Latest IPCC
Report; Colorado Flood Aftermath; Coal’s Long Goodbye, and more…
I spent last weekend in Denver and it turned out to be a terrible
time to visit. In the Boulder area
floods carved out the land and roads. Gas and oil tanks were disrupted during the
flood, spilling their
contents. There is a fundamental problem with using dirty energy sources, in
the end we spill it.
The newest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report expands on the certainty that humans are the cause of
climate change.
Arguing against the theory of climate change is like arguing against the theory
of evolution. Well, I guess people try to do that too.
The International community has yet to agree on and act out a plan to address climate change. The balance of our climate should be of interest to every country and person. Earth is on track for increasingly disruptive climate change that continues to assault the wealth and health of humans.
We need to address this issue both locally and globally.
Global warming is not the only reason to reduce emissions of
pollutants. We live and breath
in our ocean of air, the atmosphere. Pollutants have a real impact on human
life, illustrated by this map from NASA.
A lot of the oil coming out of Nigeria has been illegally siphoned
off of pipelines. Besides the damage
to the oil industry the process of stealing oil from
pipelines is really dirty
and broken pipes are just left to spill after thieves have taken their fill. We
should be dependent on less destructive energy sources.
Google has invested a lot
of money in renewable energy. The effort continues with a wind energy contract.
Wind-Turbine-Syndrome is
a thing. I really don’t know
what to think of it. Maybe its a psychosomatic reaction of people that live
next to wind turbines and politically don’t like renewable energy.
Coal in America will have to clean up its act. The EPA is enacting new stricter rules and
its a win for us and our environment. Even with these new rules coal has been on the
decline due to the
booming natural gas industry. Coal and gas are easy substitutes and investors
are choosing gas over coal. Coal is being attacked from two fronts and this
might be the beginning of the end for the industry. This is not just
happening in the US, China is another large stage for the decline of coal.
Ever wonder how the managers of evil
corporations maintain their sanity? What if they weren’t? Dirty energy companies, banks, they make
huge profits off of obviously hurting people. Maybe we are being played by
sociopaths.
A negative externality is the cost of producing a good or service
that is not included in the price paid by the consumer. Unaccounted for environmental externalities
are messing up our economy because it creates a false market signal with dirty energy priced low and
renewable energy priced high. But, renewable energy has a lower cost to society than dirty energy.
