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The TV show 24 will reduce its carbon footprint

Fans of 24 know that if there's one person that can stop climate change, it ain't Al Gore. It's Jack Bauer.

If you are not familiar with Jack, here are some of his qualifications from the site Random Jack Bauer Facts:

1. There are two hands that can beat a royal flush. Jack Bauer's right hand and Jack Bauer's left hand.
2. Most people would need months to recover from 20 months of Chinese interrogation. Jack Bauer needs a shower, a shave and a change of clothes.
3. The city of Los Angeles once named a street after Jack Bauer in gratitude for his saving the city several times. They had to rename it after people kept dying when they tried to cross the street. No one crosses Jack Bauer and lives.
4. If Jack Bauer had been a Spartan the movie would have been called "1".
5. Some people see the glass as half full. Others see it as half empty. Jack Bauer see the glass as a deadly weapon.

Yup, Jack is one tough son-of-a-gun, and he and the producers of 24 have pledged to fight climate change and take the following steps to reduce their carbon footprint:

Information is power

The day is sweltering, air conditioners are cranked up, and the power grid is straining to meet demand. Today is a "needle peak" day -- on the annual power demand chart, it shows up as a spike. Out of the year's 8,760 hours, needle peaks will occupy 200 hours or less. An extreme day like this is why the grid maintains roughly twice as much power generating and transmission capacity as it uses on an average day. Even though power plants and lines are idle most of the year, this costly overbuilding is needed to cover all contingencies. The grid is built to be there "just in case."

But what if another power resource were available that could dramatically reduce that peak demand, one that involved generating and transmitting no power at all? No, this isn't some weird "zero energy" thing. The paradoxical sounding resource I'm talking about is already in use. It's the demand, also known as the load, itself. The basic idea is that the grid can meet overall needs not only by supplying power, but by adjusting power use. The word for this is demand response, and it's a fundamental aspect of the smart grid.

Enemies of the human race

Last week, I put up a post explaining that BP will be increasing their dumping of toxic waste into the Great Lakes.

Congress overwhelmingly approved a resolution condemning BP's dumping -- a resolution sponsored by Rahm Emanuel, a powerful Democratic Congressman.

Now, thanks to some fine investigative reporting by the Chicago Tribune, we find out that BP has been dumping mercury as well, and will continue to do so:

Federal records analyzed by the Tribune show BP puts 2 pounds of mercury into the lake every year from its sprawling plant 3 miles southeast of Chicago in Whiting, Ind. That amount is small compared with the mercury that falls into the water from air pollution, but mercury builds up in the environment and is so toxic that even tiny drops can threaten fish and people.

A little-noticed exemption in BP's controversial new state water permit gives the oil company until 2012 to meet strict federal limits on mercury discharges.

A quick review of Project Phin

By my lights, the world's best movie critic is Janet Maslin, hands down. She has a simple formula: she lets you know if the movie sucks or not, she doesn't give away the ending, and she is funny.

Take her review of The Bridges of Madison County. The second 'graph begins like this: "Arguably the world's longest greeting card ... " Beautiful. Someday I hope to be able to slide a metaphoric shiv with such economy.

Anyway, the NYT has Maslin off movies and on the book-review beat, so we are on our own when it comes to reviewing the Center for American Progress Action Fund's venture into celluloid.

Raves: Some of the clips are very funny. And on clip #4, Sarah Silverman takes the cringe factor to 11. If cringing were a renewable resource, that clip alone would solve our energy problems.

Pans: I'm a little underwhelmed by the call to action for "flex fuels." I get it -- it's a better tagline than say, CAFE standards. But still. Flex fuels ... really? The revolution will not be on TV, and it will not be on flex fuels.

If you had access to that kind of talent, what would you do?

From Bend It to Blow It

Gooooooooooooooooal: Avoid dance parties David Beckham has long pooh-poohed ‘roo shoes, so he should feel right at home in the state that just upheld a ban on marsupialwear. But if things get tough, at least he can always count on Tom Cruise for a big sweaty hug. Photo: Robert Mora / MLS / WireImage.com What’s […]

Their eco-song doesn’t suck. Too much

I have been remiss in my music-related reportage, and I apologize. I had heard prior to Live Earth (which was three weeks ago) that, like Madonna, the Black-eyed Peas would be writing a song specifically for the spectacle. But I never updated you as to how that worked out. Then, today, thanks to my "media […]

Boxer Sticks It to Johnson

Senate hearing probes EPA chief’s delay on tailpipe decision Can U.S. states enact stricter tailpipe regulations than the feds? That question has been hovering in the air since California requested a waiver from the U.S. EPA in late 2005. Why no answer yet? At a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing yesterday, EPA head […]

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Crappiness

Navajo nation at odds over coal-plant plan Members of the Navajo nation are at odds over a plan to build a $3 billion, 1,500-megawatt coal-fired power plant on reservation land in New Mexico. Tribal leaders say the plant — whose juice would go to Las Vegas and Phoenix — will generate $50 million in much-needed […]

At Last, Some Consensus

House votes today on universally despised farm bill Today finds the House scrambling to pass its controversial version of the 2007 farm bill. And by controversial, we mean everyone hates it — Democrats, Republicans, and the White House. The $286 billion package, which contains about $42 billion in subsidies, ends subsidies to farmers with an […]

More great news from the climate

Nature has published another landmark study showing how the complex interplay of human-generated pollution with natural systems worsens climate change. Their news article (subs. req'd) explains:

Rising levels of ozone pollution over the coming century will erode the ability of plants to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, a new climate-modelling study predicts.

Ozone is already known to be a minor greenhouse gas, but the new calculations highlight another, indirect way in which it is likely to influence global warming by 2100. High levels can poison plants and reduce their ability to photosynthesize, says Stephen Sitch of the UK Met Office's Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Exeter.

Note this is actually a new amplifying feedback, since the hotter it gets the more ozone pollution is generated.

Below the fold is the rest of this article -- and for you hardcore science types, I'll end with the abstract of the original journal article.