Posts From Jessica Goldberg
Why I’m Glad I Broke Up With My Childhood Sweetheart
When I was 12, I thought I’d found my soulmate.
When I met Kyle, I felt like I’d found a friend who truly understood me.
For years, we were kids together.
We sat by each other in class and spent our mornings talking about Pokémon and other nerdy kid things.
He stuck up for me if other people made fun of me.
I’d had a huge crush on one of Kyle’s friends for years, and I told him all about my feelings.
By the time we were in high school, we started dating.
I ended up breaking up with him for someone else and spent a fair few years afterward regretting the loss of my best childhood friend.
Sometimes when you’re young, you don’t realize how different you are from the people you date.
My views and values have changed greatly since I was 14, and knowing the kind of lifestyles Kyle and I each have now, I’m confident that we wouldn’t have been a good long-term couple.
LNG Changes Everything for Australia’s East Coast Gas Market
A combination of volatile gas demand, declining mature gas fields and LNG exports will lead to impending gas shortages where gas is consumed most in Australia: on the east coast.
But LNG will change everything about the east Australian gas market particularly gas prices and there will be winners and losers.
Unless significant new reserves are commercialised within five to seven years, the east coast market comprising the eastern and southern states of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia will be short of gas.
Given this, Australian gas buyers will need to start paying a netback price equivalent which means the price of LNG in Asia less the cost to get Australian gas there.
In effect a gas short domestic market will need to compete with Asian buyers.
For example, gas-fired power plants struggling to access gas in the midst of a heatwave in South Australia, concerns on rising prices and lack of market transparency leading to an official inquiry by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, and direct government intervention to restrict some exports in the form of the Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism.
So the netback price from this (spot price less liquefaction and shipping plus pipeline transportation to market in east Australia) is substantially higher than the current domestic price.
Overbuilding of LNG import terminals a distinct possibility as companies fight for market control However, even with higher domestic prices, agreeing to re-direct Queensland gas away from export markets to the domestic market won’t be easy.
The pricing outlook in both Victoria and Queensland will differ.
To alleviate these shortages, gas will need to be diverted from LNG export projects or imported via LNG.
Sustainable Ideas From a Net-Zero Home
The boldly modern Genesee Park Net-Zero Home stands out from its mid-century neighbors, but its most impressive features are not immediately obvious.
The first Built Green net-zero home in the Seattle area, this 3,700 square foot, 4-bedroom home produces as much energy as it uses.
Solar Water Heating water accounts for almost one-fifth of the average household’s energy costs.
With a rooftop covered in solar panels, the Genesee Park House will produce between 9,000 and 10,000 kilowatt hours a year.
Solar power systems are highly individualized to the circumstances; it can take between six and fifteen years to recoup the cost of a solar energy system.
However, the federal solar tax credit allows you to deduct 30 percent of the installation cost from your federal taxes.
Triple Pane Windows Efficient energy use is equally important to reaching net-zero as energy generation.
Even renters can save water by adding aerators to their faucets and can reduce the water in their toilet tank with a water-filled plastic jug.
Bigger Is Not Better Most houses have one green advantage over the Genesee Park Net-Zero House: a smaller footprint — literally.
No matter how efficient a house is, the same level of efficiency over a smaller area will be greener.
Rising ocean waters from global warming could cost trillions of dollars
Ocean waters are rising because of global warming.
In some places, humans will be able to build sea walls to block off the water’s rise.
It isn’t just the inevitable march of sea level that is an issue.
Climate scientists do their best to project how much and how fast oceans will rise in the future.
My estimation is that oceans will be approximately 1 meter higher in the year 2100; that is what our infrastructure should be prepared for.
If humans take action to limit warming to 1.5°C, they estimate sea level will rise 52 cm by the year 2100.
In the study, the authors considered which countries and regions would suffer most.
This is largely due to the fact that we don’t know how fast Greenland and Antarctica will melt.
By adaptation I mean making our societies less susceptible to sea level rise.
Too often, social scientists and economists with very little climate science understanding have tried to tell us that climate change is not a problem.
Electric vs. Gasoline Cars
Inasmuch as hybrid and all-electric vehicles have become more popular, it is worth asking if the energy used (and thus CO2 emitted) to make electric motors and lithium batteries is greater than that emitted during the production of gasoline engines for conventional vehicles, potentially discounting the advantages of electric vehicles in mitigating the potential for climate change.
Production- related emissions range from 38 to 356 kg CO2 per kW-hour of battery capacity.
For an electric vehicle with a 30 kW-hr battery pack, this can be equivalent to 4.6 tons of CO2 just for the production of its batteries.
Of course, for both types of vehicles, the energy is used in their operation dwarfs the energy used in their manufacture.
An average gasoline-powered vehicle will release about 33 tons of CO2 during a 100,000-mile lifetime.
Over a similar lifetime, electric vehicles emit about 10-24% less greenhouse warming potential than conventional vehicles, when both the manufacture and operation are considered.
The contribution of electric vehicles (relative to conventional) to greenhouse gas emissions is greatest when they are powered by electricity derived from coal.
See my earlier blog.
Electric vehicles emit no tailpipe pollution; the pollution from power-plants can often be captured at the smoke stack.
This post originally appeared on William H. Schlesinger’s blog Citizen Scientist, published by Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment.
3 Reasons the Deadly Lac-Mégantic Oil Train Disaster Could Happen Again
Canada’s TSB Chair Fox noted in her recent remarks that the DOT-111 tank cars, which were carrying the oil that destroyed part of Lac-Mégantic are no longer permitted to move crude oil, in either Canada or the U.S. Those tank cars clearly were unsafe for transporting flammable liquids—something they were never designed to do.
The 2015 oil train rules mandate stricter standards for rail tank cars carrying hazardous materials, which means rail companies have a decade to switch to new DOT-117 cars.
Yet Fox does not address the real issue at play with tank cars.
The real problem is that DOT-117 tank cars are also proving inadequate for moving oil safely, as evidenced when an oil train of cars meeting the new standards derailed in Iowa in June 2018.
That exchange occurred six years before the industry was required to implement PTC, giving rail companies plenty of time to hire lobbyists to argue against implementing a safety technology now almost 50 years after it was first recommended.
Despite being one of the easiest problems to solve, runaway trains, or “uncontrolled movements,” are increasing since Lac-Mégantic.
In addition, positive train control could also prevent runaway trains, and modern ECP brakes would also help.
And while this statement was made by a Canadian at a conference in Canada about an accident in Canada, the rail barons are on both sides of the Canadian-American border.
Since then, the rail barons successfully had the regulations for modern ECP brakes repealed.
This statement reveals why so little has been accomplished to improve oil-by-rail safety.
How Serena Williams uses her “quiet eye” to keep cool under pressure and crush goals
When you’re a pro tennis player, keeping your “eye on the ball” isn’t just an inspirational motto, it’s also, like, the only way to get from “love” to “game.” Over the past few decades, psychologists and neuroscientists have found that the idiom reflects a visual-perception technique called “quiet eye” that athletes like Serena Williams use to ditch distractions and hone in on their next move.
And, praise the sports gods, because you can totally replicate it in your next workout class.
In a 1992 study published in Perception, sports-science student Joan Vickers (now a professor at the University of Calgary) started the “quiet eye” convo after she noted a significant difference in her athletic performance on a day-to-day basis, reports BBC.
Sure enough, experienced golfers were more likely to hold consistent eye contact with the ball than their more novice comrades, who tended to have shifty gazes.
The technique has since been studied further in depth and has been observed beyond the golf green in activities like volleyball, archery, hockey, and more.
Honing in visually on a physical goal actually helps the brain to suppress distracting stimuli and go to its quiet, happy place.
Additional research has uncovered that steady eye control of elite performers indicates that they actually slow their minds during the crucial moments of focusing on their target.
This is because honing in visually on a physical goal helps the brain to suppress distracting stimuli and go to its quiet, happy place, according to a 2016 article from Current Issues in Sport Science.
What’s more, exceptional athletes give one extra beat of complete focus on the object of their physical goal before making the throw, blocking a shot, or scoring a goal—a magic moment that separates them from newbies.
So whether you’re a member of an organized sports team or you prefer to get your heart racing on the treadmill, there’s a huge takeaway here: Just like you’ve heard your yoga teacher say a thousand times about crow pose, you’ve got to find that “drishti”—AKA, focal point—and keep your eyes on it.
Top Renewable Energy Financiers Reveal Pathway To $1 Trillion In U.S. Investment
We’d be hitting pause, when we should be doubling down on the energy system – and the energy economy – of the future.
Fortunately, a new financial sector survey shows strong confidence that U.S. renewable energy projects will continue to increase in attractiveness compared to other investment portfolio asset classes, and cumulative U.S. private investment in renewable energy could reach up to $1 trillion between 2018 and 2030.
The survey, “The Future of U.S. Renewable Energy Investment: A Survey of Leading Financial Institutions,” reveals a robust market with significant potential to accelerate the renewable sector’s growth.
Two-thirds of respondents plan to increase investments more than 5% in 2018 compared to 2017, and half plan to increase investments more than 10% While America’s aging grid infrastructure and mixed policy signals could limit future expansion, the financial sector expects renewable energy will continue to be an attractive asset class and anticipates investor confidence will remain high.
The solar and wind industries already know existing tax credits remain on schedule to phase out after 2021, and federal policy signals will remain important to long-term investor confidence.
Investors say federal action to address climate externalities through carbon pricing and/or a technology-neutral tax credit for zero-carbon electricity generation could encourage growth, which is promising considering the increasing conservative support for a national carbon tax.
Market factors like increased corporate purchasing, growth in energy storage, and accelerating electric vehicle (EV) sales are expected to create new renewable energy opportunities – but investors say market-based signals reflecting the values and services provided by energy storage are needed to prevent America’s aging grid from hindering investment.
How America Can Reach its Renewable Power Potential The investment potential revealed in ACORE’s survey led the country’s major providers of capital funding for energy infrastructure projects to launch $1T 2030: The American Renewable Investment Goal, a new campaign that aims to reach $1 trillion in U.S. private sector investment for renewable energy and enabling grid technologies by 2030.
The system is made possible with the assistance of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Natural Resources and Conservation Service (NRCS) Service Center in Concord, CA.U.S.
Continued expansion of state renewable portfolio standards to support increasing renewable electricity deployment.
Children’s Climate Case: Top Economist Urges Painful Switch to Energy Technology Which Does Not Exist
CC BY-SA 4.0, Link Guest essay by Eric Worrall Don’t mention the “N” word – top economist Joseph Stiglitz has urged the US government to impose economically painful taxes to penalise fossil fuels, to facilitate a switch to renewables and energy efficiency technologies which have not yet been developed.
One of the world’s top economists has written an expert court report that forcefully supports a group of children and young adults who have sued the federal government for failing to act on climate change.
Joseph Stiglitz, who was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize for economics in 2001 and has written extensively about environmental economics and climate change, makes an economic case that the costs of maintaining a fossil fuel-based economy are “incalculable,” while transitioning to a lower-carbon system will cost far less.
… Read more: https://insideclimatenews.org/news/11072018/joseph-stiglitz-kids-climate-change-lawsuit-global-warming-costs-economic-impact Although the report repeatedly mentions and references former NASA GISS director James Hansen, who is a fan of nuclear power, Stiglitz himself does not directly mention the nuclear option, instead urging carbon taxes and “support” for the development of renewable alternatives to fossil fuels.
Defendants could facilitate this transition with standard economic tools for dealing with externalities, for example a tax or levy on carbon (a price on the externality) and the elimination of subsidies on fossil-fuel production.
But the claimed externality costs of CO2 only apply if CO2 emissions cause future harm.
Carbon taxes hurt poor people worst of all – a fact Stiglitz admits, though he qualifies his admission with claims that short term harm is worth the future benefit.
Nuclear power currently produces just under 20% of US electricity.
Copying the 1970s French nuclear programme, raising nuclear power to 75% of US electricity production, would reduce power plant CO2 emissions to 1744 / 80% x (100% – 75%) = 545 million tons per annum, saving over a billion tons per annum of CO2 emissions.
If CO2 is the serious issue Stiglitz claims, ignoring the possibility of avoiding harm to poor people by converting US electricity production to affordable nuclear power seems a very curious oversight.
Could TaaS Offset EV Impact On Oil Demand Growth?
While there is concern about the potential for growth in electric vehicles (EVs) to suppress oil demand growth, a recent report argues that Transportation as a Service (TAAS) could provide an alternative source of fossil fuel demand.
It argues that early data suggests that the growth of TaaS and autonomous vehicles could become a new source of fuel demand growth and vehicle miles traveled (VMT).
The report says, “In New York City and Singapore, TaaS is not a zero-sum game of moving people from taxis to Ubers, but is actually creating demand that previously didn’t exist.
If the driver was removed, the cost of TaaS would decline significantly and demand would rise as consumers use TaaS for trips that they would otherwise not have used a taxi for.
On the one hand, there will be substitution of fuel from petroleum to batteries, which will be powered by the lowest-cost source of electricity at the time.
However, on the other hand, TaaS and autonomous driving are likely to result in more cars, more VMT and incremental demand.
While there is less clarity on whether or not these rides will be powered by renewable electricity, the company has announced plans to launch its own charging network which will be available for use to the fleet and other EV owners.
It is reported to be investing in renewable energy projects as well, so the growth of renewable powered EV penetration may be faster than expected.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the global number of electric vehicles grew around 54% to 3.1 million in 2017 and it estimates that the number of electric vehicles on the road around the world will hit 125 million by 2030.
Given the Agency’s consistent underestimation of the roll-out of renewable energy technologies, the balance of probability suggests that the growth might be much, much more.
