A Green Degree Blog: New Angles On Sustainability

August 11th 2012

Peak Oil? Don’t Place Your Bets Just Yet, There’s More Where That Came From

Peak oil. It sure is a well-worn term these days isn’t it. For how long now have all manner of ‘ists’, from economists, scientists, geologists to cultists been dreading the fateful day when global oil production slips past it’s highest point of generation and begins the disastrously slow tumble into the abyss. Has it come yet?

For many environmentalists and clean energy advocates, the coming of the peak age was something to be heralded, a point in time when big oil conglomerates and lobbies would finally get what was due, a humongous kick up the ass and warning bells so loud they would have no choice but to change their ways. Of course, and I must admit I fell prey somewhat to this foolish dream, this was never, ever going to actually happen, especially knowing what we know about these rich black gold-diggers and planet-wide market forces. When peak oil eventually strikes, they will simply dig even deeper and ravage even further to continue selling what they love best - oil and gas. Well folks, looks like we may have reached the next level of ignorance.

Based on a report by famed energy expert Leonardo Maugeri, published with the Harvard J.F.K. School of Government, the world is far from it’s final days of generous oil extraction, oh far far from it. According to his worryingly optimistic and frankly laid-back assessment, the current daily generation of 93 million barrels will exceed 110 million by 2020, the largest increase in per-day extraction in a decade since the 1980s. How, you may ask, is this even possible? I thought the world was drying up and oil was on its deathbed, ready to be succeeded by its ‘cleaner’ bastard son natural gas. Let’s look to America and Canada for the answer - fracking and the release of so-called ‘unconventional’ oils.

By now we should all know roughly what fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is all about. The bottom-line is that it really is not good for the environment, in so so many ways it would be silly to list them here. However fracking, and the jointly terrible extraction of both shale oil and oil shale (look it up, surprisingly they are two different things, both bad news) are completely rewriting the peak oil history books. With this new technology, the once scared and struggling oil companies, fearful of their future without reserves, can begin to restock and resupply on a scale practically unheard of until now. It’s estimated that a particular shale formation underlying North Dakota could hold as much untapped oil as a small Persian Gulf nation, without all the political risk and instability. How absolutely perfect for the Americans.

Add to the mix the unimaginably oil and natural gas reserves resting under most of the northern parts of Canada and Alaska, of which more becomes available as the Arctic ice caps melt and recede, and we’ve got enough oil to last us a goddamn lifetime of frivolity and combustion. Given Canada’s recent stance on global climate debates, notably the Kyoto Protocol, it would not surprise me in the least to see them capitalise on this newfound glory to its fullest extent, draining the land beneath them and flooding the market with sweet oil. Even though this ‘unconventional’ stuff is terribly hard to reach and even more difficult, costly and damaging to refine, the big companies will do it anyway, as it’s just what they know best.

Posted at 9:59am and tagged with: peak oil, oil, gas, climate, science, politics, economics, technology, extraction, news, smart, stupid, ignorant, lobby, maugeri, shale, fracking, barrel, market, money, fossil fuel, renewable, wind, sun, solar, coal, jobs, america, canada, alaska,.

July 15th 2012

It’s Time To Wake Up & Smell The Renewable Revolution, Soon We Won’t Have Any Other Choice

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As a global society, we currently stand on a precipice; the potential catastrophe that awaits us cannot be downplayed in any way. Brought about by fossil fuel greed, mass shortsightedness and a complete and frankly terrifyingly impressive ability to ignore all signs of danger and wrongdoing for decades past, humanity has ravaged the planet to a point where civilisation is at the fork in the road.

Unless we make a change, a global change, we begin the short walk down one road towards an extinction level event, bigger than any nature has wrought upon life before us, that will be impossible to turn back from. Forgive my foreboding and perhaps depressing approach, but I for one see only one route out of this. For centuries before now, humanity has prided itself on its ability to innovate and outsmart our way out of danger, and never more than now is it crucial we do this once again.

It’s with these thoughts ringing heavily in my ears, that I turn to what I feel are some of the most frustrating and dismissive problems large majorities of society have with certain renewable technologies, as well as some of those dirtier fossil fuels such as natural gas, which despite being part of the problem, are rapidly taking precedence as the answer to our carbon woes, a fantastic alternative to that old demon oil and coal.

Unfortunately I do not foster the same feelings towards natural gas, and also do not tend to follow suit in regards to issues with solar panels, wind farms or nuclear plants, all of which are the truly awe-inspiring innovations with which we can slow, stop and eventually reverse the once irreversible damage we have wrought upon this beautiful planet. As you will hopefully see in the following summaries, many of the so-called ‘negatives’ with each of these technologies, is in my eyes, and I’m sure the eyes of many others, both ridiculous and detrimental to society as a whole, a statement I do not wish to undervalue in this post.

Let’s get straight to the major players, solar and wind. The one complaint about these two absolutely wonderful technologies is one that angers me greatly - “they’re too ugly, don’t go putting them on my roof/in my garden/anywhere within a 50 miles radius or my house”. Apologies if you’re someone who shares these feelings, but I simply cannot agree with such a weak and destructive view when you consider the grand scheme. As job creators, solar and wind each produce at least 6x the number of jobs that coal and oil do, with a much larger percentage in long term maintenance, a highly secure career. Not only this, but subsidies, feed-in-tariffs and government funding has aided these industries in literally exploding in value and popularity, and lest not forget, solar and wind are entirely clean, completely renewable and have the potential to provide huge proportions of the world’s energy.

May 17th 2012

Chinese Solar Tariffs Hide Some Unfortunate Truths

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First of all, I just want to say a quick apology for the distinct lack of posts in the past 3 days, a detour from my usual every other day/daily posts. Basically, university work is to blame for it; dissertation has finally been handed in but two more exams sit lurking in front of me, so I’ll likely be taking a bit of a downtime between each post, but do not worry (if you even read this blog, I love you if you do), I’ll be back on form and free in two weeks time.

Now that that’s out of the way, onto the subject of todays post - those pesky Chinese and the apparent trade war between their solar capacity and the US. I wrote a blog on this relatively recently detailing why the Chinese were being scorned for their solar trade practice, and why even back then I felt it was a bad idea for everyone involved.

I’ll quickly recap just to jog my own and any reader’s memories.

The US found out that the Chinese government had been quite heavily subsidising their solar industry, namely SunTech, in a move to make their solar panels cheaper to make, easier to ship and to effectively flood the global market. As the US doesn’t like competition they see as unfair, they set about placing tariffs on the Chinese market to the tune of as much as 4.3%, to alleviate the apparently anti-trade practices.

When I initially blogged about this, I, and I’m sure many others thought that the whole thing was a mess, and entirely unnecessary in the grand scheme of things. Chinese solar is good, and theres nothing we can do about it. If they can manage to flood the market with quality solar panels at cheap prices and in abundant amounts, why should the US stifle this growth in place of its more expensive types? Surely as long as the world is getting solar, from multiple other countries aside from the US and China, everyone is a winner? Well that was my thinking at the time at least.

Now it has been revealed that, the night before the tariff decision was made on Monday, the American organisation, the Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy (CASE), has called for all seven members of the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing (CASM) to release their own books on the subsidies, tax breaks and government help they have received in their time. This is a truly inspired move, with the president of CASE, Jigar Shah, highlighting how the original Chinese-US tariff war demanded clarity on Chinese solar, and yet there was no clarity with US-owned companies. By ordering the release of such information, the true story unravelled quickly.

Posted at 10:12am and tagged with: China, solar, US, trade, war, tariff, energy, industry, manufacturing, truth, SunTech, market, economy, subsidies, government, dumb, stupid,.

May 1st 2012

The Media At It Again - Wind Turbines Cause Climate Warming Now?

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Isn’t the global media just wonderful at blowing things massively and unprecedentedly out of proportion, when the prospect of a big story is just too tantalising to exaggerate.

This time its victim is renewable energy and the wind industry in particular, which recently came into the public eye when a study undertaken by the University of Albany, with Liming Zhou at the head, produced results which suggested large-scale wind farms can affect nighttime temperatures in the local area. Their data seemed to show an increase in temperature by roughly 0.7˚C over the last decade in Texas, explaining this oddity via the influence the turbines can have on air currents and mixing. As they turn, they draw hot air from above down into the colder air below, therefore slightly increasing the temperatures in the region.

Now, they go on to say that this effect is ‘local and small compared to strong year-to-year changes’ and again repeat at the end of the Guardian article, that this is by no means a paper advocating the blocking of wind energy, and that it could easily have positive effects, especially considering this is just one of only two studies ever carried out on the subject, and over just 9 years in one area. The scientific method demands much more information than this.

So in essence, this paper is merely saying that the highly localised region of Texas where these huge, and I repeat huge, wind farms have been erected, seems to experience some increased nighttime temperatures, but only on a small-scale and of much much less amplitude than usual climate variations. An interesting, but by no means worrying or alarming result, but should definitely be considered in future wind policy.

Unfortunately, the media have decided to spin the story a little bit, with science as the tried and tested victim. Outlets such as FOX news and the Telegraph have erupted headlines on the subject, generally following along the lines of ‘Wind Farms Cause The Global Climate To Warm’ and that sort of thing, effectively cherry picking some of the words used in the original study, and adding their own in the process.

Posted at 11:01am and tagged with: grist, wind, climate change, global climate, Zhou, wind farm, renewable, energy, climate, warming, temperature, science, technology, media, Fox news, telegraph, stupid, anger, dumb, society,.