Tag Archives: Climate change

The fragility of centralized energy systems

All thermal power generation requires water for cooling, with nukes so vulnerable no private insurer will cover them anyway and failing frequently in recent heat waves. “Natural” gas is no better than coal or oil for water use; maybe worse because all those pipelines vulnerable to backhoes or corrosion or attack. Even hydro is vulnerable to lack of rainfall. Carbon sequestration doesn’t get good marks, while conservation and efficiency get rave reviews from a study of insurance perspectives on power generation. What’s the one power source this article about insurance risks does not say is fragile in the face of climate change? Hint: look up.

Limiting Liability in the Greenhouse: Insurance Risk-Management Strategies in the Context of Global Climate Change, by Christina Ross, Evan Mills, and Sean B. Hecht, Stanford Environmental Law Journal and the Stanford Journal of International Law, Symposium: on Climate Change Risk, Vol. 26A/43A:251, 2007.

Supply-side energy choices that may be made to reduce the carbon-intensity of energy services have their own distinctive liability characteristics. For example, switching to lower-carbon electricity generation technology based on thermal power plant technology (e.g., by substituting natural gas for coal) results in systems that are still heavily dependent on water resources for cooling. The Electric Power Research Institute has documented considerable risks to traditionally cooled power generation systems as a result of climate change-induced droughts.242 Similarly, “zero-emissions” hydroelectric generating systems are also sensitive to rainfall patterns.

242 Denis Albrecht, Electric Power Research Institute, Presentation: Climate Impact on Water Availability for Electricity Generation (April 11, 2006) (presentation slides associated with the Electric Power Research Institute).

Centralization considered harmful

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Insurers suing for lack of preparation for record floods

What if, in addition to the record floods of 2009 and 2013 and 2014 apparently caused by local lack of planning in our watersheds, what if we got 15 inches of rain in one 24 hour period like Pensacola did a few weeks ago? Local governments might get sued by insurers for lack of planning, like 200 communities in the Chicago area already got sued. Maybe we should plan ahead for greater weather variability caused by climate change.

Eric Holthaus wrote for Future Tense on Slate 30 April 2014, The Calamitous Climate Responsible for Florida’s Record Rainfall, Continue reading →

ICLEI and sustainability

Have you heard there’s a U.N. agency going around getting local governments to sign “Agenda 21” into ordinances that will take away your private property through eminent domain? If not, you’ve avoided the propaganda put out by fossil fuel companies to subvert sustainability. If you have, here’s why it’s bunk.

There is an organization that promotes measures for sustainability to local governments. Sustainability as in arranging for local resources to be available for us and our children and grandchildren. Clean air, clean water, forests, education, and private property rights including not letting developers or big corporations damage your private property. Are you against any of those things?

An organization promoting sustainability with local governments is called ICLEI–Local Governments for Sustainability. ICLEI says it is:

the leading global network devoted to local governments engaged in sustainability, climate protection, and clean energy initiatives. The organization was formerly known as the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives.

ICLEI has heard about the conspiracy theories and has written up a rebuttal. Continue reading →

Stanford beats Harvard; divests from coal

In the first big win for the fossil fuel divestment campaign, Stanford just did what campaign-founder Harvard has not yet: announced it would divest from coal-mining companies.

Here’s Stanford’s PR dated today, 7 May 2014, Stanford to divest from coal companies,

Acting on a recommendation of Stanford’s Advisory Panel on Investment Responsibility and Licensing, the Board of Trustees announced that Stanford will not make direct investments in coal mining companies. The move reflects the availability of alternate energy sources with lower greenhouse gas emissions than coal.

Who is this Advisory Panel? Continue reading →

VSU up there with Harvard about fossil fuel divestment

VSU is with the big schools, leading the stigmatization of fossil fuel companies and the exodus from those stranded assets. Students are leading on that and related issues, more than our local elected bodies, but there’s an election going on.

Mary Schellentrager posted for PowerShift 29 April 2014, NATIONAL PHOTO ROUND-UP: BOLD ACTION FOR #BEYONDEARTHDAY: Continue reading →

VSU new special committee on sustainability to investigate fossil fuel divestment

PR from Students Against Violating the Environment (S.A.V.E.) today. -jsq

Hi everyone,

I’m very glad to announce that under the direction of President McKinney, there will soon be a new special committee on sustainability. One of the goals of it will be to investigate fossil fuel divestment and create a report that will be presented to the Board of Trustees. The description is as follows:

“The Valdosta State University President’s Special Committee on Sustainability is charged with Continue reading →

Massive vote for SAVE’s fossil fuel divestment by VSU Student Government Association

When at first they didn’t succeed, SAVE tried again and won. Next: VSU Foundation again. -jsq

RESOLUTION #14432
Support of S.AV.E. Fossil Free Divestment Campaign

Date: March 4, 2014

Authored by: Senator Candicee Childs, Freshman Senator, Public Relations Chairman & Student Representative of
Faculty Senate Environmental Issues Committee
Senator Tamera Dunn, Graduate Senator

Be it enacted by the Senate of Valdosta State University (VSU) here assembled, that:

WHEREAS, the Students Against Violating the Environment (S.A.V.E.) organization has presented a divestment campaign for the VSU Foundation to the Student Government Association in October 2013, resulting in the request for additional clarity and information to be gathered regarding their campaign, and

WHEREAS, the SAVE organization has obtained support from the Faculty Senate Environmental Issues Committee for their divestment campaign for the VSU Foundation in November 2013, and

WHEREAS, the SAVE organization has also obtained unanimous support Continue reading →

Humans are the cause, and it’s time for people to become the solution –Danielle Jordan for SAVE

LTE in the VSU newspaper, The Spectator, today. -jsq

To the Editor,

Climate change is the defining issue of our time. Ninety-seven percent of scientists agree that humans are the cause. S.A.V.E. believes that it’s time for people to become the solution. Globally, we are feeling the impacts of record-setting temperatures, most notably in the extreme weather patterns and rising sea levels. Recent chemical (W.VA) and coal ash spills (N.C.) add to the urgency of moving beyond fossil fuel. Yet here on our campus there’s a remarkable disconnect between the classroom and the board room. Shockingly, the VSU Board of Trustees includes science deniers, oblivious to the threat of climate change—and to the academic integrity of this institution of higher learning.

Recently, the Board dismissed S.A.V.E.’s request that VSU rid its portfolio of fossil fuel holdings. Board Chairman, Wayne Edwards, a financial analyst, cast doubt on the study that accompanied our request. But we ask you, who knows more about climate, a team of 2,000 scientists from 154 countries who have compiled data from more than 9,000 studies, or a stock broker? Our point is that serious decisions at this institution are being taken by people who lack the proper credentials.

Chairman Edwards dismissed socially responsible investing as Continue reading →

EU could cut 40% emissions with little cost: and we can, too

If Europe can do it, the U.S. can do it. And we know Georgia can get a third of its power from wind, and even Spain is north of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, which have a lot more sun for solar power than anywhere in Europe. Solar power is already winning, even in Georgia. Let’s help it win even faster, plus wind.

PR from Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) 16 January 2014, EU could cut emissions by 40 percent at moderate cost,

The costs of achieving a more ambitious EU climate target are estimated to be moderate. Upscaling greenhouse-gas emissions reduction from the current 20 percent by 2020 to 40 percent by 2030 would be likely to cost less than an additional 0.7 percent of economic activity.

And that apparently doesn’t count the additional economic activity that would be produced by all those wind and solar deployments, not to mention related activities like electric cars. This is actually a pessimistic study, because it doesn’t account for such likely positive corollaries.

Many options to choose from—wind power could expand sevenfold

Continue reading →

VSU Environmental Issues Committee backs SAVE fossil fuel divestment

EIC went first, and attached to the agenda for the VSU faculty senate meeting that moved to back SAVE and condemn the position of the Board of Trustees this statement. -jsq

Attachment D

Links and notes from Environmental issues committee

Dl Link to Physical Plant work order form, where the user can tailor the request to a lighting issue: https://tma.valdosta.edu/webtma/GenerateRequest.aspx?key=8fMN5Hy6FywdBGVfahdUsPDaD%2bsth%2bE6fXG%2brkvftJ0%3d

D2

Hello, At today’s EIC meeting, the committee voted on , and passed, the following statement that I am sending onto the Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate.

“The EIC moved to agree to the following statement as a committee and to communicate it to the Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate for consideration:

The EIC as a standing committee of the Faculty Senate supports the efforts of S.A.V.E. (Students Against Violating the Environment) to encourage the VSU Foundation to consider divesting from fossil fuel extraction-based investments.”

If you have Continue reading →