http://www.triplepundit.com/2009/02/do-we-need-a-%e2%80%9aauholy-grail%e2%80%9aau-technology-to-combat-climate-change/ Business, Better. Since 2005 Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:18:23 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 http://www.triplepundit.com/2009/02/do-we-need-a-%e2%80%9aauholy-grail%e2%80%9aau-technology-to-combat-climate-change/comment-page-1/#comment-10430 Noel Thompson Thu, 04 Jun 2009 03:20:45 +0000 http://www.triplepundit.com/wordpress/2009/02/do-we-need-a-%e2%80%9aauholy-grail%e2%80%9aau-technology-to-combat-climate-change/#comment-10430 First, thans for a stimulating article, and some great links like the Brooking Institute one. I used to have a friend that said it is hard to think clearly about draining the swamp when you are wrestling with the alligators. Here are our current greenhouse gas alligators---buildings and transport (and the baby alligators are industry and agriculture). We can reduce housing energy USE easily 80%: the problem is embedded energy and we need to get much more serious on both new and recycled building materials, and items like building orientation, but this is possible right now--it is not buildings that are expensive but the land they are built on. The problem with transport is mixing big vehicles and small vehicles at speed--the good guys lose. We need DUPLICATE roads for the use of small vehicles (preferably COVERED), and that is a win-win for both the small and the large since congestion on our roads has a unbelievably large productivity cost as well as the GHG emissions. Small motorbikes are extreme but they do 100 mpg right now, and we can do that in a small car with a internal combustion engine--electric might be better eventually but they will still need the duplicate covered roads so why don't we get on with them?. To go with the duplicate roads we need strategically placed parking to free up City streets and make walking enjoyable not a horror. Most of this doesn't take a Holy Grail. It does take a vision of Cities no longer grid locked anytime, and with a VILLAGE feel because of no cars on the streets during the main part of the day: and suburban living with very low speed limits, properly positioned deciduous trees, and hopefully far more "kitchen gardens"--the first step in "fixing" agriculture. If we do act on these alligators, it means that we could spend a lot more on energy per. unit and still be spending less overall, so it is not an economic necessity to find a Holy Grail. So, what will draining the swamp consist of, once we have done the obvious (but not easy)? Basically it is reducing world wide population, and the only hope for that is educating women (and men) in great professions like engineering and applied science. Unless we reduce population, all the rest would be a waste of time, but fixing housing and roads is something we can do quickly---just think how quickly we built US highways when we thought that Cities would have to be evacuated quickly because of The Bomb. I am not against Holy Grails, but as the Frenchman said in "the quest for the Holy Grail", why would we seek another when we have already got one? First, thans for a stimulating article, and some great links like the Brooking Institute one.
I used to have a friend that said it is hard to think clearly about draining the swamp when you are wrestling with the alligators. Here are our current greenhouse gas alligators—buildings and transport (and the baby alligators are industry and agriculture). We can reduce housing energy USE easily 80%: the problem is embedded energy and we need to get much more serious on both new and recycled building materials, and items like building orientation, but this is possible right now–it is not buildings that are expensive but the land they are built on.
The problem with transport is mixing big vehicles and small vehicles at speed–the good guys lose. We need DUPLICATE roads for the use of small vehicles (preferably COVERED), and that is a win-win for both the small and the large since congestion on our roads has a unbelievably large productivity cost as well as the GHG emissions. Small motorbikes are extreme but they do 100 mpg right now, and we can do that in a small car with a internal combustion engine–electric might be better eventually but they will still need the duplicate covered roads so why don’t we get on with them?.
To go with the duplicate roads we need strategically placed parking to free up City streets and make walking enjoyable not a horror.
Most of this doesn’t take a Holy Grail. It does take a vision of Cities no longer grid locked anytime, and with a VILLAGE feel because of no cars on the streets during the main part of the day: and suburban living with very low speed limits, properly positioned deciduous trees, and hopefully far more “kitchen gardens”–the first step in “fixing” agriculture.
If we do act on these alligators, it means that we could spend a lot more on energy per. unit and still be spending less overall, so it is not an economic necessity to find a Holy Grail.
So, what will draining the swamp consist of, once we have done the obvious (but not easy)? Basically it is reducing world wide population, and the only hope for that is educating women (and men) in great professions like engineering and applied science. Unless we reduce population, all the rest would be a waste of time, but fixing housing and roads is something we can do quickly—just think how quickly we built US highways when we thought that Cities would have to be evacuated quickly because of The Bomb.
I am not against Holy Grails, but as the Frenchman said in “the quest for the Holy Grail”, why would we seek another when we have already got one?

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