tagged w/ Al Gore's 10-Year Challenge
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This is why any pledge to reduce CO2 emissions 80% by 2050 is not enough. That pledge is deceptive as it makes it look as though emissions would be decreased by 80% before 2050. However, it only gives polluting industries more time to conduct business as usual and bring us closer to 450ppm in the interim which we cannot allow to happen. We are already at 385ppm which has now been concluded to already be in the danger zone... that does not leave much room or time to work to bring down CO2 emissions.
We spew 70 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every day and that does not even include the rate of deforestation and other global warming polluting gases. When you then add that to the acidification of oceans which are now at the saturation point, you are looking at a recipe for disaster in our future if we do not get serious about cutting emissions drastically within the next five to ten years.
Pledging to do what every other politician pledges just to appease all sides at the expense of our survival is not going to get us there and is not change. We need a truly bold plan based on a moral not politically expedient principle. We have one if only politicians would embrace it. And the time is fast coming when they must.This is why any pledge to reduce CO2 emissions 80% by 2050 is not enough. That pledge... more
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When are we going to hear the roar of the American people demanding Washington Dc wake the hell up and stop touting some bogus 80% by 2050 emissions reduction line when it is obvious that will be too late? However, the price of gas is supposedly going down now so conveniently before 'election' day and with the current global financial crisis so conveniently placed where it is I suppose dealing with climate change will now be an afterthought to governments that really weren't going to do much about it anyway.
To me this all seems surreal. It is like slowing down to watch a car wreck and then speeding up once you get by to continue on your way because the thrill of seeing it is gone because you really didn't care if anyone was hurt, it was just exciting to look at. 'Oh my, the Greenland ice caps are melting... how terrible... look at that video... oh boy, something to talk about today...then... nothing to see here, move on... let's look at pictures of Jamie Lynn Spears breastfeeding instead.' The Earth is speaking to us, crying out to us. The signs are everywhere. And we continue driving down the road turning our radios up so as not to be bothered, thinking someone will take care of that; or, it won't melt enough in my lifetime to make any difference; or, it is all natural or the will of God so why fight it. I just do not know what else can be said anymore.
We need to be scaling more chimneys and unfurling more banners, and standing around more fossil fuel plants, and shouting even louder, and writing relentlessly to newspapers and media and badgering representatives in Dc and elsewhere, and we need to be telling ALL presidential candidates that "clean coal' is not the answer. We need to pull over and get out of the car and do something besides gawking at the tragedy unfolding before our eyes.
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From the article:
Flying low over the vast, white expanse of Greenland's Ilulissat glacier, one of the biggest and most active in the world, the effects of global warming in the Arctic are painfully visible as the ice melts at an alarming rate.
The helicopter lands on a granite cliff overlooking the Ilulissat ice fjord, or Kangia in Greenlandic, offering a magnificent, panoramic view of elaborate ice formations as they float towards the sea at a rate of two meters (yards) an hour, spilling massive icebergs into the open water.
Off in the distance, huge boulders of ice break off of the imposing Ilulissat glacier, more commonly known by its Greenlandic name Sermeq Kujalleq, creating a thunderous roar as the glacier recedes in one of the planet's most striking examples of global warming.
"The ice in some places on the coast is now melting four times faster than before," says Abbas Khan, a Dane who studies the movements of Greenland's glaciers at the Danish Space Centre.
The Ilulissat glacier and icefjord have been on UNESCO's world heritage list since 2004 and is the most visited site in Greenland, its ice and pools of emerald-blue water admired by tourists and studied by scientists and politicians around the world.
The glacier is the most active in the northern hemisphere, producing 10 percent of Greenland's icebergs, or some 20 million tonnes of ice per day.
But the glacier is in bad shape, experts warn.
Recent estimates by US scientists who study NASA's satellite images daily show that it is rapidly disintegrating.
It has shrunk more than 15 kilometres (9.3 miles) in the past five years, and is now smaller than it has ever been in the 150 years of observation and topographical data.
According to professor Jason Box and his team from the department of geography at Ohio State University, the Ilulissat glacier may not have been this small in 6,000 years.
more at the link
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Photo credit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielheaf/1343411263/When are we going to hear the roar of the American people demanding Washington Dc wake... more
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From five miles away, the Nevada Solar One power plant seems a mirage, a silver lake amid waves of 110 degree F. desert heat. Driving nearer, the rippling image morphs into a sea of mirrors angled to the sun.
As the first commercial “concentrating solar power” or CSP plant built in 17 years, Nevada Solar One marks the reemergence and updating of a decades-old technology that could play a large new role in US power production, many observers say.
“Concentrating solar is pretty hot right now,” says Mark Mehos, program manager for CSP at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Co. “Costs look pretty good compared to natural gas [power]. Public policy, climate concern, and new technology are driving it, too.”
Spread in military rows across 300 acres of sun-baked earth, Nevada Solar One’s trough-shaped parabolic mirrors are the core of this CSP plant – also called a “solar thermal” plant. The mirrors focus sunlight onto receiver tubes, heating a fluid that, at 735 degrees F., flows through a heat exchanger to a steam generator that supplies 64 megawatts of electricity to 14,000 Las Vegas homes.
Today the United States has 420 megawatts of solar-thermal capacity across three installations – including Nevada Solar One. That’s just a tiny fraction (less than 1 percent) of US grid capacity. But Nevada Solar One could signal the start of a CSP building boom.
Efforts to generate another 4,500 megawatts of solar thermal power are now in development across California, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico – all of which have the flat, near-cloudless skies most desirable for solar thermal, the Solar Electric Industries Association reports.
Photovoltaic panels that produce electricity directly from the sun’s rays work well on rooftops, but are still too costly for utility-scale power generation. Solar thermal, however, is nearing the cost of a natural gas-fired turbine power plant – making it a winner with several power companies that have signed long-term contracts to purchase solar-thermal power.
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We all need to demand this now, and we need to tell Congress, especially Senate Republicans who vote down tax incentives for renewable energy that they can no longer get away with continuing to put us at risk for their own profit. Republicans in this country, do you not see what those who claim to support you are doing to the future of your children? This should not be a Democratic or Republican issue, this is a human issue and right now we need new, clean, efficient, safer sources of energy not only to wean us off ALL oil, but to provide a better planet for our children, create jobs, and bring peace. Solar power is our future, and it is wonderful to see these strides taking place now.
The solution comes up every morning.From five miles away, the Nevada Solar One power plant seems a mirage, a silver lake... more
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SMA America has launched www.Solar-is-Future.com. This user-friendly, educational Web site explains how solar energy can be harvested and utilized via animation, illustrations and descriptions in easy-to-understand language.
At Solar-is-Future.com, visitors can research the benefits of solar power and how the sun's abundant, clean energy can be collected through active and passive solar power systems.
'SMA America is very excited about the launch of Solar-is-Future.com," says Jurgen Krehnke, president and general manager of SMA America. 'Now there is a one-stop, online solar resource where visitors can learn everything there is to know about solar energy and solar power systems."
In addition to various illustrations explaining solar radiation, solar power systems and solar thermal energy, Solar-is-Future.com features an animated grid-tied photovoltaic (PV) system, which comprises the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. solar market.
The animation clearly shows how PV system components are connected and examples of where the components would be installed in a residential system. Basic components include a solar array, inverter and meter. By clicking on a component, a box appears that explains the component and its function.
Elsewhere on the Solar-is-Future site is a Solar Power Professional Search where visitors can locate solar power system installers by zip code. There is also an extensive Frequently Asked Questions section that covers common concerns such as whether a building permit is required when installing a solar power system.
The site's comprehensive glossary defines the solar power industry's most-used terms, including alternating current, grid-connected system and kilowatt hour.
SMA America has launched www.Solar-is-Future.com. This user-friendly, educational Web... more
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BioSolar surprised attendees at the SPIE Symposium on Solar Applications and Energy in San Diego by revealing that materials derived from cotton and castor beans compose the company's proprietary BioBacksheet, a protective covering, traditionally made from expensive petroleum-based film, used in the back of virtually all photovoltaic solar cells.
"Until now, this information has remained highly-guarded over the past 18 months as BioSolar established academic and industry credibility," said BioSolar Chairman and CEO, Dr. David Lee. "Now that our technology is strongly protected both domestically and abroad, we are able to share this exciting news with the public."
While not revealing core proprietary or patent-pending elements of the intellectual property, BioSolar's Chief Technology Officer, Dr. Stan Levy, divulged in his presentation that the bio-based components are a composite of cellulosic material derived from cotton, combined with an arcane nylon (nylon 11) derived from castor beans.
Dr. Levy detailed the procedures and results of the company's 18-month product development effort to engineer the BioBacksheet from non-food, plant-based materials. He provided an in-depth look at the science and applied technology behind the unique bio-sustainable formulation and state-of-the-art manufacturing processes used to create the company's BioBacksheet product.
The two sustainably sourced components are combined utilizing the company's proprietary manufacturing process.
"We have demonstrated that functional photovoltaic backsheets can be produced from renewable resources," said Dr. Levy.
"We believe that the BioBacksheet is a viable alternative to backsheets currently in use. Not only is this product produced from sustainable and renewable resources, but is expected to be more cost effective than the current backsheets."
BioSolar surprised attendees at the SPIE Symposium on Solar Applications and Energy in... more
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Al Gore came to Washington in July to issue a challenge to the country: create a new energy economy that will generate 100 percent of America's electricity from clean sources within 10 years. Now the former vice president’s advocacy group, the Alliance for Climate Protection, has launched a new TV ad to spread the message to Olympics viewers.
The group debuted "Switch" (subscription) on NBC during Monday's coverage of the Games; the spot will continue to air on NBC and USA Network through next week.
As in the group's first TV ad, actor William H. Macy narrates and soothing music creates an upbeat tone to promote the group's message: "Together we can solve the climate crisis." Americans from different walks of life are shown coming together to help each other turn on giant light switches -- one in the desert, one in a field, one at a factory and one in the middle of a city.
Macy lays out some of the vast challenges facing the country: "a weaker economy, soaring gas prices, growing dependence on foreign oil and a worsening climate crisis." But, he says, "there’s a bold new solution for all of these challenges." He presents Gore's plan to create clean electricity as a way to combat both economic and national security threats. "All we need is your help," he says, encouraging viewers to "join the more than one million people who are already demanding we switch on a brighter future."
“The Olympics are a time for all Americans to reflect on our nation’s achievements and what we as a people can do together," Alliance for Climate Protection CEO Cathy Zoi said in a press release announcing the ad. "Choosing the right path and re-powering our nation is something we can do, and something that will benefit us all.”
For all the money the group is pouring into its public outreach effort, however, recent polling data suggests that Americans' attention is not squarely focused on climate change issues. With the election and economic problems occupying the media spotlight, the number of Americans who say they consider global warming an important issue to them personally has fallen 5 percentage points since 2007 to 47 percent.
Al Gore came to Washington in July to issue a challenge to the country: create a new... more
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Victoria Gardens by Shea Homes will offer free solar power systems to its homebuyers through August 31. Shea Homes is the first builder to roll out a national solar offering and has chosen to work with BP Solar, a global leader in solar energy.
The initiative is part of the builder's ongoing commitment to reducing the carbon footprint of homes in all of its Shea Homes Active Lifestyle Communities across four states.
The BP Solar Home Solutions systems are estimated to reduce the homes' electric bills by up to 60 percent per home. This is in addition to the approximately 30 percent energy usage reduction Victoria Gardens by Shea Homes residences already achieve with the Shea Green Certified standards for home building.
Each home will be equipped with a 3-kilowatt solar power system, which helps provide security against electric rate increases, allowing consumers to hedge their future risks in the volatile energy markets.
"By providing our buyers with free solar energy systems, we're taking efficient energy use a step further by actually creating energy," said Jeff Gersh, Area Vice President of Victoria Gardens, which features Shea Homes residences. "This provides both short-term and long-term benefits for our customers in the form of significant cost savings, and it also makes a positive impact on the environment."
"With the addition of solar in a home, we're no longer just efficient users of electricity, we become producers. Integrating a solar system into a home during construction makes it more accessible and affordable than it's ever been. Victoria Gardens' homes pass the true test of a 'green' home by integrating a mix of energy-saving and energy-generating devices that deliver immediate and long-term benefits for our customer."
Solar systems will be free through August 31 to new homebuyers in Shea Active Lifestyle Communities in Arizona, California, Washington and Florida, including Deland's Victoria Gardens. After August 31, the systems will be available as an upgrade option. Homeowners will be able to track how much power their system is producing, along with its environmental benefits, via a Web-based remote monitoring system.
"Creative business partnerships are helping to transform the American residential marketplace with homes that combine energy efficiency with solar power," said DOE Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Alexander A. Karsner.
"These homes will help transform the built environment into healthier, more prosperous and sustainable communities that reduce our carbon footprint, enhance our energy security and contribute to the fabric of a cleaner, more efficient America."
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Sound like a good deal to me. Hoping to see this become a trend in homebuying.
Victoria Gardens by Shea Homes will offer free solar power systems to its homebuyers... more
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A new report by Environment Colorado shows that developing solar power plants will reduce global warming pollution from U.S. electricity generation.
Denver, CO; Colorado's sunny skies are an endless vein the state can tap to supply clean renewable energy to meet growing U.S. demand for pollution free power, this according to a panel of energy advocates, industry experts, and legislators at a briefing today at the Colorado state capitol.
Our state's energy future rises every morning. By investing now in solar power plants, we can make sure that we ride this rise to cheaper energy, cleaner skies, and good paying green-collar jobs said Keith Hay, Energy Advocate at Environment Colorado. Colorado's sunshine is a new goldmine. Solar power plants can keep Colorado's energy economy growing while cutting the state's global warming pollution.
Joining the briefing were Senator Gail Schwartz (D-Snowmass Village) and Representative Judy Solano (D-Brighton), both of whom sponsored legislation this year directing the Colorado Public Utilities Commission to consider the economic and environmental benefits of solar power plants when making resource decisions about where and how we get our electricity.
While investment in solar power plants has been stimulated by state initiatives to reduce global warming pollution, the report argues that reaching science based goals will require federal action. On the Rise highlights several policies that would increase the development of solar power plants in the United States, including: Enacting a national Renewable Electricity Standard Enacting a cap on global warming pollution Expanding and extending tax credits for investment in renewable energy Providing transmission access for central-station solar power
Nationally, we have the resources to meet new energy demand with solar power plants. The question is not one of resources, but of creating the markets and putting in place the policies that will get those resources to market, stated Holly Gordon, Vice-President of Regulatory and Legislative Affairs for Ausra Inc.
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Concentrating solar power plants are finally having their day in the sun. Right now over 4,500 MW of concentrating solar power plants have signed power purchase agreements and, if the Federal investment tax credit is extended by Congress, they will be built said, Scott Frier, COO of Abengoa Solar. This technology has been producing reliable power for more than 20 years in the U.S. Because these plants can meet our future energy needs with pollution free, dispatchable power, we are seeing more and more utilities making the smart decision to purchase their output for their present and future energy needs.
As part of the state's Climate Action Plan, utilities agreed to voluntarily reduce global warming pollution by 20 percent by 2020. Reaching this goal will require a combination of energy efficiency and the use of central station solar power plants. For the first time, On the rise shows that replacing just half the state's current electricity demand with pollution free solar power would mean cutting global warming pollution by an amount equal to taking almost 2 million cars off the road.
A new report by Environment Colorado shows that developing solar power plants will... more
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During the news summary on Thursday July 17, 2008, Jim Lehrer misrepresented Al Gore’s recommendations for developing cleaner energy sources. Lehrer said this:
“Former Vice President Al Gore challenged the nation today to turn to clean sources of power within ten years. He said the U.S. should switch from oil and gas to generate electricity and to wind, sun, nuclear, and other forms.”
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Gore never mentioned nuclear. Here’s a portion of Gore’s speech where he recommends clean sources:
“What if we could use fuels that are not expensive, don’t cause pollution and are abundantly available right here at home?
We have such fuels. Scientists have confirmed that enough solar energy falls on the surface of the earth every 40 minutes to meet 100 percent of the entire world’s energy needs for a full year. Tapping just a small portion of this solar energy could provide all of the electricity America uses.
And enough wind power blows through the Midwest corridor every day to also meet 100 percent of US electricity demand. Geothermal energy, similarly, is capable of providing enormous supplies of electricity for America.
The quickest, cheapest and best way to start using all this renewable energy is in the production of electricity. In fact, we can start right now using solar power, wind power and geothermal power to make electricity for our homes and businesses.”
Gore’s complete speech is available here.
Jim Lehrer grouped wind, solar and nuclear together as “clean sources of power,” Al Gore did not. Gore recommended wind, solar and geothermal. Was it an innocent mistake on Lehrer’s part? I don’t know, but for him to attribute nuclear advocacy to the Nobel Prize winner Al Gore is a nice little piece of salesmanship on behalf of the nuclear industry.
But it’s false advertising.
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Wow, even on PBS.
During the news summary on Thursday July 17, 2008, Jim Lehrer misrepresented Al... more
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MIT researchers say they have discovered a way to use solar energy cheaply even after the sun goes down, which could make it a mainstream source of power within the next decade.
Solar energy has been expensive and inefficient to use after dark, said Daniel Nocera, 51, the Henry Dreyfus professor of energy and professor of chemistry at MIT. But in an article published in the July 31 issue of the journal Science, Nocera and other Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers say they have found a simple, inexpensive process for storing solar energy.
"How the heck are you going to build an economy or a business only if the sun is shining?" said Nocera, the senior author. "What you really need to do is when the sun is shining, figure out how to store some of that energy so you can unleash it when the sun isn't shining."
Nocera and the other researchers based their work on a compound made from cobalt and phosphate, both readily available. When the sun is out, electricity from solar panels can be fed to the compound in water, causing the water to split into hydrogen and oxygen. The elements create a chemical fuel that can be recombined to create energy later, when the sun is not shining.
The discovery breaks "the connection between energy and fossil fuels because my energy is coming from water," said Nocera, "unleashing the solar energy, not in real time, but when you want to."
The researchers said the findings open the door for large-scale use of solar energy around the clock - not right away but within 10 years. The next step is engineering the system to create and use the solar power. That task will be part of an engineering design project at MIT during the upcoming semester, Nocera said.
Cost is the biggest challenge facing the solar energy industry, said Monique Hanis, spokeswoman for the Solar Energy Industries Association, an industry trade group in Washington, D.C.
"The industry is trying to cut costs and improve efficiency all along the supply chain," Hanis said. "The cost of solar should be on par with sort of traditional fossil sources in about eight years," based on the rising costs of other forms of energy and the trends the association has seen in cost reductions in solar over the last decade, she said.
Nocera and the MIT research group said they opted to publish their findings to allow the science community to work on the technology.
"The challenges confronting the world in energy are too big to let anybody's single ego or money get in the way," Nocera said. "And we're talking about some really challenging problems."
MIT researchers say they have discovered a way to use solar energy cheaply even after... more
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If Senator Barack Obama ever needs a living symbol of change we can believe in, and a hopeful way to transcend the dirty politics of our failed energy policies, he should go and see the future of renewable energy in the Coal River Valley in West Virginia.
Yes, renewable energy in Appalachia.
Something historic is taking place in West Virginia this summer. Faced with an impending proposal to stripmine over 6,600 acres -- nearly 10 square miles -- in the Coal River Valley, including one of the last great mountains in that range, an extraordinary movement of local residents and coal mining families have come up with a counter proposal for an even more effective wind farm.
Mother Jones, the miners' angel, once declared: "Pray for the dead, and fight like hell for the living."
Having witnessed the destruction of over 470 mountains and their adjacent communities in Appalachia, the Coal River Valley citizens are doing just that. On the frontlines of one of the most tragic environmental and human rights scandals in modern American history, the community-wide Coal River wind advocates have devised a blueprint to get beyond the divisive regional politics and break the stranglehold of King Coal on the central Appalachian economies.
The Coal River Wind Project is the first bottom-up community-based full scale assessment to directly counter the nightmare of mountaintop removal with a renewable energy and economy alternative prior to the actual mining.
We have a choice. It is not simply coal or no coal. Jobs or no jobs. The issue is how do we create jobs and clean energy forever, and begin the transition in Appalachia and America away from dirty coal.
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This is so wonderful. To see residents standing up to big coal to truly bring jobs and health to the Appalachians. Wind is the alternate energy source for this area, and I stand with them in getting this done. And if Barack Obama does care for change, he will stop touting "clean coal" and stand by these residents and their initiative to bring real clean energy and jobs to this part of the country that has been so devastated by the toxic legacy coal has left in its wake.If Senator Barack Obama ever needs a living symbol of change we can believe in, and a... more
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A momentous challenge awaits us as a species. Not unlike birthing this nation, discovering cures for diseases, and overcoming threats to the principles that guide humanity. This will be no small task, and it will be hard... but for me being hard is what makes it worth the journey to accomplish.
A carbon free energy policy in ten years with a national grid is not pie in the sky. Only to those without vision is it so. Only to those who put down ideas out of political spite is it so. Only to those who see it as a threat to their comfortable way of life is it so. Only to the same gatekeepers of the status quo is it so.
To those who do not see limits to what the spirit and imagination can accomplish... it is time.
Our Earth is crying out for help. We are making our own planet uninhabitable by our own actions. It is our moral duty to make amends for it, and by doing so we will not only save her but ourselves.
The future is here and it is us. We're all we've got, and if we do not heed the warnings now we do a great disservice to those coming after us and those here now.
Ten years is not a long time to secure a lifetime of sustainability.
If we can find money for wars, we can find money for peace.
The Arctic won't wait.
And neither can we.
http://www.wecansolveit.org
A momentous challenge awaits us as a species. Not unlike birthing this nation,... more
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