Re/Action on Climate Protection

Zero carbon biodiesel calcs

Here are a few numbers that show the potential of the biodiesel production system shown here:

This system has the potential to operate with net zero carbon emissions.

Cost of Wind vs Cost of Nuclear to Replace Coal

One of our commenters, David Bradish, has asked how wind is more cost effective than nuclear to replace coal. The short answer is: It is cheaper to build, cheaper to operate, and it is a lower risk to investors, which means that the cost of financing for wind is lower on private capital markets.

Replace Coal with Wind

Can wind power replace coal in the US for generating electricity? The answer is YES, and it can be done more cost-effectively than using nuclear.

Profile of GHG Emissions from Transport

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the US transportation sector by 80%-90% over the next 50 years or less is a huge problem. Yet it must be accomplished in order to minimize dangerous interference in the climate. S-clusters can help point to a solution. Let's look at the characteristics of the problem of GHG from transportation.

Sustainability Cluster Defined

A sustainability cluster or "s-cluster" is a system of services that has general characteristics. It can interoperate with other s-clusters to provide the services essential to sustain life. There are seven basic types of s-clusters:

Some Items of possible interest

Due to a glitch in the email subscription system, the notice did not go out for this post, Connecting the Dots - Wind, Nuclear and Local Action on Climate Protection.

Also, I have been having an exchange with Per Stromsjo on his blog, hereon the recently announced "Oil Free Sweden" initiative. Per is a Swedish citizen who thinks these efforts miss the mark, and feels that Sweden should go nuclear.

Powering the world with wind

After reading the article, "Stabilization Wedges: Solving the Climate Problem for the Next 50 Years with Current Technologies" by Pacala and Socolow, I was curious about exactly what it would take to "power the world with wind." Is it possible, and what would it take.

Zero Carbon New Development for the Gulf

Recently I had the opportunity to participate in a brainstorming session with a group of local experts on sustainable architecture, green building, green business. Craig Williams, founder of the group Architects Without Borders, had recently visited Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana. He felt that there was an opportunity there to present a rebuilding strategy that was innovative, sustainable and low carbon. As the representative of the Climate Protection community, I was invited to write a high-level, executive summary treatment of what zero carbon redevelopment in the Gulf States would involve, and what it might look like. Here is the paper. I'd be very interested in your thoughts on it. Download vision_for_rebuilding_the_gulf.doc

The CPC White Paper Wiki

Climate Protection Campaign has a comprehensive white paper devoted to local actions for GHG emissions reduction. This paper is on the web here. Although it is presently set up for browsing only, some of the pages are set up to comment.

The real value of the wiki is to enable group development of a document. The vision was to create a living document that could serve as a roadmap for techniques and planning to reduce GHG emissions at a local level. Anyone with a good idea or insight can contribute.

If you feel that you can contribute to this effort, email me: dave[at]climateprotectioncampaign.org, and we can discuss your contribution.

Carbon Removal Logic

We use a technique that was introduced by one of our advisors, Joel Woodhull, for identifying actions that are required to lower and ultimately eliminate GHG emissions from each sector. Below is the "logic tree" for the transportation sector (click on the picture for a larger version). In the case of the transportation sector, in order to remove carbon, you must make vehicles  "more carbon efficient" and "use vehicles more efficiently." The concrete actions follow from these two paths. You can see all of the logic trees used for our white paper, here.