No Impact Man

No Impact Man is a film about Colin Beavan in NYC who over six months phases in a no impact lifestyle and then lives it completely for another six months with his wife and young daughter. He comes across as a man well out on the bell curve and his wife appears as likely to have no impact as an internal combustion engine.

This precarious beginning evolves into a beautiful story about living more fully by consuming less.

Beavan asks, “What if we called it …

The year we didn’t watch tv and we became much better parents as a result

or

The year we ate locally and seasonally and it ended up reversing my wife’s pre-diabetic condition?”

Messaging

My dear friend from Munich sent me this cartoon and I thought it was an ideal centerpiece for not only the difficulty of conveying the climate change threat, but also the solution to it. I addressed this issue in my post “Economic Prosperity” and outlined alternatives to climate change messaging in my post “Oil’s Twilight” last week.

Opponents to the overwhelming and increasingly clear scientific evidence regarding climate change have “confused” the public according to professor Timothy Weiskel in my Global Climate Change class. This video ad campaign by the Competitive Enterprise Institute during the 2006 election cycle in midwestern states is one such example.

It is important to highlight the jobs that will be created by rebuilding an energy efficient America and developing clean energy businesses based on our global leadership in research and development. Secondly, it is becoming both an economic and security necessity that the U.S. becomes more energy independent shifting from purchasing oil overseas to using clean energy at home. Finally, point out that the rate of increases in both CO2 and temperature today are both unprecedented and dangerous.

Oil’s Twilight

I remember a dream that grew from seeds planted by an article about a miserable Whole Food’s quarterly report. The transporting of food and drink, FIJI Water for example, around the world is not just incredulous, but became financially irresponsible when oil hit $140 per barrel in 2008. In my dream, America had to be rebuilt in order to be energy efficient. Job opportunities would exist for anyone who wanted to help us shift from our world to this one.

We now are discovering about 10% of the oil that we were discovering around 50 years ago. This is not a blip in the chart, but a steadily declining rate of discovery for over five decades. Despite the fact that an enormous amount of oil was on the planet after “two billion years’ accumulated energy reserves”, it is a finite resource and we will consume it in a relatively short period of time.

Despite the fact that we should hold onto every drop of oil in America for the day when it is much more precious, we will continue sadly to just burn this critical resource that has numerous other uses. Economically, the high price of oil brought on by both it’s depletion as well as hopefully legislation defining the true cost of carbon will lead to alternatives. Electric batteries and/or algae-based fuel will propel us in the future.

The first step in electric vehicles (EVs) will be to switch us from burning oil to burning, largely, coal from coal-fired power plants (50% of electricity generation in America). In general, this initial step does not help us from a pollution or climate change perspective, but it will keep our energy dollars at home rather than abroad building cities, like Dubai with the tallest building in the world below, and destroying American interests when our energy dollars end up in the wrong hands, like those of Osama bin Laden (read The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright).

The next step will be to charge those EV batteries with renewable energy. Once batteries exist for transportation, we can charge them at battery-switching stations, for example, using wind and solar power. More importantly, we can add more and more renewable generation to the electricity grid increasing the percentage of renewable power used at our homes to charge EVs.

Our automobile manufacturers could also do us an enormous service, in the short term, by producing hybrid vehicles delivering triple digit miles per gallon (mpg). The Honda Insight, below, launched in 2000 gets 75 mpg using off-the-shelf technology. I am sure that ten years later automobile manufacturers could offer triple digit mpg cars. The average vehicle in the U.S. gets around 25 mpg. Shifting our fleet to 100 mpg cars gets us a 75% reduction in CO2 emissions. We could replace our entire car fleet in a decade.

These changes are coming quickly. Building our EV battery and algae-based propulsion industries including research, manufacturing, infrastructure and service will provide jobs in America. We will also be able to keep our dollars in the U.S. to develop our country as opposed to overseas to develop other countries and sometimes harm ours. Finally, these technologies reduce manmade CO2 emissions that scientific evidence indicates, more clearly and overwhelmingly than ever before, is leading to climate change (measured in 40 year time spans, not today’s weather).

I just pinched myself. I guess dreams do come true.

The Story of Stuff

In my post “Living, Driving and Flying the Talk?”, I mentioned that “It’s important to note that much of India and China’s industrial CO2e/y is emitted due to their manufacture of products for Americans and Europeans.”

To shed more light on this problem, I will direct you to Annie Leonard’s wonderful “The Story of Stuff” which will increase your awareness of the implications of stuff and likely change the way you live and work.

James Hansen

There was a Cambridge Forum Mini-Conference on January 28, 2010 called “After Copenhagen: Global Climate Change”. After a break for dinner, James Hansen gave the keynote address called “After Copenhagen: Looking for Real Solutions” at 7:00 pm at the First Parish (Unitarian Universalist). I hope to post a link to his slides shortly.

Hansen is revered as the most important figure in the science of climate change having rung the alarm on global warming over 20 years ago. It is well worth some time at his website to get a deeper understanding of his work.

CLIMATE CHANGE

The world sees natural rhythms of increasing and decreasing CO2 levels over very long periods of time that result in 1/10,000 PPM/yr changes. The problem we have today is that we are seeing 2 PPM/yr changes or 20,000 times the natural variation in CO2 levels. “The fundamental problem is that fossil fuels are the cheapest fuels due to subsidies as well as their absence of liability for the health and environmental damage they cause.”

The science of climate change has gotten much clearer over recent years, but those who would like to continue to burn fossil fuels are effective at misinformation.

FEE and DIVIDEND

Hansen believes that the way forward is a fee and dividend model. A carbon fee would be collected and rise annually according to a plan that would be stated and understood for long term planning purposes. The fees collected would be distributed back “to the people”. For example, if each individual were to receive a dividend of $1,000 then a couple would receive $2,000 and a family of three or more would receive $3,000.

British Columbia tried this successfully with the dividend being paid out in reduced payroll taxes to stimulate their economy. Hansen hopes to talk with U.S. congressional leaders as he would like to see a model like this one adopted by the U.S. and China as well as the rest of the world.

KEY POINTS from Q&A

Acknowledging that nuclear power is controversial, Hansen recommends that the U.S. lead the world in the research, construction and operation of fourth generation nuclear power plants. These plants use 99% of the energy in uranium so there is much less waste compared to current plants. Despite the risks, countries around the world are going to build and operate nuclear power plants and these plants will be most beneficial to mankind if America leads the way. The current choice in India and China is either coal or nuclear power.

One four foot tall sophomore girl from Cambridge Rindge and Latin School asked, “Since climate change will have a big impact on my life, is there anything that I can do?” Hansen thought for a moment and explained how much older people love their children and grandchildren and recommended that she ask them to help today. I have always liked the idea of educating our kids about climate change and positioning them in their homes, like trojan horses, to champion conservation, energy efficiency and renewable energy.

STORMS OF MY GRANDCHILDREN

Despite the fact that Hansen loves science and does not like public speaking, he has just published “Storms of my Grandchildren” and continues to speak out in order to try to head off the continued impact of man on the planet’s climate. As a grandfather of three, he thought it was his responsibility to write his first book in a further attempt to address climate problems for children being born today.

U.S. Healthcare and National Debt

This will be my last “political” post, for some time, as I am eager to get back to pure Cleantech, but there are parallels to clean energy, healthcare and national debt that are critically important. They are all on unsustainable paths.

HEALTHCARE

Healthcare is a major economic problem in the U.S. for individuals, businesses and the country. As you can see below or at the National Geographic website where you can zoom in on this graphic, the U.S. spends $7,290 per person per year on healthcare compared to 19 other countries, largely from western and eastern Europe as well as South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, who spend between $1,035 and $4,417 per person per year. The cost in these countries is distributed across this cost range as is the average life expectancy at birth across the 73 to 83 years range. The U.S. average life expectancy at birth is 78 years.

Americans are paying more than 2 1/2 times as much on healthcare per person per year (over $350,000 if the costs were to remain fixed over a newborn’s lifetime) in exchange for the equivalent average life expectancy at birth compared to these other countries. All 19 countries in this comparison provide universal healthcare coverage to their citizens at that lower cost per person.

NATIONAL DEBT

The chart below, based on data from the Bureau of the Public Debt, United States Department of the Treasury, shows our annual deficits. It appears to me that lower taxes, during Republican administrations without a comparable reduction in annual government expenditures, are largely responsible for our annual imbalances and total national debt.

SUSTAINABILITY

Senator-elect Scott Brown’s pledge of lower taxes is dangerous. In his campaign-defining tv advertisement, he stated “Every dollar released from taxation that is spent or invested will help create a new job and a new salary and these jobs and new salaries can create other jobs and other salaries and more customers and more growth for an expanding American economy.” I am sure we would get some more jobs in the short term by lowering taxes, but repeating this hollow fiscal promise as shown above in the national debt chart, will very likely move Americans and the United States of America that much closer to bankruptcy.

Debt, similar to climate change, does not seem important until the day it is and then it is too late to do anything about it.

Our energy use is unsustainable. Our healthcare “system” is unsustainable. Our tax reductions, adding ominously to our national debt, are unsustainable. It is time for us to live sustainably.

NO HEALTHCARE

Most of us living in Massachusetts still have the jobs we had before the “Great Recession”, thankfully avoiding the Great Depression sequel. Those of us who are unemployed, about one in ten including me, receive some of the best unemployment benefits in the country while we search for a job. We also have universal healthcare coverage in the Commonwealth which reduces the burden on those of us who are struggling.

About 100,000 more of us voted this week for someone we really did not know, except for a three week mini-series, instead of for Martha Coakley, who has worked tirelessly and successfully for us, and for Senator Edward Kennedy, who dedicated most of his life to the people in this state and country and the promise of healthcare for all.

Roughly one in ten Americans today from coast to coast suffer without healthcare coverage that we in Massachusetts now apparently take for granted. Due to our vote, they will continue to suffer without healthcare coverage as this nasty downturn continues to unfold.

Shame on us.

VOTE for Martha Coakley!

It is very important that you go to the polls tomorrow and cast your vote for Democratic Attorney General Martha Coakley to become our next U.S. Senator from Massachusetts. In fact, it is very important that you also encourage others to do the same in this critical election. In addition to her support for the healthy shifts occurring in Washington, there is no comparison between Martha Coakley’s dedication to the repowering of America and Scott Brown’s support for business as usual on energy and environment issues.

Coakley’s actual record and her comprehensive plan for Clean Energy, including energy efficiency and renewable energy, are well documented in her white paper “Repowering America: A Comprehensive Energy Reform Plan”.

Martha Coakley supports our national cap and trade bill while Scott Brown opposes it. Her support for the Cape Wind wind farm project and his opposition to it is another example of the different choices they would begin to make almost immediately if elected.

Please get out the vote for Martha Coakley tomorrow in the special election for U.S. Senator from Massachusetts. She is dedicated to our Clean Energy future. It is only with your vote and support that we will take another critical step forward to realize that future.

Why Start a Clean Energy Business in Massachusetts? Event

The British American Business Council of New England’s (BABCNE) Environment and Energy Committee hosts “Why Start a Clean Energy Business in Massachusetts?” featuring Phil Giudice, Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER).

The Massachusetts DOER has created a fertile landscape in the Commonwealth in order to grow our Clean Energy jobs, businesses and future. After 2 1/2 years of leadership as Commissioner, collaborating with industry leaders, Phil Giudice has established intelligent, progressive energy policies driving energy efficiency and renewable energy across the state. At our November event, Nick d’Arbeloff, President, New England Clean Energy Council stated that the Massachusetts DOER “has moved us from the middle to the top of the class in Clean Energy.”

Don’t miss this opportunity to register and join us on Tuesday evening, January 26, 2010 at 5:00 pm at the LEED Platinum rated Genzyme Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. There is a nominal fee to cover costs.

“Philip Giudice is responsible for implementing energy policies that ensure an adequate supply of reliable, affordable and clean energy for the businesses and residents of Massachusetts. He is also responsible for improving and streamlining energy regulation, promoting greater efficiency in all energy uses, reducing energy costs and mobilizing energy education. Mr Giudice also serves as board member, board executive committee member and treasurer of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative as well as a board member of the Commonwealth’s Energy Facilities Siting Board.

Mr. Giudice brings diverse and expansive experience to the position. Prior to joining DOER, Commissioner Giudice served as Senior Vice President at EnerNOC, a start-up company providing electricity demand-management services to businesses, institutions, utilities, and grid operators to obtain savings for businesses and institutions and relieve stress on the electric system.

The Commissioner was also a Senior Partner and leader of Mercer Management Consulting’s global energy utilities practice. He is a geologist (B.S. from the University of New Hampshire and M.S. in Economic Geology from the University of Arizona) and management professional (M.B.A. from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth) with 30 years experience in the energy industry.”

This event is sponsored by Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP.

Disclosure: I am a founding member of the BABCNE Environment and Energy Committee.

The New Energy Challenge Event

The British American Business Council of New England (BABCNE) invites you to a Distinguished Business Leaders series evening forum to meet David Brewster, President, EnerNOC. Please join us for “The New Energy Challenge: Think Green to be Green” on Thursday evening, January 14, 2010, at the offices of Bingham McCutchen LLP at One Federal Street, Boston, Massachusetts.

Please RSVP to babcne@comcast.net for this complimentary event while seats last. I look forward to seeing you.

“As president and Co-Founder of EnerNOC, David Brewster has guided the company’s execution since its inception in 2001. He currently oversees the organization’s regulatory affairs and international development efforts. In this capacity, he has taken an active role in helping to shape domestic and international demand response markets and pioneered efforts to make customer participation in these markets more effective through improved market rules, better data communications and enhanced automation technologies.”

Disclosure: I am a founding member of the BABCNE Environment and Energy Committee.

Living, Driving and Flying the Talk?

The chart below from Dr. MacKay’s book shows regional greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution in tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year (tCO2e/y) per person in 2000. In easy to remember approximate terms, Americans emit 24 tCO2e/y per person. Europeans emit half that or 12 tons. The Chinese emit half that or six tons which matches the global average. The Indians emit half that or three tCO2e/y per Indian.

In order to give you some sense of the magnitude of our problem, let’s examine freezing our global GHG emissions today. We currently have 420 parts per million (PPM) CO2e in the atmosphere which would still increase due to the compounding effect year over year as about 1/3 of the CO2 released into the atmosphere remains there for 50 to 100 years. Americans would have to reduce GHG emissions by 75% to reach the six tCO2e/y per person global average.

I calculated my household’s CO2 emissions and I encourage you to calculate yours at the Empowerment Institute’s Low Carbon Diet webpage by selecting “Household CO2 Calculator”, third link from the top in the leftmost column. To what extent can I reduce my household’s emissions by employing awareness, thoughtful behavior and energy efficiency while simultaneously improving the quality of our lives?

Our house is a large, from my perspective, Cape built in 1966. The basement, first floor, and attic have comparable square footage. I resisted the temptation to buildout our attic (a mini CO2 emissions miracle) so the living area in the house is the first floor totaling 2600 square feet. There are three of us here and we have a daughter in college on the west coast. She lives here four months of the year so I have included her as 1/3 of a person in our per person calculation, but I have not included her west coast emissions.

Our 2009 CO2 annual emissions in pounds:

- 3,224 trash (one garbage can or 32 gallons of dry trash per week … all food scraps go to the compost, goats or chickens … I didn’t count their incoming or outgoing emissions)

- 7,560 electricity (5400 kWh … no ac … attic fan … clothesline … high setting on dehumidifer in the basement was a big item for us over the summer … have lowered the setting for 2010 … no tv in 2010)

- 23,400 natural gas (2000 Therms … forced hot water heating (bedrooms or about 1/3 the house at 50 degrees in winter) … heated often with wood-burning stove … primarily ash trees that are dying all around us … don’t know the CO2 emissions for the wood portion … will heat with wood most of the year in 2010 … considering vertical geothermal/well … house faces east unfortunately)

- 14,700 2001 bmw 530i (15,000 miles 20 mpg … considering old original Honda Insight … took one out on highway/backroads 50/50 for 1/2 hour and averaged 75 mpg!)

- 11,600 2008 honda civic hybrid (22,500 miles 38 mpg)

- 30,200 one of three roundtrip flights by our daughter and four others by our other family members all to the west coast (roundtrip 5,400 miles). Also, two roundtrips to SC to visit our parents (roundtrip 1,600 miles)

This totals 90,684 pounds. This equals 13.6 tons of CO2/y per family member (3 1/3 people) or 17.7 tCO2e/y using a crude 1.3 ratio of 34 gigatons (Gt) of CO2e/y over 26 GtCO2/y emitted worldwide into the atmosphere from human activity. My goal for 2010 is a 20% reduction to 14.2 tCO2e/y per family member in pursuit of the global average of six tCO2e/y per person. We will also have to address our GHG emissions increase per person caused by our gradual transition to a two person household.

Unfortunately this CO2e emissions total does not include the emissions from our food and product purchases as well as other public infrastructure, transportation and buildings. It’s important to note that much of India and China’s industrial CO2e/y is emitted due to their manufacture of products for Americans and Europeans.