Overall grade: Dear Patrick, I really appreciate your active participation in the directed study. You have done a lot of work and been well engaged throughout. Well done. Almost all the work is either A or A- level. I get the impression that you have gained the kind of overview on Global Sustainability that the course seeks to give. It's a pity you missed the class offering as I am sure you would have got a lot more out of it. Never mind. Overall I feel it's a borderline case for an A or A-. On a content basis I would probably make it an A-. But when taking into account your level of engagement and the volume of work I'll make it an A. Well done. JC.
Final Presentation: You did a general review of Plan B rather than some specific deeper research items related to each chapter topic, so I'm not sure how to grade this. In terms of the general review it was well balanced; maybe more hard facts would be good as per the book itself. But a great effort. 90
Post you work here, preferably cut an pate for word docs, thanks. JC
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ Sometime between 2050 and 2100 solar energy will be the dominant power source for all human uses Thanks for this review. I was hoping you would point on the compelling economics as we move down the experience cost curve (as explained by Bradfield). But you hit on many good points. 92
This is the good news and the bad news. It is bad news because it is likely that most carbon based energy sources on planet Earth by now have been nearly exhausted. Fuel for the burgeoning automobile population on the planet and fuel for outdated centralized electricity generating plants, and fuel for agriculture and military applications and the transportation industry too the world to the brink of collapse.
All the while, this occurred in the bright light of day. Daylight. Supplied by the Sun. An endless source of constant energy the streams onto the planet each day. And the good news is that humans are not suffering from loss. As a matter of fact, the air is cleaner than in generations because fossil fuels are no longer burning day and night, three hundred and sixty five days a year. This happens time and again in the history of people-kind; when, under the greatest pressure and strain, the greatest innovations emerge.
Having reached an unsustainable status quo, nearly three hundred years after the dawning of the industrial revolution, a combination of forces including a precipitous dangers to the environment along with the depletion of fossil fuels, forced mankind to change or perish. With the population now exceeding 9 billion inhabitants, the strains on food and clean water supplies are substantial.
Efforts to implement and actively promote the widespread installation and use of solar photovotaics have swung back and forth over time, fueled alternatively by technology and politics. It would take the convergence of political will, adequate technological capabilities, and an all-out environmental crisis on the planet to finally reach a tipping point where the problem could no longer be ignored and a solution or immanent doom were the only alternative.
Every fifty years of so since the age of the industrial revolution, fueled largely by explosive new means for extracting and exploiting the Earth’s carbon/fossil fuel resources, mankind has experienced revolutions of technology. Mining the energy of the Sun was a miracle waiting to happen. Many promising false starts in man’s ability to harness the energy of the Sun date back as far as the 3rd century BC when scientist and mathematician Archimedes was said, through myths of that time, to have defended ancient Syracuse from a Roman military invasion by using an array of solar mirrors to set fire to enemy ships in the harbor. Ever since that time it had been the dream of dreamers and scientists to capture this immense energy that daily bathes the planet.
To put into context, the energy Earth receives from the Sun, consider the following: The amount of energy from the Sun that reaches the Earth annually is 4 x 1018 Joules. 4 x 1018 Joules/Year ÷ 365 Days/ Year = 1 x 1016 Joules/ Day 1 x 1016 Joules/ Day ÷ 24 Hours/ Day = 4 x 1014 Joules/ Hour The amount of energy consumed annually by the world's population is about 3 x 1014 Joules.
As an industry, solar photovoltaic power generation technology had existed throughout most of the 20th century. Aubrey Enease, a solar entrepreneur in the American southwest, developed larger solar collectors to power steam engines and pumps for agricultural irrigation water between 1900 and 1915.
It would not be until after 1973, when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), decided to embargo and cut oil exports to the United States that energy became a dinner table conversation. The 1973 oil crisis started in October 1973 and lasted until March 1974 and was in response to the U.S. decision to re-supply the Israeli military during the Yom Kippur war. Shortly after, the United States fell into political and economic turmoil under then-president Richard Nixon. His successor, Lyndon Johnson had his hands full trying to restore some kind of faith and dignity in the office of president and faith in the nation.
Some progress was made during those years to implement more fuel efficient passenger vehicles but it would not be until incoming president, Jimmy Carter, that the country began to fully take stock of what had happened and the magnitude of trouble the nation might potentially be in because of reliance on an energy source, oil, that by then had already peaked in the United States.
President Carter created a new government department for the first time, called the Department of Energy (DOE). This was a cabinet post-level department. Shortly after that, a key office was created called The Office of Energy Conservation and Solar Energy (which soon became known by the shortened form “Conservation and Solar”).
On June 20, 1979, President Carter delivered his so-called, Solar Energy speech to Congress, outlining a “national solar strategy” that included the goal of supplying 20 percent of our nation's energy need from the sun by the year 2000. “This democracy which we love is going to make its stand on the battlefield of energy.” Carter declared. As a show of what is possible to the nation, President Carter had a solar PV array installed on the roof of the White House.
Then for the next twenty five years, nothing happened. Carter was a one-term president and Ronald Reagan came into the White House and said, “Tear down those solar panels.” The office of Conservation and Solar lost most of its funding and the solar battle would have to be slowly fought by enterprising entrepreneurs for the next generations. It would take almost another 75 years before the world conditions were such that solar became the do or die proposition that we have today.
As in most areas of technology from the 20th century on, the United States led the way in innovation. China then also became a key player due the massive communist government sponsored factories and the Chinese government’s assertion to bring all possible technical and financial resources to bear to become the leading manufacturer of solar photovoltaics on the planet.
China even declared that they were creating a Solar City. A new industrial zone hailed as the "Solar Valley" was built for experimenting with clean-energy urban projects and massive use of household utilities such as solar-powered water-heaters. The Washington Post described Dezhou's Solar Valley as the "clean-tech version of Silicon Valley". Greenpeace China cited Dezhou in May 2009 as an example of how renewable energy can become a more common reality throughout the world.
Innovations such as these with tremendous government backed financing finally brought the critical mass to the industry that was needed to make solar power capabilities ubiquitous. While electricity generating utilities would continue to argue and fight for control of centralized electrical power on the planet, they fell far behind because of an aging, failing outdated power-grid configuration that was no longer economically feasible especially on more remote parts of the planet. Localized power to individual homes and businesses would become the norm as government regulation required all new structures to included integrated solar power generating capabilities with a means for offloading excess generating capacity to local municipal grids. With the simultaneous advances in battery storage technologies for storing electricity generated during daylight hours for use at night, this once “quaint” system of power generation, thought to be perhaps little more than a dreamer’s dream, allowed it to become the dominant power source for all human uses.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
The following section on POLICIES Good effort 90 JC
Policies Enhance Creative Intelligence
Policies that Inhibit Creative Intelligence
S. 2739: Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008
110th Congress: 2007-2008
A bill to authorize certain programs and activities in the Department of the Interior, the Forest Service, and the Department of Energy, to implement further the Act approving the Covenant to Establish a Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Political Union with the United States of America, to amend the Compact of Free Association Amendments Act of 2003, and for other purposes.
Comment: We enhance creative intelligence when we honor & protect nature and align with natural law.
H.R. 910: Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011
112th Congress: 2011-2012
57%
43%
To amend the Clean Air Act to prohibit the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from promulgating any regulation concerning, taking action relating to, or taking into consideration the emission of a greenhouse gas to address climate change, and for other purposes.
Comment: Inhibits creative intelligence by placing roadblocks in the path of progress toward a more sustainable future. Adds levels of bureaucratic interference in the decision making process.
H.R. 6: Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007
110th Congress: 2007-2008
An Act to move the United States toward greater energy independence and security, to increase the production of clean renewable fuels, to protect consumers, to increase the efficiency of products, buildings, and vehicles, to promote research on and deploy greenhouse gas capture and storage options, and to improve the energy performance of the Federal Government, and for other purposes.
Comment: Enhancing creative intelligence by moving away from depleting non-renewable elements on the earth and learning to live in a manner that is sustainable in the long term.
Food for human consumption and animal drugs, feeds, and related products:
Foods derived from new plant varieties; policy statement, 22984
Vol. 57 No. 104 Friday, May 29, 1992 p 22984 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Food and Drug Administration
[Docket No. 92N-0139]
Statement of Policy: Foods Derived From New Plant Varieties.
Summary: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is issuing a policy statement on foods derived from new plant varieties, including plants developed by recombinant deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) techniques. This policy statement is a clarification of FDA's interpretation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the act), with respect to new technologies to produce foods, and reflects FDA's current judgment based on new plant varieties now under development in agricultural research. This action is being taken to ensure that relevant scientific, safety, and regulatory issues are resolved prior to the introduction of such products into the marketplace.
G. Toxicology
Feeding studies or other toxicological tests may be warranted when the characteristics of the plant or the nature of the modification raise safety concerns that cannot be resolved by analytical methods. FDA recognizes that feeding studies on whole foods have limited sensitivity because of the inability to administer exaggerated doses. Because of the difficulty of designing meaningful studies, FDA encourages companies to consult informally with the agency about test protocols.
COMMENTS: This policy essentially lays the groundwork for the allowance and acceptance of GMO plant species. It is dangerous on a number of levels but one that stands out is the above statement on toxicology. The agency is saying they do not have the means or resources to adequately test for toxicology of these genetically modified food plants and so they are “encouraging companies to consult informally with the agency” about what the companies find in their own test. This leaves the door open to biased, directed studies by the companies that can be designed to gain approval and acceptance for lucrative new “products” without actually demonstrating that they're safe for human (or animal) consumption.
S. 309: Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act
110th Congress: 2007-2008
A bill to amend the Clean Air Act to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, and for other purposes.
Comment: Enhances creative intelligence by acknowledging the role of man in detrimental climate change and is a step in the direction of rectification.
H.R. 6: Energy Policy Act of 2005
109th Congress: 2005-2006
To ensure jobs for our future with secure, affordable, and reliable energy. 8/8/2005--Public Law. Energy Policy Act of 2005 - Sets forth an energy research and development program covering: (1) energy efficiency; (2) renewable energy; (3) oil and gas; (4) coal; (5) Indian energy; (6) nuclear matters and security; (7) vehicles and motor fuels, including ethanol; (8) hydrogen; (9) electricity; (10) energy tax incentives; (11) hydropower and geothermal energy; and (12) climate change technology.
Comment: Enhances creative intelligence by setting a foundation for a more sustainable future and by acknowledging the myriad areas of sustainability, from fossil fuel depletion to carbon emissions, that must be addressed if human life is to be maintained in the long term.
Overall grade: Dear Patrick, I really appreciate your active participation in the directed study. You have done a lot of work and been well engaged throughout. Well done. Almost all the work is either A or A- level. I get the impression that you have gained the kind of overview on Global Sustainability that the course seeks to give. It's a pity you missed the class offering as I am sure you would have got a lot more out of it. Never mind. Overall I feel it's a borderline case for an A or A-. On a content basis I would probably make it an A-. But when taking into account your level of engagement and the volume of work I'll make it an A. Well done. JC.
Final Presentation: You did a general review of Plan B rather than some specific deeper research items related to each chapter topic, so I'm not sure how to grade this. In terms of the general review it was well balanced; maybe more hard facts would be good as per the book itself. But a great effort. 90
Post you work here, preferably cut an pate for word docs, thanks. JC
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
Sometime between 2050 and 2100 solar energy will be the dominant power source for all human uses Thanks for this review. I was hoping you would point on the compelling economics as we move down the experience cost curve (as explained by Bradfield). But you hit on many good points. 92
This is the good news and the bad news. It is bad news because it is likely that most carbon based energy sources on planet Earth by now have been nearly exhausted. Fuel for the burgeoning automobile population on the planet and fuel for outdated centralized electricity generating plants, and fuel for agriculture and military applications and the transportation industry too the world to the brink of collapse.
All the while, this occurred in the bright light of day. Daylight. Supplied by the Sun. An endless source of constant energy the streams onto the planet each day. And the good news is that humans are not suffering from loss. As a matter of fact, the air is cleaner than in generations because fossil fuels are no longer burning day and night, three hundred and sixty five days a year. This happens time and again in the history of people-kind; when, under the greatest pressure and strain, the greatest innovations emerge.
Having reached an unsustainable status quo, nearly three hundred years after the dawning of the industrial revolution, a combination of forces including a precipitous dangers to the environment along with the depletion of fossil fuels, forced mankind to change or perish. With the population now exceeding 9 billion inhabitants, the strains on food and clean water supplies are substantial.
Efforts to implement and actively promote the widespread installation and use of solar photovotaics have swung back and forth over time, fueled alternatively by technology and politics. It would take the convergence of political will, adequate technological capabilities, and an all-out environmental crisis on the planet to finally reach a tipping point where the problem could no longer be ignored and a solution or immanent doom were the only alternative.
Every fifty years of so since the age of the industrial revolution, fueled largely by explosive new means for extracting and exploiting the Earth’s carbon/fossil fuel resources, mankind has experienced revolutions of technology. Mining the energy of the Sun was a miracle waiting to happen. Many promising false starts in man’s ability to harness the energy of the Sun date back as far as the 3rd century BC when scientist and mathematician Archimedes was said, through myths of that time, to have defended ancient Syracuse from a Roman military invasion by using an array of solar mirrors to set fire to enemy ships in the harbor. Ever since that time it had been the dream of dreamers and scientists to capture this immense energy that daily bathes the planet.
To put into context, the energy Earth receives from the Sun, consider the following:
The amount of energy from the Sun that reaches the Earth annually is 4 x 1018 Joules.
4 x 1018 Joules/Year ÷ 365 Days/ Year = 1 x 1016 Joules/ Day
1 x 1016 Joules/ Day ÷ 24 Hours/ Day = 4 x 1014 Joules/ Hour
The amount of energy consumed annually by the world's population is about 3 x 1014 Joules.
As an industry, solar photovoltaic power generation technology had existed throughout most of the 20th century. Aubrey Enease, a solar entrepreneur in the American southwest, developed larger solar collectors to power steam engines and pumps for agricultural irrigation water between 1900 and 1915.
It would not be until after 1973, when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), decided to embargo and cut oil exports to the United States that energy became a dinner table conversation. The 1973 oil crisis started in October 1973 and lasted until March 1974 and was in response to the U.S. decision to re-supply the Israeli military during the Yom Kippur war. Shortly after, the United States fell into political and economic turmoil under then-president Richard Nixon. His successor, Lyndon Johnson had his hands full trying to restore some kind of faith and dignity in the office of president and faith in the nation.
Some progress was made during those years to implement more fuel efficient passenger vehicles but it would not be until incoming president, Jimmy Carter, that the country began to fully take stock of what had happened and the magnitude of trouble the nation might potentially be in because of reliance on an energy source, oil, that by then had already peaked in the United States.
President Carter created a new government department for the first time, called the Department of Energy (DOE). This was a cabinet post-level department. Shortly after that, a key office was created called The Office of Energy Conservation and Solar Energy (which soon became known by the shortened form “Conservation and Solar”).
On June 20, 1979, President Carter delivered his so-called, Solar Energy speech to Congress, outlining a “national solar strategy” that included the goal of supplying 20 percent of our nation's energy need from the sun by the year 2000. “This democracy which we love is going to make its stand on the battlefield of energy.” Carter declared. As a show of what is possible to the nation, President Carter had a solar PV array installed on the roof of the White House.
Then for the next twenty five years, nothing happened. Carter was a one-term president and Ronald Reagan came into the White House and said, “Tear down those solar panels.” The office of Conservation and Solar lost most of its funding and the solar battle would have to be slowly fought by enterprising entrepreneurs for the next generations. It would take almost another 75 years before the world conditions were such that solar became the do or die proposition that we have today.
As in most areas of technology from the 20th century on, the United States led the way in innovation. China then also became a key player due the massive communist government sponsored factories and the Chinese government’s assertion to bring all possible technical and financial resources to bear to become the leading manufacturer of solar photovoltaics on the planet.
China even declared that they were creating a Solar City. A new industrial zone hailed as the "Solar Valley" was built for experimenting with clean-energy urban projects and massive use of household utilities such as solar-powered water-heaters. The Washington Post described Dezhou's Solar Valley as the "clean-tech version of Silicon Valley". Greenpeace China cited Dezhou in May 2009 as an example of how renewable energy can become a more common reality throughout the world.
Innovations such as these with tremendous government backed financing finally brought the critical mass to the industry that was needed to make solar power capabilities ubiquitous. While electricity generating utilities would continue to argue and fight for control of centralized electrical power on the planet, they fell far behind because of an aging, failing outdated power-grid configuration that was no longer economically feasible especially on more remote parts of the planet. Localized power to individual homes and businesses would become the norm as government regulation required all new structures to included integrated solar power generating capabilities with a means for offloading excess generating capacity to local municipal grids. With the simultaneous advances in battery storage technologies for storing electricity generated during daylight hours for use at night, this once “quaint” system of power generation, thought to be perhaps little more than a dreamer’s dream, allowed it to become the dominant power source for all human uses.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
The following section on POLICIES Good effort 90 JC
110th Congress: 2007-2008
A bill to authorize certain programs and activities in the Department of the Interior, the Forest Service, and the Department of Energy, to implement further the Act approving the Covenant to Establish a Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Political Union with the United States of America, to amend the Compact of Free Association Amendments Act of 2003, and for other purposes.
Comment: We enhance creative intelligence when we honor & protect nature and align with natural law.
112th Congress: 2011-2012
57%
43%
To amend the Clean Air Act to prohibit the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from promulgating any regulation concerning, taking action relating to, or taking into consideration the emission of a greenhouse gas to address climate change, and for other purposes.
Comment: Inhibits creative intelligence by placing roadblocks in the path of progress toward a more sustainable future. Adds levels of bureaucratic interference in the decision making process.
110th Congress: 2007-2008
An Act to move the United States toward greater energy independence and security, to increase the production of clean renewable fuels, to protect consumers, to increase the efficiency of products, buildings, and vehicles, to promote research on and deploy greenhouse gas capture and storage options, and to improve the energy performance of the Federal Government, and for other purposes.
Comment: Enhancing creative intelligence by moving away from depleting non-renewable elements on the earth and learning to live in a manner that is sustainable in the long term.
Foods derived from new plant varieties; policy statement, 22984
Vol. 57 No. 104 Friday, May 29, 1992 p 22984 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Food and Drug Administration
[Docket No. 92N-0139]
Statement of Policy: Foods Derived From New Plant Varieties.
Summary: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is issuing a policy statement on foods derived from new plant varieties, including plants developed by recombinant deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) techniques. This policy statement is a clarification of FDA's interpretation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the act), with respect to new technologies to produce foods, and reflects FDA's current judgment based on new plant varieties now under development in agricultural research. This action is being taken to ensure that relevant scientific, safety, and regulatory issues are resolved prior to the introduction of such products into the marketplace.
G. Toxicology
Feeding studies or other toxicological tests may be warranted when the characteristics of the plant or the nature of the modification raise safety concerns that cannot be resolved by analytical methods. FDA recognizes that feeding studies on whole foods have limited sensitivity because of the inability to administer exaggerated doses. Because of the difficulty of designing meaningful studies, FDA encourages companies to consult informally with the agency about test protocols.
COMMENTS: This policy essentially lays the groundwork for the allowance and acceptance of GMO plant species. It is dangerous on a number of levels but one that stands out is the above statement on toxicology. The agency is saying they do not have the means or resources to adequately test for toxicology of these genetically modified food plants and so they are “encouraging companies to consult informally with the agency” about what the companies find in their own test. This leaves the door open to biased, directed studies by the companies that can be designed to gain approval and acceptance for lucrative new “products” without actually demonstrating that they're safe for human (or animal) consumption.
110th Congress: 2007-2008
A bill to amend the Clean Air Act to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, and for other purposes.
Comment: Enhances creative intelligence by acknowledging the role of man in detrimental climate change and is a step in the direction of rectification.
109th Congress: 2005-2006
To ensure jobs for our future with secure, affordable, and reliable energy. 8/8/2005--Public Law. Energy Policy Act of 2005 - Sets forth an energy research and development program covering: (1) energy efficiency; (2) renewable energy; (3) oil and gas; (4) coal; (5) Indian energy; (6) nuclear matters and security; (7) vehicles and motor fuels, including ethanol; (8) hydrogen; (9) electricity; (10) energy tax incentives; (11) hydropower and geothermal energy; and (12) climate change technology.
Comment: Enhances creative intelligence by setting a foundation for a more sustainable future and by acknowledging the myriad areas of sustainability, from fossil fuel depletion to carbon emissions, that must be addressed if human life is to be maintained in the long term.