Global Warming

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God’s Warning

August 30, 2011 in Global Warming, Religion & Theology by DJ | No comments

jocelyn Coupaud photo.

I had to laugh today (to keep from crying) – Michelle Bachmann claims that severe weather is God’s way of warning us. Okay, that’s not so far-fetched. But she claims we’re being warned by God about our budget deficit.  Clearly someone, perhaps Mother Nature, is not happy.  But I don’t think it has anything to do with our national debt.

“How the faithful city has become a whore! She that was full of justice, righteousness lodged in her— but now murderers!” says Isaiah. “[T]heir land is filled with horses, and there is no end to their chariots.”

“I brought you into a plentiful land to eat its fruits and its good things. But when you entered you defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination,” says Jeremiah. “Therefore once more I accuse you, says the LORD, and I accuse your children’s children.”

“They covet fields, and seize them; houses, and take them away; they oppress householder and house, people and their inheritance,” says Micah. “Therefore thus says the LORD: Now, I am devising against this family an evil from which you cannot remove your necks; and you shall not walk haughtily, for it will be an evil time.”

“The fields are devastated, the ground mourns; for the grain is destroyed, the wine dries up, the oil fails,” says Joel. “Even the wild animals cry to you because the watercourses are dried up, and fire has devoured he pastures of the wilderness.”

Do they really believe we are suffering because the government spends too much, or because we permit homosexuality? They do. I can only guess that they haven’t actually read the Book they say we should all read. I read it, and what is happening is no surprise. Militarism, environmental destruction, oppression, and corruption– these are the things the Bible warns against.

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Solar Powered Music Festival

October 1, 2010 in Global Warming by DJ | 1 comment

The Zion Canyon Music Festival, September 25 & 26, 2010, was held in Springdale, Utah at the mouth of Zion Natuional Park.  As you can see, the natural amphitheater is incredibly beautiful.

The festival was largely powered by solar-generated electricity. TheMobile Solar Power trailer is manufactured by Green Tow, in nearby St. George, Utah. The New York Times reports that Green Tow originally envisioned its product would be used for emergency response, but its market has broadened significantly beyond emergency use.

So how much CO2 does a solar trailer save when compared with the gasoline used to tow it out there?  My best guess is that this unit is the 21′ GT2132, which weighs 5,100 pounds and generates 4.7 Kw over an 8 hour period, or 37.6 Kwh of electricity.  Assuming that 100% of the electricity gets used, it would reduce emissions by 112 pounds over two days.  Based on my own experience at towing, towing the trailer 42 miles and back may take 10 gallons of gasoline and generate almost 200 pounds of CO2.

Obviously the longer the unit is used in a single location, the more likely it will save CO2 emissions.  In this case, using solar power may have been great publicity for the concept, but it actually created more CO2 emissions than grid electricity would have.

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Temps Up, Rice Yields Down

August 19, 2010 in Economics, Global Warming by DJ | No comments


(Magnusvk photo.)

BBC reports that rising temperatures over the past 25 years have caused rice yields to fall 10-20% in a survey covering irrigated fields growing “green revolution” crops in several countries across Asia.  This suggests that even under the best of circumstances, climate change will cut food yields.  They note that the effect of rising temperatures on corn yields is similar.

In short, rising temperatures = less food for people to eat and higher food prices in an already-hungry world.

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WaPo: Climate Change Is a Major Threat

August 7, 2010 in Global Warming by DJ | 4 comments


(Brian Hursey photo: Drought at Lake Lanier in the state of Georgia.)

“In a depressing case of irony by juxtaposition, the death of climate change legislation in the Senate has been followed by the appearance of two government reports in the past week that underscore the overwhelming scientific case for global warming — and go out of the way to repudiate skeptics.”

The Washington Post, no bastion of liberalism, has come out strongly in favor of doing something about climate change.  Its editorial quotes two powerful government reports, and contrasts them with the “conspiracy theory” of climate change deniers.  TreeHugger notes this as one of the few triumphs in climate coverage by the mainstream media.

Our government has, over the past ten years, consistently put corporate interests above the interests of the nation and the People.  It remains unlikely that (short of nationwide marches in the streets) they will take any action to stem our massive CO2 footprint.  And why should they?  The average age of a Senator is 61.7 years, “one of the oldest [Senates] in history.”  They’ll all be long dead when the fruits of our inaction become life threatening here at home.

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Climate Encounter #2: Save Energy, Save Money

February 25, 2010 in Global Warming by DJ | No comments

Tajikistan: Warming, Drying

February 24, 2010 in Global Warming by DJ | No comments


(World Bank photo.)

Tajikistan has a median income of about $1.33.  Life is hard there, and getting harder thanks to climate changes.  Oxfam says temperature is rising, with the number of days over 104
degrees increasing.  Droughts are more severe, and glaciers– their
primary source of water– have been shrinking steadily.

Tajikistan’s carbon footprint is 1 ton per person year, putting it 154th out of 210 ranked nations.  It makes one of the smallest contributions to climate change, but is one of the worst affected.

In contrast, the U.S. carbon footprint is 19.1 tons per person. 

Some other major nations’ footprints: Australia 18.8, Canada 17.4, Singapore 12.8, Japan and Germany tie at 9.7, the UK 8.6, France 5.8, China 4.6, and India 1.2.

Tip: Treehugger

Sustainable Dairying, India Style

February 5, 2010 in Global Warming by DJ | No comments


(Meanest Indian image. Note the dung patties drying on the wall.)

By necessity, India wastes very little.  The Hindu religion considers the cow to be holy because it gives life (in the form of milk) without taking life, but that doesn’t mean they’re overrun with cows.  One source says India has 200 million cows, or 0.18 per person.  This compares with 0.32 cattle per capita in the U.S.

Because of religious restrictions, cattle in India are raised primarily for dairy, a far more efficient use of cows than meat.  But because everything is so scarce in India, dairy production doesn’t look much like it does here.  Most often, a family keeps a cow, milks it daily, and perhaps sells some of that milk (or the cheese made from it) to their neighbors.  This creates certain environmental benefits compared with industrial dairying.

Dairy cows in the U.S. are typically kept in confined areas, and fed hay and grain that is grown on dedicated cropland and trucked in from some distance.  Feed production and trucking both have an environmental cost.  Cows in India, in contrast, wander the streets and eat garbage.  Thus, India uses virtually no land area for feed production– cows eat waste food and vegetable matter that would otherwise decompose in garbage heaps, creating methane.  Yes, it creates methane in a cow’s stomach, too– but they get milk as a byproduct instead of just trash.

Manure in the U.S. is typically slurried by large dairy operations, where it generates methane.  Smaller dairies are more likely to compost, which creates CO2 instead, a better environmental choice.  But in India, manure is made into cakes, typically dried is the sun, and sold as fuel.  Yes, it creates CO2 when burned– but it offsets wood or fossil fuel that would otherwise be used for heat and cooking.

Globalization is pressuring India to grow commercial livestock feed (much of which it exports to other livestock producing nations), and in some areas local production is giving way to industrialization, along with its inherent environmental costs.  But the traditional Indian approach to dairying is about as environmentally friendly as it
is possible to get.  And it’s low tech. 

Prediction: 20 Million Bangladeshis to be Displaced by Rising Seas

September 9, 2009 in Global Warming by DJ | No comments

Fishing among the Paddy Field, Jamalpur, Bangladesh by Michael Foley Photography.
(Michael Foley photo.)

Bangladesh started poor.  Located on a river delta, it’s also plagued by floods that periodically destroy crops, starving its subsistence farmers.  Rising sea levels have already made some of the outlying islands uninhabitable.  And a recent cyclone broke the protective dikes, allowing salt water into the delta’s fresh water, which  used for drinking and growing rice.

“Of Bangladesh’s total rice production, nearly half is so-called “monsoon” rice and much of that is grown in the areas most vulnerable to flooding.”

Bangladesh’s Centre for Environmental and Geographic Information Services says this is but the beginning: Things will get worse– much worse, with as many as 20 million Bangladeshis forced to find homes in other nations.  So Bangladesh is looking for help.

In an interview with BBC News, Bangladesh’s Minister of Disaster Management, Dr Muhammed Abdur Razzaque, said he wanted sea defences similar to those in Holland. “We have to have new designs for embankments and we have to raise their height,” he said. “We are expecting $5bn over the next five years in support from the international community.

Is there a moral imperative for those who caused global warming (us) to help those who didn’t?  If that cost was included in the price of coal and other fossil fuels, it would help level the playing field for renewables!

Permafrost May Double Greenhouse Gases

September 4, 2009 in Global Warming by DJ | No comments

Figure 3: Projection of future greenhouse gas emissions of developed and developing countries. This figure shows emissions from developing countries intersecting with (and subsequently surpassing) those of industrialized countries around the year 2015.
(EPA chart.)

We know that there’s a 20-40 year lag between greenhouse gas levels and climate change.  We know that our climate is already changing, suggesting we hit a dangerous level decades ago.  And we know that emissions of greenhouse gases are still increasing… and projections indicate they will continue to increase for the foreseeable future.

But here’s the bad news: Russian scientists believe that increased temperatures in the Arctic (which have risen much faster than the global average) are causing CO2 and methane to be released fairly rapidly from the permafrost.  That means in addition to man-made greenhouse gases, nature will be releasing its own reserves.  Says one scientist:

“It’s safe to say the surface permafrost, 3 to 5 meters, is at risk of thawing in the next 100 years. It can’t stay intact.”

Based on information contained in the article, 1% of the permafrost could contribute as much greenhouse gas as all industrial output combined.  Which means that, once it starts melting, we’ll be facing double the greenhoue gas we are now.

Local Food: The Numbers

August 21, 2009 in Global Warming, local food by DJ | No comments

My video “Local Food #1: ‘The Date’” examines how, at a single meal, conscious ordering, focusing on local food, makes a big difference in terms of CO2 emissions.  Here’s how I got the figures I used in the video.

You’ll notice that one of the big differences is between the main courses: he orders beef, she orders cheese.  For “his” main course, I used the figure I calculated last year based on EPA figures: 10.75 pounds of CO2 per pound of beef.  Others have gotten a similar figure.  I figured a 12-ounce steak, which is 3/4 pound, so 10.75 * .75 = 8.06 pounds of CO2.

This beef comes from New Zealand, and gets flown to the U.S.  Air transportation emits a relatively high level of CO2 per pound transported.  The figure 500 g/ton-km converts to 1.83 lbs/ton-mi.  I used Kansas City, MO as an average U.S. destination city, which is about 8,000 miles from New Zealand.  That comes to 14,671 pounds CO2 per ton of beef. or 0.417 pounds of CO2 per ounce, which is 5.00 pounds of CO2 for a 12-ounce steak.  That’s just for the transportation!

For rice, I figured a 4-ounce serving.  That may be high, since 4 ounces of uncooked rice produces almost 10 ounces of cooked rice.  Does a fancy restaurant provide a 10-ounce serving?  Some do and some don’t.  In any case, rice emits about 1.2 pounds of CO2 per pound produced.  It also has to be shipped from India, but rice generally goes by ship, not air cargo.  Shipping by cargo vessel emits only 40 grams per ton, or 0.147 lbs/ton-mi of product shipped.  For the 8,750 mile journey, that comes to 0.15 pounds of CO2 for 4 ounces of uncooked rice.

Asparagus can be grown with virtually no CO2 emissions, and I used the same figure as for “her” lettuce, below.  But transporting it 4,350 miles from France by air cargo adds 0.94 pounds of CO2 to a 4 ounce (1/4 pound) serving.

Bottled water is perhaps the greatest vice in his “evil” meal.  According to one source, just making a plastic bottle produces about 8.75 pounds of CO2.  Pellegrino ships in a glass bottle, which is even worse.  And it ships by cargo vessel from Italy.  Water weighs 8.33 pounds per gallon, so a 500 ml bottle weighs about 2 pounds, costing 1.32 pounds of CO2 for the 5,200 mile journey– even by cargo vessel!

For “her” meal, I used last year’s calculation of 1.6 pounds of CO2 per pound of cheese, which comes to 0.4 pounds for a quarter pound of cheese.  Cornucopia gives a 129g/kg figure for a loaf of organic bread; I fugured 1/8 of a 1-pound loaf.  This source for locally-grown lettuce came to 0.01 pounds for a quarter pound of locally-grown lettuce leaves.  According to the same source as for bottled water, the environmental cost of a glass of tap water is approximately zero.

In terms of what these two people eat, the biggest difference is beef vs. cheese.  The rest comes from packaging and transportation.  Local food (and water) really does make a difference!  The annualized CO2 figure comes from one meal out per week times 52 weeks per year.  As you can see, the CO2 cost of “his” bad habits add up fast. 

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