The Good, the Bad, and the Butt Ugly!

Distributed Solar in Germany

The last few weeks have been an interesting mix of both good and bad news when it comes to issues like energy and global warming. Being fundamentally an optimist at heart, I think I will start with the good news which begins in Germany. Germany has long been a leader in the use of solar energy despite the fact that they are not exactly a hotbed of solar saturation. As the cost of solar energy continues to plummet their investment in solar energy is starting to pay major dividends. Last week they hit a huge milestone when the measured output of their solar systems peaked at 22 gigawatts of electricity which was more than half of all the electricity used in the entire country that day.
Think about it. One of the most heavily industrialized countries in the world got half of all their daily electricity from solar energy. That means they paid half as many millions to some oil sheik who hates them, they cut their contribution to global warming by half, they reduced air pollution by half, they needed half as many oil tankers to feed their fuel addiction and they kept twice as many of their hard-earned marks at home instead of having to buy energy from a foreign country. It's genuinely a big deal!

In the United States, which gets 1% of its electricity from solar energy, the use of solar is still treated as an afterthought by most energy brokers. But it doesn't have to be that way! The U.S. has far more solar resources than Germany. We could easily be producing twice as much solar energy as Germany does.  Instead of beating up a growing industry because one company failed (Solyndra) while hundreds of companies succeeded, we could be providing the same kinds of incentives that helped Germany have such incredible success. We could renew the federal solar and wind incentives. We could be opening up federal lands for solar and wind farms instead of turning them over to oil and gas companies to destroy with their fracking and oil spills.

Having a significant solar infrastructure has given Germany options and advantages which other countries do not have.  When the Fukishima disaster brought to people's attention the incredible risks involved in nuclear energy the leaders of Germany were able to immediately put in place a plan to phase out all of its nuclear plants. In fact, the 22 gigawatts of solar capacity Germany now has is equal to about 20 nuclear reactors.  Japan, which had to close its nuclear plants following the political upheaval following Fukishima, is going to struggle much more than Germany with closing its plants.  They do not have the renewable energy infrastructure to fall back upon and our paying through the nose to suddenly import even greater amounts of coal, natural gas and fuel oil to handle short-term electricity demand.  This is something the U.S. should keep in mind as we begin looking at all of our aging nuclear plants. 

So much for the good. Now for a milestone of a different kind.  Measurements of greenhouse gasses in the arctic this spring have now been found to show carbon dioxide levels well above 400 parts per million.  This is up from 390 parts per million just a few years ago. Not only is the total accumulation of carbon dioxide increasing but the rate at which we are putting carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is increasing, not getting better.

How do we know this.  We know this by measuring ice samples.  Carbon dioxide levels in the arctic are trapped in ice and scientists have been carefully measuring them for many years.  Based on their research we now know that levels of carbon dioxide this high have not been seen for over 800,000 years.  The data clearly shows that global warming is not a short term cyclic phenomenon but a direct consequence of our polluting our atmsophere with carbon dioxide.

Fortunately, the people of North Carolina need not worry about pesky problems like global warming.  The North Carolina Republican-controlled legislature is taking care of that problem.  You see, the state's Coastal Management Commission was trying to (gasp) actually do some management and planning and was recommending adjustments in how the North Carolina coastline should be managed in the future based on sea rises caused by global warming. The current scientific data was telling them that they should be managing coastal properties based upon estimates of a 4 to 6 foot rise in sea levels by 2100 or possibly even higher. The data was absolutely clear that the rate at which sea levels are rising is accelerating due to global warming. 

However, the North Carolina legislature, rather than admit that global warming is real is now ciriculating a bill mandating that the agency must, in its reports, "not include scenarios of accelerated rates of sea-level rise."  In short, it is mandating that the facts be ignored, truly butt ugly behavior if ever I have seen it.  I have to admit that behaviors like this that make me wonder if mankind actually deserves to survive.  When we are so afraid of the truth that we would rather mandate ignorance than face it, then we are almost certainly on the path to our destruction.  Oh, well, maybe tomorrow will be a better news day.  Like I said, I am an optimist at heart!