Dickinson to Durban » Archive
Global Mitigation, Local Adaption
Sam Parker ’12 Another opportunity to talk about local action! I am always a huge proponent of local action over global and bottom-up actions. I maintain my stance that local actions are important and will be the driving force to get major actions taken towards mitigating GHG emissions and combating climate change, thought I realize that local action will only take us so far on this front. For a real difference to be made in mitigating GHG’s global … Read entire article »
Filed under: Climate Change
Top to Bottom: Inspiring Bottom-up using the Top
Sam Parker ’12 Climate change governance and mitigation thus far have taken a very “top-down” approach. One of the best examples of this is the Conference of the Parties (COP) that occur yearly, bringing together government officials from all across the world to discuss climate change and its different aspects. Though, these top-down approaches to global problems often overlook the need for more “bottom-up” or community based approaches to issue that the world faces. As I … Read entire article »
Filed under: Climate Change, Conservation, Consumption, Environmental Politics, Key COP17 Issues
Base Load: Where Renewable Energy Resources Fall Short
by Sam Parker ’12 Many, including myself, are demanding a looking for a “renewable energy revolution” and a low carbon economy in this country and the rest of the world. For the future of our children and our planet, this is something that is an absolute necessity, but often what it lost in this thought is the concept of Base Load or Base Demand. For those who may not know, Dictionary.com defines base load as “the constant or permanent load on a power supply”. Essentially, all those things are run all day in your home (i.e. refrigerators, heat, a/c, clocks, etc.), place a demand on energy supply all of the time. Now, how does a renewable energy system work with base load? Not very well. At present, our base load energy requirements, as well as peak demand … Read entire article »
Filed under: Carbon Markets, Climate Change, Mosaic Action, Summer Reading Responses
Stop! Don’t Offset… Carbon Offsets the Snake Oil of CO2 Mitigation
by Sam Parker, ’12 In 2009, there was a bill, called the Waxman-Markey Climate Bill, that has passed through the House and was killed in the Senate. This bill was potentially one of the most significant climate laws to have ever been seen in the U.S. It would instate a Cap and Trade system of carbon trading on U.S. coal power plants . This bill came under much scrutiny from many different places. Possibly the biggest criticism was the effects Cap and Trade may have had on the economy. I wish to criticize a different aspect of this bill, offsets. As noted by Laurie Williams and Allen Zabel in there video The Huge Mistake, the bill would have allowed for the companies to purchase carbon offsets to mitigate there CO2 emissions for 20 years … Read entire article »
Filed under: Carbon Markets, Climate Change, Key COP17 Issues, Mosaic Action
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