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Showing posts with label Energy and Climate Change. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Energy and Climate Change. Show all posts

Saturday, 17 September 2016

Our best shot at cooling the planet might be right under our feet Ref: Global Dev Professionals Network_The Guardian UK

Our best shot at cooling the planet might be right under our feet.- brought to us by the Global Development Professionals Network.



Global temperature record brocken:

"Every one of the past 14 months has broken the global temperature record. Ice cover in the Arctic sea just hit a new low, at 525,000 square miles less than normal. And apparently we’re not doing much to stop it: according to Professor Kevin Anderson, one of Britain’s leading climate scientists, we’ve already blown our chances of keeping global warming below the “safe” threshold of 1.5 degrees." quoted from the Guardian.


Global Temperature Targets and how to achieve them

"If we want to stay below the upper ceiling of 2 degrees, though, we still have a shot. But it’s going to take a monumental effort. Anderson and his colleagues estimate that in order to keep within this threshold, we need to start reducing emissions by a sobering 8%–10% per year, from now until we reach “net zero” in 2050. If that doesn’t sound difficult enough, here’s the clincher: efficiency improvements and clean energy technologies will only win us reductions of about 4% per year at most." 


Quick look


"Maybe our engineers are missing the point. The problem with geo-engineering is that it proceeds from the very same logic that got us into this mess in the first place: one that treats the land as something to be subdued, dominated and consumed. But the solution to climate change won’t be found in the latest schemes to bend our living planet to the will of man. Perhaps instead it lies in something much more down to earth – an ethic of care and healing, starting with the soils on which our existence depends.

Of course, regenerative farming doesn’t offer a permanent solution to the climate crisis; soils can only hold a finite amount of carbon. We still need to get off fossil fuels, and – most importantly – we have to kick our obsession with endless exponential growth and downsize our material economy to bring it back in tune with ecological cycles. But it might buy us some time to get our act together." ref The Guardian
Well known but quickly forgotten. 
"Feeding the world isn’t about higher yields; it’s about fairer distribution. We already grow enough food for 10 billion people. In any case, it can be argued that regenerative farming actually increases crop yields over the long term by enhancing soil fertility and improving resilience against drought and flooding. So as climate change makes farming more difficult, this may be our best bet for food security, too." 


READ MORE? 


1. Our-best-shot-at-cooling-the-planet-might-be-right-under-our-feet? from The Guardian Global Development Professionls Network


REFERENCES brought to us by the Guardian


a) PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Enhanced top soil carbon stocks under organic farming 

read for free at their link above.

Tuesday, 23 March 2010

A task of terawatts- Editorial from Nature looks at Renewable Energy Policy and criticises "The Traditional Fossile Fuel Dependency

According to Oliver Morton, Chief News & Features Editor, Nature.


"The tendency among governments and traditional utilities to see renewable energy sources as oddities or add-ons is thus deeply misplaced. These sources are, alongside nuclear power, the fossil fuel-free future that is so urgently needed. "

Universal Energy Source:
"The Sun shines down on the Earth with a power of 174,000 TW, providing the amount of energy every hour that humankind uses every year. "

POLICY PROPOSALS
"A threefold strategy to move from traditional fossil fuel to Sun power and its derivatives Photosynthetic-Trees & Plants, Wind,Marine,PV, is badly needed:
1. Drive up the efficiency with which energy is used through better technology, wider appreciation of the issues and targeted regulation;
2. Drive up the price of emitting carbon disproportionately through trading schemes, taxes and further regulations; and
3.Drive down the costs of generating energy in ways that involve no use of fossil fuels, most notably from the unending flows of light, wind, water and plant growth that the Sun so generously provides. "

The graph is due to Mark Z. Jacobson in his brillant paper publishe by the RSC The Royal Society for Chemistry cf related posts for more details and links.

"Renewables tend to suffer from the drawback that flows driven by the Sun are generally diffuse, not concentrated, and sporadic." [Too democratic for concentrated capital accumulation?]

Morton sees "great opportunity for technological progress in many of these fields, most notably in solar power and in energy storage."

THE CHALLENGE:
"The great challenge is how to scale these new technologies up for a global market. A significant part of the answer is investment in focused research and development. However, there is also a role for regulation and subsidy. "

-SCALING FACTOR
-"Current types of working subsidy are expensive, even at the megawatt scale.

-At the scale of tens and then hundreds of gigawatts they are likely to be unsustainable.

-Worse, poorly designed subsidies will damage markets and thwart the development they seek to encourage.

"Morton argues in favour of Government intervention" [to keep the boat moving in the correct direction with synergies minimising wasted energy and may I add - risking adding insult to injury - keep the trains on the rails and the cars off the roads well keeping traffic density sustainably low!]

Looking forward to reading the Energy Supplement 2009. NB. For readers with difficulty in accessing Nature, my pages carry references to Top Academic papers such as Phil Trans A on Energy freely available online Materials Science and Engineering Defined and Conversations-on-Innovations.

RELATED POSTS:

Renewable and Alternative Energy Sources Ranked_Review of solutions to global warming, air pollution, energy security_Information Overload Mastered (March 2008)

Solutions to global warming, air pollution, and energy security reviewed _Parametres used to classify and rank_Follows previous post (Feb 2008)

Life-Cycle Analysis of Nuclear Fuel Route_Cradle-to-Grave, GHG-CO2equivalent emissions_Nuclear Inspections (April 2008)


NB The Supplement is sponsored (commendably)by French Petroleum Company TOTAL who "managed?" a recent "un coups de maitre". By putting pressure on one of their refineries managed a to provoke a near general fossil fuel for transportation strike. Of course the price of petrol and diesel went up almost immediately and of course did not come down once the strike was "settled." from about 1.00-euro/l it is now regularly priced in Supermarkets at 108 today at 1.09 euros. Perhaps an inside-expert reader could perhaps tell us how many day's sales are required for Total... to reach break even point?

Friday, 11 December 2009

"Climate Gate"

There have been noises to similar unnamed unspecified mail(email?) exchanges between scientist on French News. It is extremely easy to quote and, if unethical, abuse a standard good working practise among scientists. Another good practise in scientific research is to publish with references .

Media and polemicists could help advance solutions to what many consider the main problem facing humanity today, namely "energy-climate change" by being equally ethical.

en référence à : The ‘climategate’ (afficher sur Google Sidewiki)

Friday, 25 September 2009

Coal_Carbon Capture and Sequestration by Steven Chu U.S. Secretary of Energy and a Nobel Laureate in physics, G20?

Carbon Capture and Sequestration

Steven Chu

Overwhelming scientific evidence shows that CO2 emissions from fossil fuels have caused the climate to change, and a dramatic reduction of these emissions is essential to reduce the risk of future devastating effects. On the other hand, access to energy is the basis of much of the current and future prosperity of the world. Eighty percent of this energy is derived from fossil fuel. The world has abundant fossil fuel reserves, particularly coal. The United States possesses one-quarter of the known coal supply, and the United States, Russia, China, and India account for two-thirds of the reserves. Coal accounts for roughly 25% of the world energy supply and 40% of the carbon emissions.* It is highly unlikely that any of these countries will turn their back on coal any time soon, and for this reason, the capture and storage of CO2 emissions from fossil fuel power plants must be aggressively pursued.

Steven Chu is the U.S. Secretary of Energy and a Nobel Laureate in physics.


Source:
Science, 25 September 2009 (Volume 325, Issue 5948), free alerts

Saturday, 14 March 2009

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

No work or blog on Foresight today can afford not to take into account the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change .

The site is too rich to do justice to their work in the time I have alloted to my post.

Lets say that my post is timely in respect to "The next major round of negotiations will be held in Bonn, 29 March-8 April. It will be preceded by pre-sessional events, directly related to the work of the sessions, which will start on 26 March. Additional information on these events is available here (pdf 160 kB) .

More...

The site is also the main base reference for official data (the reviewed facts) together with the methodology and science under pinning the data.

More...

An anchor link is provided on the right-hand side bar "Major Foresight Issues"

Tuesday, 18 November 2008

A MUST READ:Roadmaps in Science and Development -Energy Policy - The National Academies-The Royal Society of London

FEAR IS A BAD COUNCILLOR! - Open for discussion.

Don't ask me why I did not write on this (these) great resource(s) provided by our, National Academies and Royal Societies, truly indispensable lighthouses of scientific endeavour.

Perhaps it's because of their greatness, of their immense contribution as individual National Academies and their legendary, healthy, competitive spirit as in Great Britain (The Royal Society) and France (L'Academie des Sciences). Perhaps too, this frightens lessor beingings!

More and more, we can expect their united concerned voices and their combined influence on global issues be heard, especially on issues which threaten to endanger the planet and human life on it, such is the exponential increase in mankinds technological "development". The best known examples are Nuclear Power and most recently the inter-acting issues of Energy and Climate Change. cf other sources 3 & 4 below.

I do not intend to write about the historical origins as such but to introduce probably the oldest and arguably the most famous and independent scientific body- The Royal Society of London which has a history covering 350 years, in her own words:

"The history of science since 1660 is closely intertwined with the story of the Royal Society."

On the contrary I would like to underline their power of vision and foresight by referring to some of their publications which in many respects may be looked-upon as true road-maps. It is perhaps a truism to say that "all serious foresight must be based on science and the scientific method and once the direction traced, must be periodically reviewed against the latest findings and corrected as necessary in appropriate feedback loops tending ever towards a common aim." That of human enlightenment, " I believe.

The first publication I wish to present is Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society A (Phil Trans R Soc A.) Phil Trans is the oldest scientific journal in the english speaking world after the French Journal des sçavans. Phil Trans is still published today, making it the world's longest running scientific journal and as such is the oldest scientific journal.

I have chosen to present in this blog the special proceeding of the conference "Energy for the Future" for it's relevance to current preoccupations on energy and climate fuelling current economic crises under a "smoke screen" of our financial system, the highly visible part of the, unfortunately non-proverbial, "fast melting iceberg"! (cf. stop press Ref. 5 below)

In the right hand side vertical bar the corresponding feed is listed and by clicking on the Phil. Trans R. Soc. A journal cover image the reader is directed to the site original R Soc. page and web.

Phil Trans R Soc A covers Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Engineering all tool to under-pin the foresight map.

However even in this short introduction to the Royal Society Proceedings the full width and depth of their intervention must be mentioned. To quote the Society:

"Topical issues on which the Royal Society has conducted a study, issued a science brief, held a meeting, issued a press release..." are give in the link 2. below


Other Sources:

1. History Time line for The Royal Society
Wikipedia -Philosophical_Transactions of the Royal Society

2. Topical issues on which the Royal Society has conducted a study, issued a science brief, held a meeting, issued a press release.

3. A Joint Statement on Climate Change - summary

4. Full statement : 2008 Joint science academies' statement: Climate change adaptation and the transition of a low carbon society

5 Stop-press-"Melting ice now main driver of rising sea levels: study" from AFP