Global Warming: Who’s the Real Enemy

– SOCIAL REPORT –

	Political strategy is a moving target in any debate, but can we at least be sure that our Leaders have selected the right objectives in their bid to win the battle against Global Warming?

In the ongoing heavy-weight bout against Global Warming, the tag-team proposals for pricing CO2 emissions (primarily either via Taxes or Carbon Cap and Trade) both took serious blows to the head at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference and were allowed to drop to the mat. Rather than standing back up in desperation, and vowing to take the fight into the streets, the proponents of these (so-called) “solutions” seemed content to just hang onto the ropes and wait for the bell to end the Copenhagen round. This event has now fallen apart with little to show for it than promises that things will be settled at the next U.N. Climate Change Conference, that nobody can even be bothered to set their forward sites upon at this point. Hell…Even the Copenhagen Conference website was dismantled less than a month after things wrapped up in Denmark, with little of value being forwarded from the defunct address.  Luckily there are still lots of excellent resources out there to explain the functions and perceived benefits of such complex concepts as Carbon Cap and Trade, for example…

One can’t help feel as though the Post-Copenhagen letdown has left us to either take this fight to a more personal level as the Media moves on to it’s next ‘cause celebre’, or otherwise just allow Human Nature to overtake us, and simply focus on our more immediate needs as we sub-consciously recoil from the unknowns of an uncertain Future.

Carbon Capture: A Solution in Stasis?

– EVENT REPORT –

	Worldwide adoption of Carbon Capture and Storage solutions have been delayed by an announcement at the Copenhagen Conference The link to this News Event is no longer available at COP15.dk but it has been cached at Google!

The primary thrust of the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change was to implement an accord of limiting CO2 emissions worldwide, and thus necessitate various regulatory solutions which would have required industry to either reduce their emissions, or face stiff financial consequences. This is where Carbon Capture and Storage (CSS) would have liked to step in with some immediate industrial-grade solutions, presumably while the rest of us continued to consider the enormous challenges of actually reducing and eliminating our reliance on carbon emitting fossil fuels as a Society. As mentioned previously however (COP15.dk is History), the committee under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) had discussed the issue of CCS during the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, but delayed any decisions on the subject until future summits. The committee contended that some countries had concerns over the long-term viability for the storage site, including liability for any seepage. Thus the larger challenges of capturing CO2 have seemingly become stuck behind a roadblocking question of legal liability in the ‘storage’ component of this much larger process.

Deja Vu

Proponents of Nuclear Energy will no doubt see a parallel in the bitter irony of yet another Green industry being hindered by the wasted energy and by-products of bureaucratic finagling and legal wrangling over questions of waste storage…Rather than getting on with the business of refining the existing (and already adequate) processes, while continuing to develop new and improved waste management solutions, and effectively reducing greenhouse gas emissions IMMEDIATELY, rather delaying movement until later, once the technical details and legal liabilities of any unforeseen accidents have been ironed out to the Nth degree. Carbon Capture Left Out in the Cold

What did Copenhagen teach us about CCS

In it’s search for an accord, Copenhagen seemed like a direct precursor to establishing and implementing Carbon Cap/Trade/Tax solutions, that would place financial burdens on all CO2 emitters, and incent the development and application of CO2 capture technologies to reduce such burden. Although the COP15.dk site is now dead in the water, there are still “selected” pages made available by the Danish Government, which may cast light on what the Conference organizers wished to present as their lasting legacy from this historic conference, or at least demonstrate where the organizers left things on the rather important subject of CCS. A search for “Carbon Capture” yields only four (yes, 4!) results on this rather critical next step in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Click Here, if you’d like to consider what these meagre results say about the Future of CCS from the POV of those who selectively transplanted the entire the COP15.dk site less that a month after the Copenhagen Conference closed.

CCS…Does green Energy hurt the Carbon Market?

In a short blogpost at Envirogy (derived almost entirely from Spiegel Online), we can clearly see how Green (or low emisions Renewable) Energy sources have actually hurt the price of carbon at the European Climate Exchange (and thus the cost incentives for implementing CCS), and in fact the entire system can be proven to have not reduced European carbon emmisions by a single gram!

Sitting on the Border Fences

Meanwhile, in North America, the open markets for carbon at the Chicago Climate Exchange is still awaiting the kinds of regulatory and political pressures that will kick things into a higher gear, and properly comodify Carbon in the U.S. and thus at least make select financiers, investors, and other assorted Middlemen rich in the process, if not at least repeating the lessons already being learned in Europe.

Meanwhile in the Oilpatch

Even though Copenhagen squashed any immediate hopes for Carbon Cap/Trade pricing, and delayed it’s pronouncements on teh future of CCS, searching the transplanted COP15.dk site yields a link to shipping giant Maersk’s role in bringing CO2 to oilfields in the North Atlantic, and there are examples all over the world where CO2 is pumped down into older oilwells to force out remaining oil, and maximize yield.  In fact contrary to popular belief, CO2 has already been getting stored in large quantities within used up gasfields, with the only concerns so far being in small amounts of CO2 re-escaping via carbonated water in the formations, and the possible formation of carbonic acid within any porous water areas. The fixation in carbonate minerals is playing only a minor role, so the search to chemically ‘fix’ CO2 into a more neutral and stable state will continue.

TBC…This is a work in progress

Please feel free to add to this Report Stub via the Comments Section below

Worldwide adoption of Carbon Capture and Storage solutions have been delayed by an announcement at the Copenhagen Conferenc

COP15.dk is History!

MEDIA & IMPACT REPORT:

	The official website for the Copenhagen Climate Conference has been taken down, and traffic is being redirected to : “The Official Website of Denmark”

Near the end of the proceedings at last months U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, news was posted to the official Conference website (COP15.dk) that capturing Carbon Dioxide (CO2) at the source (of industrial emissions) and storing it underground is not likely to become a measure supported by the UN-backed Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) this year. A committee under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has discussed the issue, but delayed any decisions until future summits.

Please don’t bother clicking on the above-mentioned COP15.dk link though, because less than a month after the conclusion of the conference, this newslink is now unavailable, along with all the rest of the COP15.dk website! Instead, all traffic is being directed to “The Official Website of Denmark”.

What we’re left with, as a reference on this historic event less than a month later, is a mere footnote that states: “this page contains a selection of some of the most popular content from Denmark’s Host Country website for UN Climate Change Conference 2009 –  cop15.dk ”

What possible reasons could there be for taking down this official site so quickly? What benefits could possibly be derived from removing this enormous resource? Most importantly, what are the perceived repercussions of such an obviously hasty demise of what should have our greatest reference point on Climate Change at the end of 2009, if not an actual public launchpoint as we move forward through the Post-Copenhagen letdown, and proceed with all the work adn understanding that still needs to be accomplished?

Sightings: Irony Falls Like Snow in Copenhagen

– SIGHTINGS REPORT –

The Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen is getting precipitously close to it’s closing remarks, and we’re now learning what we’ve already suspected, which is that the best we should hope for from COP15 is just a few pages of a framework to be further negotiated and ratified at the NEXT COP conference…We would hope! The irony of making positive forward statements on the effects of Future climate talks, even while a disappointing cause is still unfolding, is further emphasized by the following video fragments…

As World leaders were arriving in Copenhagen on December 17th, we were treated to a decidedly inopportune time for Mother Nature to show us her hand, with a solid covering of up to 10 cm. of heavy snow falling on the city just as the world turned it’s eyes to Denmark to see how this conference can manage to produce something of value at the 11th Hour. In a time when legions of dissenters and skeptics are seizing upon every conspiracy imaginable, perhaps this is a chance for Climate Change supporters to suggest that it is the Imperialistic interests of Big Oil and Coal that have seeded this snow for maximum effect! After all…Russian officials have allegedly claimed that they can prevent snow from falling in Moscow this winter, and China has already had some seriously damaging results from it’s own efforts to seed precipitation in it’s drought stricken regions!

While we possibly consider just how far some people will go to assure an orderly progress to establishing a New World (uhm) Order….Here’s a quick roundup of some of the other bitter ironies that unfolded during this same 24 hour period:

Let’s start with a couple of serene and peaceful moments…

…before facing the ironies of fighting against Global Warming, while shoveling through any of the heavier consequences that follow:

IR: Subtle Effects of Global Warming

IMPACT REPORT: More Subtle Effects of Global Warming

We all know the Earth is warming, but it’s getting harder to get a clear reading on exactly what the causes and effects are of Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) because of all the polarized rhetoric in the Media around the “man-made” aspects of this question. Obviously decisive precautionary actions must be taken to immediately reduce greenhouse gases while we sort out the rest of society’s environmental ills, but what if the Science behind AGW has somehow become too skewed by political or funding pressures? What if the need and desire to create a unified and global movement against Climate Change has now also became a leveraged force that can be managed to produce new political alignments, financial vehicles, and world banking results as well? As Environauts, we can start our search for answers by looking at the Present for signs of possible Futures. Let’s begin the process in Copenhagen.

SR: Global Warming is just the Beginning

–  SOCIAL REPORT  –

Recent events around the uber-hyped Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen may be overshadowing the entire Green Movement, and casting a pale pallor of doubt over our entire outlook on the Future of our Environment. The faint silver lining to these looming storm clouds however, is that by now we should all have a much more realistic sense of what we can expect from the political processes and backroom shenanigans involved in addressing Climate Change via the United Nations. What we can also take away from things (after the DanishText leak, and ClimateGate scandals, right-wing Media backlash, etc..) is a more personally resolved understanding of Global Warming, that isn’t dependant on spoon-fed Media pablum for it’s vitality. We might also feel ready to resign any false expectations that we may have placed in the dubious value of Eco-Stunts, Public rallys, citizen marches, internet petitions, and other publicity hungry fabrications built upon good intentions, and amounting to little more than fodder for the Media, and some personal catharsis.

Instead we’re now better prepared to at least accept (if not undertake) an ongoing, and longer-term outlook on the real and genuine grass roots solutions that will be required, long after everyone has flown back home from Denmark and unpacked their souvenirs. Unfortunately, the road map to sustainable change is no less clear now, than it was when we embarked on what we had collectively hoped would’ve been a much more visible and direct route to the more immediate resolutions we’d all hoped for in Copenhagen.

Let’s first consider how we got here, as we re-plot our course towards a more sustainable Future. One where we don’t just wait for politically driven bureaucratic processes to come to the rescue, and somehow reduce one particular (CO2) by-product of an unhealthy civilization. Rather, let’s shelf the idea of simply delegating our environmental responsibilities to representative politicians long enough to consider what would happen if we were to personally hold established Environmental and Ecological principals as our highest standard in forging a better Future for us all

Climate Change: Gaming the Odds

Go ahead...Take a spin...but only ONE spin

Much like the frog who will happily sit in a steadily warming pot until he boils to death, a recent survey from the Pew Research Center, finds that 3/4 of Americans think that Climate Change is an important issue, but don’t perceive it as an immediate threat. This Washington D.C based think tank tasks itself with gathering data and providing correlative info behind the issues, trends that shape attitudes in the United States and thus affect the rest of world. Unfortunately for the rest of the world, it turns out that Climate Change has ranked at the very bottom of a list of 20 issues that included Terrorism and the Economy.

The Environment rated abit better in this same 2009 report, at 16 out of 20, but also saw a 15 point decline from 2008.

Of course it stands to reason that building a better future requires a solid foundation, and it’s understandable why Americans would want to get their own household affairs in order before trying to reinvent the wheels of their economy and social fabric. But before a greater vision of the future can even begin to be shared, let alone put into motion, it seems that there are basic credibility issues to be ironed out on the subject of Climate Change.

Americans seem rather divided on the whole issue of Global warming with only 49% believing that it is the result of man-made factors and activities.

36% say warming is occurring “mostly because of natural changes in the atmosphere.” About one-in-ten (11%) say “there is no solid evidence that the earth is getting warmer.” There’s also a strong correlation between the results and respondents political ideology, with only 21% of conservative Republicans saying the earth is warming due to human activity, compared with the nearly three-quarters (74%) of liberal Democrats who see humans as a root cause of Climate Change.

Is this a cognitive disconnect caused by a partisan political outlook? Or are there other more deeply rooted Sociological or even Psychological issues at play here? Could there be a tendency for humans to cower in denial at the prospect of issues that they feel powerless to change? Or are we just incapable of grasping the big picture long enough to see alternate possibilities, and deeper causes ?

Carbon Credits: The House Always Wins

…Unless of course the “House” gets shut down on charges of corruption, fraud, bribery, price fixing and graft. At which point the rest of the story just recedes into fading history.

Nobody gives much thought to Enron anymore these days…

A Captive Market for Carbon

The concept of Climate Change is indeed big and scary…

Just like Life, Climate Change is complex, confusing, full of surprises, and just like Life (as we know it), too much time spent simply studying and debating all the underlying issues could keep us busy for decades, while “Life” actually passes us by, and our lasting legacy on Earth just becomes entrenched in dirt.

So for the sake of expediency, let’s just take a popular approach to this complex issue and simplify the question to the point where answers become self-evident. Without getting distracted by too much context from the big picture, or recoiling in fear from the dire consequences of ignorance, let’s just go ahead and look at today’s biggest and baddest bogeyman…Carbon Dioxide.

Since there isn’t any real room for serious debate on why our climate is seemingly changing so precipitously fast, we’ll just proceed on the presumption that CO2 is the root cause of all global warming, and consider the potential for innovation in this self-limited space .

First, here’s a quick recap of Carbon Capture and Sequestration/Storage (CCS) if you’d like a short review, before we get into things further below.

One of the best options to curtailing CO2 emisions so far, comes from a Canadian company that is among several that sees an emerging market for CCS.

A Serious Data Leak in the AGW Model

By now everyone is well aware of the “ClimateGate” issue that has spread like wildfire though the increasingly dry and over-warmed looking underbrush around the Copenhagen Conference. Just as a refresher, the volatile allegations behind this story first surfaced on November 19 at an inauspiciously excellent little WordPress Blog called The Air Vent. Although it’s administrating Editor/Writer was impeccably self-measured, and even-handed his own dispensation of the files that were offered exclusively to him – the results have since set off a maelstrom of reactions among Climate Skeptics, and the Climate Change Deniers out there. As expected, these Contrarians are claiming the “leaked” files from the University of East Anglia’s Hadley Climatic Research Unit (CRU) represent “evidence” that is being touted as proof positive that Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW), or Man-Made Climate Change, is indeed at least subject to fabrication, motivating a monumental hoax that’s being pulled off by the profiteers who’ve already invested heavily in the interests that seek to remediate this supposedly trumped up global issue. This represents an enormous event that can sway the many fence-sitters out there, and many other “tippy” factors as well!

Whether the files were illegally “hacked”, as was initially reported in the Press, or “leaked” as the early sources have claimed, (Vote your opinion below) this issue is only now just beginning to truly resonate with it’s aftershocks, as the implications start to become more widely apparent and reported.  The long-simmering underlying issue here has been the actual sources of the Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) theory. This point of contention has been fueled by ongoing and largely suppressed complaints about the supposedly deficient peer-review process behind AGW, and also stirred up by  speculations about the allegedly biased nature of the very well-funded research bodies and fractured  scientific communities that have supposedly been coerced (financially or politically) into creating and maintaining a one-sided view of the AGW theory. So much so, that according to Skeptics, this scientific cabala of sorts has systematically shunned or ostracized all those who’ve called for a more pluralistic scrutiny, or wider debate and peer-review process of the central issues, and supporting sciences behind AGW. These allegations point to a version of Science that now seems corruptible, and that can not only be bought at a commercial level (of course), but also influenced at the Public level though the grants, disbursements, and any other political mechanisms that can exert influence upon university-based research(ers) as well. On the other side of this equation we have a Scientific Community and attendant Press Corps that supports AGW with an almost religious devotion, that relies heavily on dogma and ridicule in order to maintain its unquestionable positions.

As such, this disastrously well-timed leak/hack (whichever you prefer) has clearly shaken those of us who wanted to believe that all Scientists were automatically held to the high standards dictated by their profession, and were infallible in their altruistic search for unbiased fact and clear understanding of the world around us. At the least, this event could just simply demonstrate just how polarized we’ve all become on the issues behind Climate Change, that we now can’t see shades of grey because of all the black/white rhetoric that we must buy into, and uphold at all costs. Lest we be labeled accordingly as pariahs!

Although playing the Devil’s Advocate might entertain us while we watch things play out in the short-term, Environauts are in fact much more concerned about the effectors and events of Causality that exist behind such issues, and how they can sum to larger, longer term impacts upon the future of our environment. This one event that has shaken not only the entire Scientific Community by it’s roots, but also upset all the Industrial and Political dependencies that underpinned the AGW movement, and most certainly qualifies this as a very “tippy” event, and that will undoubtedly trigger many more and varied Future impacts as it moves down the timeline.

To consider the possibilities of both the positive and negative repercussions, you can quickly review our Future Impact Report HERE

Or delve further into the circumstances of this event, starting with a quick opinion survey by clicking for MORE below…