July 09, 2008
50% by 2050
Yeah, that's right, 42 years, to bring down CO2 in the atmosphere to 2005 levels. Hold on, hasn't it pretty much been agreed upon by everyone that we need to be actually around 1987 levels or 350 ppm concentration? I don't even want to think about what that CO2 graph will look like in 42 years. (edit)Wait, now Harper wants the developing countries to should a large portion of the burden of lowering emissions, right, because North Americans per capita, pollute 5 to 6 times as much as most developing countries, and we have the money to fix the problem.
I want to be a politician and make lofty (yet still inadequate) goals at the end of my career for the next guy in line to follow, I really do. Or better yet, when they ask you later in life as you're sitting in the expensive restaurant drinking 50 year old scotch you can say "I tried, I really did, but there's no accounting for
These guys are putting on a show because the public is concerned about climate change. It's an old tactic of conservative governments, make it look like you're doing something, like you care, so the populace goes back to their reality and jack-ass style TV shows; "Nothing to see folks, we're acting in your best interest". You can also bet that the lazy populace will go back and think 'Hyuk! Mah guvermnt is doin' stuff, so I don't have to! BRING ON the Monster trucks!"
This is sort of going off topic but I personally don't want to live in Alberta when the walls come crashing down. The rapid entrenchment of greed and scrambling for oil at the expense of everything else is sickening. I believe that so much is hidden about the impact of the oil sands that when the truth and environmental horror stories come out it's going to be a tale of destruction and woe. The big money is here and it's squelching the truth, and the residents don't want to / won't believe it or share it because it will affect their economic well-being.
Nature in northern Alberta seems endless, the trees and bush seem to go on forever, if you're from there it's easy to think that it's never going to end. That you are in a remote area and your actions won't affect others, or no one will find out. Take the death of all those ducks in the spring, do you actually think this is the first time this has happened? Probably the first time it was actually reported, but I can bet it's been going on since they first created those toxic ponds.
April 03, 2007
'Doo-dee-doo's
So I got home last night and I was watching CBC, they had a 'Passionate Eye' article on about climate change. It was not pleasant, I mean, the show was fine, a bit dramatic, but it didn't pull punches and described exactly what I knew was happening in the way of world climate change. I'm not going to go into specifics because hell I'm no climatologist, if you want to read about it you can find it here at cbc.ca. I often find myself alone in my concerns, amongst these 'Doo-dee-doo' Albertans who can't see past their wallet and their pickup truck. Who still think that happiness is cheap gas, bright lights and powerful SUVs. Especially amongst co-workers who rarely read the news and sometimes STILL f$#@ing comment how they think Climate change is a bunch of 'hooeey' (in their words). I recently came up with the term 'Doo-dee-doo's' for them ... it's pretty accurate, they're walking around doodeedoing thinking it's just business as usual.
It's no surprise that they act like this in our so-called prosperous province of carbon spewers. In a recent report, Alberta's emissions are 40% higher emissions than the Kyoto benchmark and the oilsands are expected to fuel a 30% INCREASE in emissions over the next 10 years. If this continues I'm getting out, I don't care where I go, or what I do, but I can't stand it. People still don't care, they don't see the disaster that's imminent, they go about their day to day... they won't change.
Maybe part of the problem is that they know what's coming but don't think they can change anything and are waiting for someone else to fix it, as if it's all someone else's problem. Maybe they DO know but have resigned themselves to life with an oxygen mask and a haz-mat suit, or they figure the liquor and smoking will kill them before all this comes about so whatever, right?
Or maybe like some people say I should just drink my Alberta beer, watch my reality shows and turn off my brain. Maybe that's what I should do. And then 3 days later blow my brains out with a friggin shotgun... I think the latter would happen before the former.
addendum:
Some simple things to do: Recycle, turn the lights off, turn the computer off when you're not using it, don't run the water when you don't need to, STOP buying big fuel inefficient vehicles, I don't care, if you don't need something that seats 7, don't buy it even if you can afford it. Also something that I don't do but I should: Compost your compostibles.
May 26, 2006
Metal to Air Fuel Cell Technology
Technology like this is really going to save the world, or prolong our movement around this world. A self charging fuel that's reused during operation, lasts 500 miles before refueling, and the parts are reusable. It really renews my hope that we're not completely screwed.
From the page: "Metal-air fuel cells (MAFC) generate electricity using metal and oxygen, rather than combing hydrogen and oxygen as in a PEM fuel cell. Compared to conventional batteries, MAFCs can have as much as 75 times greater energy density.The Alchemy Electric Power Cell Technology works by pumping an electrolytic liquid consisting of common base earth metal and salt water into the power cell. Catalyzed by air, it generates electricity used to power an engine or other propulsion device.
When the electrolytic liquid is spent, it is pumped out of the power cell into a storage tank. In the storage tank, the liquid is recharged, ready to be pumped back into another electric power cell for re-use."
February 16, 2006
Ground level Ozone : not your backyard friend
So it turns out that a study done recently found that ground-level ozone is unsafe even at low levels. This is particularly of concern to me because both I and my wife suffer from asthma, along with An estimated 2.5 million Canadians and 12% of children in Canada.
The study, sponsored by the EPA and the Centers for Disease Control, and performed by Yale University and Johns Hopkins, found that if a safe level for ozone exists, it is only at very low or natural levels and far below current US and international regulations. A 10 part-per-billion increase in the average of the two previous days’ ozone levels is associated with a 0.30 percent increase in mortality.
Also of concern to me is the fact that 95% of the time I check the Air quality websites for Alberta the main pollutant is Ozone. It's no wonder Alberta is right up there in the top numbers in population in Canada that are afflicted with asthma. Here's a screenshot from weather.ca from yesterday.
....ground-level ozone is different. It's found close to Earth's surface and is a serious pollutant. It's produced when sunlight combines and reacts with chemicals produced by cars, power plants, and factories.
Ozone has long been known as a pollutant and dangerous at higher levels but the finding that at any level above what's found in nature increases human mortality is just... scary.
December 16, 2005
Blubbering mess
How about some nice PCB laced Orca blubber? Apparently the Killer whale has now topped the Polar Bear as the most polluted animal in the Arctic. Funny how such a desolate place of solitude can be so filled with industrial byproducts and waste.
October 19, 2005
Can you pick up my bit of black lung for me? Thanks
Reading my daily Green Car Congress today, and I came across a bit of a disturbing news. At first it seemed like good news, that Klein nixed building a Nuclear power plant in northern Alberta to power the Oilsands project, but then when you read a bit further down, Klein also rebukes usage of Natural Gas (ok, that's fine, it's non-renewable and costly), but THEN he goes on to say he would prefer to see the oil sands companies use coal, hydroelectricity, coal bed methane or the bitumen itself as “much better alternative than using natural gas."
Currently over 70% of Alberta's electricity is produced from Coal-fired plants and there's been a 6% decline of oil production every year for the past 5 years. Most of the oil that is produced is bound for export, just like the new 7 billion dollar refinery they are planning in Redwater (northern Alberta) which is mostly producing diesel for export to Asia.
Using an asthma-inducing, dirty burning, (I won't say greenhouse gas producing because that term has been used too much), non-renewable resource in gigantic quantities to extract another non-renewable resource that is quickly disappearing seems ridiculous to me. Truthfully they are just scrambling for ways to delay the inevitable, and that's the obvious looming economic crisis in Alberta. The only real way to reverse this is to quickly switch gears onto other energy sources and get their asses out of the past.
You can see the resistance to change in car dealerships here too, you go to a Toyota dealership in Europe and they're all about the slick little cars that burn very little gas and are low on emissions. You go to a Toyota dealership in northern Alberta and you see trucks, 4×4s and way less cars than there should be. You see Hummers in GM dealerships, and on the roads Envoys used as a commuter car with one occupant.
Folks say that things won't change until it becomes affordable to buy nice looking fuel efficient vehicles. Well those vehicles are here, and they cost 60% that of an Envoy and are 400% more efficent and friendly to this world we live on. A great way to create change in behavior would be for the wealthy to buy vehicles such as these, or pimped out fancy-assed versions of them, that way the little people would follow suit. I mean c'mon, just because you have 1 child doesn't mean you need a minivan, get with it people.
On the brighter side there are companies such as these Australian ones that are working on a way to convert coal to liquid fuel, and Toyota who is showing a Hybrid Minivan and Hybrid Fuel Cell concept vehicles at the Tokyo Motor Show. I cheer when I see things like this, it renews my faith that some folk are forward thinking and not just concentrating on filling their baskets with mana from the sky.
July 18, 2005
Wow, an oil company is even getting into gear
Ran into this through an article at Worldchanging.com regarding a new advertising campaign by Chevron. They have created an online discussion with people regarding the future of energy and sustainability.
I would suggest visiting those sites, there's no use in me rehashing their points and there are some very interesting articles, you can even post your comment or opinion. An oil company... taking public opinion... what the .. where am I?
June 17, 2005
OMG OMG Fathers day gift fo sho
I was reading the Register today and came across something you can get me for fathers day - a Windup TV Remote
May 30, 2005
Smart Ammonia
So the same folks that make the Smart Car here in North America have joined up with Apollo to make an Ammonia fuel cell car.
The most important thing, in my mind, about this movement is the ease of synthesizing and transporting ammonia. Hey, isn't there a lot of ammonia in urine? Does this mean we could have a car that runs off of the beer byproduct?
May 19, 2005
Glimmer
132 Mayors Embrace Kyoto Protocol. Stories such as these give me hope, and make me start to believe that not all legislators are short sighted and only looking out for the big guys in industry.
Go Mayors Go!
October 14, 2004
The kids get the gist... water and sunlight powered pickup
In the same vein as the previous here's a story about some high school students who have created a self-sustaining Hydrogen powered pickup truck.
WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: Hydro-Solar Vehicle
Sometimes it takes kids to show professional scientists/researchers the simplicity of things. Large companies have been dragging their feet on issues such as these, it's obviously not because of the complexity but because of other political/partnership/bigoilbastard reasons.
October 12, 2004
Can use my bike tire pump?
This article is much too cool, and blew me away:
WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: Car That Runs On Air, Revisited
50 miles on a tank of compressed air at a max speed of 70 mph and a byproduct of cold air. Throw an air compressor in the back, and cover the body with solar film and you have a self-sustaining mode of transporation.
I swear.. this technology was probably available 10 or 20 years ago, just the big oil companies have kept it at bay until recently.
August 18, 2004
You have 50 years
How would you like to be told that if you don't change what you're doing, that in less than 50 years or so you were looking at massive changes in your climate. Imagine intense heat in the summer, and torrential downpours, alongside of drought, and then imagine that in Europe, not an equatorial country. It's a little scary.
July 27, 2004
Every time I turn around
They keep coming up with cooler and hipper ways of creating power.
WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: Cooler Fuel Cells on the Horizon
Fuel cells are nothing new, but the newness of this is the miniscule size and heat generated. According to their lab findings you could power your entire house with a fuel cell the size of 2 pop cans. What I want to see is this technology used for cars, I'm sure that's the next step.
July 13, 2004
That way.. no that way!... no... wait
Try teaching your Scout group to use a compass when the directions are unsure, or reversed. According to The New York Times
(Earth's magnetic field) has waned 10 to 15 percent, and the deterioration has accelerated of late, increasing debate over whether it portends a reversal of the lines of magnetic force that normally envelop the Earth.
Let's see... global warming... magnetic pole reversal.... weather madness... upscaled global violence.... Dubya....
It's time to build me a rocket and get off this spinning hunk of dirt. Make me a new planet called Oorgo, where people can live in harmony with just us and free parking for all.
June 24, 2004
The Future is here.... and it's clean
This article from Penn State, has to be the absolute coolest thing I've heard about in the last few years. The folks there are able to generate electricity from domestic wastewater, and in the process CLEAN THE WATER. Whoa... It's like something out of Star Trek. I could power my house from my toilet, then the power cell could pump the water back into the toilet... complete recycling.
...Earlier this year, the Penn State team was the first to develop a microbial fuel cell (MFC) that can generate electricity while simultaneously cleaning domestic wastewater skimmed from the settling pond of a sewage treatment plant. Now, they've shown that by modifying their original MFC to make it cheaper, they can also boost electricity production from about 26 milliwatts per square meter to about 146 milliwatts per square meter....
The possiblities for use are endless.. I wonder if the byproduct is considered purified, or sterile, or can be converted again into drinking water... at LEAST it could be used again for wastewater, or for watering your plants.
May 27, 2004
Climate snap
Found this on Slashdot... most interesting, and just in time for the movie "The Day after Tomorrow".