Earth Day 2013 - A Message from DE Senator Carper

Earth Day 2013 is largely focused on Climate Change, but also very justifiably on reductions in air and water pollution since the first Earth Day in 1970.

Today, we have an excellent perspective on Earth Day from Senator Carper .

US Cities Underwater - a dramatic visual simulation

I found an msnNOW article titled: "See Underwater Cities Climate Change Could Create". My visual image was of cities we start building underwater to adapt to rising sea levels. Wrong! My visual may still be a good idea, but it was the wrong visual for this msn article. The images in it are very effective creations by artist Nikolay Lamm.

What can WE do to fight global warming?

The WE in the title is for us, on a personal level. So WE can:
- Install a solar photovoltaic (PV) system on our roof.
- Install a solar water heater on our roof.
- Install a geothermal heat pump.
Now these are all choices that benefit us directly, and the rest of the world indirectly by limiting our generation of greenhouse gases.

But how about donating to organizations that use solar PV or equivalent to provide electricity to remote off-grid people who desperately need electricity, if only for illumination for kids to study at night. I truly believe that smarter kids will most definitely benefit our World.

So that is where I plan to target my dollar support efforts. I will let you know what avenues I find that seem to be most reliable to achieve that goal. And please let me know if you are aware of other good avenues.

Carbon Capture Breakthrough? Just might be!

Carbon Capture, more specifically CO2 capture, at coal fired power plants has the appeal of reducing CO2 emissions while still enabling us to use our most abundant fossil fuel resource, coal. However, capturing CO2 from current power plant flue gas is very costly because it is so diluted with nitrogen.

The potential CCS breakthrough involves oxidizing coal to release its stored energy using other sources of oxygen than air, so the dilution-with-nitrogen problem is eliminated. Other sources of oxygen can be iron oxide, or water.

Pulverized coal, mixed with iron oxide and heated to 1,650 deg F will react to form mostly CO2 and iron. The CO2 is very pure, approximately 99.5% after any water vapor has been condensed out, and thus the CO2 is ready for sequestration. The iron is then burned back to iron oxide using air as a source of oxygen, and it releases the energy originally from the coal to create steam and run a generator. The iron oxide thus formed is then recycled or "looped" back in the process.

Ohio State is the pioneer in this technology, known as Coal-Direct Chemical Looping (CDCL). The option using oxygen from water is known as Syngas Chemical Looping (SCL). Both are described in Midwest Energy News.

My view? I am optimistic! It is very revolutionary technology for power production, but it is very well known technology. The World's coal resources are vast, so where solar and wind generating potential are limited, it could become a valuable resource to help save our Earth, more or less as we know it, for future generations.

Retreating Glaciers

Following is a link to a short portion of the movie "Chasing Ice". I have seen the entire movie, and whether you have or haven't, I still encourage you to watch this short LINK.

Plants as Temperature Sensors

Okay, thermometers as sensors of global temperature have many deficiencies. They are not deployed widely enough to adequately average in regional variations, such as over the oceans (70% of the Earth's surface area). They also have a questionable input relative to "large city heat effects".

So what could be better? Well, if you have been following this blog, you know I favor sea level rise sensors. As the Earth warms, land based ice melts and sea levels rise. And yes, sea levels are rising. For all my sea level blog posts, or for just NOAA Data (and scroll down to sea level data).

BUT on to plants, millions and millions of them, all across the sparsely inhabited high latitudes of our northern hemisphere. How are they doing? In a nutshell, they are mostly prospering through warmer temperatures, and more rain fall. Just take a look at this latest NASA release.

Now for a NY Times blog post by Andrew Revkin, a concerned climate news reporter whom I admire a great deal. I would say he takes a more optimistic approach to the new NASA study by looking at plants adapting...and I hope he is right.

CCS - Carbon Capture and Sequestration

No, this is not about the current US Government spending sequestration program (which is explained HERE).

It is about capturing CO2 and storing it away somewhere, for a VERY long period of time. Coal fired power plants are the first obvious targets. Their flue gas is primarily nitrogen, water vapor, and large amounts of CO2. So the CO2 is far more concentrated than after the flue gas mixes with the atmosphere. Thermodynamics defines the energy required to "capture" CO2, either from flue gas or from the atmosphere. As you might expect, the theoretical energy (read cost) required is less for capturing CO2 from flue gas, where it is concentrated, compared to capturing it from the atmosphere, where it is very dilute.

Want to investigate further? Read Cory Simon's blog post on Scientific American. From that post we find that: "Capture technologies at present are estimated to cost 25-30% of a plant’s power output, driving up the price of electricity by around 80%........  the minimum theoretical energy.......  turns out to be ~5% of the output of the coal power plant, suggesting that there is room for improvement in current carbon capture technologies."

In Canada, how are things going to keep the politics of shale oil on a better environmental footing? Not so good relative to Canada's CCS plans, which have been very aggressive up to recently.

There are still many high level research programs going on, so maybe a breakthrough is possible to get us much nearer to the %5 of output theoretical limit. For instance, some novel organic-inorganic CO2 sponges.
 

Water Resources and Climate Change

According to most climate predictions, as the Earth warms, dry regions will get drier, and wet regions will get wetter. Looking at dry regions, like the Middle East, this poses many significant problems, such as how to manage limited fresh water resources so they do not run out, and so they are not overused by any one country.

A pair of satellites that are very sensitive to the Earth's gravity has proven capable of measuring the amount of water contained in underground aquifers. This satellite technology is known as Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment, or GRACE. For a very clear concise summary of the issues which can addressed with this technology, see Andrew Revkin's Dot Earth blog post.

Obviously, fair and conservative utilization of fresh water resources will play a significant role in stability in the Middle East.

Intriguing Solar Option for Individuals

Californians again lead the way. Want solar, but not to sure how to go about it, and scared of the initial investment and later maintenance. The California link provides many options in CA, and now where you live, this approach should soon work as well.

The World Bank and Climate Change

The World Bank is taking action to help our world cope with climate change, and they also have some very good beliefs on what governments should be doing as well. For instance:

The world’s top priority must be to get finance flowing and get prices right on all aspects of energy costs to support low-carbon growth. Achieving a predictable price on carbon that accurately reflects real environmental costs is key to delivering emission reductions at scale. Correct energy pricing can also provide incentives for investments in energy efficiency and cleaner energy technologies.

A second immediate step is to end harmful fuel subsidies globally, which could lead to a 5 percent fall in emissions by 2020. Countries spend more than $500 billion annually in fossil-fuel subsidies and an additional $500 billion in other subsidies, often related to agriculture and water, that are, ultimately, environmentally harmful. That trillion dollars could be put to better use for the jobs of the future, social safety nets or vaccines. 

Coming up next, what we individuals can do to minimize carbon emissions.

Recommendations to Obama on Climate Action

From CNN:

Melinda Pierce, legislative director for the Sierra Club, pushed the president to focus more on executive orders and regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency than on legislation.

"Congress is a place where good ideas go to die," she said. "There is a tremendous amount that his administration can do without Congress. He has the authority; he doesn't have to wait for Congress."

Eric Pooley, senior vice president of the Environmental Defense Fund, told CNN that while "serious climate legislation isn't in the cards this year" the White House understands that congressional "legislation is not the only way to make progress."

Obviously I too agree, or I would not have posted the above. Bill