This is an archive. The forum is not taking new registrations or allowing new discussion, despite what the buttons might suggest.
Heat, by George Monbiot
Guardian columnist and popular blogger George Monbiot, released a book about how we might be able to save the world. I read it late last year, fresh off the carbon-fired press. He advocates a reduction of our carbon emission by 90% by 2030, which is quite a lot more than Kyoto ever suggested. This is a degree of pollution cleaning he backs up with numbers though. There are many numbers in this fine book. Monbiot decides that to make a 90% cut a realistic figure to aim for, we need to do it without impacting on lifestyle. If it's going to happen as quickly as it needs to, then it'd better be as painless to the masses as possible.
After an infuriating chapter (not him, it was the content) on the "denial industry", all about corporate foot-dragging, he launches into a selected industry by industry analysis of how we can lose 90%. And he sort of managed it, if you don't count international jet travel, which is beyond redemption.
Much of his case involves making the electricity that powers our industry and homes as clean as it can be. You would be surprised how much power gets lost as it travels across a country on big AC pylons. Apparently these could be smaller more efficient DC pylons these days, but inertia leaves things the way they are. Oh dear I shouldn't have used the word efficient, apparently energy reduction is a better term - Monbiot informs us of the Khazzoom-Brookes Postulate - which depressingly proves that if something is made more efficient, we'll just use more of it.
Also well worth reading is his chapter on Leaky Homes. Britain is a bit behind on lowering energy use in the home. He moved into a smaller place in town so that he could lose the car. Unfortunately, though it was renovated just before he bought it, it's an energy reduction disaster. " In my city, where the oldest houses are closest to the centre, there are almost no energy-efficient homes whose location allows you to live a low-carbon life." "In this country our homes act as warm air tunnels: they keep us warm almost incidentally, as the heat pours past us into the street."
Worth a read!
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2006/11/07/heat/
The In A Nutshell Version:
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2006/10/31/heres-the-plan/#more-1027
After an infuriating chapter (not him, it was the content) on the "denial industry", all about corporate foot-dragging, he launches into a selected industry by industry analysis of how we can lose 90%. And he sort of managed it, if you don't count international jet travel, which is beyond redemption.
Much of his case involves making the electricity that powers our industry and homes as clean as it can be. You would be surprised how much power gets lost as it travels across a country on big AC pylons. Apparently these could be smaller more efficient DC pylons these days, but inertia leaves things the way they are. Oh dear I shouldn't have used the word efficient, apparently energy reduction is a better term - Monbiot informs us of the Khazzoom-Brookes Postulate - which depressingly proves that if something is made more efficient, we'll just use more of it.
Also well worth reading is his chapter on Leaky Homes. Britain is a bit behind on lowering energy use in the home. He moved into a smaller place in town so that he could lose the car. Unfortunately, though it was renovated just before he bought it, it's an energy reduction disaster. " In my city, where the oldest houses are closest to the centre, there are almost no energy-efficient homes whose location allows you to live a low-carbon life." "In this country our homes act as warm air tunnels: they keep us warm almost incidentally, as the heat pours past us into the street."
Worth a read!
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2006/11/07/heat/
The In A Nutshell Version:
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2006/10/31/heres-the-plan/#more-1027
Howdy, Stranger!