Published on May 15th, 2008
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As a recent transplant to the Bay Area, I have noticed that San Francisco and Los Angeles seem worlds away from each other both physically and culturally. Now that a plan to build a high-speed train linking the two cities is moving forward, that distance will become a whole lot smaller—physically, at least.
In case you aren’t familiar with the plan, here are the basics: The California High Speed Rail Authority is in the beginning stages of building an 800-mile long high-speed train system that will serve every major city in California. The trains will be capable of speeds up to 220 miles per hour, and the trip time from San Francisco to L.A. will be only 2 hours and 40 minutes. That’s comparable to the time it takes to travel between the two locations on a plane.
By providing a viable alternative to energy-intensive car and air travel, the rail system will reduce carbon emissions up to 17.6 billion pounds per year and reduce oil consumption up to 22 million barrels per year.
Pretty amazing, right? And now the California High-Speed Rail Authority is going to get a boost with new member Thomas Umberg. Read the rest of this entry »
Published on May 8th, 2008
In 2005, Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law Executive Order S-3-05 which sets a long term greenhouse gas emission reduction target of 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. Reaching this ambitious target will require that California embark on a comprehensive strategy to make aggressive reductions in greenhouse gas emissions over the next four decades.
Nationwide, electricity generation is is the second largest contributor to greenhouse gases. It is incomprehensible how the 80% greenhouse gas reduction target could be reached without tremendous amounts of renewable energy and energy efficiency. I am not saying that greenhouse gas reductions and renewable energy are the same but they certainly are not apples and oranges. I’d say they are more like oranges and tangelos. If we want significant greenhouse gas emissions, we’re going to need to ramp up renewable energy and quick.
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Published on May 7th, 2008
If you think the virtual, online world helps reduce energy consumption in the real world (a topic we’ve touched on before here at Green Options Media), think again: a new study by management consulting firm McKinsey & Company provides scary insights into how Internet computing is devouring more and more power and spewing out more and more greenhouse gases.
Based on data from the Uptime Institute, a technology consulting company based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the McKinsey report finds that, between 2000 and 2006, the amount of energy needed to power data centers doubled, and that consumption is likely to double again by 2012. In the U.S. alone, we would need to build 10 new power plants by 2010 just to meet the growing energy needs of this country’s data centers.
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Published on April 28th, 2008
The giant wind turbines on the west coast of Ireland stand not only on the geographical limits of Europe, but also on the cutting edge of a revolutionary technology that makes wind power more reliable and valuable. The 32 megawatt (MW) Sorne Hill wind park will be Europe’s first to integrate a large scale battery back-up system that ensures a reliable supply of electricity regardless of how the wind blows.
“The battery enables large amounts of energy from wind or solar power to be stored, managed, controlled and sent into the electricity grid when it is needed. It doesn’t matter whether the wind is blowing or not; the battery makes the electricity output predictable and reliable,” said Tim Hennessy, CEO of VRB Power Systems, the battery manufacturer based in Vancouver, Canada.
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Published on April 24th, 2008
Nobody really knows what all was on the Cosco Busan when it sideswiped one of the supports of Bay Bridge, dumping about 58,000 gallons of oil into one of the country’s most famous and fragile ecosystems. That’s because globalization is grandfathered into our consciousness.
But at what cost? Solving the converging crises of climate change and peak oil, not to mention a plethora of others, would be an exceedingly difficult nut to crack even if we had full knowledge and information. Unfortunately, cracking this nut is probably impossible with our current level of thinking and understanding. We cannot hope to apply the necessary systemic thinking to our converging crises, because no one has a full view of the system. What we can’t see, we can’t consciously change.
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Published on April 22nd, 2008
At the GO office here in downtown SF, we see a lot of interesting stuff. After coming back from lunch to see a protest going on right outside our building, I went down to investigate. Turns out, Chevron’s only SF office (ironically, their “green solutions” office) is in the building next to ours. Who woulda thunk.
The gathered crowd, led by local members of the nonprofit watchdog AmazonWatch, was primarily protesting Chevron’s escapades in Ecuador. When the company bought Texaco, they inherited a $15 Billion toxic waste problem in the country that they’ve been fighting a legal and PR battle to keep from cleaning up. This, on $30 Billion in profits over the same period.
According to Paul, one of the lead AmazonWatch protesters, Chevron knew it would lose in US courts, and pushed to move to Ecuadorian courts, which they thought would be easier to strongarm. Now that they’re losing in the Ecuadorian courts as well, Chevron has decided not to honor their previous commitment to the decision by local authorities.
To learn more, visit ChevronToxico.com… After all, even if you don’t have time for activism on a daily basis, you can make Earth Day be the day you make time.
See also:
Green Options: Ecuador to Leave Oil — and Revenue — in the Ground
Gas 2.0: Chevron Backs Solazyme’s Algae Biodiesel Production Process
Published on April 18th, 2008
Yesterday evening I went to hear a sobering talk in Berkeley by Five Colleges professor of Peace and World Security Studies, Michael Klare. Klare suggests in his newest book, Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet, that we are now facing a new world order in which power transfers to net energy exporters (e.g., Saudi Arabia, Russia, Kazakhstan) from net energy importers (e.g., the United States). He believes oil will peak between 2012 and 2015 at somewhere around 95-100 million barrels/day. Regardless of whether oil peaks then, he says supply will not be able to keep up with demand much longer.
From http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=76003
Klare points out that China will soon have the world’s largest fleet of automobiles - in decade or so - as they are following our model of auto-centric development. He had hoped that China would leapfrog oil to more sustainable mobility solutions but that is not happening.
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Published on April 18th, 2008
There are a plethora of Earth Day events happening in the Bay Area over the next two weekends. Check out this comprehensive listing for a celebration near you!
Marine Science Institute Earth Day Celebration: Saturday, April 19, 2008
The Marine Science Institute invites one and all to come celebrate the Earth, San Francisco Bay and all things marine science. The day is jam packed with activities for the entire family, including four 2-hour discovery voyages on San Francisco Bay aboard our 90 ft. research vessel the Robert G. Brownlee, a lunch-time performance by the Banana Slug String Band, shark feedings, interpretive tables, fish and shark touch tanks, juggling and vaudeville presentation, ocean crafts, canoe demonstrations, environmental info faire, plankton shows, traditional Pacific Islander dancing, and much, much more.
Time: 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
For more information visit our website at www.sfbaymsi.org, or contact Aaron Tinker at (650) 364-2760 x16 or by email aaron@sfbaymsi.org. Entrance is FREE, but there is a cost for the boat trips. Pre-registration via website for the Discovery Voyages is strongly recommended.
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Published on April 14th, 2008
I often ask myself why I continue getting the paper. Getting the newspaper is supporting an unsustainable practice of har
vesting trees and manufacturing them into disposable items. And then something magical will happen.
I wasn’t sure what I was going to write tonight. A few minutes ago I found myself reading the book review section of the Chronicle. The article “Gender Identity and Phantom Genitalalia” initially caught my attention and ended with a great quote from V.S. Ramachandran, a neurologist and psychologist at UC San Diego and a leading authority on phantom limb sensations, who says it has long been known that some people who are born without arms have vivid phantom arms.
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Published on April 10th, 2008
This post is a photo gallery from the East Bay Permaculture Guild’s Permaculture Bike tour in Berkeley this past Sunday. It was glorious day and a slew of people came out.
But first a little background on permaculture:
The word permaculture, coined by Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren during the 1970s, is a portmanteau of permanent agriculture as well it is was permanent culture. Through a series of publications, Mollison, Holmgren and their associates documented an approach to designing human settlements, in particular the development of perennial agricultural systems that mimic the structure and interrelationship found in natural ecologies.
This tour shows what some folks in Berkeley are doing to live more sustainably: growing their own food, raising chickens, capturing, heating, and conserving water, and generating electricity.
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