Recommendations to deal with global warming
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Sam Carana
Aug 18, 2010, 3:40:11 AM8/18/10
to Greenhouse Effect
Recommendations to deal with global warming
1. Impose fees on fossil fuel, on polluting power plants and on
engines to fund local programs to electrify transport and to supply
electricity in clean and safe ways, in particular by facilities that
produce wind, solar, hydro-electric, geothermal, tidal and wave power.
Link fees to rebates, through feebates tailored to fit local
circumstances and to encourage electricified transport powered by
renewables.
2. End support for fossil fuel. There still are too many perverse
subsidies for fossil fuel.
3. Agree on and support a renewed Kyoto Treaty. Each nation should
commit to reduce its emissions by, say, 10% annually. Nations should
each be able to decide for themselves how to do this, provided they
each meet their targets independently and genuinely (i.e. without
buying or fabricating offsets or credits domestically or abroad).
Border adjustments can help ensure that commitments are indeed met.
4. Support lifestyles that are more environmentally-friendly.
Encourage use of the Internet as an alternative to travel and
commuting. Encourage homeschooling and working from home. Deregulate
taxi services.
5. Ban products that cause large amounts of emissions, if good
alternatives are readily available. An example of this would be
incandescent light bulbs. Many nations have meanwhile set a date for a
national ban and do actively promote a global ban. Another example
would be gases used for cleaning and for refrigeration and air
conditioning.
6. Support clean and safe energy. Apart from financial support, there
must also be more active support in regulations and government policy.
Don't pick winners, but encourage competition and diversity among
suppliers of such energy. Encourage interconnection and overlap of
electricity grids, so that households can choose which grid to sell
electricity to, if they generate a surplus in their backyard. Where
needed, stop protecting intellectual property and use eminent domain
provisions to speed up development of infrastructure.
7. Plan and develop new green communities, such as communities without
roads (i.e. with footpaths and bikepaths instead of roads). Plan
houses close together, around a local center of shops and restaurants.
Redesign existing cities so that people have to travel less. Impose
fees on combustion ovens and use the revenues to support energy saving
programs, such as distribution of solar cookers, solar LED lights,
more efficient appliances, buildings, etc.
8. Support biochar. Impose fees on the sale of livestock products and
nitrogen fertilizers and use the revenues to support biochar.
Pyrolysis should be the preferred way to handle surplus biomass.
9. Make government take the lead in reducing emissions. Ask for ideas.
Have more staff work from home. Look at ways to offer services over
the phone, over the Net, etc.
10. Disclosure. Make that government departments and large companies
publicly disclose their emissions of greenhouse gases. Make products
display on their packaging the amounts of greenhouse gases needed to
produce it.
The above ten recommendations have remained much the same since I
posted them back in April 2007, in: Ten recommendations to deal with
global warming. However, too little has happened since, reason for the
need to add another four recommendations:
11. Prepare for the impact of climate change. Preserve species that
are under threat from climate change. Protect and support areas such
as rain forests. Assist with adaptation.
12. Support carbon air capture. Fees could be imposed on aviation,
while the revenues could be used to support carbon air capture, which
could in turn produce synthetic fuel for use in aviation, thus kick-
starting carbon air capture technology.
13. Consider geoengineering methods to increase solar reflection, to
deal with methane and to reduce acidification of oceans.
14. Deploy plans for afforestation. Plan for desalination to irrigate
and vegetate deserts and other areas with little vegetation.
For links and comments, see:
http://j.mp/action-plan
1. Impose fees on fossil fuel, on polluting power plants and on
engines to fund local programs to electrify transport and to supply
electricity in clean and safe ways, in particular by facilities that
produce wind, solar, hydro-electric, geothermal, tidal and wave power.
Link fees to rebates, through feebates tailored to fit local
circumstances and to encourage electricified transport powered by
renewables.
2. End support for fossil fuel. There still are too many perverse
subsidies for fossil fuel.
3. Agree on and support a renewed Kyoto Treaty. Each nation should
commit to reduce its emissions by, say, 10% annually. Nations should
each be able to decide for themselves how to do this, provided they
each meet their targets independently and genuinely (i.e. without
buying or fabricating offsets or credits domestically or abroad).
Border adjustments can help ensure that commitments are indeed met.
4. Support lifestyles that are more environmentally-friendly.
Encourage use of the Internet as an alternative to travel and
commuting. Encourage homeschooling and working from home. Deregulate
taxi services.
5. Ban products that cause large amounts of emissions, if good
alternatives are readily available. An example of this would be
incandescent light bulbs. Many nations have meanwhile set a date for a
national ban and do actively promote a global ban. Another example
would be gases used for cleaning and for refrigeration and air
conditioning.
6. Support clean and safe energy. Apart from financial support, there
must also be more active support in regulations and government policy.
Don't pick winners, but encourage competition and diversity among
suppliers of such energy. Encourage interconnection and overlap of
electricity grids, so that households can choose which grid to sell
electricity to, if they generate a surplus in their backyard. Where
needed, stop protecting intellectual property and use eminent domain
provisions to speed up development of infrastructure.
7. Plan and develop new green communities, such as communities without
roads (i.e. with footpaths and bikepaths instead of roads). Plan
houses close together, around a local center of shops and restaurants.
Redesign existing cities so that people have to travel less. Impose
fees on combustion ovens and use the revenues to support energy saving
programs, such as distribution of solar cookers, solar LED lights,
more efficient appliances, buildings, etc.
8. Support biochar. Impose fees on the sale of livestock products and
nitrogen fertilizers and use the revenues to support biochar.
Pyrolysis should be the preferred way to handle surplus biomass.
9. Make government take the lead in reducing emissions. Ask for ideas.
Have more staff work from home. Look at ways to offer services over
the phone, over the Net, etc.
10. Disclosure. Make that government departments and large companies
publicly disclose their emissions of greenhouse gases. Make products
display on their packaging the amounts of greenhouse gases needed to
produce it.
The above ten recommendations have remained much the same since I
posted them back in April 2007, in: Ten recommendations to deal with
global warming. However, too little has happened since, reason for the
need to add another four recommendations:
11. Prepare for the impact of climate change. Preserve species that
are under threat from climate change. Protect and support areas such
as rain forests. Assist with adaptation.
12. Support carbon air capture. Fees could be imposed on aviation,
while the revenues could be used to support carbon air capture, which
could in turn produce synthetic fuel for use in aviation, thus kick-
starting carbon air capture technology.
13. Consider geoengineering methods to increase solar reflection, to
deal with methane and to reduce acidification of oceans.
14. Deploy plans for afforestation. Plan for desalination to irrigate
and vegetate deserts and other areas with little vegetation.
For links and comments, see:
http://j.mp/action-plan
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