Perpetual Innovation

Category: global warming

  • Climate Leadership | Climate Leadership Plan | Alberta.ca

    Climate Leadership | Climate Leadership Plan | Alberta.ca:

    WOW.

    On the eve of the humongous climate meetings in Paris next week (week after Thanksgiving in USA), Canada has stepped up to the plate on addressing climate changes.

    Alberta is the home of Coal and Oil Sands: two of the great game changers in addressing pollution in general and Greenhouse Gas emissions (GHG).

    There are several reports, but one is to simply charge a tax per metric tonne (yes, I know that’s the colourful way to spell ton) of CO2. The price will move up from $15 to $30 per ton of CO2 by 2019.

    In electric generation, the big game changer is to switch away from coal in general.

    By 2030 in Alberta, “There will be no pollution from coal-fired

    electricity generation.” The focus will be on reduce electrical needs and switching to NatGas and Renewables.

    But for Alberta, capping and steadily reversing the oil sands is a very big game changer.

    With the oil glut keeping oil prices down below $50 per barrel for the foreseeable future, Alberta should be ramping down oil production anyway. (I think oil sands requires $70 to $80 to be profitable.).

    The Carbon Taxes will be used: to offset increased living costs for poorer people, to assist with transition to renewables and other research.

    For those still skeptical about Global Warming: Look at the pix of Athabasca Glacier over 100 years (well 98 really). Or look at any pictures over 40 years related to Glacier Bay in Alaska. Or, just a little south from Alberta, give a look at Glacier National Park in Montana (soon to be renamed Glacier-Less National Park).
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  • Why are so many Americans skeptical about climate change? A study offers a surprising answer. – The Washington Post

    Why are so many Americans skeptical about climate change? A study offers a surprising answer. – The Washington Post:

    So lots of money used to confuse and misinform can go a long way if you want to make sure that no one knows the truth and no meaningful action is taken.

    That brings us to Super PACs. They mostly lie, and always obfuscate the issues. Since there’s no one responsible, they are free to throw mud and tar at will and at random.

    Don’t see how anything could go wrong with the political engines. Do you?

    Misinform and misdirection works.
    We all need to realize that and start propagating truths, not lies. The tools are at our fingertips (and keyboards).

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  • More than three in four Americans believe in global warming – UPI.com

    More than three in four Americans believe in global warming – UPI.com:

    Finally. Even republicans have shifted to a majority accepting climate change. This is not a party thing; this is a human thing.

    Once people start to realize that the earth is warming. And that people are generally responsible.

    There tends to be a some obvious actions that we all must do, soon or later.

    Sustainability is a law of nature that it is hard to break. Ignore it at your own risk, and everyone else’s risk at well.

    We promote doing smarter things now to bend the curve on the human impact on the earth. It is a compounding (geometric or exponential) kind of thing. Small(er) changes now make a BIG difference over time. Business as usual (BAS) simply compounds the issues and the problems.

    Currently, this is a year of El Nino, so the record temperatures for 2015 are on path to exceed last year’s record “by a mile”.

    Related to global warming and El Nino, check out Hurricane Patricia, the strongest hurricane ever recorded. Ouch!..

    So lest start a call to action doing those actions that will save consumers, businesses, governments money while simultaneously making us all more sustainable.

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  • Ain’t no Global Warming Here. {insert your facts here}

    In comes another commentary saying 10 reasons why there is definitely no such thing as global warming. This one includes evidence that the mooses (moose population) are doing much better. Huh!…
    I simply direct people to look at the multiple databases of actual real-live data related to each and every conceivable measure of global warming. Look at the data yourself. Draw it out, and then start discarding junk that misrepresents the facts. There are between 2 and 6 sets of data available for each of the things you might consider related to global warming. Let’s say: earth temperature, air temperature (lower, middle, upper atmosphere), ocean temps (surface & deep), ice packs of glaciers melt offs (ice extents and ice thicknesses)… Not only are these not pretty pictures (graphs really), but some show acceleration. 🙁 

    Here’s what the facts show: Climate Change (unarguable fact, happening everywhere), Global warming (fact), Acceleration of global warming (less easy to prove, but visible), Human cause of climate change (lots and lots of correlations, but not an exact cause-and-effect). Check out Global Warming at Wikipedia (the best summary of information available).
    Catastrophic Human Caused…. {whatever} … This is a matter of probabilities here, but the chances get uglier and uglier once the facts on the ground get uglier.
    Humans causing massive disruptions to each and every one of our earth systems. We’re not just disrupting them, we are breaking them.
    Give a look at the WikiBook by Hall (2013 and updated in 2015). It has a foreword of his own text and thoughts followed by active links into current Wikipedia pages (articles). This way each and every page is totally up-to-date. Wikipedia is the best single source/compilation of information in the world about each of the topics listed. If you question the facts in the articles, then complain. Even better, if you question the facts, research them and post a substantiated correction to the article.
    Each page has hundreds, if not thousands of followers. And the editorial review for these mature pages is very tight. It is not really possible for a Green-Greenie or a King-Coal Denier to jump in and put crappy miss-information.
    In fact, if you find that the facts are wrong or misleading on any of the pages, let us know, and we will gladly assist with the correction(s).
    Check it out, here’s The Sustainability WikiBook: www.tinyurl.com/SustainyBook  Scroll to the bottom for an organized table-of-content set of links to Sustainability information in Wikipedia.    Expect each of the links to have been updated repeatedly within the last week or so as new facts/figures and research become available and contributors update the Wikipedia store of knowledge.

    There’s a very good source that shows graphs, charts and facts related to climate change and those who would deny it exists:  http://www.skepticalscience.com/  It has lots of real information combined with debunking bogus arguments. This is a great source of facts. Visit with an open mind. 

    Make no doubt about it, being wrong about the warming of the planet would make lots of people including the SustainZine folks very happy. Unfortunately the facts don’t lead that way. What seems like a bit of a slowdown in the rate of temperature increases, does not hold up under careful scrutiny. Contributions to what seems like a minor slowdown of the up-rise in temperature are illusive one you factor in mild solar activity, volcano activity and increased pollution (from China and India’s coal).

  • Climate-change deniers are in retreat – The Washington Post

    Climate-change deniers are in retreat – The Washington Post:

    It will be nice to move past the non-debate about is there global warming, and move off into the real debate.

    We are all living unsustainable lives with non-sustainable business models. What is our plan to move toward sustainability. Singly and collectively?

    The argument that it doesn’t do any good for us to do something if China and India continue consuming is sad and ironic.

    For a century, we in the US with only 4.5% of the worlds population, have consumed about 1/4 of all the worlds resources consumed/used… Coal, Iron, Gas, etc.

    We have produced about 1/4 of the worlds byproducts for a century (pollution and CO2).

    We at this blog like to focus on those things that can be done within weeks, not decades. Energy Efficiency (EE) initiatives can pay for themselves in weeks, with a perpetuity of savings forever after. Telecommuting can result in a perpetuity of savings for ever (until you start a new job that requires a commuting).

    We argue that nobody anywhere can reasonably believe that the price we pay at the pump of oil and at the meter for coal power is accurate and represents the true cost. Gas taxes continue to pay less and less of the US road maintenance, for example.

    Economist generally settle on a carbon tax as a better solution than either subsidizing green energy/cars or a cap-and-trade mechanism. There will never be a better time to initiate a carbon tax then 2014 when oil prices are half and should be reasonably low for a year or more.

    Or, we can continue to consume oil and gas like as if there is no tomorrow.

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