OUTLINE: POLICY INFLUENCERS
1. Wall Street Journal - Is climate science settled?
2. Peer-reviewed Climate Science Articles- 99% settled.
3. Forbes – Is carbon-free energy available?
4. Nashua Telegraph – What about China’s coal burning?
5. Risky Business Report - Economics of Global Warming. by Bloomberg, Paulsen, & Steyer
6. Pope Francis’ Moral Responsibility to bequeath a habitable planet to future generations
Technology and Policies are Available to Save Our Environment.
1. Can New Technology
Save our Environment?
5. Technology and
Policies Simultaneously Mitigating Near-Term Climate
Change and Improving are Human available.
Health and
Food Security
Paul H. Carr, Ph. D.
www.MirrorOfNature.org
Photo, Lake Swanzey, NH
National Benefits of Methane and Black Carbon Reduction
SCIENCE VOL 335 pg. 188 13 JANUARY 2012
2. CAN NEW TECHNOLOGY SAVE OUR ENVIRONMENT?
1. Nature’s beauty versus its utility.
2.Can new technology save us in time? Limits to Growth. Food
Crash.
3. Why be concerned about Global Warming? Weather
Extremes.
4. Data supporting anthropogenic global warming.
5. Technology and policies are available to save us.
3. WILL
TECHNOLOGY
SAVE US IN
TIME ?
TECHNOLOGY
DOES NOT
DEPLOY ITSELF!
POLICY DECISION
IS UP TO US.
4. OUTLINE: POLICY INFLUENCERS
1. Wall Street Journal - Is climate science settled?
2. Peer-reviewed Climate Science Articles- 99% settled.
3. Forbes – Is carbon-free energy available?
4. Nashua Telegraph – What about China’s coal burning?
5. Risky Business Report - Economics of Global Warming.
by Bloomberg, Paulsen, &
Steyer
6. Pope Francis’ Moral Responsibility to bequeath a
habitable planet to future generations.
5. GUIDING PRINCIPLES
“There is a plethora of information but a
paucity of wisdom.”
“Conflicts arise between short-term
and long-term goals.”
MIT Prof Jay Forrester, Complex Systems.
“Where there is no vision, the people perish.”
Proverbs, 29:18
6. 1. Climate Science Is Not Settled
We are very far from the knowledge needed to make good
climate policy, writes leading scientist Steven E. Koonin
Wall Street Journal. Sept 19, 2014.
http://online.wsj.com/news/article_email/climate-science-is-not-settled-1411143565-
lMyQjAxMTA0NjIwMzgyMjM5Wj?tesla=y
“The crucial scientific question for policy isn't whether the climate
is changing. That is a settled matter: The climate has always
changed and always will.
Nor is the crucial question whether humans are influencing the
climate. That is no hoax.”
Koonin then gave examples of the difficulty that climate models
have in predicting exact results.
He does not mention that the history of higher CO2 levels in the
past give us an indication of what will happen when we reach
them again in the near future.
7. Faux Pause
• Melting Greenland
• Melting Antarctica
• Mountain Glaciers
• Thermal expansion
3. Global temperatures have risen since 1960, but rate of sea level rise has be greater.
EARTH WILL CROSS DANGER TRESHOLD BY 2036
“Faux Pause” by M. Mann. Scientific American, vol 310, April 2014
7
Aerosol Pause
8. Probability plotted versus Temperature Increase for C02 doubling.
2.6 C most probable. (Chris Hope, U Cambridge)
Cost of mitigation= $162 trillion
Cost of most probable damage = $314 trillion
9. Dinosaur Extinction 65M Yr. BP Figure from Dr. James Hansen, NASA GISS
• Our present level of 400 ppm could reach ~ 1000 ppm by 2100.
• Arctic became ice-free 8 M years ago when CO2 = 300 to 450
ppm.
• Antarctic melted ~ 40 M years ago, CO2 ~ 700 ppm
-Earth was ice-free, sea levels 100s meters (~300 ft) higher.
9
10. CLIMATE SCIENCE IS 97% SETTLED
97% of 2,500 UN climate scientists agree, humans cause global warming
11. 61% say global warming is caused by human activity & natural patters.
12. 2. PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLES: CLIMATE
SCIENCE IS GREATER THAN 99% SETTLED
To be classified as ‘rejecting,’ an article had to clearly and explicitly state that the CO2 theory
of global warming is false or, as happened in a few cases, that some other process better
explains the observed warming.” 24/13950 = 0.00172
13. Climate Science Is Not Settled
We are very far from the knowledge needed to make good
climate policy, writes leading scientist Steven E. Koonin
Wall Street Journal. Sept 19, 2014.
http://online.wsj.com/news/article_email/climate-science-is-not-settled-1411143565-
lMyQjAxMTA0NjIwMzgyMjM5Wj?tesla=y
Does the ending of this article below lead
you to the same conclusion as the headline?
“Our uncertain knowledge of future climates need not
be an excuse for inaction. There is well-justified
prudence in accelerating the development of low-emissions
technologies and in cost-effective energy-efficiency
measures.”
14.
15. 3. Climate Change Has Jumped the Shark
http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenhayward/2014/09/29/climate-change-has-jumped-the-
shark/
Forbes, Sept. 29, 2014 by Steven F Haywood
“The prescribed method for preventing
climate change is essentially replacing nearly
all hydrocarbon energy, in the space of less
than two generations. Climate orthodoxy
calls for an 80 percent reduction in
greenhouse gas emissions, worldwide.”
Why is it important to do this?
Is carbon-free energy
available?
16. “We have to figure out how to live without fossil
fuels someday. Why not now, before we have
destroyed the creation?”
Dr. Jim Hansen, Director of the NASA Goddard Space Science Institute and
Professor at Columbia University, speaking at the NH State House, 2 Apr 2009.
By eliminating coal burning, the largest source of CO2 emissions, in the next 20 years, CO2
concentrations will decrease.
17. Coal phase-out by 2030 peak CO2 ~400-425 ppm, depending on oil/gas
Faster return below 350 ppm requires additional actions
19. 19
EARTH WILL CROSS DANGER TRESHOLD BY 2036
The “blue sky” 405 ppm curve: < 2C increase by 2100. ( M. Mann. Scientific American, vol 310, April 2014 )
20. Coal Burning Pollutes our Common Atmosphere for Free
Economic benefit for electric utility companies and customers.
The negative effects of pollution are shared by all.
21.
22. Why Free Inhalers? Because COAL CARES.
http://www.coalcares.org/index.html
Coal Cares™ is a brand-new initiative from Peabody Energy, the
world's largest private-sector coal company, to reach out to
American youngsters with asthma and to help them keep their heads
high in the face of those who would treat them with less than full
dignity. For kids who have no choice but to use an inhaler, Coal
Cares™ lets them inhale with pride.
Puff-Puff™ inhalers are available free to any family living within
200 miles of a coal plant, and each inhaler comes with a $10
coupon towards the cost of the asthma medication itself.
23. Public Service of NH gets 40% of its electricity from dirty coal burning,
21% from gas , 4% oil. (65% CO2 emitting)
16% from Seabrook nuclear, 13% hydro, 0.81% wind, 0.21% solar( 30%)
25. 3. Continued. Climate Change Has Jumped the Shark
http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenhayward/2014/09/29/climate-change-has-jumped-the-shark/
Steven F Haywood . Is carbon-free energy available?
“But affordable large-scale, low- or non-carbon energy
capable of replacing our current energy infrastructure
simply doesn’t exist at present, and there isn’t much on the
horizon.
The developing world needs to triple its energy supply over
the next generation if it is going to raise hundreds of millions
out of abject poverty, and that means using abundant
hydrocarbon energy, not expensive boutique energy popular
with ever-preening rich Americans and Europeans. ”
My response,
Green energy has become affordable..
“Abundant hydrocarbon energy” will be depleted in about a
century .
26. “Expensive boutique energy?”
The cost of Solar PV electricity has come down to 8 cents per kWhr
The average cost of electricity in the US is 12 cents/ kWhr, 17 cents in NH
29. • By 2100, renewable energy could generate 100% of the U.S.’s
electricity and more than 90% of its energy.
• Federal support of totaling $420 billion would be required till 2050
--- Less than the U.S. Farm Support Program
30. Innovative SOLAR UPDRAFT TOWER
Aug 2011, a contractor was selected to build two 200 MW Solar
Updraft Towers in Western Arizona. Lifetime expected to be 80 years.
--Operates at night
SOLAR ENERGY FROM OUR STAR IS FOREVER (5 B YEARS)
31. Solar, Wind, Nuclear Needed
The increase in the supply of “abundant hydrocarbon energy”
since 2008 will peak in 2018 and then decline.
Solar, Wind, and Nuclear energy needed to meet the projected consumption.
32. SOLUTIONS TO GOBAL
WARMING
Electric Cars powered by
• Windmills
• Solar Cells
• Nuclear Fission & Fusion
Power Plants
Electric cars
getting the
equivalent of 100
miles per gallon
are now available.
33. 50 YEAR COST SAVINGS FROM Doubly-Green SOLAR = $263,000
34. ------ 8
Natural gas is the cheapest energy source, but production
predicted to peak in 2018 and then decline. Solar, wind, and
nuclear are the best for centuries to come.
35. At present, the increase of carbon sources equals that of carbon-free.
The 1973 – 1990 increase was from new nuclear plants.
36. Shift Taxes From Income to Energy
http://blogs.wsj.com/experts/2014/10/02/shift-taxes-from-income-to-energy/?
mod=WSJBlog&mod=experts_energy
Wall Street Journal by ROBERT RAPIER, October 2, 2014
We should change the way we tax energy.
The U.S. is one of the highest per-capita consumers of energy in the world.
Yet there are countries with living standards as good as or better than we
enjoy but at much lower energy consumption.
One way to accomplish this would be to shift taxes from income to energy
in a way that doesn’t increase the overall tax burden.
Imagine a family whose income is $50,000 per year, pays $10,000 per year
in income taxes, and spends $2,500 on gasoline and $2,500 on electricity.
I would propose to shift their tax burden over time so that it ultimately
ends up something like this: $5,000 in income taxes, $2,500 in additional
gasoline taxes and $2,500 in additional taxes on fossil fuel-based
electricity. I would exempt renewable sources of energy from these higher
taxes.
37. Shift Taxes From Income to Energy
http://blogs.wsj.com/experts/2014/10/02/shift-taxes-from-income-to-energy/?
mod=WSJBlog&mod=experts_energy
Such a change in the tax code would have numerous
benefits.
It would lead to conservation of our remaining fossil
fuel reserves, it would encourage mass transit, it would
make alternative energy more competitive with fossil
fuels without picking specific technology winners, and it
would make the price of fossil fuels more reflective of
the negative externalities that are not currently priced in
(e.g., air pollution, military expenditures, etc.)
38. IMBALANCE:
US ENERGY CONSUMPTION IS TWICE THAT OF OTHER DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
CHINA TRYING TO CATCH UP TO INCREASE ITS GDP & STARDARD OF LIVING
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/9023#more
39. OUTLINE: POLICY INFLUENCERS
1. Wall Street Journal - Is climate science settled?
2. Peer-reviewed Climate Science Articles- 99% settled.
3. Forbes – Is carbon-free energy available? YES!
DEPLOYED FASTER WITH A TAX ON CARBON.
4. Nashua Telegraph – What about China’s coal burning?
5. Risky Business Report - Economics of Global Warming.
by Bloomberg, Paulsen, &
Steyer
6. Pope Francis’ Moral Responsibility to bequeath a
habitable planet to future generations.
40. More than 100,000 people march through midtown Manhattan as part of the People’s Climate March on Sunday in New York. John Minchillo/AP Images for AVAAZ
300,000 to 400,000 people march through midtown Manhattan as part of the People’s
Climate March on Sunday, Sept 21, 2014 in New York. John Minchillo/AP Images for AVAAZ
41. 4. Nashua Telegraph, Sept. 24, 2014
“China is responsible for 27% of carbon emissions, more than any
other country, and uses as much coal as the rest of the world.”
42. Proportional to GDP per Capita
The CO2 per capita of the US is the highest of highly populated counties & 3.4 times that of
China. France at 5.9 is the lowest of developed, high standard of living countries. Why?
France gets 80% of its electricity from nuclear reactors.
43. China Carbon Debut Defies Emission Doubters
By Bloomberg News - Oct 12, 2012 5:09 AM ET
CAP AND TRADE CARBON
China’s first steps to build what is destined to be the world’s
second-biggest emissions market are boosting the prospects for
fledgling programs from Australia to California.
Four cement makers in China, the world’s biggest emitter,
bought 1.3 million pollution permits for 60 yuan ($9.55) a metric
ton last month in Guangdong.
The province plans the largest of seven pilot programs for a
proposed national market within three years.
Exchanges will trade permits to emit an estimated 1 billion
metric tons of greenhouse gases a year by 2015, close to half the
volume in the European Union system.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-12/china-carbon-debut-defies-emission-doubters-
energy-markets.html
44. 5. CLIMATE CHANGE IS NOW A BUSINESS STORY
RISKY BUSINESS REPORT
RiskyBusiness.org is co-chaired by titans of American business and
former government officials, including Michael Bloomberg, former
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, and hedge-fund billionaire Tom
Steyer.
The Risky Business report talked relatively little about science and
more about what this whole threat is going to cost us. With its emphasis
on the economic impact of climate change, it broke down each region
and endangered economic sectors to assess the looming damage. And
with this shift in focus — from the physics of climate change to its
financial consequences — came a subtle yet perhaps significant change
in media coverage.
45. The Coming Climate Crash:
Lessons for Climate Change in the 2008 Recession
By HENRY M. PAULSON Jr. Secretary of the Treasury under Pres. George W. Bush.
Co-Author of www.RiskyBusiness.org JUNE 21, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/22/opinion/sunday/lessons-for-climate-change-in-the-
2008-recession.html
“We’re staring down a climate bubble that poses enormous risks to
both our environment and economy. The warning signs are clear and
growing more urgent as the risks go unchecked.
A tax on carbon emissions will unleash a wave of innovation to
develop technologies, lower the costs of clean energy and create
jobs as we and other nations develop new energy products and
infrastructure.
Climate change is the challenge of our time. We’ve seen and felt the
costs of underestimating the financial bubble. Let’s not ignore the
climate bubble.”
46. George Shultz, Co-Author Risky Business
THOMAS W. AND SUSAN B. FORD DISTINGUISHED FELLOW AT THE HOOVER
INSTITUTION; FORMER US SECRETARY OF STATE; FORMER US SECRETARY OF THE
TREASURY; FORMER US SECRETARY OF LABOR; FORMER DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF
MANAGEMENT & BUDGET; FORMER PRESIDENT, BECHTEL GROUP
“The risks we take if the climate changes need to be identified
carefully. We have done that here, in the spirit of creating an
insurance policy. I support steps in that spirit, such as sustained
support for and investments in innovation and resilience that put
us in the best position to be prepared for all possible outcomes.”
— George Shultz
47. 47
6. The Pope tackles sustainability
Marcia McNutt
Marcia McNutt Editor-in-Chief Science journals
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/345/6203/1429.full
19 September 2014
Pope Francis
Pope Francis convened a Joint Workshop of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the
Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences on sustainability in May 2014.
The Vatican has articulated some of its strongest environmental statements to date,
calling for all of us to take personal responsibility and redirect our relationship with
nature to ensure the future habitability and sustainability of this planet
The problems are:
depletion of nonrenewable fossil fuel resources,
loss of ecosystem services,
and risks from changing climate.
What the Vatican uniquely contributes is the rationale for taking
action: because it is our moral responsibility to bequeath a
habitable planet to future generations.
48. Conservation, efficiency, & a more
vegetarian diet can reduce our use
of fossil fuels. Nature is the capital
on which capitalism is based.
In the long-term, our world’s
economy will be constrained by
ecology.
There are indeed Limits to Growth.
49. CHALLENGE
Margaret Mead, Anthropologist (1901-1978)
Star Island IRAS Speaker 1969
“Never doubt that a group of thoughtful,
committed citizens can change the world.
Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”
50. TECHNOLOGIES ARE AVAILABLE TO SOLVE OUR
POPULATION & EVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS
CAN WE DEPLOY THEM IN TIME TO MINIMIZE HUMAN SUFFERING?
When asked if we have enough time to prevent catastrophe, Donella Meadows
always said that we have exactly enough time -- starting now.
• CONSERVE, INVEST IN SOLAR CELLS ($0.10/KWHR)
- ELECTRIC CARS, 100 MILES/GAL
• SUPPORT CUTTING INCOME TAXES AND
ADDITIONAL TAXES ON FOSSIL ENERGY.
• ENCOURAGE OTHERS TO VOTE FOR THE ABOVE.
51. SUMMARY: POLICY INFLUENCERS
1. Wall Street Journal - Is climate science settled?
2. Peer-reviewed Climate Science Articles- 99% settled.
3. Forbes – Is carbon-free energy available? YES!
DEPLOYED FASTER WITH A TAX ON CARBON.
4. Nashua Telegraph – What about China’s coal burning?
5. Risky Business Report - Economics of Global Warming.
by Bloomberg, Paulsen, &
Steyer
6. Pope Francis’ Moral Responsibility to bequeath a
habitable planet to future generations.
52. CAN NEW TECHNOLOGY SAVE OUR ENVIRONOMENT?
There is a plethora of information but a
paucity of wisdom.
“Conflicts arise between short-term
and long-term goals.”
MIT Prof Jay Forrester, Complex Systems.
“Where there is no vision, the people perish.”
Proverbs, 29:18
Editor's Notes
Such a low level of atmospheric CO2 is conceivable, if we phase out coal emissions linearly between 2010 and 2030, and if we prohibit use of unconventional fossil fuels such as tar sands and oil shale.
In that case, depending upon the magnitude of undiscovered reserves of oil and gas, CO2 would peak at something between 400 and 425 ppm and then begin to decline