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Putting Moore’s Law to work for environmentalism

Jeremy Faludi has an interesting essay over on Worldchanging. It's a bit tricky to distill, but the basic point is that policies that require incremental, year-by-year improvement are preferable to the usual "20% by 2020" goals, which are more mediagenic but frequently promote procrastination and last-minute gaming.

Here's the nut:

Adaptation redux

Roger Pielke Jr. has an overheated post up today wondering why I don't care about the suffering of "millions, perhaps billions" of people around the world adversely affected by climate. Oy. I hesitate to reply, but here goes.

Ocean thermal energy conversion

Over at The Oil Drum, Rick Dworsky has an extremely intriguing post up on Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion:

... the Earth has an enormous natural solar collector - the tropical oceans. ... If we can tap into this renewable source, considering thermodynamics and entropy, approximately 1% of it could provide the entire current worldwide demand for energy. More than enough energy is available, we only need a way to get it - in a practical, cost effective, ecologically safe and sustainable way.

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) is a technology that can extract useful work from solar energy stored in the sea. Since the sea IS the energy storage medium, OTEC offers 'always on' baseline supply -- during bright clear days and dark nights, in still air and ferocious wind storms -- without the expense and complications of artificial energy storage systems.

Apparently this stuff is farther along than you might think. Check it out.

Net Neutrality: Why you should care

Congress is expected to vote this week on the "Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act of 2006," which, in all its Orwellian glory, is written to allow internet companies to compartmentalize the web, restricting access to domains that can't or won't pay a fee to be able to load at full speed. It undermines the concept of net neutrality, whereby internet users have equal access to any and every website, be it a corporate media node or a personal blog.

According to Vint Cerf, one of the "founding fathers" of the internet, this is bad:

Dumping chemical weapons in the ocean: never a good idea

The Federation of American Scientists Project on Government Secrecy blog ... has the longest name ever. It also has a post up drawing attention to a report that's not easily available in the public domain: "U.S. Disposal of Chemical Weapons in the Ocean: Background and Issues for Congress" (PDF). Here's an excerpt from the summary:

The U.S. Armed Forces disposed of chemical weapons in the ocean from World War I through 1970. At that time, it was thought that the vastness of ocean waters would absorb chemical agents that may leak from these weapons. However, public concerns about human health and environmental risks, and the economic effects of potential damage to marine resources, led to a statutory prohibition on the disposal of chemical weapons in the ocean in 1972. For many years, there was little attention to weapons that had been dumped offshore prior to this prohibition. However, the U.S. Army completed a report in 2001 indicating that the past disposal of chemical weapons in the ocean had been more common and widespread geographically than previously acknowledged. The Army cataloged 74 instances of disposal through 1970, including 32 instances off U.S. shores and 42 instances off foreign shores. The disclosure of these records has renewed public concern about lingering risks from chemical weapons still in the ocean today.

Lovely.

(hat tip: reader KR)

Electric cars a’comin’

I hear from my inside sources -- and by that I mean a press release I was sent -- that a company called Champion Motors of America is going to start manufacturing and selling a line of electric vehicles:

The company envisions its vehicles as workplace alternatives to traditional gasoline-powered vehicles. The line, which ranges from a 2-person personal car to a 14-passenger shuttle, will be offered to the public as well as to anyone interested in becoming a distributor/dealer. The small vehicles can be used for a number of duties calling for a light vehicle such as quick trips to and around industrial parks, college campuses, private communities, hotels and resorts, malls, amusement parks and security operations. According to company literature, they are environmentally-friendly because they are emissions-free and run on rechargeable batteries, are basically maintenance-free and provide relief in cutting the cost of expensive repairs and maintenance. Their lightweight design and compact size allows them to easily go just about anywhere. The company plans on providing technical support and assistance to its customers.

These are mainly for businesses, not consumers, but hey, you gotta start somewhere.

Champagne vineyards threatened by radioactive contamination

Global warming isn't the only thing threatening wine. In France, groundwater less than 10 km from the famous Champagne vineyards has tested positive for radioactive contamination, caused by a nearby leaking nuclear waste dump:

"We have been told for decades that nuclear dumpsites will not leak and that the best standards are being applied. In reality the dumpsite in Normandy is a disaster, and radioactivity is already leaking from the dumpsite in Champagne," said Shaun Burnie nuclear campaigner at Greenpeace International. "The authorities know they have a problem in Champagne already, with mistakes in the design. This is only the beginning of the problem, the bigger picture is that France has a nuclear waste crisis out of control that is threatening not only the environment and public health but also the economy of the Champagne region."

Clearly, there are some promises that just can't be kept. I wonder if Champagne is iconic enough to influence public opinion about nuclear power. In the meantime, bringing a Geiger counter to the next New Year's bash would be a cool party trick ...

Mining company returns funds to tribe

In the midst of our Poverty & the Environment series, we published a walking tour of Wisconsin's Sokaogon Chippewa community, which had partnered with another tribe to buy a nearby zinc and copper mine and keep it from reopening. At the time of our interview with tribe member Tina van Zile, the Sokaogon Chippewas -- one of the poorest tribes in the nation -- were struggling to raise funds to pay their share and save their community from being overrun by miners and the accompanying land degradation and pollution.

The Sokaogon tribe just made their final $8 million mortgage payment to the BHP Billiton mining company -- and BHP is donating the $8 million back to the tribe in a trust fund.

[Tribe administrator Tony] Phillippe said Tuesday the land will be used for conservation purposes, such as public trails and parks, and the mining project will never be developed.

"The minerals underneath it are basically sacred from now on into eternity," he said. "We own it all."

Woo hoo! A bit of good news, and just in time for World Environment Day!

Ethanol sucking up corn

AP:

Ethanol production in the United States is growing so quickly that, for the first time, farmers expect to sell as much corn this year to ethanol plants as they do overseas.

"It's the most stunning development in agricultural markets today - I can't think of anything else quite like this," says Keith Collins, the U.S. Agriculture Department's chief economist.

The amount of corn used for ethanol, estimated at 2.15 billion bushels this year, would amount to about 20 percent of the nation's crop, according to department projections.

And remember, this is with ethanol still serving only a tiny fraction of our liquid-fuel needs. What if there really were an E85 station on every corner?

Don Shaffer, local-biz promoter and green skateboard entrepreneur, answers questions

Don Shaffer. What work do you do? I’m executive director of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies and co-owner of Comet Skateboards. What does your organization do? BALLE is a growing alliance of more than 5,400 entrepreneurs and small-business owners from across the U.S. and Canada who are dedicated to building Local Living Economies, […]