I'm working on things like this in my own backyard.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Peak Oil: Alternatives, Renewables & Impacts
Click for full .pdf written by Clifford J. Wirth, Ph.D. here.
Abstract
"This paper examines scientific and government studies in order to provide reliable conclusions about Peak Oil and its future impacts. Independent studies indicate that global oil production peaked in 2006 (or will peak within a few years) and will decline until all recoverable oil is depleted within several decades. Because global oil demand is increasing, declining production will soon generate high energy prices, inflation, unemployment, and irreversible economic depression. Alternative sources of energy will replace only a small fraction of declining oil production. Because oil under girds the world economy, oil depletion will result in global economic collapse and population decline. As oil exporting nations experience both declining oil production and increased domestic oil consumption, they will reduce oil exports to the U.S. Because the U.S. is highly dependent on imported oil for transportation, food production, industry, and residential heating, the nation will experience the impacts of declining oil supplies sooner and more severely than much of the world. North American natural gas production has peaked, importation of natural gas is limited, and the U.S. faces shortages of natural gas within a few years. These shortages threaten residential heating supplies, industrial production, electric power generation, and fertilizer production. Because U.S. coal production peaked in 2002 (in terms of energy provided by coal), the U.S. will experience significantly higher coal and electric prices in future years as coal production declines. The U.S. government is unprepared for the multiple consequences of Peak Oil, Peak Natural Gas, and Peak Coal. Multiple crises will cripple the nation in a gridlock of ever-worsening problems. Within a few decades, the U.S. will lack car, truck, air, and rail transportation, as well as mechanized farming, adequate food and water supplies, electric power, sanitation, home heating, hospital care, and government services."
Abstract
"This paper examines scientific and government studies in order to provide reliable conclusions about Peak Oil and its future impacts. Independent studies indicate that global oil production peaked in 2006 (or will peak within a few years) and will decline until all recoverable oil is depleted within several decades. Because global oil demand is increasing, declining production will soon generate high energy prices, inflation, unemployment, and irreversible economic depression. Alternative sources of energy will replace only a small fraction of declining oil production. Because oil under girds the world economy, oil depletion will result in global economic collapse and population decline. As oil exporting nations experience both declining oil production and increased domestic oil consumption, they will reduce oil exports to the U.S. Because the U.S. is highly dependent on imported oil for transportation, food production, industry, and residential heating, the nation will experience the impacts of declining oil supplies sooner and more severely than much of the world. North American natural gas production has peaked, importation of natural gas is limited, and the U.S. faces shortages of natural gas within a few years. These shortages threaten residential heating supplies, industrial production, electric power generation, and fertilizer production. Because U.S. coal production peaked in 2002 (in terms of energy provided by coal), the U.S. will experience significantly higher coal and electric prices in future years as coal production declines. The U.S. government is unprepared for the multiple consequences of Peak Oil, Peak Natural Gas, and Peak Coal. Multiple crises will cripple the nation in a gridlock of ever-worsening problems. Within a few decades, the U.S. will lack car, truck, air, and rail transportation, as well as mechanized farming, adequate food and water supplies, electric power, sanitation, home heating, hospital care, and government services."
Friday, September 14, 2007
CNN Money headline: 'The end of oil'
Click here for full article.
It's always nice to see the mainstream acknowledging the subject of peak oil.
It's always nice to see the mainstream acknowledging the subject of peak oil.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
After Oil Supplies Dry Up, What's Plan B?
Click here for full article.
Excerpt:
Excerpt:
At this point, you might be asking yourself: When oil becomes scarce, how will I get food? That's a very good question. Here are a few more: Will my garbage get picked up? How will my water district purify and deliver water and treat sewage without petrochemicals? What if I need an ambulance? What if my home is one of the 7.7 million that rely on oil for heating? Which of my medications are made out of petrochemicals? How will I get to work? Will I even have a job anymore?
But don't just ask yourself. Ask your elected officials, your public utility district and your grocer. Ask the U.S. Postal Service, Federal Express and American Airlines. Ask GM. If you have one, ask your financial adviser or stockbroker which companies will still be in business after peak oil hits. Odds are, he or she will give you a blank stare.....
....But cities cannot solve the peak oil problem on their own. They don't have the revenue needed to build light-rail networks and wind farms or to store massive grain reserves. During a recession, they will be in no position to guarantee income supports for millions of laid-off workers. But the more they do now, while they still have a revenue stream, the better off their residents will be.
If the peak oil doomsday scenarios are to be averted, it will require coordinated action at every level of government, by every sector of the economy and by every community and citizen in the nation. We are heading into a political era in which the need to come together to invent and support life-sustaining social and economic systems will trump all else.
Some tout alternative energy technologies as the silver bullet that will save us from a peak oil crisis. But there is a broad consensus among energy analysts that it will be decades before such alternatives are available for wide-scale implementation. Moreover, some of the alternatives with the strongest political backing, including ethanol and liquefied coal, may cause even more severe global warming than petroleum has.
The United States needs to slam the brakes on fossil fuel consumption. As if arresting climate change weren't enough of a reason for immediate and strong conservation measures, the end of oil may just force upon Americans a reality we have ignored for far too long: We cannot go on like this, pedal to the metal, asleep at the wheel.
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Monday, September 03, 2007
Green algae to the rescue
Green algae to the rescue
Isaac Berzin, a rocket scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is using algae to clean up power-plant exhaust, saving greenhouse gas emissions and satisfying energy needs.
The idea occurred to him three years ago, although it is not exactly new (see below). He bolted onto the exhaust stacks of a 20 MW power plant rows of clear tubes with green algae soup inside. The algae grew happily, gobbling up 40 percent of the carbon dioxide for photosynthesis, and as a bonus, 86 percent of the nitrous oxide as well, resulting in a much cleaner exhaust.
The algae is harvested daily and its oil extracted to make biodiesel for transport use, leaving a green dry flake that can be further processed to ethanol, also a transport fuel (but see “Ethanol from cellulose biomass not sustainable nor environmentally benign”, this series).
GreenFuel, the company set up by Berzin in Cambridge Mass., has already attracted £11 million in venture capital funding and is conducting a field trial at 1 000 MW plant owned by a major southwestern power company. GreenFuel expects two to seven more such demo projects, scaling up to a full production system by 2009.
One key to success is to select an alga with a high oil density – about 50 percent by weight. Algae are prolific and can produce 15 000 gallons of biodiesel per acre, compared to just 60 gallons from soybean. Berzin estimates that a 1 000 MW power plant using his system could produce more than 40 million gallons of biodiesel and 50 million gallons of ethanol a year. But that would require a 2 000 acre farm near the power plant.
Greenfuel is not alone in racing to make oil out of algae. Greenshift Corporation, an incubator company based in Mount Arlington New Jersey, licensed a CO2-scrubbing screen-like filter developed by David Bayless, researcher at Ohio University. A prototype is capable of handling 140 cubic metres of flue gas per minute, an amount equivalent to the exhaust from 50 cars or a 3-megawatt power plant.
The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) had a research project from1978 to1996 on creating renewable transportation fuel with algae making use of waste CO2 from coal fired power plants. The project, led by NREL scientist John Sheehan, was funded at $25.05 m over the 20-year period, compared to the total spending under the Biofuels Program over the same period of $459 m. It resulted in a collection of 300 species of green algae and diatoms, now housed in the University of Hawaii and still available to researchers. Although some technical and economic problems remained to be solved, it was estimated that just 15 000 square miles (or 3.8 m ha) of desert (the Sonoran desert in California and Arizona is more than 8 times that size) could grow enough algae to replace nearly all of the nation’s current diesel requirements, and algae use far less water than traditional oilseed crops.
Researchers also suggested using algae to clean up Salton Sea in Southern California, into which more than 10 000 tons of nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers are discharged annually. The idea was to use some 1 000 ha of pond system to grow algae such as Spirulina with the sea water, harvest the algae biomass and convert that into fuels, while the residual sludge could be recycled to agriculture for its fertilizer value. An estimate suggests that such a process could mitigate several hundred thousand tons of CO2 emissions at below $10/ton CO2 equivalent.
But it is perhaps the algae’s potential for carbon-capture that makes them most attractive, and it is as yet almost untapped.
Isaac Berzin, a rocket scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is using algae to clean up power-plant exhaust, saving greenhouse gas emissions and satisfying energy needs.
The idea occurred to him three years ago, although it is not exactly new (see below). He bolted onto the exhaust stacks of a 20 MW power plant rows of clear tubes with green algae soup inside. The algae grew happily, gobbling up 40 percent of the carbon dioxide for photosynthesis, and as a bonus, 86 percent of the nitrous oxide as well, resulting in a much cleaner exhaust.
The algae is harvested daily and its oil extracted to make biodiesel for transport use, leaving a green dry flake that can be further processed to ethanol, also a transport fuel (but see “Ethanol from cellulose biomass not sustainable nor environmentally benign”, this series).
GreenFuel, the company set up by Berzin in Cambridge Mass., has already attracted £11 million in venture capital funding and is conducting a field trial at 1 000 MW plant owned by a major southwestern power company. GreenFuel expects two to seven more such demo projects, scaling up to a full production system by 2009.
One key to success is to select an alga with a high oil density – about 50 percent by weight. Algae are prolific and can produce 15 000 gallons of biodiesel per acre, compared to just 60 gallons from soybean. Berzin estimates that a 1 000 MW power plant using his system could produce more than 40 million gallons of biodiesel and 50 million gallons of ethanol a year. But that would require a 2 000 acre farm near the power plant.
Greenfuel is not alone in racing to make oil out of algae. Greenshift Corporation, an incubator company based in Mount Arlington New Jersey, licensed a CO2-scrubbing screen-like filter developed by David Bayless, researcher at Ohio University. A prototype is capable of handling 140 cubic metres of flue gas per minute, an amount equivalent to the exhaust from 50 cars or a 3-megawatt power plant.
The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) had a research project from1978 to1996 on creating renewable transportation fuel with algae making use of waste CO2 from coal fired power plants. The project, led by NREL scientist John Sheehan, was funded at $25.05 m over the 20-year period, compared to the total spending under the Biofuels Program over the same period of $459 m. It resulted in a collection of 300 species of green algae and diatoms, now housed in the University of Hawaii and still available to researchers. Although some technical and economic problems remained to be solved, it was estimated that just 15 000 square miles (or 3.8 m ha) of desert (the Sonoran desert in California and Arizona is more than 8 times that size) could grow enough algae to replace nearly all of the nation’s current diesel requirements, and algae use far less water than traditional oilseed crops.
Researchers also suggested using algae to clean up Salton Sea in Southern California, into which more than 10 000 tons of nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers are discharged annually. The idea was to use some 1 000 ha of pond system to grow algae such as Spirulina with the sea water, harvest the algae biomass and convert that into fuels, while the residual sludge could be recycled to agriculture for its fertilizer value. An estimate suggests that such a process could mitigate several hundred thousand tons of CO2 emissions at below $10/ton CO2 equivalent.
But it is perhaps the algae’s potential for carbon-capture that makes them most attractive, and it is as yet almost untapped.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Catching up to party on the edge
Greetings. If anybody is left still checking back on me to see if I've posted anything new, I apologize for the lack of activity. This year has not been good for the family. My father-in-law passed away June 25th after a prolonged illness that began in March which required much attention. My grandfather who will be 99 September 9th has also been ill requiring still more of my attention up to this date. I am now guardian of his person. Also, Wednesday, I assisted my daughter in returning to college.
All of this is in between the full-time job. So, I've virtually attained no goals for myself this summer like I had planned. I have a garden but it is nothing like I had wanted or had planned. I'll be lucky to get much produce at all because I was so late in planting everything out. I've only managed to make it to the Farmer's Market once this summer because of my work hours and then also because of having to take care of or do things for others during the times the market was open. So, in other words, I haven't even been able to practice food preservation methods. But things are winding down a little now, and I am beginning to have time to catch up.
I have been able to track the stock markets these past 2 weeks. Yikes. I managed to switch over some funds and minimize my losses this week by switching 33% to a money market in my 403b. (It's not like I have tons of investments making tons of money, okay? I'm just practicing for when I'm rich! lol) In the 403b, one cannot withdraw what has been put into it unless it's needed for education expenses or extreme hardship circumstances. So, I just put as little in it as possible--despite it's growth in the last 3 years. I studied my prospectus, found the most peak oil-friendly fund offered (utilities & communications) which isn't saying much, and deposited 33% into it the past few years since learning about peak oil. It has rewarded me in small measures. It has been the highest yielding performance fund and only this week did it drop some...but not as badly as the rest. I also had about $700 sitting in some fund I don't contribute to anymore and just moved it over to my fixed, too. I had forgotten about it. No sense in having it sucked up when the markets yo-yo around like this!
Overall, I agree with many of the experts that it's not looking good long term. I'm not putting much "stock" in my funds (pun intended!). The most important advice I can give someone new to peak oil who is reading this post is to invest in the things you would need to live in a lower energy world. Any investments having to do with this fiat money system is probably futile. First think "get out of debt", and then secondly think "barter & trade"!
Although I'm still behind on reading my peak oil discussion board emails, I've had time to read some. Among them, I've found a few good websites that people have referred to on the discussion lists. The first link can be found on live journal by clickinghere. There are many different additional links found there as well. For those of you who like to mix your liberal politics with peak oil, click here.
Finally, I stumbled onto another live journal blogger who has written a little synopsis that I can relate to very much. Here it is, and it's title is called "Partying on the edge of the twilight zone".
Catching up. Partying on the edge. It's so difficult to try to have one foot in one world and the other in another.
All of this is in between the full-time job. So, I've virtually attained no goals for myself this summer like I had planned. I have a garden but it is nothing like I had wanted or had planned. I'll be lucky to get much produce at all because I was so late in planting everything out. I've only managed to make it to the Farmer's Market once this summer because of my work hours and then also because of having to take care of or do things for others during the times the market was open. So, in other words, I haven't even been able to practice food preservation methods. But things are winding down a little now, and I am beginning to have time to catch up.
I have been able to track the stock markets these past 2 weeks. Yikes. I managed to switch over some funds and minimize my losses this week by switching 33% to a money market in my 403b. (It's not like I have tons of investments making tons of money, okay? I'm just practicing for when I'm rich! lol) In the 403b, one cannot withdraw what has been put into it unless it's needed for education expenses or extreme hardship circumstances. So, I just put as little in it as possible--despite it's growth in the last 3 years. I studied my prospectus, found the most peak oil-friendly fund offered (utilities & communications) which isn't saying much, and deposited 33% into it the past few years since learning about peak oil. It has rewarded me in small measures. It has been the highest yielding performance fund and only this week did it drop some...but not as badly as the rest. I also had about $700 sitting in some fund I don't contribute to anymore and just moved it over to my fixed, too. I had forgotten about it. No sense in having it sucked up when the markets yo-yo around like this!
Overall, I agree with many of the experts that it's not looking good long term. I'm not putting much "stock" in my funds (pun intended!). The most important advice I can give someone new to peak oil who is reading this post is to invest in the things you would need to live in a lower energy world. Any investments having to do with this fiat money system is probably futile. First think "get out of debt", and then secondly think "barter & trade"!
Although I'm still behind on reading my peak oil discussion board emails, I've had time to read some. Among them, I've found a few good websites that people have referred to on the discussion lists. The first link can be found on live journal by clickinghere. There are many different additional links found there as well. For those of you who like to mix your liberal politics with peak oil, click here.
Finally, I stumbled onto another live journal blogger who has written a little synopsis that I can relate to very much. Here it is, and it's title is called "Partying on the edge of the twilight zone".
Catching up. Partying on the edge. It's so difficult to try to have one foot in one world and the other in another.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Dongtan Eco-city for 500,000
Dongtan in Wikipedia, click here.
Quote:
Dongtan is planned to open, with accommodation for 50,000, by the time the Expo 2010 opens in Shanghai. By 2040, the city is slated to be one-third the size of Manhattan with a total eventual population of 500,000.
Dongtan was presented at the United Nations World Urban Forum by China as an example of an eco-city, and is the first of up to four such cities to be designed and built in China by Arup, a global design and engineering company. The cities are planned to be ecologically friendly, with zero-greenhouse-emission transit and complete self-sufficiency in water and energy, together with the use of zero energy building principles. However, the planned ecological footprint for each citizen in Dongtan is currently 2.2 hectares[1], higher than the 1.9 hectares that is theoretically sustainable on a global scale.
Dongtan proposes to have only green transport movements along its coastline. People will arrive at the coast and leave their cars behind, traveling along the shore as pedestrians, cyclists or on sustainable public transport vehicles.
Steven Finnegan, a British Environmental architect is working on the project.
Quote:
Dongtan is planned to open, with accommodation for 50,000, by the time the Expo 2010 opens in Shanghai. By 2040, the city is slated to be one-third the size of Manhattan with a total eventual population of 500,000.
Dongtan was presented at the United Nations World Urban Forum by China as an example of an eco-city, and is the first of up to four such cities to be designed and built in China by Arup, a global design and engineering company. The cities are planned to be ecologically friendly, with zero-greenhouse-emission transit and complete self-sufficiency in water and energy, together with the use of zero energy building principles. However, the planned ecological footprint for each citizen in Dongtan is currently 2.2 hectares[1], higher than the 1.9 hectares that is theoretically sustainable on a global scale.
Dongtan proposes to have only green transport movements along its coastline. People will arrive at the coast and leave their cars behind, traveling along the shore as pedestrians, cyclists or on sustainable public transport vehicles.
Steven Finnegan, a British Environmental architect is working on the project.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Why is Urban Agriculture important?
http://www.ruaf.org/node/513
Why is Urban Agriculture important?
The rapid urbanization that is taking place goes together with a rapid increase in urban poverty and urban food insecurity. By 2020 the developing countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America will be home to some 75% of all urban dwellers, and to eight of the anticipated nine mega-cities with populations in excess of 20 million. It is expected that by 2020, 85% of the poor in Latin America, and about 40-45% of the poor in Africa and Asia will be concentrated in towns and cities.
Most cities in developing countries have great difficulties to cope with this development and are unable to create sufficient formal employment opportunities for the poor. They also have increasing problems with the disposal of urban wastes and waste water and maintaining air and river water quality.
Urban agriculture provides a complementary strategy to reduce urban poverty and food insecurity and enhance urban environmental management. Urban agriculture plays an important role in enhancing urban food security since the costs of supplying and distributing food to urban areas based on rural production and imports continue to increase, and do not satisfy the demand, especially of the poorer sectors of the population. Next to food security, urban agriculture contributes to local economic development, poverty alleviation and social inclusion of the urban poor and women in particular, as well as to the greening of the city and the productive reuse of urban wastes (see below for further explanations and examples).
RUAF Resource Centres on Urban Agriculture and Food Security
Why is Urban Agriculture important?
The rapid urbanization that is taking place goes together with a rapid increase in urban poverty and urban food insecurity. By 2020 the developing countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America will be home to some 75% of all urban dwellers, and to eight of the anticipated nine mega-cities with populations in excess of 20 million. It is expected that by 2020, 85% of the poor in Latin America, and about 40-45% of the poor in Africa and Asia will be concentrated in towns and cities.
Most cities in developing countries have great difficulties to cope with this development and are unable to create sufficient formal employment opportunities for the poor. They also have increasing problems with the disposal of urban wastes and waste water and maintaining air and river water quality.
Urban agriculture provides a complementary strategy to reduce urban poverty and food insecurity and enhance urban environmental management. Urban agriculture plays an important role in enhancing urban food security since the costs of supplying and distributing food to urban areas based on rural production and imports continue to increase, and do not satisfy the demand, especially of the poorer sectors of the population. Next to food security, urban agriculture contributes to local economic development, poverty alleviation and social inclusion of the urban poor and women in particular, as well as to the greening of the city and the productive reuse of urban wastes (see below for further explanations and examples).
RUAF Resource Centres on Urban Agriculture and Food Security
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Global warming's impact already costs plenty;
CEO Economic Update: Global warming's impact already costs plenty;
from the page: "The mathematical model looked at the future cost of oil, its related chemical and rubber end products, metals, and the cost of electricity. In short, it was a comprehensive look at how the world might change if Kyoto was enacted, and doing so would be expensive. So expensive, API concluded solutions should be left to future and richer generations.
Ten years later, per capita GDP has grown by $6,000, so we are certainly richer. But more importantly, the other side of the argument is becoming clearer: The cost of doing nothing has an attachable dollar cost.
Back when the simulations were being drawn up, the cost of doing nothing was unclear. Today, with hundreds of destroyed building, and tens of thousands dead, it's time to weigh the cost of doing something against the cost of doing nothing.
Chart: No matter the measurement, warming is on the rise."
http://pbp.typepad.com/economy/2007/06/global_warmings.html
from the page: "The mathematical model looked at the future cost of oil, its related chemical and rubber end products, metals, and the cost of electricity. In short, it was a comprehensive look at how the world might change if Kyoto was enacted, and doing so would be expensive. So expensive, API concluded solutions should be left to future and richer generations.
Ten years later, per capita GDP has grown by $6,000, so we are certainly richer. But more importantly, the other side of the argument is becoming clearer: The cost of doing nothing has an attachable dollar cost.
Back when the simulations were being drawn up, the cost of doing nothing was unclear. Today, with hundreds of destroyed building, and tens of thousands dead, it's time to weigh the cost of doing something against the cost of doing nothing.
Chart: No matter the measurement, warming is on the rise."
http://pbp.typepad.com/economy/2007/06/global_warmings.html
Friday, June 22, 2007
My Most Recent Gardening Pictures
Check out my most recent pictures on my other blog by clicking here.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
www.LastGasStation.Com Weekly Workbench.1
Anybody who incorporates an old high school "memorial" song by the likes of Van Halen has to be cool. ....and the message is golden. You rock Robert Run! Continue on....or should I say "rock on"?
Yahoo: New Age Town in New England Embraces Dollar Alternative
Worried about a dollar crash in the future? With the dollar at significant lows and China financing our nation's debt load, more and more are advocating for creation of a local currency within their communities. More importantly, a local currency might also support more local business. With a more localized economy, I understand that local people who would use this would be more buffered in the event of a currency crash and there would also already be a local system set up in that case. See the story from Yahoo here.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Yahoo Finance: The Railroad Industry-Warren Buffet's Latest Big Bet
Click here for full article.
So where could the value that Buffett so clearly sees be coming from? Two things spring immediately to mind:
1. The coverage maps of the three railroads are somewhat complimentary - BNI and UNP operating in different portions of the west, NSC operating in the east. A merger could create efficiencies that increase the value of the combined companies that do not currently exist.
2. With the passing of "Peak Oil" and higher gas prices, railroads will increase in value as they are the most efficient method to move cargo across the country.
Regardless of what Buffett sees in the railroads, this is the most significant "loading up" we've seen from them in quite some time. It's been years, almost decades, since they made their initial stakes in American Express, Coca-Cola, Gillette (since bought by PG), and Wells Fargo, and you may have missed that boat. However, right now it seems that railroads are his next great investment and those who knew about that initial Form 4 filing have entered on the ground floor with him.
Business Week article: From Peak Oil to Dark Age?
Click here for article from Business Week.
Hello, hello!? Anybody out there? Will the masses please stand at attention!? Please wake up and change our ways! It takes more than a few thousand people!
Hello, hello!? Anybody out there? Will the masses please stand at attention!? Please wake up and change our ways! It takes more than a few thousand people!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)