Combatting Climate Change: Salon's Hot List
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 11. 4.05
Salon (in partnership with Rolling Stone) has a really nice piece on their 28 leaders fighting to keep our planet cool. It's a good mix of scientists, politicians, celebrities and general global warming changemakers, from the usual suspects like Al Gore (who has an accopanying piece here), Amory Lovins and Tony Blair to high-profile celebs and business-people like Laurie David (whom we've recognized for her planet-cooling efforts before)and Hiroshi Okuda (Toyota's Chairman), to a mix of both -- Arnold Schwarzenegger, California's Governator himself. There are a few names from big business that, at first glance, seem a trifle unusual -- Duke Power CEO Paul Anderson and General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt -- but upon further review, the article shows their inclusion is well deserved for their abilities to leverage change in a typically dirty industry on a very large scale. The whole article is worth reading, and you can do it here. If you don't want to sign up for membership, you can still read the article after clicking through an ad. ::Salon.com
Salon & Rolling Stone have given us "Drive-through environmentalism" -- you can save the planet without ever getting out of your car! /// That's the uninspiring thrust of this essay. While the article notes that 70% of US energy needs go to transportation, not a single one of the environmental heroes proposes a fundamental change to the transportation system. Instead we are treated to palid proposals for hybrid SUVs. ///
Currently, our cars waste about 99% of the energy they burn. The engines operate at about 20% thermal efficiency, and then nearly all the resulting power goes to moving the car itself, which weighs 20 times as much as its typical cargo load. So only about 1% of the energy in the fuel is actually utilized to move a passenger. ///
Amory Lovins, the "Visionary" of the crew, has an answer. His "Revolution" SUV would increase average fuel economy by an astounding factor of 400%. So when his Revolution is done, an auto will use 4% of its energy to move its occupant, and only waste 96%. /// In the meantime, high-paid policy wonks and Hollywood high-rollers will trade in their SUVs for flashy new hybrids. Middle-income working people will buy the used SUVs and drive them for another 15 years. Over a couple of decades, the average fuel wastage of the entire American fleet will creep down ever-so-slowly, while in China, the number of cars increases by a factor of 10. /// But the entire supply chain of the auto-industrial complex will roll on undisturbed, widening roads, molding plastic dashboards, and designing ever more expensive child-restraint seats to safeguard the motorists of tomorrow.