Dickinson to Durban » Carbon Markets
Day One, Quick Morning Update
We’re blogging live at the conference! Quick update: We’re currently interviewing the current chairperson of IPCC Working Group 2. Meanwhile, the UNFCCC Plenary meeting is underway, and our students are trying to get their bearings. I’ll be following AOSIS around. If you’ve got any updates about their whereabouts, negotiating positions or statements, etc, comment here or email dickinsoncop17@gmail.com! … Read entire article »
Filed under: Carbon Markets, Climate Change, Conservation, Consumption, Environmental Justice, Environmental Politics, Featured, Key COP17 Issues, Mosaic Action, Student Research, Weather
Politics and Time
By: Anna McGinn ’14 Janet L. Sawin and William R. Moomaw’s report, “Renewable Revolution: Low Carbon Energy by2030,”offers quite a positive and uplifting assessment of the world’s situation as it pertains to climate change in the next twenty years. Actually, the tone was so encouraging that I started to question the legitimacy of some of the statements they make. But the difference between this article and most other research we have assessed on this topic is that the focus of this report is on what the world is doing well in regards to renewable energy, and not so much the degree to which it is failing. Yet, it makes the transition to renewable resources sound too easy. This report acknowledges the fact that policies are pivotal for their emission projections to … Read entire article »
Filed under: Carbon Markets, Climate Change
“But it will ruin our economy!”
by Claire Tighe ’13 Does curbing emissions mean compromising potential economic development? In their WorldWatch Report entitled “Renewable Revolution: Low-Carbon Energy by 2030,” Sawin and Moomaw argue that it does not. (Even though simultaneously curbing economic development might not be such a bad thing, considering the effects of the United States’ exponential growth on a very limited aggregation of resources: the natural environment. In fact, less development for industrialized countries might even be preferable considering the projections for dangerous climate change if we continue to function with a “business-as-usual” model for emissions. If you’re curious about the environmental approach claiming that a cap on growth might not be so bad, check out Bill McKibben’s most recent book, Eaarth.) Instead, Sawin and Moomaw claim that “the way forward must be to focus … Read entire article »
Filed under: Carbon Markets, Climate Change, 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
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