Climate Change - The latest science, why it’s serious and what we can do about it. Chuck Kutscher, Ph.D. NREL scientist Chuck Kutscher presented for the IEEE Pikes Peak Chapter and the SouthEast Chapter of the Colorado Renewable Energy Society in Colorado Springs on Feb 22, 2015. Support our work at CRES by joining or renewing today: http://cres-energy.org/support-us/join/individual-membership/ Note: Use http://clipwrap.org to download this or any other video on youtube or vimeo for offline viewing. Chuck Kutscher, Ph.D., P.E. is Director of the Buildings and Thermal Systems Center at NREL and a founding member of the Colorado Renewable Energy Society (CRES). http://cres-energy.org Remember the First Rule of Holes? If you’ve dug yourself into a hole, the first rule is to stop digging! Which also holds for Climate Change: We need to stop carbon emissions first and foremost. In his presentation for the Southeast chapter of CRES, Dr. Chuck Kutscher first delved into the latest science which clearly shows the mechanism and the culprit: the proven greenhouse gas effect of pumping massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution. The air we breathe now contains 25% more carbon than that day just 60 years ago—an increase on an unprecedented time scale. There is a “good news part,” however, especially for the Renewable Energy industry whose many sectors combined are far enough along to replace our dead ended fossil fuel economy. And replace it we must, considering that our ultimate goal needs to be to reduce carbon emissions to zero as rapidly as possible. On that path, carbon capture and storage as well as nuclear power are very expensive, which fortunately is not true for Renewables and Efficiency.  Ambitious efficiency targets and investment into Renewable Energy pay for themselves extremely quickly, both financially and in terms of their Energy Return on Investment (EROI). One prime target is the building sector which is bound for new and rebuilt buildings to the tune of an area equal to 3.5 times the entire building stock of the U.S. by 2030.  Architect Edward Mazria’s campaign architecture2030.org argues in its “Roadmap to Zero Emissions” that we can indeed manage to incorporate our extensive new energy efficiency knowhow to turn buildings from a climate problem into a climate solution. Envelope design, daylighting, use of LEDs, and stringent efficiency standards are proven to make a huge difference. Other efficiency improvements will improve transportation with lighter weight fleets,  more public transportation and electric vehicles, and reduce industry needs with heat recovery, better motors, and widespread use of cogeneration or “combined heat and power” (CHP). On the power generation side, Renewables are starting to pull head to head with fossil fuel cost even before accounting for externalities with wind, photovoltaics (PV), and concentrating solar power (CSP) in the lead. The latter also solves the problem of intermittency by adding thermal storage beyond peak hours using molten salt. Worldwide wind power is seeing continuing growth being both scalable and profitable. Biomass and biofuels, including wood chips, switch grass, poplars, corn stover, and municipal solid waste, are promising substitution products for fats and oils for industry and transportation, which, depending on the source material result in much lower relative green house gas emissions than fossil fuels. Biochar—pyrolyzing biomass to produce fuel while also removing CO2 as charcoal from the carbon cycle—also figures on the carbon removal side of the equation. Overall, potential U.S. carbon reductions can be achieved from a combination of efficiency gains (57%) plus Renewables (43%) to get us onto paths of 60 to 80% reductions by 2030. Several studies find that compared to incurring costly damage from climate change effects ($271 bn/yr, Ackerman, 2008) embarking on a carbon neutral course is a substantial bargain ($26 bn). A long awaited study quantified positive economic and jobs impacts of a transition in the US to the tune of 4.5 million net jobs created (Bezdek & Wendling, Int’l J. of Global Warming).  This study, like Chuck’s talk,  used data from a 2007 ASES report Dr. Kutscher coordinated, entitled “Tackling Climate Change in the U.S.” But Kutscher warned not focus too much on expected economic benefits. After all, we are not pursuing a transition to create jobs but to stabilize global climate which is a prerequisite to sustain human civilization. At present we are melting both polar ice caps and are headed for tipping points that may accelerate our decline beyond hope. Organizations like CRES, which Kutscher co-founded, will need to step up their game to change course. The time for action is now. Dr. Kutscher’s presentation and opinions expressed are his own, not those of his employer. Produced & edited by Martin Voelker (CRES).

• published: 28 Feb 2015
• views: 7