Tag Archive for James hansen

Climate Underlies It All

Climate and the environment are the root of all we do.  Solutions are what we can do NOW.

At All Our Energy, just because we are focused on the solutions: renewable energy and stopping pollution in all forms; whether it be an LNG Port, an unnecessary fossil fuel power plant, or the needless waste of single use plastic bags- doesn’t mean we should forget what drives our actions.
Climate change and the degradation of air, land, and water for human livability is where we spring to action from.

So you want to see what climate change “looks like”?
Earlier this year, the alarming “climate spiral” visualization was released, showing the months of the year represented as a circle, with recorded monthly temperatures added in, over time. It clearly shows the spiral getting larger then dramatically larger, representing higher temperature, as we reach the present.
The original was scary enough, showing the dramatic increase and acceleration in global warming up to the present day. This new projection shows the unprecedented temperature spike we are in now…. and takes us where it leads.

heres a 3-d representation:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cVt6ximM4hE

Here’s a graph that shows “yes, this is how quick (climate change) is happening“.

No one is coming to save us. No magic carbon vacuum is coming that costs less than the immediate “benefits” of fossil fuels. The free market isn’t coming. Its been nearly 30 years since James Hansen sat in front of congress imploring action on climate. Nothing has changed. We can not afford to wait. Maybe, too, we can not afford to be so focused solely on solutions. Maybe this focus on solutions hurts our public awareness by skipping the first step of the discussion: “we have a problem- something must be done- you can continue as part of that problem, or decide to become the solution”.
We need to make that change now. We have no time to wait for polluters and their employees in the field, in their law offices, or in government to “change their mind” or agree to some watered-down version of what needs to be done: a concerted, citizen-powered changeover to 100% renewable energy, with as much transportation, heating and cooking switched to clean, renewable-generated electricity ASAP.

To survive, we must transition to a renewable generated economy that values workers, the environment, local communities and empowers all to take part however they can, to foster that transformation of our society and ensure livability of the planet for future generations. Germany did this and produce more solar than the US in a fraction of the size and the solar resource. Denmark did this and got massive amounts of wind energy (and the leading international wind industry that goes with it).

The good news: we here on Long Island are finally have the potential to lead a massive switch to renewables in the form of our potential 35000 megawatts, (with realistic expectations at about 10,000-15,000) of readily available off shore wind power.
The bad news: this process, without encountering resistance(just elected), technical issues, policy or leadership changes(just changed), or any of a multitude of potential delays, has been decided to take at least 5-7 years, with reality possibly longer. This is only for the first wind farm. Policy has rendered commercial scale off shore wind development for the entire US to merely BEGIN operations in 2022-2025. It could be another 10-20 years after that for full deployment.
This is time we just don’t have. We have much to do now to avoid new fossil fuel and dangerous nuclear from being added, before we can offset any need for them.  tick-tick-tick.