Renewable energy can power the world, says landmark IPCC study

UN's climate change science body says renewables supply, particularly solar power, can meet global demand

guardian.co.uk, Fiona Harvey, Monday 9 May 2011

A solar power plant in the Mojave desert. (Photograph: AP)

Renewable energy could more than meet the world's expected growth in future energy demand, according to a landmark report published on Monday. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the body of the world's leading climate scientists convened by the United Nations, said that solar power holds out the greatest hope for generating low-carbon energy around the planet.

The report marks the first time the IPCC has examined low-carbon energy in depth, and the first interim report since the body's comprehensive 2007 review of the science of climate change.

Although the authors are optimistic about the future of renewable energy, they note that many forms of the technology are still more expensive than fossil fuels, and find that the production of renewable energy will have to increase by as much as 20 times in order to avoid dangerous levels of global warming. Renewables will play a greater role than either nuclear or carbon capture and storage by 2050, the scientists predict.

Investing in renewables can also help poor countries to develop, particularly where large numbers of people lack access to an electricity grid.

About 13% of the world's energy came from renewable sources in 2008, a proportion likely to have risen as countries have built up their capacity since then, with China leading the investment surge, particularly in wind energy. But by far the greatest source of renewable energy used globally at present is burning biomass (about 10% of the total global energy supply), which is problematic because it can cause deforestation, leads to deposits of soot that accelerate global warming, and cooking fires cause indoor air pollution that harms health.

As with all IPCC reports, the summary for policymakers – the synopsis of the report that will be presented to governments and is likely to impact renewable energy policy – must be agreed line by line and word by word unanimously by all countries. This will be done at Monday's meeting in Abu Dhabi. This makes the process lengthy, but means that afterwards no government or scientist represented can say that they disagree with the finished findings, which the IPCC sees as a key strength of its operations.

As a result of this process, the key summary is not likely to be published until around noon on Monday.

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Prince Willem-Alexander on Greenland camping trip

RNW, 6 May 2011, by Erik Klooster

(Photo: Flickr / nancycarels)

Camping out in Greenland. It could well be a slogan from a travel brochure. In the coming days, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander is actually going to do it. On the invitation of the Worldwide Fund for Nature, the Dutch prince is going to visit Greenland, accompanied by leaders of science and industry.

The nature organisation wants to focus attention on Greenland because developments there and across the polar region are important to the Netherlands and indeed the whole world. The polar ice cap represents the largest sweet water supply of the northern hemisphere. The rising sea level as a result of the melting ice cap are of vital importance to a large number of countries, including the Netherlands, large areas of which are located below sea level.

Rapid rise

A leaked report from the Arctic Council shows sea levels will be rising between 0.9 and 1.6 meters between 2011 and 2100, much faster than assumed thus far. The rapid increase is mainly due to the increasingly rapidly melting polar ice cap. Just four years ago, the international climate panel IPCC predicted sea levels would rise between 18 and 59 centimetres in that same period.

The mission has been named SILA, an Inuit word for ‘the driving force behind all that lives’. In addition to Prince Willem-Alexander, WNF has invited Professor Robbert Dijkgraaf, the president of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences. Other travelling companions will include Chairman of the Board Eric Oostwegel from engineering firm Royal Haskoning and WNF Director Johan van de Gronden. WNF views the trip as an example of how to bring together experts from different fields.

New possibilities

Three scientists from the University of Utrecht will give a number of lectures. The prince and his companions will also meet representatives of the indigenous peoples of Greenland. And debates will be held on how to improve international legislation regarding the Arctic, but also on new possibilities in the North Pole region. Global warming has made exploitation of fossil fuel reserves in the area easier.

Both WNF and the activist environmental organisation Greenpeace are fiercely opposed to the extraction of oil in the Arctic. Greenpeace has welcomed the WNF-sponsored trip to Greenland toe. The organisation says it’s high time some attention is paid to the area. Greenpeace has invested large sums in Arctic research. Climate and energy campaign leader Rolf Schipper says that preventing large-scale fishing operations in the area is as least as important as the fight against oil extraction.

The mission will also take Prince Willem-Alexander and the other participants to one of Greenland’s glaciers. What is more, they will spend the night there: in tents. Perhaps a welcome change of pace for the crown prince after all the Queen’s Day activities.

Related Article:

New Mini Ice Age

Global Warming - Not long Term

" .... The weather you have today, and all the alarming attributes of it, is a scenario of what was scheduled to happen on Earth anyway. I review again that the weather changes you are seeing prophesied by myself, 21 years ago, are not a surprise. The changes are not caused by the pollutants you put in the air. You call it global warming and that's a nice phrase, and perhaps that will get you to put less pollutants in the air – a very good thing. But what you are seeing in the weather shift today was not caused by Humans putting things into the air. It would have happened anyway in about 300 years."

"We've called this process the water cycle, since it's all about water, not about air. The water is the predominant attribute of Gaia and of the weather cycle you're seeing. More predominant is the temperature of it. The cycle is ice to water and water to ice, and has been repeated on this planet over and over and over. It is not new. It is not exceptional. It is not frightening. But it's a cycle that modern humanity has not seen before, and it's a long cycle that is beyond the life span of a Human Being. Therefore, it tends to be overlooked or not seen at all !"

"In the days of the Lemurians, the water level of the Pacific Ocean was almost 400 feet lower, and that's only 50,000 years ago. [Kryon invites science to check this out – the water level at that time.] That was a water cycle working, and the reason it was lower was due to so much of the water being stored as ice. Today you're going through another water cycle that will eventually lead to cooling. The last one was in the 1400s"

"Science sees that at about 1650. As mentioned, they are so slow there is no remembrance that a Human has of them except in past writings and in the rings of the trees. The time span of the changes is so great that environmental record keeping does not exist in the form that it does today. But you can still look at the rings of the trees and at the striations of the rocks and can generally figure out that a few hundred years ago, you had a mini-ice age. Now you're going to have another one. .... " Read more ..... (THE RELATIONSHIP TO GAIA - April 2010 (Kryon Channeled by Lee Caroll))

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Obama hits the road with clean energy agenda

CNN News, by the CNN Wire Staff, May 6, 2011

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Obama says America needs to shift more quickly to clean energy sources
• The president talked to factory workers in Indiana
• Obama highlighted a new report showing the country adding 244,000 jobs in April
• Eight in 10 Americans say the economy remains in poor shape, according to a new CNN/ORC poll

Indianapolis, Indiana (CNN) -- President Barack Obama took his push for clean energy on the road Friday, telling a group of factory workers in Indiana that America needs to accelerate its transition away from fossil fuels in order to remain economically competitive in the years ahead.

"If we can transition to new technologies, it's going to make a difference over the long term," Obama said. "There is nothing we cannot do so long as we put our mind to it."

The president made his remarks during a visit to Allison Transmission, a major transmission manufacturer now working with hybrid technology.

"This is where the American economy is rebuilding, where we are regaining our footing," Obama declared.

The president highlighted Friday's Labor Department employment report, which showed the country adding 244,000 jobs in April. The unemployment rate, increased from 8.8% to 9%, ending a streak of four straight months of declines.

That rate, however, often increases as the job market improves and previously discouraged workers return to labor force.

Job growth has been strong since the beginning of the year, with 768,000 jobs added since January.

"There are still some folks who are struggling," the president acknowledged. But "this economic momentum ... is taking place all across the country."

Obama noted that gas prices, hovering around $4 per gallon, are "a headwind we've got to confront."

"We can't just drill our way out of the problem," he said, noting that America consumes a much larger share of the world's oil than it is capable of producing.

The president slammed continuing tax breaks and subsidies for large oil companies -- a constant Democratic refrain as gas prices have climbed in recent months.

While the death of Osama bin Laden has dominated the recent headlines, most political analysts believe the economy will be the dominant issue in the 2012 presidential campaign.

Eight in ten Americans continue to say that the economy is in poor shape, according to a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Friday. By a nearly a two-to-one ratio, however, they continue to blame the country's economic woes on George W. Bush rather than Obama.

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New report confirms Arctic melt accelerating

Associated Press, May 3, 9:45 AM EDT

STOCKHOLM (AP) -- A new assessment of climate change in the Arctic shows the ice in the region is melting faster than previously thought and sharply raises projections of global sea level rise this century.

The report by the international Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program, or AMAP, compiles the latest science on how climate change has impacted the Arctic in the past six years.

A summary of the key findings obtained by the AP on Tuesday shows Arctic temperatures during that period were the highest since measurements began in 1880.

It said melting Arctic glaciers and ice caps are projected to help raise global sea levels by 35 to 63 inches (90-160 centimeters) by 2100. That's up from a 2007 projection of 7 to 23 inches (19-59 centimeters) by the U.N.'s scientific panel on climate change.

Dutch hothouses could help solve world food crisis

RNW, 2 May 2011, by Johan Huizinga

(Photo: RNW)

Dutch hothouses used to have a reputation for wasting energy. But nowadays it’s the most innovative sector in the Netherlands, producing food extremely efficiently using sustainable energy. Even the Chinese are interested.

China, like the Netherlands, does not have enough agricultural land to feed its own population. Dutch intensive greenhouse systems could help increase food production in China.

Professor of greenhouse farming at the Agricultural University of Wageningen Olaf van Kooten explains:

“Cultivation under glass is extremely efficient in its use of water and energy. In the future, we will have to feed around 15 billion people across the world, and this could be a key to the solution.”

Water

Excess warm water is stored
underground (Photo: RNW)

Stef Huisman grows tropical plants and trees for offices. He uses a closed water system. His nursery has trees standing in two to three centimetres of water. Every week, the water is filtered for sand and ultra violet rays and reused.

“That is all the water we need. The rain that falls on the roof is enough to water the plants. We don’t use any ground water.”

Professor Van Kooten thinks this technique could be an important export product.

“If we continue like this, the only water we use will literally be the water in the product. To produce a kilo of tomatoes, you will only need a litre of water.”

Ground heat

Water is pumped from a depth of
three kilometers (Photo: RNW)

The use of the ground heat to heat the greenhouses is just as important. Ted Duijvestijn has drilled a 3-kilometre-deep shaft to heat his tomato greenhouses in Pijnacker. The system pumps salt water which is 75 degrees Celsius upwards to the greenhouses. Once the water cools it is pumped back into the ground, where it reheats again.

The system, which was installed in March, is already making 60 percent savings. Once the electric pumps are powered by his own windmills, the greenhouses will more or less only run on sustainable energy. There will even be excess energy and warm water produced so that greenhouse owners will also become energy suppliers.

LED lighting

Rob Baan uses four colours in
LED-lighting (Photo: RNW)

And then there are the lights which are used to help plants grow. Vegetable grower Rob Baan has replaced his with low-energy LED lights which give exactly the right colour. Next to the greenhouse is a windmill to provide the energy for the LED lights.

In the summer the greenhouses are heated by the sun, producing temperatures above 50 degrees. Excess warmth is used to heat water, which is stored underground for the winter.

No pesticides

Wouldn’t it be easier to cultivate food in regions where no greenhouses are needed. Mr Baan very firmly says “No.”

“There are no insects here. Our greenhouses are either free of insects or we have predators in the greenhouses which eat them. We do not spay pesticides on the plants. Our production methods are becoming more and more sustainable. In the future, these kind of farms will be built close to cities, so that food can be produced locally.”

Meanwhile he has started up his own businesses in the United States and Japan.

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Super-Civilizations Might Live Off Black Holes

Discovery News, Analysis by Ray Villard, Sat Apr 30, 2011

(Photo: NASA)

The sad unplugging of the Allen Telescope Array due to lack of funding brings a screeching halt, at least temporarily, to the most ambitious search for "hello" radio transmissions from E.T.

But perhaps it's time to simply think far outside of the box regarding our preconceptions of how to find extraterrestrial civilizations, says Clement Vidal of the Evolution, Complexity and Cognition group at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. And, the most advanced aliens may be the easiest to find.

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In a recent paper, he emphasizes that we have to look at a variety of search strategies in solving the mystery of our cosmic loneliness -- that is, if we are satisfied with simply finding E.T. and not communicating with it.

Vidal's reasoning: The universe is so old there have to be far-advanced civilizations out there, billions of years more evolved than us. They have to be doing super-human engineering feats that are recognizable across intergalactic space. "Super-human" might also mean that the most advanced life-forms could very likely be post-biological. They have evolved far beyond being creatures of flesh and blood, as described in Arthur C. Clarke's "2001:A Space Odyssey."

What defines a super-civilization? In 1964, Russian astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashev proposed a scheme for classifying technologically advanced alien societies. A Type I civilization uses energy resources on a planet-wide scale, like us. A Type II civilization would have 10 billion times more energy available by trapping the total output of its central star -- perhaps by building a shell around it called a Dyson sphere. A Type III civilization would tap the energy resources of an entire galaxy -- only God knows how! This would give a further increase to power available by at least a factor of 10 billion.

(Photo: NASA)

Black Hole Appetite

Energy-hungry galactic empires might skip tapping stellar energy and simply go to extracting energy from black holes. These collapsed islands of space-time are the universe's ultimate Energizer Bunnies. They are far more efficient at converting mass to energy than are the fusion engines of stars.

But more than that, says Vidal, is the ability to control the microcosm as well. Today we can manipulate individual atoms via nanotechnology. But advanced alien physicists would tinker with elementary particles and the very structure of space-time itself.

Having mastered control over space-time, a super-civilization might want to fabricate their own black holes for a variety of tasks: waste disposal, starship propulsion, hyper-computing, maybe even time travel.

On the macro-scale, super-civilizations might re-engineer stars using black holes. The quest for immortality beyond a star's lifetime would be a big motivation.

Suppose extraterrestrials manufacture a black hole to accrete material from a burned-out star, a white dwarf. This would provide abundant energy beyond the star's fusion-burning stage.

But how would you prove the black hole was artificial? Tell-tale evidence would come from measurements that showed the black hole weighed less than 3.5 solar masses. That's the minimum mass for crushing matter into a black hole via a supernova core-collapse.

Some low-mass X-ray binary stellar pairs might be artificially constructed, Vidal speculates. Or, aliens might come up with ways to control natural X-ray binaries -- just as our ancestors extracted energy from waterfalls.

Curiously, NASA's Chandra X-ray telescope has found an overabundance of these systems within several light-years of the galactic center. The central bulge of our galaxy should be the home to the oldest civilizations because of its ancient stellar population.

SEE ALSO: Casting Call: 'The Black Hole' Remake

(Photo: NASA)

Homemade Universe

Civilizations may try to live forever by exploiting the time-dilation effects near a black hole to hibernate and survive into the very far-future universe. Something like this is wonderfully described in Isaac Asimov's short story "The Last Question." A hyper-computer called the Cosmic AC reboots the universe after our cosmos has fully entropied. After mulling over the darkness, the multidimensional machine says: "Let there be light!"

Ultimately, a super-civilization may attempt to artificially create a universe in the laboratory via black hole fabrication. This far-out notion of artificial cosmogenesis might explain why the many constants in our universe are so precisely tuned for our existence.

For example dark energy -- a repulsive form of gravity -- is a whopping 123 orders of magnitude weaker than what would have been predicted from quantum physics. This could not have happened by coincidence unless there is an infinity of parallel universes with their own different dark energy values, speculate some astrophysicists.

Or instead, dark energy is a signal of –- dare I say -- intelligent design. I’m not implying spiritual metaphysics here, but perhaps our universe might simply be a science fair project of an entity from an exo-universe.

Images: NASA

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