Whole Travel Blog

The Obama administration released a report last week that outlines anticipated temperature, rainfall, sea level and other environmental changes for the rest of the century. Not only does the report cover the usual agricultural and food production problems, it discusses heat-related illnesses and deaths, weather patterns, wildfires, and flooding. What is currently predicted as a 100-year storm will likely occur every 10 years, significantly overcoming our engineering safety designs. One section reads:

“Escalating exposures to catastrophic weather events, coupled with private insurers’ withdrawal from various markets, are placing the federal government at increased financial risk as insurer of last resort.”

Every 10 years instead of every 100??

With all the political noise-making recently about global climate change, let’s hope the world gets a plan in place to help mitigate these risks and potential impacts. You can download the entire report here.

Thursday, Continental Airlines announced the results of its January 7 biofuel demonstration flight. Not only was the flight successful, the biofuel showed approximately 1.1% greater fuel efficiency over traditional jet fuel. So, not only was the fuel made from renewable sources, it actually beat traditional fuel outright. This type of fuel is estimated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60-80% as well.

Flying the greener skies

“We look forward to working with our partners as biofuels go through the certification process, and we hope to see these fuels proceed into commercial quantities in the near future,” said Leah Raney, Continental’s managing director of global environmental affairs. Hopefully it’s not long until we see all jet fuel from sustainable sources.

Top officials at the United Nations announced last Friday that the world is on track to produce a new global climate treaty by December. After 12 days of talks in Bonn, Germany, more than 100 delegates issued a 200-page document as a starting point for upcoming negotiations in Copenhagen, Denmark, this December. The goal of this treaty would be to go beyond the Kyoto Protocol, which was never even ratified by the United States.

Bonn, Germany at night

The document outlines ways to cut carbon emissions by rich countries and limiting their growth in developing nations. There are also economic incentives for developing countries to help them cope with warmer temperatures. Many environmental advocates still argue that the process is moving too slowly, but most are encouraged by the strong participation of many nations, including the United States and China - which combined produce 40% of the world’s carbon emissions. There’s still a long way to go, but it’s good to see this at the forefront of the UN’s agenda for 2009.

The United States Global Change Research Program, a joint venture of 13 federal agencies and the White House, released a study this week confirming that even if the nation takes significant measures to reduce carbon emissions, the impact of global warming is expected to become more severe in upcoming years. Some of the impacts expected are already being seen, including more powerful tropical storms and erosion of ocean coastlines.

Where's my iceberg?

Thomas Karl, director of the National Climatic Data Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), stated, “What we would want to have people take away is that climate change is happening now, and it’s actually beginning to affect our lives.” He did continue to say that if we implement controls and measures to reduce our environmental footprint these effects could be significantly smaller.

The study is posted here: http://www.globalchange.gov/publications/reports/scientific-assessments/us-impacts. We encourage everyone to give it a browse if you have time - it’s 188 pages but has good summaries of the effects we’re having on our planet.

General Electric and the Idaho National Laboratory announced last week that they have received $2 million from the Department of Energy to further research and develop a technology that converts heat from industrial engines into electricity, potentially making engines 20-40% more efficient and reducing carbon emissions.

Don't waste that waste heat!

Researchers in Germany and New York have been working to improve the Organic Rankine Cycle so that they may effectively capture and convert waste heat, but technology to date has not been cost competitive. By using an evaporator instead of a working fluid, GE’s new design can capture heat from relatively small sources and convert it to electricity for a wide range of applications.

Back in November 2008, FedEx Express announced a plan to purchase vehicles that combine Azure Dynamics’s hybrid system with a Ford gasoline engine and chassis. Last Thursday, the Hybrid Truck User Forum sponsored an event in Washington, DC, fittingly called: “Hybrid on the Hill Day.” This event featured 17 medium- and heavy-duty commercial hybrid trucks with participants including FedEx Express, Mack, Peterbilt, Freightliner and Kenworth.

FedEx Express already uses hybrids in city fleets.

The event on Capitol Hill took place next to the Capitol Reflecting Pool with speakers addressing the benefits of hybrids for the commercial trucking industry and how to roll-out hybrid fleets in a rough economy. Duke University also released a report on the hybrid truck sector and how it could impact the industry going forward.

Garbage giant Waste Management announced last week at the US Conference of Mayors that it will be distribution BigBelly Solar’s solar powered trash compactor in North America. These units will mostly be sold to municipalities and events venues, and 15 have already been installed at Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts, the new home of the New England Patriots.

Compacting your trash with the power of the sun.

The solar-powered trash compactors look like traditional trash cans, but they are outfitted with solar panels that power a motor that crushes the trash. What does this mean for sustainability? Garbage colleciton can occur less frequently, offsetting carbon emissions by the trucks and distribution network. Small things can really make a difference!

London mayor Boris Johnson wants his city to lead the charge in making the UK the electric vehicle capital of the European Union. Less than a month after Johnson presented a 35-page plan to get the electric vehicle market going with government funding, London’s official foreign direct investment agency, Think London, pitched more than 50 cleantech companies at an event in San Francisco.

With London hosting the 2012 Olympic Games, there is a lot of capital flowing into infrastructure and technology improvements around the city, and to meet their 2025 goal of 60% carbon emissions reduction the expected capital requirement is £20 billion. This creates a nice incentive for many US and international companies to setup shop in London, and hopefully means we’ll get to a greener tomorrow faster.

As reported by the Associated Press a few days ago, the wind seems to be dying down across the United States. The cause of this apparent slowing of our winds is still very speculative, as scientists disagree as to whether it’s even happening on a significant scale. But this study does suggest that average and peak winds have been on the decline since 1973, with some stations in the Midwest reporting >10% drops over the course of a decade.

Wind turbines near Mount Carmel, Iowa, stand still in December 2008.

There are enough questions that even the authors won’t say definitively whether the trend is real or not. But, with wind energy as a potential solution to part of the global warming crisis, it’s concerning that the solution might become useless by the problem.

An article published in Nature today announced the prediction of two French scientists that in the very distant future, the Earth and other planets will collide with each other. Scientists agree that for many thousands of years, the planets will remain true in their orbits, but eventually small eccentriciites could cause Mercury, Venus, Mars and Earth to smash into each other.

Is this the end of Earth?

As an important side note, it is generally accepted that in approximately 5 billion years, the sun will have burned up its hydrogen and will inflate into a red giant star, engulfing the entire inner solar system. So, either way, looks like we’re left to our own devices for the next few billion years.