Energy and global warming

Yawn. I saw lots of headlines today about the leaders of the G-8 nations deciding to cut global emissions of greenhouse gases in half by 2050.

If only it wasn't so much hot air (are G-8 proclamations themselves a greenhouse gas????).

The problems with their declaration are many:

• They only offered to cut the G-8 nations' emissions if other nations, including developing nations like China and India, also cut their emissions by 50%. Since this has been a sticking issue for several years already, yesterday's announcement was simply the status quo.
• When they met last year, the talk was about reducing emissions 50% from 1990 levels. One year later, they're now talking about reducing emissions 50% from today's levels. And since G-8 emissions have increased around 16% since 1990, the new proposal is significantly less aggressive than what was discussed just last year.
• They didn't propose a roadmap for getting to a 50% reduction by 2050. That's 42 years away... and a huge decrease in emissions. Pronouncements like this tend to be meaningless.
• My understanding is that they weren't that specific about which greenhouse gases they're talking about. CO2, presumably. Methane as well?

So another year passes, and another twelve months of lost opportunity pass us by. Now that's leadership.

I SAW T. BOONE PICKENS' ENERGY AD on television yesterday.

Pickens is an old oil man but he's now got a plan that's at least moving in the right direction. He calls the U.S. the "Saudi Arabia of wind energy" and wants us to invest aggressively in harnessing it to cut our dependency on oil.

He also talks about relying more on natural gas, especially for transportation. I'm a bit more dubious about this... we've got more domestic reserves of natural gas than oil, but it's still a dwindling resource. Perhaps it'll act as a bridge to the future, but we've got to keep the focus on the sustainable sources of energy.

NPR HAD A STORY TODAY ABOUT SOLAR ENERGY and it focused on company here in Nevada named Ausra. They're building solar collectors that don't rely on photovoltaic technology to generate electricity. Instead they concentrate the sun's heat, boil steam, and use it to spin turbines to drive electrical generators. It's similar to the way we currently produce our electricity, the only difference is the source of the heat.

Best of all, water holds heat well, so Ausra's system can be used to generate electricity even after the sun goes down.

Now we just need to get the Bureau of Land Management to fast-track the environmental impact studies for some of the proposed solar plants here in Nevada. Right now they've put a nearly two year moratorium in place. I've been a lifelong proponent of protecting the environment, but I recognize that the environment is being impacted now. Global warming is affecting people, animals, and plants around the world. Moving to energy sources that don't increase global warming any further is a moral imperative... and we can no longer afford to move slowly.

HERE'S ONE BILL that seems to be moving in the right direction: HR 2809. Check it out on OpenCongress.