340
    Glossary
    of climate change 350
    Index
    of climate change articles 356
    References
    Article Sources and Contributors 360
    Image Sources, Licenses and
    Contributors 375
    Article Licenses
    License
    385
    This entire WikiBook is
    retrievable from:     http://tinyurl.com/SharedStuffZ
    (~60MB PDF or ~8MB ePUB)