here’s my point. obama takes the full dose of the political heat stemming from: supporting the kyoto principles; a government role in health care; a more nuanced view of the terrorist threat, etc., etc. But then, having paid that political price, he faisl to enact strong policies, ie a copenhagen agreement with teeth, a public option, and a de-escalation of the afghan war…it’s bad policy and bad political strategy–the worst of both world.

We met briefly at the RRI/Bioneers 08 conference on National Green Plans where you interviewed two of our Dutch experts Sips and Van Zijst….

I, too, was at COP15 (where I heard Siegel’s compelling presentation) and very much appreciate your synthesis of these issues as they were unfolding last Friday. Naidoo and Klein were two of the most impressive people (besides the wonderful Healy Hamilton!) whom I encountered in Copenhagen and reading their quotes here adds to my respect….

Many thanks for this entry (and all the others, too),

Elizabeth Baker
Resource Renewal Institute
Green Belt Movement delegate to COP15

I just stumbled upon your blog! Great posts. You and I share a common admiration for Van Jones (I wrote a post on him a few weeks ago).

I will add you to my blogroll,

cheers,

marguerite
http://lamarguerite.wordpress.com
‘It’s All About Green Psychology’

I’m a Chinese undergraduate at Beijing, but I grew up in Chongqing, where you begin your journey in Earth Odyssey(1998). Actually I read this book in high school and I’m surprised that so many years later you are still active in environmental issues.

Cheers!

Lion, thanks for your thoughts. I’m not wedded to any death trap thinking; I’d love to see the vision you outline here become reality, and I think your underlying point is right: we have the technologies and expertise at our fingertips that could counter the climate crisis. But there is a big distance between the lip and the cup on this, as I think you know, and it is patrolled by some of the biggest and richest corporations in history, most of whom have been dragging their feet or otherwise delaying or diverting the imperative shift to low-carbon technologies.

The first post is solid. Not sure though what Gore can say beyond what Hansen did about China, whose coal craze is totally gaga and could do us all in. The issue is leverage and until the US can claim a much higher moral ground, China will parry critiques from these geographic parts as the preachings of the already rich bent on keeping others from getting theirs. But you know that.

And if not coal?

How ironic would it be if the Western nuke industry proves to be the chief beneficiary of rising public alarm over climate change (even as China buries us in carbon)?

I didn’t appreciate your comment about “True enough. But if China keeps building new coal plants at a rate of one every ten days, it won’t much matter if U.S. companies turn away from coal.” It is an easily ascertained fact that China has committed $180,000,000,000 over the next 20 years to renewable energy, more than all other nations on Earth combined.

ALL COAL PLANTS WORLDWIDE will be retired and closed by 41 years at the latest, by 28 years under the current transformation, by little more than a decade under my proposals.

From 1979 to 2000 the USA installed Solar PV at a rate of 25% compound annual growth, and that resulted in a doubling of installed capacity every 3 years. Each doubling lead to a “learning factor” price decrease of 19% from the previous 3 years. This is the long-term trend that would produce 100% of all electricity by solar PV in 41 years: FREEDOM DAY.

In recent years incentives have produced a 40% compound annual growth of PV, slightly over two years per doubling. During this time the fantastic oil prices windfalls lead to cornering of the silicon PV supply and slaughter of smaller independent PV makers. The cost has not decreased quite by the same “learning factor”. In 2002 a Chevron executive bragged that his company was making Si PV at $1 a watt, a price not passed on to the consumers. (This is the same Chevron that controls the Corbysis Nickel-Metal-Hydride batteries needed for plug-in electric cars, which Cobysis will not license for BEVs, and the same company under a prior name who worked with Exxon under a prior name to destroy the electric streetcar system in 100 American cities.)

The rate of doubling under the current regime of 40% annual growth will produce FREEDOM DAY in 28 years.

The Third Scenario, H2-PV will use open-source engineering to produce “good enough” no-frills “Model T” electromagnetic casting furnaces for franchising up to 60,000 entrepreneurs who want to become millionaires. Each one will make enough polysilicon cast crystal ingots for one square mile of cell surfaces in ten years. At the end there would be 60,000 square miles of polysilicon PV modules generating ALL power used in the USA, both electric and motive power.

100-mpg-cars with 72 kWhs on board will store six days of America’s home electric consumption on vehicle-to-grid distributed storage. The range-extender fuel-consumption generators will power up to 60 homes for each hour that they have fuel.

H2-PV means not only PV, but also Hydrogen. A single 12″ diameter pipeline grid which traces the US interstate highway right-of-ways which we already own, would hold nearly 10 billion kilograms of H2 gas. That is enough to drive 200,000,000 fuel cell cars and light trucks fleet from Los Angeles to NYC.

The pressure in the pipelines would be just over 3,000 psi, roughly the same pressure in a scuba tank routinely strapped to people’s backs as comparison. Europe has already approved for hydrogen service at 3,750 psi pipes made of epoxy-fiber-reinforced plastic. Car fuel tanks in Europe have been certified at ratings over 10,000 psi, and have passed 50 meter drop impact tests filled to 24,000 psi.

The 21st century is calling you. The Third millenium does not look at all like the 2nd millenium. It’s time you left the past behind. The 20th century lifestyles have failed completely, publicly, undeniably. Stop clinging to that death trap.

http://www.projects.ecocity.us
http://www.100mpg.H2-PV.us