Innovations for a Low-Carbon Society

There was a surplus of amazing events on campus this week although none was quite as informative as The José de Acosta Lecture by Dr. Daniel Kammen. In breif, Kammen is heavily involved with government policy:

Kammen advises the U. S. and Swedish Agencies for International Development, the World Bank, and the Presidents Committee on Science and Technology (PCAST), and is a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Working Group III and the Special Report on Technology Transfer). Dr. Kammen serves on the technical review board for the GEF (the STAP), is a lead author for the Special Report on Technology Transfer of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and advises the World Bank and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and well as the African Academy of Sciences.

His analysis was thoroughly embedded within a policy framework and ways that we will be able to meet goals outlined by the state of California and most recently President Obama in Copenhagen which seek to keep carbon levels below.

Quick facts:

Kenyans get more energy per person from solar than anywhere else on earth (due to a lack of energy infrastructure)

The only ‘green’ or carbon neutral billionaire? Suntech founder Dr. Zhengrong Shi

By 2030 the U.S. government estimates 20% of our energy will come from solar…currently around 1% (according to Kammen this is a conservative est.)

New policy terms you should know:

PACE: Property Assessed Clean Energy loans through local governments, obligation transfers with ownership

Cap and Dividend: It caps fossil fuel supplies, makes polluters pay, and returns the revenue to everyone equally.

Vinod Khosla on Innovation

Came across this video a few weeks back but realized that it has really catalyzed my optimistic mindset for the future.

The problem for many people is that they cannot even begin to fathom and thus disregard what is possible.

What people believe is what most gets in the way of what we want to make happen.

About halfway through Vinod really gets at the core of the  argument

Rate of new adoption is going up (29:14)

We will see more change in the next 30 years than we saw since 1926 (30:55)

Carbon Trees

As I was passing through one of my favorite news sites, Frontline, I came across one of their recent World reports that focuses on the effects of climate change and in particular the impending  “trillion-dollar carbon trading market” that appears headed toward creation (See COP15).

I posted the first piece from “The Money Tree” below although if you watch the entire episode you will come across the Green Police and be forced to think ever more critically of the unintended effects of each action.

In the end I came away with many new questions but a clearer picture of how the process works in far away lands. I simply do not understand why the natives cannot stay on the land so long as they are not expanding…which may be part of the reason for their expulsion.

Additional reading from Mother Jones