“The light at the end of the Tunnel” on the Middle Fork
At Mother Lode we are concerned that there are at least twelve (12) major environmental challenges that currently face humankind. It is not enough to address human induced climate change in isolation. Nevertheless, global warming is both urgent and important, and we intend to do what we can to make a difference on this issue.
If you have questions about the science that supports human induced climate change, or are interested in how we think it fits into the larger environmental picture, we have other blog postings that address these issues. We look forward to your input and assistance in making our collective efforts more effective in all the areas of environmental concern. We are also excited to hear what you are doing at home, at work, and in your community to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Choosing a Goal
If you have had a chance to review our discussion on global warming, you know we are convinced that the goals being set nationally and internationally are not aggressive enough to get the results we need. To avoid the worst environmental consequences, the number of 500 ppm of carbon dioxide has repeatedly appeared in the press as the level we should stay below. Yet the world has never been above the present 350 ppm concentration of carbon dioxide in at least the last 650,000 years. There is no good scientific evidence that staying under 500 ppm will avert the major consequences that are predicted. In fact, the CEO of General Electric, a participant in the USCAP group, indicated that the goals of the USCAP group were likely to allow some of the worst consequences to occur but that more aggressive goals had not been proposed specifically to avoid hurting the bottom line of the companies that participated. I think he was embarrassed.
Let’s first look at goals that have been proposed worldwide:
Sir Isaac Stern, Great Britain’s Finance Minister, who is charged with the responsibility of studying the issue of global warming and setting goals for the United Kingdom, in late 2006 suggested that the world expend 1% of gross economic product to achieve a greenhouse gas reduction of 30 % by 2020 and 50% by 2050.
The January 22, 2007 recommendation by the USCAP consortium consisting of 10 major US corporations and 4 NGOs recommended 100-105% of today’s level within 5 years of enactment of legislation, 90-100% within 10 years and 70-90% within 15 years.
California’s State goal under AB 32 was a 20% reduction by 2020.
The American Institute of Architect’s “30/30 challenge” calls for a 30% reduction by 2030.
Let’s go for 20% by 2012, 40% by 2020 and 80% by 2050.
How will we do it? Very aggressively, and hope to do even better. This may not be good enough!
Clearly, the effect of our behavior will be miniscule in itself. However, we will plan to use our efforts to educate and inspire.
*We can affect the County of El Dorado’s activities. One river related improvement would be a private boater “green” shuttle initially with natural gas or biodiesel transitioning to hydrogen gas generated by solar as it becomes available.
*Given that it is nearby,we can lobby at the State level in Sacramento. The Governor has shown he is commited, we should support him and urge even stronger action. For instance, he could mandate changes in Title 24 of the building code to cause new building and remodeling to meet higher energy efficiency standards. We can also lobby our representatives at the Federal level (Senators Boxer and Feinstein should be especially receptive) regarding changes to Title 24, increasing Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFE) standards for autos, and actions to invent and deploy alternative energy technologies.
*We can write to the USCAP group and urge them to have more aggressive goals and look more realistically at nuclear power as well. The statement by the CEO of Duke Energy that nuclear power has “no carbon imprint” is lunacy.
*We will partner up with everyone we can. There should be as many partners as possible!
*We can also affect every participant in our programs. They can write letters to government bodies that are considering legislation and they can affect their own communities through grass roots action.
*We can urge all our participants to carpool and educate them the importance of purchasing more efficient vehicles such as hybrids and plug-in hybrids/etc.
Cheap Technology Investment$ Expensive Technology Investment$$
*We will reduce electrical use by appropriate adjustment of thermostats, turning off lights, computers, and electrical appliances when not in use. We will change procedures to reduce use of these items.
*$Replace as many lights as possible with LEDs or energy efficient fluorescent globes.
*$$Replace appliances with energy efficient appliances.
$$Install solar panels
$$$Design and install solar/ gravity battery system based around climbing wall upgrade. A personal, but admittedly impractical, favorite!
Propane Use:
*Heating of water- we can turn down our water heater.
*$$ Augment water heater with solar heating.
*$$We can transition to flash heaters and have no heated water storage.
*We can reduce water use with even lower flow heads.
$ We can place timers on showers and lights.
*We can restrict shower use to overnight guests.
*We can adjust thermostats in the house.
*We can eliminate the mobile home altogether.
$$We can convert the mobile home to a new form of heat.
*Cooking- be more careful with use. Keep gear clean.
Gasoline consumed by us:
*We can make food shopping more time and motion efficient by using vendors and reducing trips.
$$We can use a more fuel-efficient vehicle for shopping and errands and make errands more efficient. Steal Catherine’s Prius!
*We can make shuttles more efficient by reducing the number of small trips, consolidating trips, reducing the types of trips.
$$We can replace gasoline with recovered cooking oil and replace gas vehicles with diesel vehicles that will burn it.
Gasoline consumed by customers:
*We can encourage carpooling and hybrid vehicles by incentive parking
*We can sell or give away cool T-shirts: “carpoolers never swim, hybrid carpoolers walk on water!”; “count all your carbon, make all your carbon count!”; “Help Buy the Farm!” with a windmill farm and a thermal solar collector farm plugged into a hybrid.
*We can reward hybrid owners by letting them eat first.
$$We can provide electrical hookups for plug-in hybrids driven by solar panels
*We can facilitate bus transportation for groups
*We can shuttle groups of clients from bus terminals or train terminals: AMTRAC specials
Food Program:
*More vegetables, less meat. Move down the food chain.
*Locally grown food.
*Less waste of food.
*Fewer paper and plastic products.
$Enlarge the organic garden.
Property Maintenance:
$$Replace gasoline water pump with electric pump and run on solar power/electricity credit with utility company.
Recycling /Waste Control Program:
*Better system for cans and bottles with better marking to increase compliance and better ergonomics to decrease labor/ risks of recycling to employees.
*Use less paper, recycle more of it.
*Go paperless on reservations and in every way possible.
