End of year/new year thoughts, pt. 2

I noticed the headline for this article in the SF Chronicle a few days ago but I avoided reading the story because of the wording:  "Earth on track for epic die-off, scientists say."  The main point wasn't as bad as the headline implied, and the reporter included this line: 

 "If we redouble our conservation efforts, we can stem the tide of extinctions and have those species around in the future," he said. "There is a bit of urgency here. By demonstrating that we have already lost 15 to 42 percent of mammalian diversity, the question is, do we really want to lose any more? I think the answer to that is pretty obvious." 

The scientist quoted is Anthony Barnoski, a UC-Berkeley biologist (integrative biology), and he is referring to the mass die-off that occurred in N. America 12,000 years ago when humans arrived on this continent.

Redouble our efforts.

I read about a relatively cheap and effective idea to combat global warming that's gotten little attention. The plan, to paint roofs white, would be effective in cities.  According to this article in the L.A. Times, the suggestion by Steven Chu, if put into effect, might save as much carbon dioxide from building up in the atmosphere as removing 600 million cars from the roads for 18 years.  The estimate did not provide data as to the average mileage of the cars, so I assume they meant standard American cars with an average of 25 miles per gallon efficiency.

Drawbacks to this plan include questions of aesthetics and the inability of white roofs in colder climates to melt snow, thereby raising heating costs because the sun's heat would not penetrate through the snow and the reflective coating.  However, this plan would be highly effective in hotter, sunny climates.  The fastest growing regions in the USA are the South and Southwest, so this would be beneficial in those regions, and world wide, more people live in equatorial cities  than in cities north of the equator.

Another relatively cheap plan would be to replace wood-burning ovens that produce heavy amounts of particulate matter with efficient solar ovens, or clean stoves (carbon offset projects demo).  According to Wired, this relatively cheap intervention would reduce or eliminate one quarter of the world's soot and smoke released into the atmosphere, the type of particulate matter that coal-fired power plants and cars produce.  A climate report released by UCSD's Scripps Institution of Oceanography in March, 2008 described the immediate improvement to be accrued if smokeless stoves were to be distributed throughout regions relying on wood, dung or coal for cooking fuel.  According to the authors of that report, (also quoted in the Wired article), soot and other particulate air pollution are 60% as polluting as carbon dioxide.  These particulates, called 'black carbon,' are also produced by burning diesel fuel and so are produced in northern regions that rely on diesel to heat homes in the winter.  A number of agencies have begun projects to distribute clean stoves, including the Surya Project, begun by Dr. Veerabhadran Ramanathan, of Scripps (see above).

So, what do we have?  Projects to distribute clean stoves, a plan to paint roofs white and a net result of slowing global warming.  Not too bad.  To quote another of my favorite authors, too often we are paralyzed by the difficult choices set before us and thereby miss our options.

next post:  vertical farms