Mitigating Global Warming -- Too Costly?

There are no reasonable studies that say that a 350 ppm stabilization target will destroy the economy; there are no studies that claim that it is desirable to wait before taking action on climate protection. On the contrary, there is strong, widespread endorsement for policies to promote energy conservation, development of new energy technologies, and price incentives and other economic measures that will redirect the world economy onto a low-carbon path to sustainability.

That’s what the study “The Economics of 350,” concludes. The study was conducted by Economics for Equity and the Environment, a group of climate economists put together by Ecotrust. It puts a price tag on the goal of keeping global carbon-dioxide concentrations at 350 parts per million, an ambitious target.

Stabilizing CO2 concentrations at 350 ppm may cost between 1% and 3% of WORLD gross domestic product. Is that a large or a small number? If you believe that global warming is real, as do the vast majority of climate scientists, if you believe the consequences will be dire, as do the vast majority of climate scientists, and that man-made green-house gas emissions are the cause, as do the vast majority of climate scientists, then the relative cost is really not relevant, is it?

"We’re making choices that future generations are going to have to live with and I don’t really think it’s our choice to destroy something that they are never going to get to see. Scott Doney, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.

XMRV

Scientists have uncovered a strong link between an unusual virus and chronic fatigue syndrome, which affects more than 1 million people in the United States. Researchers found that two-thirds of people with chronic fatigue are infected with a retrovirus called XMRV, according to a new study in the journal Science Express. XMRV has also been found in the tumors of some prostate cancer patients. Scientists say it's too soon to say whether XMRV actually causes chronic fatigue. People with the syndrome feel tired even after a good night's sleep. Many also have debilitating pain in their muscles or joints, trouble concentrating and immune problems.

The story is on NPR here.

Carbon Capture and Storage

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is just what the phrase would indicate; capturing carbon in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted say, by coal-fired power plants, and storing it in places where, theoretically, it will remain, if not forever, then for long enough to allow the world's green house gas emissions to be brought under control. Storage, also termed sequestration, may be in subsurface saline aquifers, reservoirs, ocean water, aging oil fields, or other carbon sinks. Interestingly, nature, if left alone to do its job, sequesters an enormous amount of CO2 (biological sequestration). Unfortunately, man seems hell bent on either overloading nature's "sinks," or destroying them.

The surface ocean currently absorbs about one-fourth of the CO2 emitted to the atmosphere by human activities from fossil fuel combustion, among other things. As this CO2 dissolves in seawater, it forms carbonic acid, increasing ocean acidity. Since industrialization began in the 18th century, surface ocean acidity has increased by 30%. High acidity is already causing serious damage to ocean ecosystems. It could ultimately severely and irreparably damage marine food webs and lead to drastic reductions in commercial fish stocks. The current increase in ocean acidity is a hundred times faster than any previous natural change that has occurred over the last many millions of years.

At the same time we're overloading the oceans with man-made CO2, we're destroying other natural CO2 sinks. Each day at least 80,000 acres of rainforest disappear from Earth. At least another 80,000 acres of forest are degraded. As these forests fall, more carbon is added to the atmosphere.

Research and development by government and industry (including the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) has been aimed at developing CCS systems specifically designed to remove carbon dioxide from the flue gases and various process streams of large power plants and industrial facilities and safely deposit the carbon dioxide in secure storage sites deep underground – thus keeping it out of the atmosphere.

Vattenfall AB, a large Swedish energy company, has plans to store millions of tons of CO2 in saline aquifers under the rolling fields of eastern Germany, but local opposition may thwart these plans. People are frieghtened that the gas may escape and poison them, or blow up and send them prematurly to Valhalla. And the technology is expensive, in the billions of dollars. Without some way to artificially raise the cost of carbon, say through cap and trade, CSS is currently not economical.

When CEOs Misbehave

I recently read the transcript of an interesting interview with Jeffrey Pfeffer, the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, published on Guy Kawasaki's blog. Pfeffer was asked, "How do you stop the misdeeds (for example, Enron) in organizations?" Here's his answer.

"What is interesting is that there are few social sanctions—as contrasted with legal or financial ones—for bad behavior. Executives who have served jail time are back on TV and are still celebreties. More to the point, they aren’t shunned by their colleagues. The prevailing mood seems to be, as long as people retain enough wealth, they can buy their way back by donating time and money. If we are serious about enforcing norms, then there have to be real sanctions. In the military academies, violations of important norms are met with expulsion or social ostracism—eating alone, for instance. Not so, not yet, for the most part in the corporate world."

Makes sense, doesn't it? When we learn of a corporation's misdeeds, we need to find out who led that organization at the time and make sure they hear what we think of them. If we buy their products, we need to stop buying their products. If we bank/invest with their company, we need to stop banking/investing with their company. If we blog, we need to say what we think about their behavior on our blogs. People who misbehave, whether they be congressional representatives or CEOs, must be held accountable.

Four Days Old

Bioneers Conference, October 16-19, 2009, San Rafael, California, October 16-18

“Bioneers” is an odd name. It was coined by Kenny Ausubel, who along with Nina Simons founded the non-profit organization and its annual conference in 1990. The word derives from its founders’ belief that humans can work with and through nature to make our world a better place. Bioneers’ “founding perspectives" are:

Natural Medicine. Nature has a profound and profoundly mysterious ability for self-repair. The primary source of healing lies in nature. In environmental restoration as in medicine, the role of the practitioner is to support nature to heal itself. This principle became foundational to Bioneers.

Nature’s Solutions. Nature has solved all the ecological challenges we’re trying to address. Practitioners such as John Todd, Amory Lovins, Wes Jackson and Donald Hammer, as well as traditional indigenous practices, were a primary inspiration. In 1997, naturalist and author Janine Benyus gave this emerging science a name in her landmark book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, the same year she first spoke at Bioneers. Biomimicry has been a core focus since Bioneers’ inception.

Biocultural Diversity. In nature, diversity is the very fabric of life. Because change is the only constant in nature, diversity is the source of resilience to adapt to change in both natural and human systems. Successful adaptation requires keeping open the greatest range of biologically and culturally diverse options. Diversity is also the sacred tree of life, with intrinsic value.

The Bioneers Conference is a leading-edge forum of social and scientific innovators focused on solutions inspired by nature and human ingenuity where you may:

Explore the forefront of positive change in deeply inspiring keynote talks, panels, workshops and intensives.

Connect with leading-edge people and ideas. Network with dynamic changemakers. Experience Moving Image Festival screenings, and networking receptions.

Discover powerful opportunities and strategies for creating positive change in your work, life and community.

You can participate virtually in the conference by registering and downloading the electronic program.

Freeing Up Disk Space on a Mac

As a long-time Mac user, I'm always looking for good advice on maintaining my Mac, especially freeing up disk space. I found this post from "Baby Boomer" on the Apple Mac discussion forum.

Empty the trash

Open up your application folder & go through all your apps. Trash all the apps you no longer want and/or use. An easier way to do this is to open the Application folder in list view & press the Command+j keys.
In the the dialog that appears, click the "This Window Only" button & the "Calculate All Sizes" check box. Wait a bit until your file & folder sizes have all been calculated, then click the "Size" column to sort your apps from the fattest to the most anorexic.

Get rid of all your photo files you don't want and/or need. Same goes for those pics off the websites you downloaded (gifs, jpegs, etc.).

Get rid of all your music files you no longer listen too. Especially, if you already have the actual CDs and/or DVDs or you can later redownload from a website. Use Spotlight to make sure you got rid of everything. You can even trash directly from Spotlight!

Drag what you don't want and/or need to the trash. Better yet, download this neat little shareware app demo called AppZapper. It basically does all the work for you by not only trashing the apps but the apps preference files, caches & all its associated files. Another software that does the above is AppDelete. Best of all this software is free! Burn what you want and/or need onto CDs or DVDs.

Not everyone has the luxury of purchasing an external HD and/or a .Mac account to store their "stuff, junk, music & photos". You can check with your ISP to see if they offer free storage space. Most if not all do now-a-days. I store all 5000+ of my music (mp3s) files & 500+ music videos in my ISP storage bin. There are thousands if not millions of free storage facilities on the web also. Use your favorite search engine, Google &/or MacGoogle to search them out as they come in different storage sizes to fit your needs & wants.

Check for duplicate fonts. Applications>Font Book. Select “All Fonts.” If you see any “black dots” next to any fonts this mean you have duplicates and/or multiple versions of these fonts. To clean this up, select a “black dotted” font or the Apple + click to select multiple dotted fonts; Edit>Resolve>Duplicates. What this does is turns off the duplicates & multiple version fonts. Not delete them. More than likely the “extras” were installed by other programs and/or other users. Clear out font caches Use FontNuke. It does all the work for you. And, best of all it’s FREE.

Printer Drivers:Get rid of all the printer drivers you don’t need & use except the ones for your current printer(s)/scanner(s). HD>Library>Printers Folder. If you accidently threw something out that you needed for your printer/scanner it can be easily obtained from the manufacturer’s website and/or from the CD that came w/the printer/scanner.

Garage Band has about 1GB of loops stored. Get rid of some some them. You surely don’t use, like and/or need them all. HD>Library>Audio/Apple Loops>Apple>Apple Loops For GarageBand. Or just get rid of the Garage Band app altogether if you don’t use it.

Get rid of extra languages. Strip your computer down to your “native” tongue. You can do this with a FREE utility called Monolingual. Another app that apparently does all the work for you. I’ve never used it. However, a lot of users here swear by & recommend it highly. However, there is a warning for native English speakers. Make sure you keep BOTH English and English (United States)..

Other Resources: Knowledge Base Article http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303602 Mac Maintenance Quick Assist. Scroll down to "4) Prune Through Your Files".Slimming your hard drive.

Rule of thumb: You should never let your hard drive get to where you have only 10-15% of space left.