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Desert Year: Doing a 180 on Energy

by Skip Laitner • May 7, 2012 @ 8:53 am

Running with the lizards and doing a 180 on energy!

The heat of the season is beginning to arrive earlier in the morning. And on this particular day it seemed especially sensible to get out ahead of the sun – well before it began to beat down with any real strength.  So I headed out early for a leisurely morning amble.  The route took me up a road that has very high curbs to channel the water from the fall monsoons. On this specific stretch of curb there was a single lizard, hugging the side of the concrete wall.  It scurried maybe 10 feet ahead of me as I approached, and then it stopped.  As I again advanced within three feet, it jumped ahead maybe another 8-10 feet, still hugging the curbside. And then again. . . .

I don’t have a clue why the lizard insisted on moving forward with me, hugging tightly to the pavement sidewall. The smarter thing, it seemed to me, would have been to scurry at a very quick right angle away from me to safety.  Yet, as I again approached it for perhaps the fifth time, it suddenly turned 180 degrees and bolted past me in the opposite direction – leaving me alone with my thoughts.  Although the suddenness of its movement startled me, I reflected a little and thought . . . that was very cool. And I immediately wondered why it is that we are so often dogged in maintaining our existing course of action?

A Changing of the Minds?

The good news is that people can and they sometimes do change their minds. Not to distract from his current predicament, in 2006 Rupert Murdoch, for example, “had a change of heart on climate change and now believes global action is needed.” Also changing his mind on climate change? Bjorn Lomborg who claimed for many years that climate was not an especially important issue to address. Yet in 2010 he released a new book with new equations stating the exact opposite. The indication is that while did change his mind, he hugely underestimates what might be an appropriate scale of mitigation effort. His current thinking recommends that we should spend $100 billion a year to mitigate and avoid the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions. The evidence, however, suggests it should be many times larger.  (more…)

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Reason, empathy, and fair play for a better climate policy

by Elizabeth A. Stanton • April 20, 2012 @ 1:01 pm

This blog post originally appeared on Climate and Development Knowledge Network.

Some economists conclude that the best response to climate change is to allow greenhouse gas emissions to keep growing throughout this century, although making sure their growth is slower than under a “business-as-usual” (no policy action) scenario. Others economists say the best policy is to lower emissions quickly, starting as soon as possible, and eliminating all greenhouse gas emissions before 2100. How can scholars using the same basic set of analytical tools come to such radically different policy recommendations?

A new report from the Stockholm Environment Institute uses the CRED model to show how three simple changes can turn a slower-emissions-growth policy into a call for immediate, steep reductions. Here the slower-emissions-growth policy is defined as one that allows carbon dioxide emissions of 5,400 thousand million tons (gigatons or Gt) during the 21st century. The immediate, steep reductions policy is defined as capping cumulative 21st century emissions at 2,000 Gt and providing a 4-out-of-5 chance that temperature rise will stay under 2°C. The three changes to the economic model can be described in short as: reason, empathy, and fair play.

The first change, reason, requires understanding and believing the most up-to-date climate science. When climate-economics models start with the assumption that high temperatures and rising seas won’t cause a lot of damage, that’s what their results will reflect. In these models, bringing the relationship between climatic changes and economic damage better in line with current scientific findings increases the importance of lowering emissions. (more…)

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Desert Year: Meeting Energy Needs is All About Perspective

by Skip Laitner • April 18, 2012 @ 2:25 pm

It had been in my mind for some time.  Picacho Peak is a fascinating and major focal point of the Arizona landscape, located perhaps 40 miles north of Tucson.  I’ve wanted to explore both the peak and its surrounding area almost since my first return to Tucson last May.

Earlier this year Arizona celebrated the 150th anniversary of the only Civil War skirmish that occurred in Arizona — right there in Picacho Pass. The Union forces lost that particular encounter because of the disobedience of an overeager young lieutenant. They also suffered three fatalities in that fight.

The little bit of publicity I saw about this anniversary only heightened my interest in climbing the peak.  So I set out one fine Friday with a friend to get it done.

Picacho Peak at a Distance

Our very first picture was taken at about 7:30 am in the morning as we approached Picacho Peak from the south on Interstate 10.  At that angle and distance one might begin to wonder, how the heck do we even begin to think that we can actually make the ascent? And if we look at the seemingly insatiable demands for energy, how might we do anything but dig for more coal or drill for more oil? (more…)

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