Posts Tagged by pollution
Hey, 2GreenEnergy — Start Doing and Quit Whining
| May 5, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
Bruce writes:
Wake up, if you want to stop pollution, stop polluting yourself and quit blaming the people that enable you to do the dirty work yourself. Take some personal responsibility. Environmental issues are never going to be solved as long as we concentrate on what others should do instead of what we ourselves can do. You have a choice. Stop talking and start doing or quit whining.
Ahem.
It’s certainly true that we form the world in which we live with our purchasing behavior. And I have to admit that, while I’m fairly decent in this department, I could be better.
But, Bruce, I did feel compelled to make a point here on behalf of the entire 2GreenEnergy team. We actually ARE doing; we ARE making a difference. In fact, we’ve helped hundreds of people in countries all over the world connect up and form businesses based around energy efficiency and renewables. I have emails from people in countries I didn’t know existed thanking us for our help. At the same time, we’ve communicated what we believe to be the truth in this space to many hundreds of thousands, creating a better informed, more energy-literate student population and electorate. We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished — and we’re just getting started.
Thanksgiving – An Appropriate Time to Appreciate Mankind’s Benefactors
| November 24, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Fossil Fuels |
Albert Einstein left us a number of gifts, most obviously his landmark breakthroughs in theoretical physics. The other, in my estimation, is the utter truckload of pithy philosophic quotes about mankind’s role in the universe. If you’re looking for something that will keep you out of trouble for a few hours, check this out – there are ten full pages of them.
Perhaps the most often quoted is this:
We can’t solve problems with the same kind of thinking we used to create them.
… which is often invoked by environmentalists to suggest that we’re foolish to count on the fossil fuel and nuclear industries to deal with the pollution and other externalities that come along with their products.
I’m with you all the way, good sir, and suggest that a combination of new modes of thinking are in order here:
1) Environmentalism itself, inspiring more and more people to act responsibly vis-a-vis the natural world
2) Energy conservation per se, making wholesale reductions in consumption, driven by building retrofits, mass transit, electric vehicles, etc.
3) Renewable energy – biting the bullet and making the investment in a clean energy future
Again, thanks to the ultimate man of ideas.
From Guest-blogger Ron: Save Money, Pollution, Time, Environment
| August 14, 2010 | Posted by ron under Electric Vehicles |
This is rather long but maybe your assistants can screen this. I’m writing because you showed some interest in urban transport costs (skimming down, you will be able to see this thread). Recently the bike people have gained access to hydro right of way for bike path. This is interesting because (a) these routes are free of traffic and are straight lines giving rapid access to downtown. They could cheaply be “paved” with limestone screening which compact with use to a cement- like surface.
Bikes are great for transport and fitness BUT when it rains and/or gets cold, I suspect the bikers want a nice dry warm bus. This migration makes life difficult for TTC- be- there -when- I -need -you is costly as empty buses illustrate this fact. That is why I think enclosed private transport- not cars- is the future.
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The EPA Asks: How Much Pollution Do Electric Vehicles Create?
| April 6, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
In his blog, my friend Paul Scott has written a marvelous post on calculating the pollution caused by charging electric vehicles with energy from fossil-fuels. He makes several astute comments and suggestions regarding how the EPA should, in fact, make this determination fairly.
He asks such questions as:
How do you compute the amount of pollution generated from coal and natural gas? Do you take the national average for a kilowatt hour of energy? I’ve read it’s just over one pound of CO2 per kWh. Or do you allow for regional variation? California is among the best in terms of per capita efficiency and a low CO2 grid, and we’ll be the first state to mass adopt EVs. Oregon and Washington have an even cleaner grid and will match CA in per capita EV ownership. Seems only fair to allow for our cleaner grid in the calculations.
In my estimation, a far bigger factor here is that the vast majority of the energy used to charge EVs comes off-peak, where it would largely be wasted (dumped back to ground) anyway. Therefore, even EVs powered by the dirtiest of coal-fired power plants represent very little additional pollution. We could put an estimated 90 million EV on the road this afternoon without the need for a single additional power plant — coal, nuclear, or whatever. Thus this issue, I believe, is largely moot.
But don’t expect the EPA to grasp this point too quickly. These are the same people who are still trying to determine the MPG ratings for a plug-hybrid like the Chevy Volt. Apparently, the fact that this is number that has no possible definition (it could be 50, 500, 5,000 or 50,000 depending on how the car is driven) does not deter them from spending many man-years studying and debating the issue. It makes just as much sense to argue about the number of angels that can dance on the head of a pin.
In any case, I applaud Paul for his incisive and fair-minded article, and I encourage readers to check it out here.
Dr. Robert Sweeney on Electric Transportation
| July 29, 2009 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
When Robert Sweeney was earning his Ph.D. in water resources at The Ohio State University, his concentration was the unwanted spin-off from the use of pesticides. “There are many unwanted effects on what we called ‘non-targets’ like algae and other plant life,” Bob explains. “From there, I turned my attention to some of the larger issues that affect the health of our environment, for example, the use of oil and gasoline. I concluded quickly that we really must make the transition to electric transportation in all forms: cars, trucks, buses, and so forth.”
Bob is now the driving force behind a series of expositions, designed to let the public know about the availability of electric vehicles. The Southern Electric Vehicle Expo (October 2-4 in Asheville, NC) will attract people from all over the country. “So many people are interested,” Dr. Sweeney tells me, “but until they have a live experience with an EV, they presume it’s a golf-cart; they need to see that it’s well-made, attractive, and capable of terrific performance.”
When I asked “the good doctor” (as I sometimes call him) where he sees electric transportation going in the coming years, he had some interesting answers. “Well obviously there will be a long and slow replacement of internal combustion engines on our roads generally. But did you know that around here, people with off-grid vacation homes use their EVs as portable batteries? They charge them during the day in town, but use them to power their homes at night. Mall operators are setting up charging stations to entice shoppers to come, and to stay longer and spend more.”
I asked about the involvement of the public sector. “It’s critical. Vancouver has mandated that 20% of its parking spaces be equipped with chargers. Closer to home, Raleigh/Durham/Cary is demanding at a growing portion of its traffic be electric; if it doesn’t, it won’t meet air quality standards and the federal government will cut aid. There is a lot happening fairly quickly; it’s a great time to be involved in this.”
I’m honored to know Dr. Sweeney, and I thanked him warmly for his dedication to making our earth a cleaner place in which to live.
Renewable Energy in the Third World
| July 27, 2009 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
Sadly, only a few of us who grow up in our western civilization really consider an alternative to becoming a part of the traditional economic machine. While we try to choose a career path about which we feel a certain spark—a spark that may come from helping others—only a few of us make enormous sacrifices and take on lives of pure compassion.
For a moment, I’d like you to reflect on the story of Steven Bloomstein and his friend Bob Albert who met as classmates at Harvard in the late 1960s. Like all products of top universities, the boys realized they had been groomed to become legislators, doctors, captains of industry, etc.—but when they recognized that none of these pursuits held any real attraction, they decided to go in another direction altogether.
After graduation they bought an abandoned hacienda in a remote part of Sucre, a state in the eastern part of Venezuela—a 3½-hour hike from the nearest road. They built an organic farm, and hired on the local campesinos (rural slash-and-burn subsistence farmers) who were uniformly illiterate, unspeakably poor, and previously unaware of sustainable agriculture practices.
In 1995, Steven and Bob registered a Massachusetts-based non-profit organization that they named The Turimiquire Foundation, after the nearby mountain range, and began to formalize the delivery of a variety of services in education, medical care, and reproductive counseling. Along with dozens of devoted volunteers, including Steven’s younger brother Willie, who runs the administrative operations in the U.S., they’ve dedicated themselves to helping tens of thousands of poorest of the poor to lead healthier, happier lives.
From the standpoint of renewable energy and environmental stewardship, the relevance is obvious: slash and burn, as the name implies, is horribly debilitating to the environment. Not only does it reduce the amount of vegetation that consumes CO2 and produces oxygen, but it pumps CO2 and other far more noxious chemicals into the atmosphere. Thus the presence of Turimiquire has been a considerable boon to the world in which we live in a great number of ways.
To me, the story of Turimiquire serves as a reminder that there are hundreds of different equally valid ways of life. We’re not here forever, and we shouldn’t waste our time foolishly conforming to other people’s ideas of success and meaning.
Please visit http://www.turimiquire.org/. I know you’ll be as impressed as I am by this story of passion and beauty. Unfortunately, the meager donations that my wife and I have been able to make over the past six or so years haven’t been terribly meaningful, but we’re proud to be supporters nonetheless.
PS: Here’s an infographic that depicts the history of renewable energy at a glance.
