Comments for Climate Disruption Film

L. David Roper, roperld@vt.edu, http://www.roperld.com/personal/roperldavid.htm

• Our descendants will curse us if we do not stop dumping carbon into the atmosphere. We can partially redeem ourselves if we charge a carbon fee for such dumping, similar to fees we charge for dumping trash in a county dump. It would be a FEE, not a TAX! Words matter; insist on calling it a fee, not a tax. http://www.roperld.com/science/CarbonFee.htm
• Per capita emission of CO2 for the U.S. is over 2 times as for China and over 10 times as for India. So, don’t let anyone tell you that China and India are more responsible for emissions than we are. The only country that matches us is Canada. http://www.roperld.com/science/GHGEmissionsByCountries.htm
• Fracking for tight oil and shale natural gas will peak within a decade in the United States. So, don’t let anyone tell you that the U.S. will become energy independent by drilling for oil and gas. The only way to energy independence for the U.S. is by renewable energy. http://www.roperld.com/science/minerals/USOilBoom_Bust.htm; http://www.roperld.com/science/minerals/USGasBoom_Bust.htm; http://www.roperld.com/science/USEnergyIndependence.pdf
• The proposed Keystone XL pipeline in north-central U.S. and several natural-gas pipelines proposed for crossing Virginia have the main purposes to take oil-sands oil in Alberta Canada, fracked tight oil in North Dakota and fracked natural gas in Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia to the coast to ship overseas at higher prices than in the U.S. Fracking for tight oil and for natural gas has been occurring so fast that prices for crude oil and natural gas have been dropping very fast, which is the impetus for building the pipelines.
  See http://www.wtrg.com/daily/clfclose.gif and http://www.wtrg.com/daily/ngfclose.gif for crude-oil and natural-gas prices.
  http://www.roperld.com/science/minerals/USOilBoom_Bust.htm
  http://www.roperld.com/science/minerals/USGasBoom_Bust.htm
  http://www.roperld.com/science/minerals/PetroleumPipelines.htm
• We need to move to efficient buildings asap. I have converted our house to high efficiency, including LED lighting: I will show LED bulbs I recommend after the panel discussion. http://www.roperld.com/science/ledlightbulbsrecommendations.pdf
• We need to cover our roofs and parking lots with solar panels as quickly as possible; Blacksburg has made a good start at this with the Solarize Blacksburg project. If you live in the Roanoke area, sign up for Solarize Roanoke or start a Solarize project in your community. The energy payback time for solar PV is less than 4 years. Our Virginia politicians need to pass laws that allow distributed solar installations to compete with the monopolistic power companies. http://www.roperld.com/science/RoperPVSystem.htm
• I have not been able to understand why Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky politicians have not pushed for solar and wind farms to be installed on the areas where mountains tops in those states have been removed to mine coal. It would provide moral employment and clean energy for the citizens.
• We need to move as quickly as possible to electrical energy for transportation and yard tools. Test drive an electric car within the next year; you will be greatly pleased with the driving experience. There will be many different EVs available for lease, which is the best way to drive one. There are wonderful battery-electric yard tools. http://www.roperld.com/science/ElectricCarsMusings.pdfhttp://www.roperld.com/science/cordlessrevolution.htm
• Some good news!: Generating electrical energy from renewable sources is growing faster than exponentially in the United States. At this growth rate renewable electricity will pass each of coal and nuclear electricity by about 2022 and natural-gas electricity by about year 2025. We can make it happen much sooner. http://www.roperld.com/Science/electricityus.htm
• Nuclear energy is not sustainable. Uranium fuel has a depletion curve like any mineral; current world reserves show its extraction peaking at about year 2035. It cannot be a way to have U.S. energy independence since we import most of what we use. And, by the way, nuclear energy is far from carbon-emissions free. The reactors are made of a huge amount of concrete and steel, the manufacture of which emits a huge amount of carbon, as does the mining and processing of the uranium fuel and the processing and storing of the radioactive waste. http://www.roperld.com/science/uranium.htm
• My 23-year-old grandson, who until recently lived in Roanoke, asked me not long ago “Grandpa, how can you be so optimistic about the future?” My answer was “I do all that I can do to make it better and you need to do the same.” If we all do that, it will get better!
• If you need further impetus to get to work reducing carbon emissions after seeing the Disruption movie, read the book The Great Disruption by Paul Gilding. http://smile.amazon.com/Great-Disruption-Climate-Transform-Economy-ebook/dp/B004QO9660/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414757363&sr=8-1&keywords=great+disruption
• Nobody likes to hear this: The basic cause of all our problems is too many people on the Earth demanding too much energy. Either we humans fix this or nature will!
• Finally, for a look into the far future: Humans need to keep fossil fuels in the ground for later releasing their carbon into the atmosphere after about 1000 and longer years in the future to reduce the speed of global temperature falling into the next 110,000-year-long Major Ice Age. http://www.roperld.com/science/Energy_GlobalWarming_IceAge.htm

http://www.roperld.com/personal/InterdisciplinaryStudies.htm