Monterey Bay Environment News

Why Buy an Electric Car? How about to avoid a famine?

noreply@blogger.com (Ron S. Nolan) — Sat, 01 Mar 2014 04:02:00 +0000

I have a good friend named Julie who is self-educated, she is one of the most intelligent people I know. So when I asked her about potatoes, she replied, “perfect food...a person can live on them and nothing else.”

Turns out she is right. The potato is a complete diet consisting of 75% water and 23% starch--plus proteins and amino acids and enough vitamin C to prevent scurvy. The following analysis is derived from Walker, David, 1992. ENERGY, PLANTS AND MAN, Oxygraphics Limited.

An average sedentary male (like a webmaster) requires about 2,400 Kcal/day and can survive on roughly 7.5 pounds of potatoes/day which can be grown on 1 acre of land. Let’s look at the energy budget for a one acre crop of potatoes for a period of one year.

Energy Input MCal (from Fossil Fuels)

Fertilizer (N, P, K) 1,456

Tractor 1,050

Other Machinery 1,290

Sprays, Sundries, Irrigation 1,102

Total to Farm Gate 4,898

Transport to City 500

Total Fossil Fuel Input 5,398 MCal

Consumption of Crop by Sedentary Male (kCal/day x days x year)

2,400 x 365 x 1 = 8,760 Mcal

So the break down is

(Consumption per year-Fossil Fuel Input) = Utilization of Sunlight

8,760 – 5,398 = 3.362 (38%)

In other words, 62% of the crop was derived from “ancient photosynthesis” in the form of fossil fuels. The balance of only 38% was derived from “new photosynthesis.”

The point here is that with modern agriculture, over half of the energy harvested in today’s crops is derived from ancient photosynthesis in the form of fossil fuels that are needed to grow and deliver the crop.

If you add in the fuels needed to package, distribute, cook and dispose of the food, Walker estimates that 5 calories are expended for each calorie consumed.

In essence Walker points out that civilization as we know it today is made possible and remains entirely dependent upon ancient photosynthesis stored as fossil fuels and more disturbingly that changing the picture so that modern agriculture suddenly became entirely reliant upon contemporary photosynthesis “...would require a ten-fold reduction in population.”

Any Solutions?

“In California, 74 percent of oil is used for transportation-cars, planes, trucks, buses and motorcycles.”

When concerned people talk about “peak oil” and pumping the last barrel of crude out of the ground and fret that this might cripple the transportation industry; what they don’t get is, the scarcity of fossil fuels will surely cause a catastrophic famine of the highest magnitude to human society—which may survive, but only at much lower population levels.

Shifting to electric vehicles powered by solar charging stations will allow more ancient photosynthesis fossil fuel to be used in food production and not diverted to transportation. The big agribusiness industry could also shift to solar charged electric tractors and transport vans and solar/wind powered irrigation pumps and use solar energy to power the plants that make fertilizers and pesticides.

The consequence of you driving an electric car or choosing an electric van for your fleet might be only a small step in the right direction, or it just might stimulate the right minds in the right places to realize that electric vehicles are the future, not just for transportation, but to keep potatoes on the plate in the decades to come.

Most Plants Shun the Color Green

noreply@blogger.com (Ron S. Nolan) — Sat, 01 Mar 2014 03:48:00 +0000

But it ain’t green, babe
No, no, no, it ain’t green, babe
It ain’t green you’re lookin’ for, babe

(Apology to Bob Dylan)

I’m sure that you have noticed the new green bandwagon where virtually any offensive polluter can transform itself overnight into a model, environmentally-concerned corporation by just saying the magic words “green business or green marketing.”

Like: Green coal enterprise lopping off mountain tops, green nuclear plants generating impossible to destroy radioactive byproducts, green natural gas companies fracting and contaminating neighborhood water supplies, and green power plants that to want to turn the planet into a giant green balloon pumped full of carbon dioxide.

It is a testimony to the brainwashing genius of marketing consultants and public relations gurus to see this transformation in action.

Can you imagine a corporate outing to some lush location surrounded by tropical rainforests with dense green canopies or to the evergreen forests at a ski resort in the Sierras.

Look at all the green leaves and needles, look at all the photosynthesis. “Heh, why don’t we embrace green marketing and start green websites, and Facebook pages and empower green social engineering?”

After all all of our food, building materials and fossil fuels were generated by photosynthesis, so green must be important.

So be it. It is done. It likely will continue to be done.

And it is dead wrong.

The reason that chlorophyll a and b, chloroplasts, and leaves and needles are green is because plants don’t want to have anything to do with green light. They transmit it and reflect it. That’s why THEY ARE GREEN!

In terms of the complex process of photosynthesis in which the energy from the sun is transformed through a very complex sequence of electron transport, and carbohydrate synthesis and oxygen generation from oxidation/reduction reactions, it is all driven by red and blue light, not green light.

Chlorophyll a and b have absorption peaks in the blue spectrum at 420-453 nm and in the red wavelengths at 645-663 nm. Virtually none of the green wavelengths from 500-600 nm are involved in photosynthesis.

In terms of plant energetics, green wavelengths are reflected and of no value. From a plant’s energy budget they are trash.

So you brilliant marketing gurus have based your whole giant worldwide marketing campaign on the color green which is environmental trash.

A better feel good and accurate campaign choice would have been blue and red wavelengths..even white light since it has both red and blue spectra with green sandwiched between.

You could have called it the red, white and blue campaign. Maybe that was taken?

For those who are dedicating their time and resources to restoring balance on the planet. Keep up the good work, you can call it any color that you want.

Full Circle

noreply@blogger.com (Ron S. Nolan) — Sat, 01 Mar 2014 03:43:00 +0000

Just as in 1879, we are now at a transportation epiphany.

A revolution in transportation

Our pioneer ancestors bought the latest and the best covered equipped wagon they could afford as they headed West.

Likely a brand called the Prairie Schooner.

They were powered by horses or oxen, which ate hay and grass.

As such, the wagons were fueled by solar energy. They were “Running on Sunshine.”

But, our adventurous ancestors were constantly plagued with a nagging concern about the next feed and water stop for the horses and oxen.

Now we have come full circle.

We are at a bold new future in transportation and our electric-powered wagons are “Running on Sunshine” just like the Schooners.

Thankfully, new developments in EV information systems will make it easy to plan ahead and conveniently schedule charging our new battery-stored horsepower to keep us “Running on Sunshine.”

Ron S. Nolan, Ph.D.,
www.solarmetro.com

Permafrost Thawing: An Exclusive Interview with with Ecologist, Dr. Edward Schuur, University. of Florida

noreply@blogger.com (Ron S. Nolan) — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 21:55:00 +0000

(Originally posted in 2006)

In the July 16, 2006 edition of SCIENCE a research team in which Dr. Edward A. Schuur of the University of Florida participated, reported new findings about the reservoir of carbon stored in the permafrost in Siberia. The researchers specifically addressed loess soil, known as ”yedoma” in Siberia, a wind and water born dust frozen in permafrost in depths down to 50 m (~164’). The concentration of carbon in the deep yedoma deposits was much higher than expected compared to deep soils elsewhere.

SMO: Dr. Schuur, your paper estimates the varying reservoirs of carbon in gigatons (Gt)

oceans 40,000 Gt
soils 1,500 Gt (all soils globally, including tundra to a depth of 1 m (3.3’)
vegetation 650 Gt

Could you please explain how the mass of carbon is measured and estimated in the atmosphere and in the other pools?

DR. SCHUUR: Mass of carbon is the concentration times the volume. In the case of yedoma, we need to know the thickness of the yedoma (av = 25m), the bulk density (weight of dry soil per volume of soil, in other words kg of soil per cubic meter) and then the carbon concentration, which we can measure on an elemental analyzer. The elemental analyzer combusts the soil sample and measures the amount of carbon dioxide that is released upon combustion. We take soil samples from a range of geographic locations and vertically throughout the yedoma to describe a large area. A similar approach is used for ocean, atmosphere too.

SMO: Please describe the carbon reservoirs in the Arctic and how your team’s discovery fits in.

DR. SCHUUR: There are two comparisons in our paper: the first comparison is between deep permafrost yedoma (~500gt) and the surface values that are typically used for northern ecosystems ~450gt. The latter value is focused on 1m depth. So, we are saying that there is another, more or less equivalent (large) amount stored deeper below.

The second comparison is an estimate of carbon pools for >10,000 years ago when there were ice sheets at the last glacial maximum. The first comparison is the most relevant for current and future changes.

SMO: Most scientists believed that the organic material locked beneath the permafrost in Siberia, Canada and Alaska was in the form of partially decomposed peat, Sphagnum moss. But your study seems to indicate that the yedoma is also a carbon repository.

a) How was this overlooked before?

b) Where did the yedoma come from? What plants or animals? When?

c) How was it sequestered in permafrost?

DR. SCHUUR: We are studying soils that are deeper than the traditional 1m depth that many soil studies focus on. Because carbon enters soil as plants and animals die and decompose, it is reasonable in most places to focus on the surface because that is where the biological activity is.

The reason that yedoma is different is that the surface of the soil was rising because, in the glacial/interglacial periods, dust was falling and accumulating on the surface. Even though it was only mm to cm falling per year, over decades, this adds up to a lot of material, up to 53m (174’) thick in some places.

As the surface of the soil rose, carbon that was in the soil became trapped in permafrost (permanently frozen) before it had time to decompose fully. As a result you can see intact plant roots preserved deep in the frozen soil. This happened at a time where the ecosystem was steppe-tundra with lots of grasses and herbivores (think mammoth, bison, etc., other Pleistocene mega fauna)

This process resulted in carbon trapped much deeper than is expected in many places, and cut off from decomposition by microbes because it was frozen.

SMO: In regions at the southern extreme of continuous permafrost, how fast is it melting and what CO2 contributions to the atmosphere is this making today?

DR. SCHUUR: This is the $64,000 question. There is permafrost thawing (that is the word that permafrost scientists prefer rather than melting) occurring, and we are trying to estimate how fast it might be coming out. This paper is mostly about the size of the pool, and given how large it is, it is something that we should be worried about if it decomposes. Our lab experiments show that this old frozen carbon can be decomposed when thawed, now it is a matter of making projections into the future with the use of models.

SMO: If the melting is an accelerating positive feedback loop, can you make any estimates of how much faster the out gassing might be with a given temperature or atmospheric CO2 level increase?

DR. SCHUUR: Again this is the current and future research figuring out how much of a climate impact this pool will have using g/c/ms and future scenarios.

SMO: What are the most important actions that you believe should be taken to halt or retard the thawing of the permafrost layer?

DR. SCHUUR: Permafrost stability (and preservation of carbon therein) is affected by climate change. Currently, human-caused changes in atmospheric greenhouse gases are likely to affect global climate, thus anything that we can do to reduce emissions to the atmosphere will help mitigate this problem.

SMO: There is a school of thought which believes that permafrost thawing will result in the tundra becoming a carbon sink rather than a carbon source. The theory is that as the polar climate warms, plant communities currently limited by the cold temperatures will expand their range northward. And since plants are carbon sinks, the net effect of carbon and methane release from the melting permafrost in the tundra will be cancelled.

DR. SCHUUR: This is an important point and cannot be ignored. It depends on the rate of plant response and soil microbe response. In the yedoma soils there is far more total carbon than can be offset by plant growth, but then that depends on how extensively/fast the soil thaws. In general though there is so much carbon in yedoma down deep (~500gt), that if you consider the total land plant biomass (~650gt) worldwide that you can see that if all the yedoma thawed that there is no way to grow enough plants to offset.

SMO: Wildcard. Here you can ask your own question and answer it if you wish.

DR. SCHUUR: Here's a comment regarding surprises in climate change research. One aspect about this yedoma pool is that we are saying that this is 500 billion tons of carbon that was not really considered before. One extension of this is to think that if this surprise is out there, might there not be other surprises in the earth carbon cycle/climate system that can have a significant impact on our climate trajectory? This research makes me think that there are more surprises out there, and some we might only discover as they change in response to changing climate.

Ted Schuur, Ph.D.
Asst. Professor of Ecosystem Ecology
Department of Botany
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL, 32611-8526

Ron S. Nolan, Ph.D.

Solar Metro Online

Aptos, CA 95003

Solar Product Review Innergy Power 22W Solar Binder

noreply@blogger.com (Ron S. Nolan) — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 03:22:00 +0000

Need to recharge your mobile phone where there is no place to plug in your charger? The Innergy Power 22W Solar Binder offers a convenient, reliable way to use sunshine to charge your cell phone or PDA.

Emergency Preparedness
Severe weather this winter downed power lines and caused prolonged power outages for millions of Americans. After the weather cleared in the Pacific Northwest and Midwest, it still took several days to restore electrical service. Recharging a phone under these conditions can pose a challenge, but if the sun is shining, a solar charger can get the job done. Beware though, that many solar chargers have small, inefficient collector surfaces that charge very slowly. The Innergy Power 22W Solar Binder sports a whopping four square feet of solar collector surface area cutting charging time considerably.

Sleek Design
The solar binder consists of three lightweight fiberglass solar modules packaged in a zippered, ballistic nylon case. When closed, it’s a slim attaché case with a comfortable handle and shoulder strap that makes the unit easy to tote. There’s also a side pouch where you can stash your cell phone, adapter cord and a first aid kit or other items.

The binder comes with a cigarette lighter receptacle at the end of a 10’ cord. Take it on a wilderness trip in your backpack and you will be able to stay in contact with the world you left behind if an emergency should arise.

How it Works
Operating the solar binder is a snap. Simply place it in a sunny spot, open the panels and plug in your cell phone or PDA using an auto power adapter. This winter with the sun at a relatively low angle to the horizon, I oriented the panels to maximize solar exposure by placing the open binder on a board resting on a pair of sneakers. You can place it flat on the ground or on your patio deck in the summer when the sun is higher.

As soon as sun hits the modules, they start generating electricity and the charging light on the cell phone glows green. There are no moving parts, no noise, and no mechanisms to wear out.

What Else You Need
If you don’t already have one, you will need an automobile power adapter cord and power tip to connect your specific model cell phone to the solar binder. You can buy them at most stores that sell cell phones or PDAs. The model I use is made by iGo and it lets me plug my cell phone into my car’s cigarette lighter. You can also order one for your specific phone from iGo.com. Mine cost about $40.

What to Expect
The time needed to fully recharge your mobile phone or PDA depends upon the amount of solar energy available, which in turn depends upon latitude, time of day, season and the amount of cloud cover. I did performance testing using a Sony Ericsson T610 in December on the deck of my apartment on the Central California Coast. Lux levels were recorded hourly.

Test 1 was initiated on 12/19/06 at 11:30 AM under clear skies. Lux levels ranged from 86,500 to 98,000 with a mean of 93,250. Charge time was three hours.

Test 2 was initiated on 12/20/06 at noon under high cirrus clouds. At 3:30 PM the sky was overcast and the test was halted. It rained over the next two days. The test was resumed at 12:15 PM on 12/23/06 under overcast conditions. Over the entire test period, lux ranged from 9,800 to 88,000 with an overall average of 49,496. Total charge time was 5.5 hours.

Conclusions: On a clear winter day, my cell phone was fully charged in three hours. The charge time rose to 5.5 hours under overcast conditions.

How Much it Costs
The 22W solar binder is priced around $170. You can also add an auxiliary battery, which lets you to capture and store solar energy during the daytime then charge your cell phone at night, for around $100.

Coolness Factor
Using the Innergy Power 22W Solar Binder charger makes the case that you support energy conservation and you are doing your part to reduce global warming. Definitely cool; maybe someday we will all be Talking on Sunshine(TM).

All Rights Reserved. This article was written by Dr. Ron S. Nolan and edited by Michael H.D. Dormer. You may use this article but it must contain this exact resource text and the links must remain viable. Details and specifications about the Innergy Power 22W Solar Binder. More information about solar technology and solar products can be found on http://www.solarmetro.com.

Product Reviews
Solar Metro Online

Monterey Bay Environment News

noreply@blogger.com (Ron S. Nolan) — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 07:23:00 +0000

I have restructured this blog to receive news feeds about the Monterey Bay and Central Coast environment. We have a magnificent new Amazon store featuring solar cell phone chargers, solar lights and cell phones.

Check it out. Any purchases you make will be made on Amazon's secure website and you can search for any of over 1,000,000 products available on Amazon.com.

May your days to be solar sunny and bright.

Dr. Nolan