Earlier this month, Morocco switched on it’s huge concentrated solar plant, Noor 1. Morocco has historically relied on imported fossil fuels. This solar plant will significantly lower Morocco’s carbon emissions and start a move to a greater reliance on alternative energy. This shows how much the cost of solar, one backstop energy technology, has fallen.
Shale Gas Well Drilling in PA
Shale Gas in PA is a topic that was discussed by our group.
What we wanted to focus on shale gas wells drilling in PA is its external cost on environment. Being a less important point, the future of shale gas and its effect on other natural resources was discussed after discussing its external cost.
We had particularly looked into a related academic journal that talked about how Shale gas and its costly waste-water recycling look like now in Pennsylvania . “Thousands of shale gas wells have been drilled and hydraulically fractured across the state of Pennsylvania over the past decade, and more wells are being drilled each year. The drilled lengths of these wells and the amount of water being used to hydraulically fracture (frac) them continue to increase. These increases have led to an increase in the volume of wastewater being produced each year.” In the article wastewater that are used in the shale wells will have “adversely impact soil and/or water quality if released directly to the environment”.
As a major reason of the booming oil supply in recent years, the amount of shale gas wells has largely increased, and so does the amount of water has been used. Fortunately, due to technology change and regulations, water is being recycled and treated in several different ways so its damage to environment can be largely eliminated.
The reason we wanted to do research on the external cost of shale gas well drilling is because this industry may not as clean as people think, as we dig deeper into related data and cases.
Related journal and article:
1)http://eg.geoscienceworld.org/content/22/4/115.full.pdf – “Wastewater Recycling and Reuse Trends in Pennsylvania Shale Gas Wells”
2) http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-18/there-s-a-new-world-order-to-talk-about-at-the-davos-of-energy – “The Stressed-Out Oil Industry Faces an Existential Crisis”
Posted in non-renewable: energy
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Pennsylvania’s Plans For Controlling Methane Emissions From Shale Gas Operations
Shale gas releases methane (CH4), a greenhouse gas, that is twenty-one times more likely to cause global warming than carbon dioxide (CO2). There are huge shale gas reserves in Pennsylvania and a relatively long history for companies to exploit them. It is a good thing to see PA government plan to take action to control methane leak and mission. http://www.natlawreview.com/article/pennsylvania-s-plans-controlling-methane-emissions-shale-gas-operations
Posted in non-renewable: energy
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Protecting the Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef attracts over 2,000,000 million visitors a year and is a massive natural resource because of the amount of money it brings in from tourism. The reef also holds a significant amount of biodiversity and to damage the reef hurts the species of marine life that live there. The Great Barrier Reef has been declining over the years and recently the Australian government is planning to build a massive expansion of a coal port near the reef. The expansion of this coal port could prove to be the tipping point for the Great Barrier Reef. There are many different factors that have been effecting the reef over the years mainly climate change and overfishing. The port would bring an estimated 28,000 jobs, but also would dump dredged material into coastal areas that could affect the reef.
This Washington Post article gives more details.
Posted in Biodiversity
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Chinese Coal Consumption
This article looks at the decline in demand for coal in China as a result of multiple factors. The first factor is China’s general move towards renewable energies such as wind, solar, hydro, and nuclear power. China has been a global leader in the development and implementation of these technologies. The second major factor is the pivot in the Chinese economy away from industry-driven growth to consumption and service driven growth. Industry naturally requires a high volume of energy in order to power machinery and transportation. As multiple industrial sectors in China halt growth and actually begin to recede, this decrease the nation’s need for energy and in particular fossil fuels. “the amount of electricity China can produce from burning fossil fuels — fell by 9 percent last year, from 54.1 percent of its power supply in 2014 to 49.4 percent in 2015.” This trend is expected to continue over the next few decades and the peak of Chinese energy consumption appears to be within a few years rather than the global expectation set around 2030.
Source: http://www.climatecentral.org/news/china-coal-use-declines-electricity-demand-flat-19931
Posted in non-renewable: energy
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Deforestation in Brazil
One of three topics our group is deciding on pursing deals with the current deforestation issue in Brazil, specifically in the Amazon. Between 2005 and 2010 Brazil decreased its greenhouse gas emissions by 39 percent as a result of eliminating their deforestation rate in the Amazon by more than three quarters. It was not shortly after that though that in 2013 we started to see a spike in the deforestation rates. In 2013 the rates of deforestation doubled because of corruption, lawlessness and massive land fraud.
One of the main contributors to the massive increase in deforestation in Brazil is something called the “silent crisis”. This is the widespread tactic of timber laundering. Individuals are illegally harvesting trees in the Amazon by getting false documentation of where the timber actually originated from, thus being able to sell the timber as what would seem to be in a legal manner. As a result, in 2012, 78 percent of logging in Brazil’s largest timber producer, Para State, was illegal. Unfortunately, as I stated in the first paragraph, Brazil deals with a large degree of corruption throughout the country. While laws are set in place to avoid such illegal activity, there is often a blurred line in the Brazilian government for which government officials allow such activity to occur.
In the article I chose to read there is, a testimonial given by an individual named Rita Mesquita saying “I don’t like to look at the Amazon forest as something that could be gone in 30 or 40 years”. This is a very real and pressing matter that if not taken seriously, as Rita mentioned, could result in the elimination of one of the world’s most exotic and abundant sources of different species. Finding a way to eradicate the lawlessness and corruption in Brazil will not only be a crucial factor for the future existence of the Amazon but will also be a determinant in how quickly Brazil is able to get back on track in regards to reducing their greenhouse gas emission.
Source: http://www.newsweek.com/2015/04/03/brazils-deforestation-rates-are-rise-again-315648.html
Posted in Renewable: forests
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Water Recycling
One of the topics my group is considering is water scarcity. This article discusses the possibility of using direct potable reuse as a possible method of addressing water scarcity. DPR is the process of treating wastewater to drinkable standards and returning it directly to the water supply rather than through a buffer such as a reservoir. While Windhoek, Namibia is currently the only place that does DPR the technology is there to return wastewater back to almost distilled water quality. The process involves starting with microfiltration which removes large particles, then passes through a reverse osmosis system, and finally ultraviolet light and hydrogen peroxide which kill all final bacteria. DPR allows communities to reuse water locally and it provides a viable vehicle to help address water scarcity.
One problem that DPR currently faces is that there are no national regulations for water reuse. Establishing a regulatory system around water reuse could help reduce some of the suspicion surrounding the reuse and treatment of wastewater into drinking water. As the article pointed out one of the key things is to focus on the water quality rather than where the water comes from. After all, it may be possible for the treated wastewater to be better than some of the water that is making its way into the houses of millions of Americans.
http://www.waterworld.com/articles/print/volume-29/issue-9/editorial-features/battling-water-scarcity.html
Posted in Renewable: water
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Flint, Michigan Water Crisis
Our group is considering doing our project about the contaminated water supply in Flint, Michigan. This issue has gained national attention because of its severity. The article included here focuses on what happened to cause the problem with the water supply in the first place. I believe it would be possible to not only further research the cause, but also solutions to the problem. While there is a lot of federal and philanthropic aid pouring into helping the city, looking into finding a permanent solution and ways to avoid this happening again in the future would be interesting. Since there are no true substitutes for fresh water, it is imperative to find a new source for the city to avoid poisoning future generations.
Source: http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-went-wrong-in-flint-water-crisis-michigan/
Posted in Renewable: water
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The Economic Lasting Effects of Oil Spills
One of the topics my group my maybe potential focusing on is the economics of oil spills. Before the BP oil spill happened in the Louisiana’s marshlands, people like Randy Borne were able to catch about seventy dozen wire crates blue crabs a day. The business that he conducted from his own back yard was doing exceptionally well. However, in present times after the BP oil spill which was the worst offshore oil spill in US history happened, his ability to catch the crabs dwindle. In a usually day where he was able to catch seventy creates of this animals came down to just twelve. Many business based of the marshlands have suffered a significant loss in profit. And BP has paid out about $10 billion across five states to these small business owners.
This relates to our class because the oil spill has caused not only a lack of water in these lands. The “payments don’t fully account for the spill’s knock-on effects, economists say. A bait shop owner, for instance, whose customers disappeared in 2010 likely steered clear of restaurants or skipped family vacations, dampening the income of retail and tourist shops”. This shows how the lack of just one resource can effect a whole economy. The long term impact to these resources may not be known for decades to come. As well as the wait for BP to review the claims done to these individual business owners.
http://www.ibtimes.com/bp-oil-spill-has-lasting-economic-toll-five-years-after-deepwater-horizon-explosion-1883832
Deforestation in Afghanistan
One topic that my group is exploring is the ongoing issue of deforestation in Afghanistan. According to the United Nations Environmental Program, “over the past three decades, Afghanistan’s forest cover has decreased by about 50%” (Carberry and Faizy 2013); there are a variety of reasons for this environmentally harmful trend. One reason is the dependence of Afghani people on timber as a source of “fuelwood” (Carberry and Faizy 2013), which, when taken in the context of a growing population numbering in the millions, means that deforestation will continue to occur as demand for timber rises. Other issues such as the smuggling of timber, also play a role in the depletion of Afghanistan’s timber reserves. The high demand for timber by Pakistan, combined with the desire of Afghani people to make a living in a slow-paced economy, means that the illegal market for wood has prospered, leading to large-scale smuggling operations that ignore the negative externalities associated with deforestation (Carberry and Faizy 2013). This situation is further exacerbated by the permissive attitude of government officials towards the illegal timber trade, which ultimately promotes smuggling activities (Carberry and Faizy 2013). The overall consequence of these issues is that the timber market in Afghanistan ignores the socially efficient level of harvesting and conservation, leading to deforestation and the depletion of a valuable natural resource in the country.
In relation to the concept of sustainable resource exploitation, Afghanistan’s deforestation limits the ability of future generations of Afghan people to enjoy the benefits derived from the presence and access to timber reserves. As long as the current market is focused on short-term economic gains and not the long-run welfare of future generations, it will be difficult to effectively regulate the timber trade and adopt practices that are economically viable in the long-run. However, addressing this problem not only requires improving Afghanistan’s economy, but also addressing a host of social and security issues that contribute to the phenomenon of deforestation.
Carberry, Sean; Faizy, Sultan. “Afghanistan’s Forests a Casualty of Timber Smuggling”. (2013). NPR. Accessed: February 16, 2016. Available at: http://www.npr.org/2013/03/18/174200911/afghanistans-forests-a-casualty-of-timber-smuggling
Posted in Renewable: forests
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