biggest obstacle to dealing with climate change ; Wind energy ; Smog in NE China ; Earthquakes caused by oil and gas drilling ; Dubai inaugurates first phase of mega solar energy project ; BAN OIL, GAS, COAL... ; SOLAR POWER ; WIND POWER ; EARTHQUAKES ; LANDSLIDES ; UN’s Ban Calls For Clean Energy Transformation For More Sustainable Future 10-23-13 United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called for a clean energy transformation to help put the world on a more sustainable path, stressing that this will require innovation, investment and collaboration by all partners. “Achieving a clean energy transformation will need the combined efforts of governments, multilateral investment banks, private finance, civil society, the knowledge community and the private sector,” Mr. Ban said in a keynote address at the Third Global Green Growth Forum in Copenhagen. “We are partners on a path to sustainability… But we have no time to waste.” He noted that the way energy is produced and used is “the dominant cause” of climate change. “The impact on our global economy is increasingly clear. We count the cost in human lives and economic loss,” he stated. “But, we are forging solutions together all over the world.” In September 2011, the Secretary-General launched the Sustainable Energy for All initiative, which aims to achieve three inter-linked global targets by 2030 (THE HUMAN RACE MAY BECOME EXTINCT LONG BEFORE THEN WITH THE OIL, GAS, COAL...COMPANIES) : universal access to modern energy services; the doubling of energy efficiency; and the doubling of the share of renewable energy in the world’s energy mix. “Each of these objectives serves a common end: clean, low-carbon growth. This is critical for sustainable development,” said Mr. Ban. He highlighted the fact that the world is fast approaching a triple deadline. The target date for achieving the global anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) falls at end of 2015 (NONSENSE). World leaders have also agreed on 2015 as the year for establishing a new sustainable development framework and reaching an agreement on climate change (FAR TOO LATE). “2015 thus represents an historic opportunity to set the world on a sustainable path,” Mr. Ban stated. “To do that we must eradicate extreme poverty and hold global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. “These objectives are mutually reinforcing and interdependent. Achieving them will require significant global momentum – beginning with a concerted push to accelerate progress towards the MDGs. “On that foundation we must agree.... He asked leaders to bring solutions and initiatives with targets, deliverables and investment plans.... “We need large amounts of capital for the rapid development of low-carbon infrastructure,” he stated. “We are seeing progress – but not fast enough; and not at sufficient scale. “Climate change is the single greatest threat to sustainable development (TO HUMAN... SURVIVAL). Yet, too often, one important fact gets lost amid the fear: addressing climate change is one of our greatest opportunities,” he noted....(WITHOUT ACTWGFWHR WE WILL REMAIN SIDP WITH THE SONWS AND WE WILL ALL DIE -VERY SOON) “Our hope is that greater investment can move towards low-carbon assets, for the good of the world and the long-term financial health of investors. At the same time, development and commercial banks can and should unlock capital to enable low-carbon investments. And regulators can break barriers to facilitating these flows. (SOLAR POWER ON THE EARTH -AND BEAMED DOWN FROM SATELLITES IN SPACE- IS THE KEY) “There are enormous untapped investment opportunities in developing countries (NORTH AFRICA, THE MIDDLE EAST...AND SOLAR POWER). All financial actors have to work together to create the mechanisms for making these investments possible. Companies and countries have to make sure that bankable projects are ready, when the money is available. “With focus, resolve and ambition, we can lower the global thermostat and raise the level of economic opportunity for all – from the poorest households to the largest enterprises.” Dubai inaugurates first phase of mega solar energy project 10-22-13 Dubai inaugurated the first phase of a solar energy park on Tuesday as the Gulf emirate seeks to diversify its energy sources, official Emirati news agency WAM reported. The park, named the “Mohammad bin Rashid al-Maktoum Park” after the emirate’s ruler, will produce 1,000 megawatts of electricity when completed, and will cost 12 billion dirhams ($3.3 billion), WAM said. The first plant of the solar energy megaproject is 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the city of Dubai and can produce 10 megawatts of energy on its own. Said Mohammed al-Tayer, deputy head of the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority and vice chief of its Supreme Energy Council, said the project was “one of a kind in the region,” adding that it would be a major boost to the Gulf state’s mega-projects. The supreme energy council is trying to reduce Dubai’s reliance on oil and gas. Dubai aims to produce one percent of its energy needs using solar power by 2020, and five percent by 2030, local press has reported. Dubai is a major electricity consumer, in spite of its population of just two million, partly because of the extreme heat from June to September, which sees an increased use in air conditioning. The United Arab Emirates, made up of seven states including Dubai, hold a fifth of the world’s oil reserves with 97.8 billion barrels, of which 95 percent is owned by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. The federation also has gas reserves of six trillion square meters, but Dubai holds only about two percent of this. Landslide Danger Looms in Next Seattle Earthquake By Becky Oskin, Staff Writer | October 21, 2013 A home on Seattles steep and scenic slopes comes with a hidden risk. The next earthquake (CAUSED BY THE OIL AND GAS COMPANIES) on the Seattle Fault, which cuts under the heart of the city, could trigger many more deadly landslides than previously predicted, a new study finds. The risk of landslides in Seattle comes as no surprise to its residents. Every winter, heavy rains soak the ground atop a clay layer buried in some spots, until the layers grow so wet they slip and slide away. Most sediments in Seattle are unconsolidated,.... Smog closes schools, highways in NE China English.news.cn 10-21-13 HARBIN, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- A heavy smog shrouded northeast Chinas Harbin city on Monday for the second straight day, forcing the closure of schools and highways. ...visibility of less than 50 meters, in downtown Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang Province. Meteorological authorities issued a red alert, the highest, for the heavy smog in several (!!!!) cities in the province at 9 a.m. Monday, forecasting the smog will continue in the next 24 hours. The Taiping International Airport in Harbin was also closed. The citys education authorities have issued a notice for the suspension of classes for all primary and middle schools in Harbin. Some public buses also stopped running due to the smog in Harbin. Many citizens had to walk or take other vehicles to work and were late. Sunday marked the beginning of the heating season in Harbin, a key factor for the smoggy weather. Editor: Hou Qiang Brad Gammons is general manager of IBMs Global Energy and Utilities Industry, where he oversees strategy, sales execution, solution development, operations and marketing. Rolf Gibbels is an executive member of IBMs Global Energy and Utilities organization, leading global industry solutions and business development activities. He focuses on power generation, including renewables like wind, across all IBM brands. . Last year, in the United States and overseas, the wind energy industry set new records, scored countless firsts and generally gained a surprising round of superlatives worldwide as it rose to provide 2.6 percent of global electricity production. A decade from now, that figure is on track to rise to 7.4 percent, according to a recent report by Navigant Research. The wind industry has boomed over the last decade, growing more quickly than many energy optimists predicted. Today, a virtuous cycle is underway, seeded by public subsidies and investments; driven by the need for energy security and the goal to reduce emissions; and sustained by a familiar process where the scaling up of manufacturing capacity lowers per-unit costs, increases competitiveness with conventional fuels and drives further innovation. biggest obstacle to dealing with climate change You want to know what the biggest obstacle to dealing with climate change is? Simple: time. It will take decades before the carbon dioxide we emit now begins to have its full effect on the planet’s climate. And by the same token, it will take decades before we are able to enjoy the positive climate effects of reducing carbon-dioxide emissions now. (Even if we could stop emitting all CO₂ today, there’s already future warming that’s been baked into the system, thanks to past emission.) But we will feel the economic effects of either emitting or restricting CO₂ ***right now, in real time***. While we can argue about the relative cost of reducing CO₂ emissions now — just as we can argue about the economic effects of climate change in the future — it should be clear that any attempt to restrict CO₂ emissions enough to make a dent in future climate change will cause some present-day economic pain. The global economy is still so dependent on relatively inexpensive fossil fuels that a quick transition to renewable sources would likely be costly in the short term. (See Naomi Klein’s 2011 piece in The Nation for a fairly clear-eyed view of what truly radical climate policy would mean.) What that means, in effect, is that climate policy asks the present to sacrifice for the future. Human beings tend not to be very good at that kind of planning, even when their own future selves stand to benefit — a study this year found that just 10% of Americans have saved enough in a 401(k) or individual retirement account to put themselves on a track to retire. When it comes to climate change, the worst effects will be felt years after many people today are long gone. From a self-centered perspective, that makes strict climate policy like saving for a retirement you know you’ll never live to see. So it shouldn’t be surprising that a new study in Nature Climate Change confirms the fact that the kind of long-term cooperation demanded by effective climate policy is going to be even more challenging than we thought. American and German researchers led by Jennifer Jacquet of New York University put together a collective-risk group experiment that is centered around climate change. Here’s how it worked. Each subject in groups with six participants was given a $55 operating fund. The experiment went 10 rounds, and during each round, they were allowed to choose one of three options: invest $0, $2.75 or $5.50 into a climate account. The participants were told that the total amount contributed would go to fund an advertisement on climate change in a German newspaper. If at the end of the 10 rounds, the group reached a target of $165 — or about $27 per person — they were considered to have successfully averted climate change, and each participant was given an additional $60 dollars. (If the numbers seem rough, it’s because I’m converting from euros — the currency used in the experiment — and rounding off.) If the group failed to reach the $165 target, there was a 90% probability that they wouldn’t get the additional payout. As a group, members would be better off if they collectively invested enough to reach that $165 target — otherwise they wouldn’t get the payout — but individually, members could benefit by keeping their money to themselves while hoping the rest of the group would pay enough to reach the target. (That’s the so-called free-rider phenomenon, and it’s a major challenge for climate policy.) Here’s the twist, though: that $60 dollar endowment was paid out on three different time horizons. In one treatment, the cash was given to the groups the next day. In the second treatment, it was given seven weeks later. And in the third treatment, the cash was instead invested in planting oak trees that would sequester carbon — but since those trees wouldn’t be fully grown for years, all the benefit would accrue to future generations, not the current players in the experiment. The difference between that third treatment and the first and second is what’s known as “intergenerational discounting,” which happens when the benefits of an action in the present are highly diluted and mostly spread among many people in the future. Which, as it happens, is pretty much how climate policy would work. Unsurprisingly, the more delayed the payout was, the less likely the experimental groups would put enough money away to meet the goal to stop climate change. Even among those who knew they’d get the payout the next day, only seven of 10 groups invested sufficient funds, while none of the 11 groups who knew their endowment would be invested in planting trees gave enough money to “stop” climate change. While this is just one experiment, the results do not bode well for humanity’s ability to come together to stop climate change. As the authors write: Applying our results to international climate-change negotiations paints a sobering picture. Owing to intergenerational discounting, cooperation will be greatly undermined if, as in our setting, short-term gains can arise only from defection. This suggests the necessity of introducing powerful short-term incentives to cooperate, such as punishment, reward or reputation, in experimental research as well as in international endeavors to mitigate climate change. Fortunately, short-term incentives for fighting climate change do exist. It takes decades to benefit from reductions in carbon-dioxide emissions, but phasing out fossil fuels like coal and oil can bring immediate improvements in air pollution. And air pollution has turned out to be even more dangerous than experts thought, with the World Health Organization last week declaring that bad air is a leading environmental cause of cancer, comparable to secondhand smoke. The Nature Climate Change study also underscores why “win-win” climate policies — like innovation investments that can lead directly to cheap clean energy, rather than policies that make dirty energy more expensive — are likely to be the most effective ones. Barring a species-wide personality change, few of us will be willing to endure present pain so that our grandchildren won’t have to endure an unlivable climate. We’re likely better off tailoring solutions that work with our selfishness and brief attention span, rather than hoping we suddenly become better, more farsighted people.
Posted on: Wed, 23 Oct 2013 23:52:41 +0000
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