Environment

People are acting like the planet is the most insignificant, unimportant thing, and that worrying about keeping it clean is whiny nonsense.

I’ve actually seen comments, regarding the gulf oil spill, suggesting that they just let it gush and saying "who cares, accidents happen"

Shouldn’t people be worried that they will be affected by climate change or pollution? it’ll affect the food chain, businesses, allergens, pests.

Do these people have somewhere else they’re gonna go after earth is unlivable?

Because the general population is selfish and only care about things if it directly affects or benefits them

Buildings are the SUVs of U.S. energy consumption, gobbling up 71 percent of the nation’s electricity. In this Sept. 22, 2008 talk, Arun Majumdar, Director of Berkeley Lab’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division, discusses how scientists are creating a new generation of net-zero energy, carbon-neutral buildings.

Duration : 1:11:4

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Miriam Horn, co-author of Earth the Sequel, explores the innovations underway that could help make solar the energy source of the future. Part 1 of Environmental Defense Fund’s video series, Unleash the Future.

Duration : 0:2:9

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Gallup asked these 2 questions in a recent poll.

"With which one of these statements about the environment and the economy do you most agree – protection of the environment should be given priority, even at the risk of curbing economic growth (or) economic growth should be given priority, even if the environment suffers to some extent?"

"With which one of these statements about the environment and energy production do you most agree – protection of the environment should be given priority, even at the risk of limiting the amount of energy supplies (such as oil, gas and coal) which the United States produces (or) development of U.S. energy supplies (such as oil, gas and coal) should be given priority, even if the environment suffers to some extent?"

For the first time in a year, environmental protection beat energy development, 55-39%. Since the BP Gulf oil disaster, over the past 2 months Democrats and Independents shifted toward environmental protection by 15 points. Republicans remained unchanged, 62-30% in favor of energy development over environmental protection.

The results for economic growth were similar, 50-43% in favor of environmental protection, ahead of economic development for the first time in 2 years. Since the BP disaster, Dems moved towards environmental protection by 12 points, independents by 17 points, and Republicans by 5 points.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/137882/Oil-Spill-Alters-Views-Environmental-Protection.aspx

Interestingly, environmental protection was valued more highly in the ’80s and ’90s, peaking at 71-19% in favor of environmental protection over economic growth in 1990.

How would you answer these questions, and what do you think of these demographics and shifts?

It’s kind of a trick question(s) when you think about it. Because the proper environmental protection was not in place the government is spending millions it can ill afford to spend in the oil leak cleanup. The livelihood of tens of thousands of people are affected and will be for a great long while. At any rate, while I feel constrained by the wording of the questions, I’d go with environmental protection because without that you’ve jeopardized the health of current and future generations, you’ve impacted biodiversity, you’re spending time and energy being reactive (a clean up & hazardous waste disposal) instead of proactive (developing cleaner fuels).

As for the demographics: It is interesting that independents topped Democrats by that margin. A shake of the head regarding the Republicans. They must have those heads in the sand so deeply they haven’t been able to pull them out yet. It’s an "old school" response in a "new school" world. Our technology will not work for us unless we make it do so. Surely Republicans can be made to understand that if you’ve polluted the oceans inhabitants to the point you can’t consume them that this would have severe consequences for our species, much less others.

It will be interesting to see how the parties handle the whole scene in upcoming election cycles.

CNN
Eco Solutions

2007-11-12
Concentrated Solar Power
Spain’s new solar power tower

A new plant uses solar technology, combined with traditional steam turbines, to generate electricity.
CNN’s Al Goodman reports.

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- A 92 mile by 92 mile area of desert filled with CSP plants could power the U.S

- Around 0.3% of Sahara could power Europe, Middle East and North Africa

- CSP can combat water shortages, avoid future humanitarian disasters

- U.S. solar industry threatened by upcoming Energy Bill

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Credit
http://cnn.com
http://suzlon.com

Duration : 0:2:9

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Katarina Witt @ BMW’s Energy and Environmental Test Centre (ETC). See the full report @ http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=388286

Duration : 0:2:26

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EnviroMission, Ltd. (www.enviromission.com.au; US Stock Market: EVOMY, Australian Stock Exchange: EVM) is a renewable energy developer of sustainable “green” energy solutions for the energy market. EnviroMission aims to be one of Australia’s leading producers of clean renewable energy. EnviroMission holds the proprietary rights to Solar Tower technology, a large-scale renewable energy technology based on simple fundamentals of physics — hot air rises. Solar Tower technology has the potential to offer competitive renewable energy with equal reliability to fossil fuel generators.

A single 200MW Solar Tower power station will provide enough electricity to power around 400,000 households. The energy output will represent an annual saving of more than 1,960,000 tonnes of greenhouse CO2 gases from entering the environment when compared to brown coal emissions in Victoria. The greenhouse savings equate to the removal of approximately 500,000 cars from the road. The Australian Solar Tower project consists of six distinct phases, the first two of which (project optimization and pre-feasibility commercialization) have already been completed. The third phase (final feasibility), paving the way for the implementation of the next three phases (final design, construction, and commercial operation).

Duration : 0:3:11

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October 14, 2009 – Sally Benson, director of the Global Climate and Energy Project, Pamela Matson, dean of the Stanford School of Earth Sciences, Lynn Orr, director of the Precourt Institute for Energy, Stephen Schneider, Stanford professor of Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies, James Sweeney, director of the Precourt Energy Efficiency Center, and Buzz Thompson, co-director of the Woods Institute for the Environment, discuss the interconnected aspects of future sustainable energy systems with a focus on the scales, tradeoffs, and co-benefits involved.

Stanford University
http://www.stanford.edu

Woods Institute for the Environment
http://woods.stanford.edu

Stanford University Channel on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/stanford

Duration : 1:3:53

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Chapter 18 – Environmental Data: The entire human population reached three billion in 1960, and today more than twice that number of people live on earth with rapid growth expected to continue in the future. Unfortunately, an increasing population increases the demand for earth’s natural resources. In this chapter, Dr. Chris Martenson explains that since the easiest-to-extract, most abundant natural resources are extracted first, our growing population will have to deal with scarce, energy-consuming, low-grade resource availability in the near future.

http://www.chrismartenson.com

Duration : 0:16:23

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Wind As An Energy Alternative / Educational video. Department of Energy. Produce by the Solar Energy Research Institute. Wind: An Energy Alternative. This program looks at the history and uses of wind power, used for centuries by humans to move boats, pump water and grind grain including discussions on efficiency, problems in the urban environment, experimental systems and windmill use across the United States. Producer: Department of Energy. Creative Commons license: Public Domain.

Surprisingly good short film about wind energy. What makes it valuable is the interviews with Marcellus Jacobs (a builder of wind turbines in the 1930s) and Ted Finch (whose efforts got the concept of net metering legally acceptable in the US). It’s interesting to note that one of the people listed in the credits, Paul Gipe, is still active in the industry. He’s now a leading author on the subject. His website is http://www.wind-works.org

Duration : 0:12:17

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