Report on Climate Change from Someone Experiencing It
Runoff from Icecap
I thought I’d reprint a comment that just came in from David Poppe in Alaska; it’s always good to get the viewpoint of the “man in the street.” He writes:
Here in Alaska, alternative/renewable energy is not a “boutique” energy source. Even though we produce a fair share of the nation’s oil, fossil fuel derived diesel, gasoline, and heating oil are priced much higher than in the lower 48 states. When one gets off the main road system, and the prices for energy skyrocket. Not unusual for price in remote villages for gasoline and heating oil prices to be $6-10/gallon, electricity rates from $.50 to $1.00/kwh. Solar becomes viable even if it only works 8 months out of the year. Same with wind.
Climate change isn’t debated about in Alaska; it’s here. Thawing permafrost causes our roads to undulate like roller coasters. Our esteemed president today declared that the polar ice caps are doing just fine (the president knows more than people living here, not!) but the facts are that the Arctic Ocean is freezing later, having frozen at Pt. Barrow just 26 days ago (normal was mid-November). The ice is thinner. Cruise ships pass through the Northwest Passage, encountering no ice blocking their path.
I’ll support Craig on this; we’d be better off moving as quick as possible away from fossil fuels to any and every form of renewable possible.
It’s interesting to me that the Chinese see the problems of pollution from fossil fuel, and are transitioning to solar as fast as possible, but our president wants to go back to dirty air, rolling back clean air standards just this week, and promoting coal. We’ve had a government policy favoring the fossil fuel industry rather than renewables. Our government could have promoted solar the same as the Chinese government has, but starting with Reagan, has been schizoid in its policy toward renewables. Our solar industry never got the boost from government it needed, (even if just to say this is where we need to go) for it to take off, so our country has been bested at capitalism by the pinko communists.
Time will tell whether the tariffs help or hurt, but we do have an administration hostile to anything green.
I deeply appreciate this, David. And you’re so right; this disagreement of climate change is absurd. It’s like listening to two people argue whether or not grizzly bears are dangerous; one guy’s in a library reading about bears, and the other guy’s in the forest, his leg in a grizzly’s mouth.
Craig,
It must be nice to have a supporter in Alaska, and good to see David Poppe is concerned enough to take the time to comment.
As for being the “man in the street”, that’s more dubious. The term “man in the street” implies a “commonly held opinion by ordinary people” . It doesn’t mean literally one person !
In Alaska the average “man in the street” is more likely to be a Republican as are all Alaskan Federal representatives.
@David
Thank you for your heart felt comments and if passion for any subject accounts for anything (which it does in spades) then you are a leader in this field.
But that’s where your practical analysis and expertise on the subject moving forward ends, and that’s quite understandable; you have been misinformed repeatedly and relentlessly about solar PV and other renewable energy sources and their effectiveness in eliminating global greenhouse gases to insignificant levels permanently, and your conclusions now seem hard-wired and are simply wrong.
It isn’t technically possible or feasible, and please make some genuine effort to find a phone number and put in a 1 minute cold call and discuss this point with any reputable global energy scientist you can contact. They are available, and accessible. You sound like you have been totally mesmerised by misinformation on the subject David which isn’t helping you much at all really, except fueling your exasperation and pessimism about a critically important global subject. Unfortunately you have been ‘snowed’ mate to draw on a common expression that describes your situation perfectly along with many others also David.
Thanks again for your commentary though David.
PS: You are entirely incorrect about the Chinese nation focusing carte blanche on solar and other renewable energy sources as viable replacement technologies for fossil fuel generation. Once again, you have been (word smithed and weazel worded) and misinformed on this subject, from nearly all information sources available to you including 2GreenEnergy, which is a pity because the factual story is a much more optimistic and uplifting read.
Lawrence Coomber
I do not see David suggesting immediate 100% replacement of fossil fuels with wind and solar in Alaska, indeed he acknowledges their limitation of availability. He is saying however that with electricity prices of up to $1 per kWh in rural areas, wind and solar are well and truly viable whenever they can displace traditional generation.