Brattleboro Citizens’ Breakfast
July 25, 2014, Gibson-Aiken Center
Climate Change: Should we be Fearful? Or Hopeful?
George Harvey, General Factotum for the Green Energy Times blogging at geoharvey one of George Harvey’s Blogs
George Harvey was introduced and asked to react to a news article recently quoted in his blog that “No state has done more than California to fight global warming. But a deepening drought could make that battle more difficult and more expensive.” He stated that his pessimism around climate change is based on its effects on nature. Species are going out of existence at the rate of 200 per year and with the increase in global warming that increase in extinction rate is moving from one species every 40 hours to one every ten minutes to one every 50 seconds.
Except for one species … human beings, which, if we get our act together in the battle against global warming, might be able to achieve something.
George typically rises at 3:30am and spends hours poring over energy headlines before compiling his daily news digest on energy and climate change: http://geoharvey.wordpress.com/
The blog featured 16 items on July 25, culled from perhaps 300 headlines. In the course of the last two years, George estimates having reviewed 150,000 headlines. He can speak to trends that emerge from that review.
In a May 26 blog entry, George noted that Barclays downgraded US utilities as a group, as the sector had failed to account for the lowered cost in energy resulting from distributed solar generation and energy storage solutions.
In Vermont, Green Mountain Power (GMP) recognizes the reality that solar is cheapest with the use of net metering.
George mentioned NH contractor Bob Irving as an example of a builder of the “passive house”, either newly built or retrofitted, which uses the body heat of the occupants, cooking heat, etc. to heat the house, cutting power use by 90℅ without additional cost.
Soveren Solar’s Peter Thurrell is another example of a local contractor . His firm concentrates on solar installations.
Financing can be obtained from
- VSECU – https://www.vsecu.com/energy-savings
- Admirals Bank, RI – https://www.admiralsbank.com/renewable-energy-lending
- GMP can also help with solar – http://www.greenmountainpower.com/innovative/solar/about-solar-power/
George bases his optimism on the idea that with the exponential decline in the cost of energy, there will come a tipping point. It’s a matter of the technology changing. He gave as an exampletitanium dioxide [TiO2] , a common chemical found in the powdered sugar coating on donuts. It is 97% as reflective of the sun as snow. When UV light hits TiO2, it has the ability of cutting pollution.
The use of other technologies could revolutionize the idea of carbon capture and sequestration by reusing the carbon. The Sabatier process could capture carbon and put it back into a plant to use as fuel to produce energy.
Solar panels are seeing an upsurge in use to charge batteries and to power houses. One can now buy into a solar farm sharing the cost or buying a panel located at a distance from one’s residence. Local entrepreneur Jason Cooper powers a facility in Brattleboro with 150k volts from a solar farm in Putney.
Another source of George’s optimism is that “the cost of living as we do will force us to change.”
As an example, the Ceres’ Investor Network began in response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Initially, investment in renewables was seen as risky. By 2003, it became clear that the failure to act was a climate risk. Now Ceres is hosting policy makers at the UN to take action on global climate change. Ceres, backed by almost $12 trillion in investments, is asking 48 fossil fuel companies how their stock is going to hold up to climate change. The bottom line is that it is cheaper to do things sustainably.
GM is concerned that the automobile industry is unsustainable in its present form and is putting it’s emphasis on electric vehicles.
Other companies recognizing this reality include Morgan Stanley, Nike and Unilever. The signs of climate risk are all around us: hurricanes in Brazil and the Philippines, “a storm of the century” hit mainland China for the second time in seven years.
The “end of capitalism as we know it” is also approaching to be replaced with, according to Jeremy Rifkin, the “collaborative commons.” An example of this shift is the free online encyclopedia, Wikipedia which encompasses 32 GB of information. What used to cost $24 million for computer storage is now given away for free.
The example of solar powered cell phones in India is also a cause for optimism. Despite power outages and monsoons, the lights stayed on and there was electricity for charging cell phones and computers in rural Assam, India thanks to solar power. A distributed power eco-system is closest to a democratic level.
Of course there are oil companies and other forces opposing sustainability, although there are indications that even Shell Oil may be backing off of fracking. Political forces, such as those backed by coal mine interests in Australia, were able to cancel the carbon tax in that country. However, the decision may backfire, witness the reaction of Australian coal’s two biggest potential importers: China said it will only use domestic coal; and, India has insufficient port facilities to import coal. Will 100% of economists soon declare Australia’s decision foolish?
