Glaciers and the Future of Cities

If in fact glaciers are melting at faster and faster rates, i.e. faster than even the gloomiest forecasting scientists predicted, then maybe it is in fact likely that our oceans will at some point in the next couple of dozen to hundred or so years flood the low lying areas. We'll all be, at our coastal edges, Holland or New Orleans.

If this happens, however, and ocean rise will be due to glacial water that once was ice, that water will be fresh water, not salt water, pushing up that rise.

Based on other predictions, this may be happening as fresh water becomes in less and less supply, due to rapidly growing urbanization and suburbanization, which is swallowing up ecosystems and watersheds, while putting increasing human demand on fresh water supplies.

Which may mean that technologies which desalinate fresh water may also give birth to technologies which can pull the fresh water from glacial melt out of the oceans.

After all, fresh water in oceans is going to affect the balance of life there. The salt water ocean life isn't going to need the fresh water, but people will. And people won't need the extra water inundating our coastal areas. So maybe this is an opportunity in disguise. Imagine the industries that could grow up around pulling that fresh water out of the rising oceans, restore the salt-fresh water balance in the oceans,

However, if this scenario is at all feasible, what will be the power behind the mechanisms that can pull excess fresh water from oceans to restore salt-fresh water balance and make glacial melt from oceans available for human use?

Will it be fossil fuels? As this scenario unfolds, fossil fuels will become less and less viable due to increasing global warming and concerns about global warming, and due to less and less availability of fossil fuels due to Peak Oil.

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First Organic Distributor in US Gets Solar System

"Veritable Vegetable, a San Francisco-based company that has distributed organic produce since 1974, has just gotten an upgrade that will promote its sustainable agenda even further: it's had a 560-panel, 106 kilowatt solar electric system installed on top of its main warehouse in the city. And it's poised to help make one of the first green voices in the American business community even greener.



"Along with supplying a steady stream of renewable electricity, the solar system will have the added benefit of saving the company around $60,000 a year. Which means the system should pay for itself in 5 years, and supply free electricity for at least an additional 25—good news for Veritable's bottom line." Oldest Organic Produce Company in the US Gets a Solar-Powered Upgrade

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Car Sharing, Ride SharingZipCar, GoLocoMESH Wireless Networks, Congestion Pricing

TED Talks Robin Chase: Getting cars off the road and data into the skies - with Ad Hoc, Peer-to-Peer, Self-Configuring Wireless Networks, aka MESH

Robin Chase on Wired

ZipCar

GoLoco



Congestion Pricing

Congestion Pricing on Wikipedia

Ray LaHood - Conservative Republican from Peoria, HQ of Caterpillar, Embraces Racial Idea of Mileage Tax, Which Obama Nixes

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Renault-Nissan, "A Better Place" andNEC Tokin (Li-ion Car Battery Manufacturer)Partner for EV Cars, Infrastructure

A Better Place is an Israeli company building EV infrastructure
Project Better Place & Renault-Nissan to Electrify Israel ~
Head of Renault-Nissan Opens YouTube Video from AutoChannel January 2008:



Israeli car company A Better Place -
Dafna Berezovski, sales and marketing manager - May 2008:



Nissan and NEC to clean up electric car market with more powerful Li-ion cells - 2007



Israel Will Be First Country to Mass Market Electric Car - Target 2011
Anticipation of Decreasing Israeli Coal Use by 50%:



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Town Totnes, Reimagining Money, Social Finance

Founder of Odwallah with the Founder of Visa International:

Reimagining Money, writing by the Organizational Culture director at RSF Social Finance:

Transition Towns like Totnes, Devon, UK and Sebastopol, CA, US:

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Bank "Stress Tests";Private Equity Down 15-50%;Wall Street Journal Writer on "End of Wall Street As We Know It"

"Big investors like pension funds and endowments, licking their wounds from miserable returns last year, are bracing for more.

"In the next few weeks, private-equity firms -- which buy companies, take them private, restructure and resell them -- will report declines of 15% to 50% for the fourth quarter of 2008 amid the deep economic recession, analysts and investors say. Two big private-equity firms already have reported sizable declines in the value of their hard-to-price holdings.

"Those drops in turn will further batter the performance of public pension funds, foundations and endowments. These institutional investors had barreled into private-equity investing ..." Big Investors Face Deeper Losses As Private-Equity Shops Revalue Assets, Institutions Brace for Worst - Mar 2009

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"'I don't think there is a pass-fail on the stress test,'" a government official said. "'This stress test is not a test for who is insolvent or not.'"

"Rather, government officials say the tests will be used to gauge how much extra capital big banks might need as a buffer to continue lending through the economic downturn. The Treasury Department said Tuesday that it would invest an additional $100 billion and $200 billion into banks on top of the $250 billion it has already said it would put in.

"Lawmakers, analysts, and some bankers argue the banking system is worse off than many acknowledge. David Burg, a portfolio manager at Alpine Mutual Funds in Purchase N.Y., said a severe stress test could show that 98% of banks "need a lot more capital." Reviews, 'Stress Tests' May Reveal Deeper Bank Troubles - Feb 2009

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"Written by seasoned financial writer Dave Kansas, The Wall Street Journal Guide to the End of Wall Street as We Know It makes sense of the madness, revealing how the crisis is affecting our financial lives and what steps we should take to inform and protect ourselves. This comprehensive, practical and accessible book delivers:

  * An inside look at the financial wizardry, easy money and overconfidence that drove the subprime crisis, credit crunch and market meltdown

  * An analysis of the New World Order—the banking behemoths, the government's role—and how it will affect Main Street

  * A look at what's safe: a rundown of which investments are protected and which aren't and how fund protection has changed

  * Individual investor strategies: stocks, bonds, retirement and real estate (and whether you should think seriously about 'the mattress') ...

"Dave Kansas is Editor at Large of FiLife.com, a new online personal finance joint venture between Dow Jones and IAC Corp. Prior to that, Kansas spent four years as editor of The Wall Street Journal's Money & Investing section and was editor in chief of TheStreet.com during its formative years, and he is the author of two previous books, The Wall Street Journal's Complete Money & Investing Guidebook and TheStreet.com Guide to Investing in the Internet Era. He and his wife, Monica, live in New York City." The Wall Street Journal Guide to the End of Wall Street as We Know It: What You Need to Know About the Greatest Financial Crisis of Our Time--and How to Survive It (Paperback)

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When economy bottoms out, how will we know?

"... the economy always recovers. It runs in cycles, and economists are watching an array of statistics, some of them buried deep beneath the headlines, to spot the turning point. The Associated Press examined three markets — housing, jobs and stocks — and asked experts where things stand and how to know when they've hit bottom.

"None of them expects it to come anytime soon." When economy bottoms out, how will we know?

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12,000 at Youth SummitEnvironmental Conference onClimate Change, Clean Energy Revolution

"... an estimated 12,000 young people were at the D.C. Convention Center for Power Shift ’09, the largest youth summit on climate change in history. College and high school students from all fifty states, all Canadian provinces, as well as a dozen countries, came together to discuss organizing for a clean energy revolution on the local and national levels." Power Shift ’09: 12,000+ Students Attend Largest Youth Summit on Climate Change in US History

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ECO:nomics Conference, Ford, the New Green Economy

Head of Ford Motor Company at Dow Jones' ECO:nomics Conference:

"'We really have lost a generation,' he said, turning back to the issue at hand. In the past, Ford 'did not have a consistency of purpose,' he said, but is now committed to producing vehicles that are 'best in class.'

"He reiterated that Ford’s mix of vehicles will do a 180 in coming years, with light cars—rather than trucks and SUVs–representing two-thirds of the automaker’s lineup, as rising energy prices make fuel-efficient cars a priority for consumers." "Ford’s Mulally: Replacing the Lost Generation One Customer at a Time"



Head of Sierra Club: ECO:nomics Conference, Disappointingly,
Largely Still Not Moving Past the Economy vs. Ecology Debate

"Santa Barbara, CA -- The 'ECO:nomics' conference was billed as an opportunity to learn about the economic opportunities of a new green economy and 'creating environmental capital,' and Dow Jones/The Wall Street Journal certainly pulled together a stellar resource pool -- not only Al Gore and Amory Lovins but also Ford CEO Alan Mulally, Anne Mulcahy of Xerox, Boone Pickens, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, the heads of three of the nation's biggest electrical utilities (Duke, AEP, PG&E), and Bill McDonough.

"But while the Journal's deputy managing editor, Alan Murray, conceded that this year's conference took place in an entirely different economic climate than last year's, it seemed that for the Journal and Dow Jones it was 'forward to the past.' Huge chunks of time were given to enviro skeptics like Bjorn Lomborg and Vaclav Klaus but, far worse, the Journal team interviewing the luminaries seemed firmly stuck in the paradigm of 'now that we have a global economic crisis, surely we can't afford this environmental stuff anymore.'" Dow Jones Misses It

2007 Article About Carl Pope speaking on "Changing the U.S. National Agenda"

" ... a huge part of society’s resources will be devoted to the reality that climate change is happening. For example, I was in Chicago recently. You know what the biggest challenge facing Chicago with climate change is? Termites. They don’t have termites; it’s too cold in the winter. So every building in Chicago has been built without any consideration about protecting them from termites. The whole city could just fall down.

"Cities like Santa Barbara are essentially engineered on the model of a roof to the gutter. Water falls on the roof and then you get it into the gutter, down into the storm drain, and to the ocean. We are going to need to re-engineer all of our urban areas into a model of a sponge. They are going to have to catch every drop and store it if we want to survive....

"The only way carbon dioxide is ever removed from the atmosphere is by living creatures: oceans, grasslands, forests, and soils. We have never really thought about the degree to which soil degradation is now a climate problem." Sierra Club’s Executive Director Carl Pope on Global Warming, Water, and Al Gore ... The Green Pope

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Recession, Depression, Contraction - Semantics or Clarification?

"WASHINGTON (AP) — A Depression doesn't have to be Great — bread lines, rampant unemployment, a wipeout in the stock market. The economy can sink into a milder depression, the kind spelled with a lowercase 'd.'

"And it may be happening now.

"The trouble is, unlike recessions, which are easy to define, there are no firm rules for what makes a depression. Everyone at least seems to agree there hasn't been one since the epic hardship of the 1930s.

"But with each new hard-times headline, most recently an alarming economic contraction of 6.2 percent in the fourth quarter, it seems more likely that the next depression is on its way.

"'We're probably in a depression now. But it's not going to be acknowledged until years go by. Because you have to see it behind you,' said Peter Morici, a business professor at the University of Maryland.

"No one disputes that the current economic downturn qualifies as a recession. Recessions have two handy definitions, both in effect now — two straight quarters of economic contraction, or when the National Bureau of Economic Research makes the call.

"Declaring a depression is much trickier.

"By one definition, it's a downturn of three years or more with a 10 percent drop in economic output and unemployment above 10 percent. The current downturn doesn't qualify yet: 15 months old and 7.6 percent unemployment. But both unemployment and the 6.2 percent contraction for late last year could easily worsen.

"Another definition says a depression is a sustained recession during which the populace has to dispose of tangible assets to pay for everyday living. For some families, that's happening now." "It may not be another Depression, but it might be another depression"



"International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said the world's advanced economies -- the U.S., Western Europe and Japan -- are 'already in depression,' and that the IMF could slash its global growth forecasts further. The "worst cannot be ruled out,' he said." IMF Chief Says Nations in 'Depression'



"What Does Contraction Mean?

"A phase of the business cycle in which the economy as a whole is in decline. More specifically, contraction occurs after the business cycle peaks, but before it becomes a trough. According to most economists, a contraction is said to occur when a country's real GDP has declined for two or more consecutive quarters.

"Investopedia explains Contraction

"For most people, a contraction in the economy can be source of economic hardship; as the economy plunges into a contraction, people start losing their jobs. While no economic contraction lasts forever, it is very difficult to assess just how long a downtrend will continue before it reverses because history has shown that a contraction can last for many years (such as during the Great Depression)." Investopedia: Contraction



"What Does Depression Mean?

"A severe and prolonged recession characterized by inefficient economic productivity, high unemployment and falling price levels.

"Investopedia explains Depression

"In times of depression, consumers' confidence and investments decrease, causing the economy to shut down. The classic example of this occurred in the 1930s, when the Great Depression shook the global economy." Investopedia: Depression



"There is an old joke among economists that states:

"A recession is when your neighbor loses his job.

"A depression is when you lose your job.

"The difference between the two terms is not very well understood for one simple reason: There is not a universally agreed upon definition. If you ask 100 different economists to define the terms recession and depression, you would get at least 100 different answers. I will try to summarize both terms and explain the differences between them in a way that almost all economists could agree with.

"Recession: The Newspaper Definition

"The standard newspaper definition of a recession is a decline in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for two or more consecutive quarters.

"This definition is unpopular with most economists for two main reasons. First, this definition does not take into consideration changes in other variables. For example this definition ignores any changes in the unemployment rate or consumer confidence. Second, by using quarterly data this definition makes it difficult to pinpoint when a recession begins or ends. This means that a recession that lasts ten months or less may go undetected.

"Recession: The BCDC Definition

"The Business Cycle Dating Committee at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) provides a better way to find out if there is a recession is taking place. This committee determines the amount of business activity in the economy by looking at things like employment, industrial production, real income and wholesale-retail sales. They define a recession as the time when business activity has reached its peak and starts to fall until the time when business activity bottoms out. When the business activity starts to rise again it is called an expansionary period. By this definition, the average recession lasts about a year." "Recession? Depression? - What's the difference? - What's a recession? - How do we know if we're in one?"

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Coal ...

"Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, [Washington, DC's] nonvoting member of Congress, said she's been fighting against the power plant since taking office nearly two decades ago.

"'It has poisoned untold numbers of people who live in the District of Columbia,' she said.

"Norton and others at the rally said they were encouraged by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid who last week called for converting the plant entirely to natural gas in a letter to the Architect of the Capitol, which oversees the maintenance and operation of the Capitol Complex.



"The protest on energy and climate came as Washington began digging out from its largest snowfall of the season. Organizers noted that climate change causes more extreme weather, and they said the issue is important enough that people were willing to brave the cold." "Capitol Power Plant: A Symbolic Clean Energy Hurdle"



"... I live five subway stops from the U.S. Capitol. My home is right here. There's nothing symbolic -- for me -- about trying to keep the tidal Potomac River out of my living room and off the National Mall where my son takes school trips. There's nothing symbolic about fighting for homeowner's insurance in a region where Allstate and other insurers have already begun to pull out due to bigger Atlantic hurricanes. And what's vague about the local plant species like deadnettles and Bluebells that now bloom four to six weeks earlier in D.C.-area gardens thanks to dramatic warming.

"For citizens like me who live amid the symbolic trappings of D.C., we stand as proof that climate change is everywhere, right now, and no one is immune, not even the citizens and leaders of the world's most powerful city." "See you in jail: It's not symbolism when you live in D.C. - Why I'm joining 2,000 people for a global warming mass arrest on Monday"



"'Next-generation coal is going to need to continue to be part of our energy future for this country,' said GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, chairman of the National Governors Association.

"'It is abundant, it is available, it is Americanized in the sense that we control the supply,' he said Saturday. 'We would be incomplete and doing a disservice to the debate and the ultimate policy direction that we're going to take if we don't envision coal being part of that.'

"Next-generation coal typically refers to capturing and somehow sequestering or storing the carbon that coal produces. It also envisions reducing or eliminating emissions as coal is burned." "Governors: Coal must be part of energy debate"



"The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) advocates public policies that advance environmental improvement, economic prosperity, and energy security. ACCCE believes that the robust utilization of coal – America’s most abundant energy resource – is essential to providing affordable, reliable electricity for millions of U.S. consumers and a growing domestic economy. Further, ACCCE is committed to continued and enhanced U.S. leadership in developing and deploying new, advanced clean coal technologies that protect and improve the environment.



"Coal provides half of our electricity and must continue to be part of our balanced energy mix." American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity

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Michigan Promotes Alternative Energy & Future Industry

In what seems like an amazingly comprehensive and optimistic website reminding us that Michigan is the home to the automotive industry and a part of that Midwestern part of the country where people are accustomed to making and building things, Michigan's business attraction strategy is spelled out in some rather exciting detail, indicating a high level of partnering between business, education and the government there: http://www.michiganadvantage.org/Default.aspx



Alternative Energy in the State of Michigan is one of 6 Michigan growth sectors heavily pitched in this extensive presentation.

Subcategories within Alternative Energy:

Wind - "The wind energy industry includes not just power generation, but also the manufacturing of parts for wind turbines and structures and their assembly."

Solar Technology Manufacturing - "With our advanced manufacturing infrastructure, high-tech workforce and robust scientific community, we lead the world in developing solar technologies to meet the needs of the exploding solar energy market. Drawn by this scientific boom and an engineering community that numbers over 65,000, global solar energy powerhouses have made their headquarters here."

Advanced Energy Storage ranging from battery development and recycling stimulated by partnership with the automotive industry, to "advanced energy storage technology toward increasing energy efficiency on a smart grid".

It seems that the State of Michigan is finding ways to revitalize its manufacturing economy by providing leadership in the emerging energy economy.

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John Doerr's Emotional Talk at 2007 TED Conference

"'I don't think we're going to make it,' John Doerr proclaims, in an emotional talk about climate change and investment. Spurred on by his daughter, who demanded he fix the mess the world is heading for, he and his partners.

"John Doerr, a partner in famed VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, made upwards of $1 billion picking dot-com stars like Amazon, Google, Compaq and Netscape. (He also picked some flops, like Go Corporation and the scandal-ridden MyCFO.com.) He was famously quoted saying, 'The Internet is the greatest legal creation of wealth in history,' right before the dot-com crash.

"But now he's back, warning that carbon-dioxide-sputtering, gas-powered capitalism will destroy us all, and that going green may be the 'biggest economic opportunity of the 21st century.' So Kleiner Perkins has invested $200 million in so-called greentech, a combination of startups that are pioneering alternative energy, waste remediation and other schemes to prevent the coming environmental calamity. But Doerr is afraid that it might be too little, too late.

"'[John Doerr] is, by all accounts, the most influential venture capitalist of his generation.' - Fast Company Magazine"

John's presentation was just under 18 minutes and can be viewed here: "Talks: John Doerr: Seeking salvation and profit in greentech"

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Alberta Tar Sands

"Environmental Defence just released a new report on the Alberta Oil Sands, calling it the most destructive project on Earth." Tar Sands: The Most Destructive Project on Earth

"What we know is that oil sands create a big carbon footprint. So the dilemma that Canada faces, the United States faces, and China and the entire world faces is how do we obtain the energy that we need to grow our economies in a way that is not rapidly accelerating climate change." Obama Admits Canadian Tar Sands’ Carbon Footprint a Problem (Phew...)

"Some are calling it a “smear job”, while others are applauding the National Geographic’s rather sobering 20-page publication on the Alberta tar sands, titled 'Scraping Bottom.'" National Geographic Slams Tar Sands – Canadian Politicians Pissed

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Large Scale Energy Stability & Costs: Solar, Wind, Nuclear

"Due to the larger magnitude of solar PV power output fluctuations relative to those of wind at time scales shorter than approximately 31⁄2 hours, the costs of large scale solar PV integration are likely to be larger than those of wind." Carnegie Mellon Study: Large Scale Solar vs. Large Scale Wind Power



"Solar Electric Energy demand has grown consistently by 20-25% per annum over the past 20 years. This has been against a backdrop of rapidly declining costs and prices.

"This decline has been driven by a) increasing efficiency of solar cells b) manufacturing technology improvements, and c) economies of scale. The photovoltaic solar industry now globally generates around $10bn revenues. This includes the sale of solar modules, its associated equipment and the installation of those systems. In 2001, just under 350 Megawatts of solar equipment were sold to add to the solar equipment already generating clean energy." Solar Energy Industry Statistics: Growth



"For nuclear power, the modernization is intended to produce dramatic differences: plants that will run more than 90 percent of the hours in a year and last for 60 years or longer. The ones in service today ran only about 60 percent of the time when they were new and were assumed to have only a 40-year life. But utilities are already signing long-term contracts for large solar generators, and wind turbines are being erected at an unprecedented rate. Those alternatives operate fewer hours of the year, but with no burden of fuel cost or fuel-disposal problems the price of power they produce could be low enough to squeeze nuclear power out of the mix." Can Nuclear Compete? - Scientific American

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