Posted on July 18th, 2007 by admin
Wikipedia
My interest in this subject came from a lot of talk on the web about replacing incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent lamps (CFL). Much of this talk is surely driven by the Answer the Call: Make The Commitment campaign that Live Earth is currently promoting. While I was confident that fluorescent was better at producing light for a given amount of energy coming from the socket, the mechanical engineer in me questioned that it was a free lunch.
It didn’t take long for me to start to realize that lunch costs money!
Let’s start with Wikipedia which is always a decent source but sometimes can’t be trusted so we will dig more lower in this post. You can read the full Wikipedia reference here but I will pull out a few key passages and then add my comments. Read more... (826 words, 1 image, estimated 3:18 mins reading time)
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Filed under: Technology
Posted on July 17th, 2007 by admin
Boston.com – July 11, 2007
I think that, after Iraq, climate change may be the biggest global political issue. It is also an issue where the leadership of the US President is very influential across the world. For my readers outside of the US, the citizens of the United States will elect a new President on November 4, 2008. Our current President, George W. Bush, will step down and is not able to run again due to constitutional term limits.
This survey is not scientific and so I am not sure how valid it is. It is interesting that John Edwards nearly doubled his rivals, however this could be that the respondents just preferred Mr. Edwards. Read more... (299 words, estimated 1:12 mins reading time)
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Filed under: Politics
Posted on July 16th, 2007 by admin
HowStuffWorks
This article details how things are changing on Mount Everest, the worlds tallest mountain. While the article doesn’t lay blame on the cause of the warming, it does describe what happens as the concentration of ice and glaciers changes. The article also goes on to describe the other great calamity affecting the area around Everest – trash.
Peter Hillary and Jamling Tenzing, in an interview with British newspaper The Independent, lamented that global warming is radically altering the appearance, ecology and climate of Mount Everest and the surrounding area of Tibet. Inaction, they warn, could lead to an environmental disaster. Read more... (320 words, estimated 1:17 mins reading time)
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Filed under: Getting warmer
Posted on July 15th, 2007 by admin
NY Times – July 6, 2007
This may just be a time when both sides are correct!
Yes – much of the US (and the world for that matter) is deluding themselves into what it will take to make enough of a change in energy use to make any difference in carbon dioxide production.
Yes – a carbon tax would be disastrous, politically, to any politician that tried to push that kind of a tax without clear evidence of it’s dire need.
Yes – a carbon tax would radically change the way everyone uses energy.
Yes – a carbon tax would dramatically hurt the poor. Read more... (617 words, estimated 2:28 mins reading time)
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Filed under: Politics
Posted on July 13th, 2007 by admin
USA Today – July 11, 2007
This is great news. Regardless of your personal feeling on global warming, you probably want us to start using alternative fuels that are cleaner, safe, and don’t adversely affect our trading balance with the world (if you are in the US).
Hydrogen has been discussed for a long time as a great alternative fuel. This article discusses burning hydrogen (as opposed to using hydrogen fuel cells). I think that may actually be a more cost effective method of using hydrogen but I will let market economics dictate that. Read more... (383 words, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)
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Filed under: Greenhouse gas, Technology
Posted on July 10th, 2007 by admin
Pakistan Daily Times - July 4, 2007
This is not a news story. Rather it is an op-ed that discusses the various trade-offs that must be made if we are to adopt radical changes for the sake of global warming control. I have made similar comments before (read article here) and I differ from Mr. Lomborg in that I feel that if the case for global warming can be scientifically made, we should invest in solutions. If the definitive case for human induced climate change cannot be made though, it is far better to save lives in some other way. Read more... (418 words, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)
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Filed under: Getting warmer, Politics
Posted on July 8th, 2007 by admin
Washington Post – July 8, 2007
I tried to do the math on the big quote from this article and couldn’t make it work. John Buckley of Carbon Footprint says that it would take 100,000 trees to offset the effects of the Live Earth concert from this weekend. While I am not sure on his math, I am sure that it is a big number.
The problem with saying this is that I don’t think carbon offsets are effective. To say that you can buy your way out of pollution by planting trees is, at best, a short term consideration. The trees are barely carbon negative over their entire life and death, even though they can have a big impact in their first years of fast growing. Read more... (572 words, estimated 2:17 mins reading time)
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Filed under: Getting warmer, Greenhouse gas, Human fault
Posted on July 7th, 2007 by admin
LifeStyleExtra – July 5, 2007
It seems that the organizers of Live Earth are a little closed in their thinking. Methane is one of the largest greenhouse gas components and animal production is one of the largest contributors to methane overproduction. It seems that Live Earth is selling meat products which is sending the wrong message.
Organizers of the Live Earth concerts should not sell burgers or hot dogs at the high profile gigs, an animal rights group claimed
PETA activists said that Wembley should take meat off the menu after a recent UN report found that the meat industry creates more greenhouse gases than all the cars, trucks, ships and planes in the world combined. Read more... (308 words, estimated 1:14 mins reading time)
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Filed under: Getting warmer, Greenhouse gas, Human fault
Posted on July 6th, 2007 by admin
AccuWeather.com – July 5, 2007
ChronicleOnline – May 30, 2007
I first learned of this story on AccuWeather’s global warming blog but their coverage of it is fairly sparse so I am going to quote their sources as well.
I am concerned that Mr. Gore didn’t choose student engineers and scientists that could give presentations (yes, engineers can be trained to speak to a crowd as well). I would have thought that being able to effectively communicate would be only one criteria – the other being able to effectively understand the chemistry and physics involved. But then this program is being run by a politician who, at one time, claimed to have invented the Internet. Communication skills are probably the most important to him. Read more... (366 words, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)
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Filed under: Getting warmer, Human fault
Posted on July 5th, 2007 by admin
New site that I just became aware of. Check it out if you are interested in learning about Live Earth and the various musical groups that are supporting or not supporting the effort.
http://www.rockstarsagainstliveearth.com/
Did you know that you can have these articles emailed to you? Click on the Subscribe to email link in the upper right corner, fill out the details, and you are set. No one will see your email address and you won’t get more spam by doing this.
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Permanent link to this post (91 words, estimated 22 secs reading time)
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Filed under: Not getting warmer