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Local politics, the county, and the world, as viewed by Tammy Maygra Tammy’s views are her own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bill Eagle, his pastor, Tammy’s neighbors, Wayne Mayo, Betsy Johnson, Joe Corsiglia, President Trump, Henry Heimuller, VP Pence, Pat Robertson, Debi Corsiglia’s dog, or Claudia Eagle’s Cats. This Tammy’s Take (with the exception of this disclaimer) is not paid for or written by, or even reviewed by anyone but Tammy and she refuses to be bullied by anyone. See Standard Disclaimer.
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The sprawling Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, owned by NRG Energy and BrightSource Energy, occupies 5.5 square miles in the Mojave Desert.
Fossil Fuels
With climate change impending critical factors, the world is still trying to reduce the usage of fossil fuels. Where there is change there is hope. But it is still not enough.
Global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel sources which represent about 90 percent of all emissions are from human activities. These will reach a record high of approximately 37 billion tons in 2018, an increase of 2.7 percent over emissions output in 2017. That relates to 1.6 percent growth a year earlier. Emissions from non-fossil sources, such as deforestation, are figured to add nearly 4.5 billion tons of carbon emissions to the 2018 total. Global energy demand is outpacing powerful growth in renewables and energy efficiency. We must do better.
After a decade of declining emissions of carbon dioxide in the US we are now seeing an increase of about 2.5%. The reasons are unusual weather we had cold winter in Eastern states and a warm summer across much of the nation which ramped up energy needs for seasonal heating and cooling. Americans drove more because of the low gas prices, Americans are driving bigger cars out pacing the addition of fuel efficient cars all which adds more carbon dioxide into the air.
There is some good news, coal consumption in Canada and the United States has dropped by 40 percent since 2005, and in 2018 alone the U.S. is expected to take a record-setting 15 gigawatts of coal-fired capacity offline which will reduce air pollution, the move away from coal has increased windmill production and the usage of natural gas, yet it’s still not enough , we need to replace natural gas as well since it is a fossil fuel. We can do better.
We have another problem, energy demand world wide is increasing. both energy consumption and emissions in China. After four years of stable emissions amid pressure to improve air quality, the country has now hit the accelerator. Global economic growth has increased demand for iron, steel, aluminum and cement manufactured in China so they have focused on these industries and left the energy efficient ideas on hold. China is jump-starting coal projects that were on hold, As a result, the country’s emissions are expected to rise by 5 percent in 2018, up from an increase of roughly 3.5 percent the previous year.
We can have a booming economy with reduced carbon dioxide emissions from fossil sources, like the US, Switzerland, Denmark and 19 other countries had in the last decade, all we have to do is to make some minor and yes some major changes, but the data has proved that it can be done.
Predictions are that in 2019, barring a global economic downturn, the researchers anticipate carbon dioxide emissions will rise further despite urgency to reverse course, because some countries are not doing enough to stop global warming, corporations are not doing enough to curb their emission’s and switch to green energy. We need emissions to stabilize and quickly trend toward the zero line. We need to demand our country enforce the needed changes to industry and the world needs to do the same. We are all in this together and we all need to do our part, every little bit helps.
If we can send probes all through space and land on the moon, we can dramatically reduce or nearly stop the amount of carbon emissions and save our planet from ourselves. We have only one home so we need to take care of it.
Tammy
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