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Zakaria on oil

Fareed Zakaria is one of the few mainstream opinion writers I consistently respect. He's smart -- and furthermore, he's funny on the Daily Show, which goes a long way with me.

In this column on oil, he basically elides the peak problem and instead focuses on this:

There are really only five countries that matter in the world of oil: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Russia and Venezuela. ... In order to build up real capacity, these governments would need to take their oil revenues and reinvest them in projects that would take five to 10 years to spout oil. Which of these countries has that level of stability, confidence or competence?

This is accurate, and gets at something about peak oil that's been bouncing around, slightly inchoate, in my head. It seems to me many peak oil prophets overstate the degree to which peak oil will be a prime mover in geopolitics (and domestic politics) in the coming decade. It will certainly serve as a background condition, slowly ratcheting up the pressure on the entire system. But in the foreground, it will be politics and circumstance that provide the big developments.

Zakaria also takes aim at U.S. demand:

Intermittency and storage

One of the annoying arguments against solar and wind power is "intermittency" -- the fact that the sun doesn't always shine, and the wind doesn't always blow. This allegedly proves that solar and wind can't be anything more than add-ons to a more reliable coal-based grid.

I say "annoying" because I don't have a solid, easy comeback. But it something about it sticks in my craw.

The obvious way to address the problem would be storage -- store the energy and use it when the sun/wind isn't "on." But store it how? If we ever produced electric cars, or even plug-in hybrids, the batteries therein could be used as a kind of distributed storage, feeding into the grid when circumstances require it. Or we could develop industrial-scale batteries. I've heard some interesting stuff about using methanol to store the energy. And of course there's always hydrogen fuel cells.

Robert Rapier discusses storing wind energy as compressed air, based on this MSNBC story. Sounds promising to me.

Anybody out there know more about this stuff? What's the best way to overcome intermittency?

Will the ESA force Bush’s hand on climate change?

I've heard several times that the minute the Bush administration admits that a) an animal is endangered, and b) the endangerment results from climate change, the Endangered Species Act will kick in and force it to take steps to address the problem.

Not being a legal type, I don't know how solid this line of reasoning is. But apparently the Bushies just admitted that coral is endangered by the effects of global warming. So if the ESA is going to force their hand, we'll find out soon when all the lawsuits start coming in.

Beyond organic: A new label

If you haven't been following the discussion under this post about Wal-Mart selling organic food, I recommend you catch up. It's quite insightful, with a range of views well-expressed.

One note of consensus seems to be this: "Organic," at least as denoted by the USDA label, falls well short of genuinely sustainable agriculture. Tom is better qualified than I to give a comprehensive description of the latter, but one important element is locality. Food that is grown, sold, and eaten within a single regional foodshed is closer to sustainable than organic mega-farms.

So, as a couple of people have suggested, perhaps one step in the right direction is a new label, to supplement "organic." This raises two questions:

Umbra on building a deck

Dear Umbra, It’s spring, my house turns 100 years old this year, and I would like to celebrate by adding a deck. But what type of building materials should I choose? Wood, plastic, or composite? In my market there is no ready supply of FSC-certified wood — I would have to have it milled and […]

Wind power 101

Discussion of environment and energy issues is coming so fast and furious these days that I could spend all day simply reading it -- which would make me a less-than-useful blogger. So I'll try to pick a few good bits to share.

Jerome a Paris, who writes at dKos and its sister site, European Tribune, is the kind of writer I'd be if I'd studied something useful in school, with numbers and facts and such, rather than philosophy. I highly recommend two recent posts: one is a brief, cogent summary of wind power, listing its benefits and drawbacks; the second is an exhaustive, detailed rebuttal of wind-power skeptics.

Everything you've ever wanted to know about wind power but were afraid to ask.

(via EnergyBulletin, of course)

Environmentally friendly drag racing

When is that plug-in hybrid going to get here? And where is that cellulosic biofuel technology?

I admit to having paranoid thoughts lately. Paranoia, as anyone who has eaten one too many "special" brownies knows, can be an unpleasant mental state (especially when combined with the giggles).

Could it be true that oil companies are buying off researchers?

Americans and Climate Change: Problem summary

"Americans and Climate Change: Closing the Gap Between Science and Action" (PDF) is a report synthesizing the insights of 110 leading thinkers on how to educate and motivate the American public on the subject of global warming. Background on the report here. I'll be posting a series of excerpts (citations have been removed; see original report). If you'd like to be involved in implementing the report's recommendations, or learn more, visit the Yale Project on Climate Change website.

Below the fold is an executive summary of the problems conference participants identified.

An innovative Alabama CSA shows the way forward.

When Wal-Mart announced plans to become the world's biggest purveyor of organically grown food last week, the polite applause from the enviro gallery grated on my ears. (Here's a spirited recent debate on Gristmill.) Even the New York Times editorial page could see through this move. While some greens cooed at at Wal-Mart's magnamity, the Grey Lady unleashed an appropriately cynical analysis:

There is no chance that Wal-Mart will be buying from small, local organic farmers. Instead, its market influence will speed up the rate at which organic farming comes to resemble conventional farming in scale, mechanization, processing and transportation. For many people, this is the very antithesis of what organic should be.... For "Wal-Mart" and "organic" to make sense in the same sentence, the company will have to commit itself to protecting the Agriculture Department standard that gives "organic" meaning.

I have no doubt that Wal-Mart's greenie admirers will hold the company's feet to the fire on that one. But the USDA's organic standards are already being drained of meaning. Rather than chide Goliath to behave nicely, enviros should consider helping David get his shit together. Check out what they're getting up to over in Birmingham, Ala.

Melinda Kramer, advocate for grassroots women activists, answers questions

Melinda Kramer. Photo: Caitlin Sislin. With what environmental organization are you affiliated? I am cofounder and codirector of Women’s Global Green Action Network, an international organization that unites and empowers grassroots women advocates, entrepreneurs, and community leaders around the world who are working in the areas of environmental, economic, and social justice. How does your […]