|
...Team" (made of city employee volunteers) sponsor Car Free and Care Free (CFCF) weeks that encourage employees to get out of their cars by telecommuting or by using alternative transportation. In 2005, 1,900 commuters took part, avoiding: 37,630 auto trips, 317,000 vehicle miles traveled and the emission of 317,974 pounds of the major global warming gas, carbon dioxide (C02). And in Buffalo, New York, General Motors' Tonawanda Engine Plant has drastically reduced emissions and gone "landfill free," a feat it achieved by reducing waste generation, recycling and converting waste to energy.
Welcome to a new world, where the debate over the science of global warming is over, but the hard work of combating it--with only a very limited window of opportunity-is only just beginning. We have to act quickly. According to new studies published last March in the respected journal Science, warming temperatures are likely to cause a catastrophic, long-term meltdown on the roof of the world in Greenland and in Antarctica. Scientists say we have a decade at most to reduce our emissions and avoid a nightmare scenario that would flood not only below-sea-level New Orleans, but also much of south Florida and the Outer Banks of North Carolina, as well as the California coast.
The average global temperature, according to the international climate scientists banded together in the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will rise by three to 10 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of this century.
The public is only beginning to wake up to the reality of climate change. A record 57 percent of Americans, according to the most recent Gallup Poll, now believe that climate change is underway, but only 36 percent say they worry about it "a great deal." Worse, an ABC/Time/Stanford University poll reveals that 64 percent think there's "a lot of disagreement" among climate scientists on the reality of global warming, when there's actually a near total consensus. According to a Science essay by Naomi Oreskes, 935 peer-reviewed papers on global warming appeared from 1993 to 2005 and, of 700 that dealt with modern climate change, none challenged the consensus that humans were causing global warming. Another 54 percent of poll respondents think climate change is "a problem for the future," versus only 44 percent who think it's already a serious problem.
A team of researchers reported in the journal Nature that, unless the world is getting half its energy from non-carbon sources by 2018, we will see an inevitable doubling--and possible tripling--of atmospheric carbon levels later this century. Another study, published in Science, called for a Manhattan-type crash project to develop renewable energy. Using conservative estimates, they found that within 50 years, humanity will need to be generating at least three times more energy from non-carbon sources than the world currently produces from fossil fuels to avoid climate disaster.
Despite the refusal by Australia and the U.S. to ratify the international Kyoto Accords, they have gone into effect, adopted by 55 industrialized nations (responsible for 55 percent of global emissions). The Kyoto signatories have pledged to cut six key greenhouse gases to 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. It probably won't be enough, since some climate scientists say that a far more dramatic 60 percent cut is needed to avoid the worst effects of global warming.
It is unclear how many countries can actually meet their Kyoto commitments. In the environmentally oriented European Union, for instance, only England and Sweden are on track to meet their targets. Among the leading countries with emission problems are Denmark, Spain, Ireland, Austria and Belgium.
But it's far too early to give in to despair, since important carbon-saving programs are being launched below the radar, often by local governments, private companies and even ambitious individuals. The best initiatives use novel approaches and innovative thinking to achieve real emission reductions, tapping into and modifying consumer habits and ingrained business practices.
Countries worldwide have already begun making major changes in the way they do business, creating "cap and trade" CO2 emissions schemes; writing global warming reduction into procurement policies; mandating clean-fuel municipal fleets; and subsidizing clean energy projects. London, England now has its own Climate Change Agency, and is committed to a 20 percent reduction in CO2 emissions by 2010. Denmark has also announced a switch to clean energy; it is already 20 percent wind powered, and the Danish Wind Energy Association's goal is to produce 35 percent of national energy needs by 2015.
But those are only a few of the many ambitious projects that are acting to fill the void caused by official U.S. inaction on the issue. Here's a country-by-country survey, compiled mostly by local writers, that is by no means complete but representative of a world waking up to the realities of climate change:
NORTH AMERICA
The California Law: High-Stakes on Emissions
"Ten states have adopted California's clean car emission rules," says a clearly energized Dan Becker, the Sierra Club's climate change coordinator. "This is about the most exciting thing out there to fight global warming, and it shows that the U.S. doesn't have to have its head in the sand. Governors and mayors get it even if the President doesn't."
In 2004, the California Mr Resources Board (ARB) approved regulations that would result in a dramatic 22 percent reduction in global warming emissions from vehicles by 2012, and a 30 percent reduction by 2016. That's coupled with California's existing regulations (far more stringent than those put in place by the federal government) to cut the tailpipe emissions that cause local smog. States have the option of following California's tough standards or the feds' relaxed ones, and an increasing number of legislatures are siding with Sacramento.
Becker and other campaigners talk about a "tipping point" at which automakers will finally want to relieve themselves of the burden of producing two versions of their cars and trucks--a super-dean one for California states and a dirtier one for everyone else. That point will be reached when states all around the country sign on to the California program, creating a shipping nightmare for Detroit. One or two more states may force the automakers' hands.
To comply with California's global warming provisions, the automakers would have to make their vehicles more fuel efficient, and with most of their profits coming from SUVs they've been loathe to do that. Through the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (AAM), the carmakers filed suit in 2004 against the California law, claiming it would cost consumers an extra $3,000 for a compliant car, and that only the federal government is empowered to set fuel economy standards.
"What the auto companies should be doing is letting their engineers figure out how to work with these standards," says Bill Magavern, the Sierra Club's senior representative in Sacramento. "Instead, they're letting their lawyers loose." Magavern dismisses as "ridiculous" the automakers' argument about jurisdiction. "The California law is about global warming emissions, not fuel economy," he says. "And the federal law was drafted in the 1970s, before climate change was even an issue."
Meanwhile, California, 11 other states and a coalition of cities (including Baltimore, Washington and New York), environmental groups and the island of American Samoa (which is threatened by sea-level rise) are fighting a court battle with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which said in 2003 that it had no authority to regulate CO2 or three other global warming gasses produced by vehicles. The EPA ruling was upheld by a federal appeals court last year, but the states are determined to carry the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court. CONTACT: California Air Resources Board, (800)242-4450, www.arb.ca.gov; Sierra Club, (415)977-5500, www.sierraclub.org/globalwarming.--Jim Motavalli
Hull, Massachusetts: Winds of Change
John MacLeod, operations manager of Hull, Massachusetts' Municipal Light Plant, gestured out past Windmill Point across the bay, with the city of Boston visible in the distance. "We intend to have 100 percent renewably generated power in Hull," he says. "By 2009 or 2010, we want to install four offshore turbines totaling up to 15 megawatts."
MacLeod was standing next to the tower of Hull Wind I, a Danish-made 660-kilowatt Vestas turbine that has the distinction of being the first commercial-scale windmill to go online on the eastern coastline of the U.S. It's also, if you want to get technical, the first commercial-scale turbine in suburbia.
Last April, Hull had a brand-new distinction: It now has not one but two wind turbines. Hull Wind II, a much larger Vestas turbine (1.8 megawatts) was installed at the town's landfill. According to Malcolm Brown, vice chairman of the Hull Light Board, the new turbine is expected to produce three times the electricity of the first one and will enable the city to get 10 percent of its energy from wind.
Unlike Cape Cod, where vociferous NIMBY opposition threatens to doom the larger offshore Cape Wind project, Hull's efforts have drawn only token "viewshed" opposition.
Hull remains distinctly wind-friendly. And there are 40 towns in Massachusetts that have municipally owned electric utilities, a situation that is ideal for public wind power. Towns like Hull can generate a...
NOTE: All illustrations and photos
have been removed from this article.
More articles from E
Natural aging: going gently into the golden years., July 01, 2006
The power of the proxy: bringing change one vote at a time., July 01, 2006
Greening up the downline: multi-level marketing comes of age., July 01, 2006
Northwest architecture.(Toward a New Regionalism)(Brief article)(Book ..., July 01, 2006
Mining casts a dark shadow and the new Hummer rolls into town., July 01, 2006
Looking for additional articles?
Search our database of over 3 million articles.
Looking for more in-depth information on this industry?
Search our complete database of Industry & Market reports by text, subject, publication
name or publication date.
About Goliath
Whether you're looking for sales prospects, competitive information, company
analysis or best practices in managing your organization,
Goliath can help you meet your business needs.
Our extensive business information databases empower business
professionals with both the breadth and depth of credible,
authoritative information they need to support their business
goals. Whether it be strategic planning, sales prospecting,
company research or defining management best practices -
Goliath is your leading source for accurate information.
|
