Bill McKibben does the math: Climate change is a numbers game

By Don Pettit

Bill McKibben is an American environmentalist, journalist and best selling author who has written extensively on the impact of global warming. Some of his notable books include The End of Nature, Eaarth (yes, the spelling is correct), Deep Economy, We are better together, and he is leader of the climate campaign group 350.org.

In a recent Rolling Stone article, McKibben concludes that preserving our planet’s human-friendly climate is mostly a numbers game. The atmosphere can hold only so much carbon dioxide before it overheats the Earth and we are in deep, long-lasting trouble. How much carbon can it hold?

The London-based NGO Carbon Tracker reports that the fossil fuel industry now has reserves that if all burned would produce 3,700 gigatons of carbon dioxide. “That’s 10 times the amount that scientists say would take us past the temperature targets set in the Paris Climate Agreement,” says McKibben.

This means, he says, that some 90% of this $100 trillion carbon asset will have to be left in the ground. Wow, how the heck will that ever happen? $100 trillion is a very large incentive to keep on burning, and the human race has been burning fuel for about 700,000 years. How will we ever stop?

Renewables Will Change The World

Well, as I have made clear (I hope) in this column many times, there are other ways to heat our buildings, power our transportation and generate unlimited amounts of energy: solar and wind power are two good examples. $34 per megawatt hour, says McKibben, is the latest figure from the investment bank of Lazard for the average cost of solar power. “That is, if you have a bunch of solar panels in a field, that’s how much it costs to produce electricity from them.” That number, he says, could change the world. Here’s why:

This cost has dropped 90% in the last 10 years. And secondly, it’s lower than any other known way of producing electricity. Wind power is the next closest at $39 per megawatt hour. Gas-fired power plants: $59; coal fired $108; nuclear even more. And with green electricity, which I call “the perfect fuel,” we can do anything.

How has solar and wind become so cheap so quickly?

They are on what economists call a “learning curve” – the more you build, the better you get at it, and the lower the cost. (Batteries to store the renewable energy when the sun is not shining or the wind not

Fox’s cough

By Ruby McBeth

The week before Easter, I came down with a cough that kept me up barking away at night. This lasted only three nights, so I can’t really complain.

It was a strange kind of cold though. I was reading a People’s Friend magazine and came across an article by etymologist Paul Anthony Jones. Jones is interested in unusual terms. One that was reported on in the article was fox’s cough. He says: “That’s a dry, ticklish, near constant barking cough that refused to clear up, so called because a fox’s bark is so raucously similar in sound.” I am obviously not the first person to have this strange cough!

EDITOR LEAVING

It has been a pleasure writing for the Alaska Highway News under the editor Matt Prepost. Matt has told us he is leaving to take a job with the Manitoba Legislature. I am sure his excellent social intelligence will enable him to do that job well. All the best, Matt.

OUR WINTER WEATHER

Now that winter is over, we can all get a good laugh out of Rick Mercer’s sketch on Canadian weather reporting. Go to “RMR: Seven Day Forecast” and enjoy.

CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENT AGRICULTURE stuff has been burned.”

There is a new way to grow plants that uses less water and less space: indoor vertical farming. Troy Albright was interviewed by USA Today in 2019.

Nuclear might get on a learning curve, he says, if we switch from the usual massive projects to “small modular reactors.” Sure, you still have to mine lithium and other minerals and metals for renewables, but once you’ve mined them, you put them into batteries, wind turbines or solar panels and they stay there for decades, doing their job.

“If you mine gas or coal, you set it on fire, and then you have to go get more. Forty per cent of ship traffic is simply moving coal and gas and oil around so it can be burned. The sun and wind deliver energy for free.” So moving to renewables could save us tens of trillions of dollars.

The Cost Of Inaction Is Rising

blowing are also on a steep learning curve.)

“At the moment,” says McKibben, “when solar installations double, the price drops by a third….The power of that leaning curve is so great that it tends to overwhelm all the obstacles that get in the way.”

These are the reasons that solar and wind have become the fastest growing energy sources around the world.

Fossil fuels are not on a learning curve, he says. Once they were cheap, but no longer. “That’s because it’s less a technology than a commodity – and you have to work harder to find that commodity now that the easy

The video called “Next Gen Farming without soil and 90% less water” is the best video I have seen explaining how it’s done. Another video is a TED talk by Stuart Oda. It also explains the merits of indoor gardening on a commercial scale. These gardens are often set up in vacant city buildings and we do have a few of those.

BULTERYS HOUSE

There is now a house in Dawson Creek that can accommodate people waiting for medical appointments. To learn more about Bulterys House, contact South Peace Health Services Society at 250-219-5805.

SENIOR GAMES NEWS

The Senior Games group got off to a good start on Wednesday, March 29. Bruce Christensen carries on as President. Arlene Boon is our new Treasurer. Heather Bickford will continue as Secretary. Gerald Pope is taking over as Sports Director. You can contact him at 250-787-0141. Golf playdowns will be held Monday, June 5, at Lake Point. For details attend the next meeting which is on Wednesday April 26 at North Peace Seniors’ Housing.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Your life does not get better by chance. It gets better by change.” —

Jim Rohn