Archive for the 'Climate Change' Category

The next event will be LightsOut!

September 15th, 2007 by Kishore

At the next cafe on Climate Change, my friends from LightsOutSF will be in the audience. LOSF is an excellent example how individuals can make a big impact on climate change.

LOSF is a citywide energy conservation event on October 20, 2007. On this night, they are asking the entire city of San Francisco to turn off all non-essential lighting for one hour. To promote long-lasting energy saving, they will also distribute free compact fluorescent light bulbs throughout the city. This savings will reduce carbon emissions into our air and preserve the natural resources used to produce this energy resulting in ongoing reduced costs for the city, taxpayers, and businesses.

Based on a similar event in Sydney Australia, they expect 24.86 tons of CO2 emissions saved. In addition, PG&E will be taking measurements of Saturday night energy usage in San Francisco prior to the Lights Out event, which will be compared to a measurement they will take on the night of October 20, 2007. They’ll publish the energy-saving results from that night on their website. LOSF should be a recurring event…a part of a wider effort to promote energy-saving consciousness in SF.

LOSF is encouraging San Franciscans to join together on October 20th to watch the lights go out. For more information, please visit www.lightsoutsf.org. They will be at 9/24 Down to a Science event on Climate Change in case you have any questions.

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Microclimate Action Plan

September 12th, 2007 by Kishore

The city introduced a climate action plan back in 2004. In case you haven’t read this *exciting* tome, I’ve done the work for you. All the numbers are circa 2004.

Goal: 20% Green House Gas (GHG) reduction by 2012 (20% below 1990 levels) - 7.2 million tons of CO2

Current GHG production/year: 9.7 million tons of CO2 produced

Potential Impacts:
* Sea level rise
* Greater beach erosion
* More frequent El Nino conditions - More rain = less snow in Sierras leading to less water available in summer.
* Marine life - unknown impacts due to changes in water flow and salinity

1990 SF GHG Emissions

The actions were broke into four categories: Transportation, Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy, and Solid Waste. Read on for a breakdown of CO2 savings. I’ll be doing a category by category analysis over the next few days.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Preview the Climate Change talk

September 9th, 2007 by Kishore

Melissa Capria & Cal Broomhead discuss climate change in San Francisco in this video. It’s long, but a good watch.

Takeaway
First off, the interviewer asks zero tough questions. The piece is light, but gives a good overview.

SF has a massively aggressive GHG reduction target, more than Kyoto, more than the California state plan. About half GHG emissions come from transportation, half from buildings (heaters, cooking, electricity, etc.).

The city sees a few ways they can influence GHG emissions:
1. Conservation/education
2. Technical assistance to businesses (engineering consulting)
3. Incentives (tax breaks, fee reduction, expedited permits, etc.)
4. Laws/Regulations (mandating efficient lighting on sale of a building)

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Updated Arctic Ice Melting

September 7th, 2007 by Kishore

Polar Melting
Ice is turquoise, seawater is black.

Some good news, researchers expect a northern sea route to open up between Europe and Asia in the next few years. Wait, that’s bad news.

The arctic ice cap has always been a variable feature on this planet, showing variation in shrinking and freezing over the course of a summer and winter. However, with increased oceanic temperature, the arctic is showing unprecedented summer shrinkage. Any man who has been in a cold swimming pool knows the feeling.

The study released by the NOAA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, took data from 11 climate models focused from 1979 to 1999. They then applied the models forward to 2050. Summer shrinkage is expected to increase from 18% (1979-1999) to 40% (2007-2050).

Takeaway:
Ice melting rate is increasing. As ice melts, the heat absorption rate of the ocean rises, leading to more ice melting. It’s a snowball effect. Concerning concerning concerning.

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San Francisco Under Water?

August 30th, 2007 by Kishore

Sea Level Rises
One of the chief global concerns with climate change is sea levels rising (melting polar caps and all). Since 1850, the Bay has risen a total of 7 inches. Best estimate based on expected climate change effects predicts a rise between 12 and 36 inches by 2100. That’s 2.5 to 8 times the expected rise rate. 1 to 3 feet doesn’t sound like much, so why be concerned? With the accelerated sea level rise, storm surge flood events are also to increase as well….as much as 10 fold.

In that scenario, check out good ol’ SFO:
SFO underwater

Takeaway:
First and foremost, we’re not going to wake up and see SFO underwater. Though after some experiences there, that wouldn’t make me so sad. In reading the report, the most striking item is the uncertainty in sea level rise. Scientists just plain don’t know. What is true, sea level rise along with greater El Nino incidence = greater chance of flooding. And flood damage is the real headache.

More Info:
Chronicle Article on sea level rise
Extensive Sea Level Rise Maps

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