| Technological
Options and Government Policy
Part I. Are Techincal "Fixes"
Possible? What do they Cost? Thinking About Low Energy Building
(and Who Makes Government Policy?)
and
Part
II. Argument, Advocacy, Fiction and Reality: Locating Truth in the Age
of Perpetual Spin - Slides
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Reading:
| Stephen
H. Schneider (Editor), John O. Niles (Editor), Armin Rosencranz (Editor)
|
| 2002 |
Climate
Change Policy: A Survey (Washington, D. C., Island Press, 2002),
pp. 115-218, 307-371, 411-522. |
|
| Supplementary
Materials |
| |
For assessments of technical mitigation strategies you should consult
the publications of "Working Group III" of the IPCC, particularly
Chapter 3. See:
What about technical possibilities for alternative energy?
BBC
News Online |
2004 |
"One
Planet - Alternate Fuels," BBC News Online, (15 April 2004). |
| |
Are
environmentalists afraid to tackle alternative energy? This week
One Planet looks at the fast growing sector of offshore energy generation.
Increasingly wind farms are being sited at sea, whilst wave and
tidal power are finally taking off, after years of technical and
financial problems.
But very little
is known about the potential environmental consequences of these
new infrastructures. For green campaigners it is hard to complain
about these supposedly clean alternatives to fossil fuels. |
One of the problems
with alternate energy systems is how to relate them to the existing energy
"grid." There are many technical components to this problem,
but some cultures are attempting to address them because they regard the
goal of integration as an important one. See, for example:
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Techniques for Carbon
Sequestration:
| Alex
Kirby |
| 2004 |
"World
'must have carbon stores'," BBC News Online, (29 April, 2004,
10:14 GMT 11:14 UK Thursday). |
| |
The
cuts the world will have to make in emissions of carbon dioxide
are so huge it will have to find other ways to deal with the gas,
a British scientist says.
He is Professor John Shepherd of the UK's Tyndall Centre for Climate
Change Research, a leading scientific group.
Professor Shepherd
says this will mean studying ways to store carbon and alter the
Earth's albedo (its reflectivity).
He also believes
nuclear power may be needed to fill the gap until cleaner sources
can replace most fossil fuels. |
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|
|
| Are
We Addicted To Oil? - Series - WBUR The Connection |
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"Addicted
to Oil: Part One," NPR - WBUR - The Connection, (25 April
2005). |
| |
The
price of gas will top the agenda when President Bush sits down today
with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah. President Bush is hoping if the
Saudis increase production, prices at American pumps will fall. Right
now, drivers are paying about $2.30 a gallon and there's no end in
sight as the summer travel season approaches.
The New York Times columnist Tom Friedman
says the problem with gas prices is not that they are too high --
but that they are too low. Set them at $4.00 a gallon and then you
will see Detroit changing its ways he says.
It's not just the price of gas; but the future
of democracy in Arab countries, and the economic fortunes of people
here, Friedman says, that hinge on whether this country decides to
get serious about conservation. |
| |
| |
"Addicted
to Oil: Part Two," NPR - WBUR - The Connection, (26 April
2005). |
| |
Ladies
and Gentlemen the end of oil is upon us...or is it? The answer depends
on who you ask. Energy analysts, geologists, oil executives and politicians
all have a different theory.
In America, most of the oil is used for transportation.
Many drivers are cringing over prices at the pump; prices that range
from $2.24 a gallon up to as high as $2.65.
Everyone is trying to figure out why prices
are high and what is ahead for next year and beyond. That is where
the issue of the oil supply is key, because if the world is really
running out, then we might as well expect the price to keep on climbing.
There is a lot more to the story, and we try
to get to the bottom of the barrel in our ongoing series "Addicted
to Oil." |
| |
| |
"Addicted
to Oil: Part Three," NPR - WBUR - The Connection, (27 April
2005). |
| |
They
are the cars that are marked to transform the sound and the smell
of America's roads. From hybrids to fuel cells, drivers are turning
their attention to alternative fuel vehicles. The wait for a Toyota
Prius, the hottest selling hybrid, is several months. Don't even ask
about the wait for the fuel cell car. It could be 10 or 20 years.
But many say it is worth waiting for any car that gets 55 miles to
the gallon.
In today's world of climbing gas prices, cars
that aren't as sexy or powerful as the SUV are starting to make more
sense.
Later today, President Bush is expected to
ask lawmakers for billions more in tax breaks for these alternative
fuel vehicles. Is this the road to the future? U.S. car makers and
energy companies are saying, maybe, and still hedging their bets.
The technology of driving in our ongoing series Addicted to Oil. |
| |
| |
"Addicted
to Oil: Part Four," NPR - WBUR - The Connection, (28 April
2005). |
| |
An
oil industry report earlier this month predicted that prices could
climb to $100 a barrel. At the same time, the House of Representatives
has passed a bill with countless provisions for increasing production
of fossil fuel. There is not much there to discourage consumption.
Today we conclude our series "Addicted
to Oil" with a hard look at the psyche of the American consumer
and why it is, given all that we know about the environmental, political
and biological havoc caused by oil, we continue to pump and pump and
pump.
Some say that its the American affection for
its cowboy on the frontier past that's blinding it to today's call
for global responsibility. Can a nation that defines freedom as autonomy
and success as being bigger than your neighbor ever learn to stop
driving alone and become a conservation nation? |
What about the power of investments in a post-industrial
economy? where governments have failed to regulate, can this movement
bring about reform in the market place? |
| |
"Ethical
Investing " NPR - WBUR - The Connection, (3 May 2005). |
| |
You
won't find "booze, butts or bets" in Amy Domini's $1.5
billion Social Equity Fund. In the world of finance, she is known
as a pioneer who came up with the idea for socially responsible
investing decades ago.
Unlike most
mutual funds that base their holdings on the earnings of a company,
rather than the ethics, Domini will not invest in companies that
don't protect the environment or respect their workers.
Making those
choices isn't easy. You won't find WalMart or General Electric in
her portfolio but you will see McDonalds, Merck and JP Morgan Chase.
Changing their ways, she says, is part of the game. While her fund
is not in the list of top-performers, Domini says it's doing very
well -- mixing morals and money.
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Meet
the Moomaws. Their goal is to build a retirement home in New England
that will produce as much electricity as it consumes
Ask the average
person to describe their dream retirement home, and what will you
hear? Visions of high ceilings, gourmet kitchens, an expansive yard,
maybe even a Jacuzzi. Bill and Margot Moomaw, a couple from Massachusetts,
have a totally different kind of dream: They want a retirement home
so efficient that it actually produces as much electricity as it
consumes.
Now, three-or-so
years away from retirement, Bill, a 67-year-old professor of international
environmental policy at Tufts University, and his wife, 64, are
about to break ground on a painstakingly planned low-energy dream
home in Williamstown, in Western Massachusetts (see "The Moomaw's
Model Home"). While the house will employ a lot of special
technology, ranging from solar panels to a geothermal heat pump,
the first rule is that their future residence house must look and
feel "normal."
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Lectures
for Week 13