Decarbonize

By
Dr. Luis Contreras
-
1227

Let’s build a safe world without carbon emissions

Burning the forests and fossil fuels for electricity and transportation creates greenhouse gas emissions, mainly carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4). These gases end up in the atmosphere trapping some of the sun’s heat, warming the planet every day. CO2 molecules have a long life and accumulate in the atmosphere.

The problems and the solutions to the climate emergency are known, but the best plans have been ignored. Time is not on our side, if we don’t get our act together Hurricane Laura’s sisters will be coming with fury. 2030 is our target to avoid irreversible change.

Calling all peacemakers

We are divided – federal intervention is fueling the fire and has to stop. The lies and props used to get #45 re-elected in November are destroying the fabric of America.

Wars are never-ending sources of carbon emissions and hate. In an emergency, there is no time to start wars with Russia, Iran, China, or anyone else. Last Friday, two Russian aircraft came in close contact with a US Air Force B-52 bomber over the Black Sea. How many B-52 bombers do we have flying around as if the climate emergency is just a hoax?

Pointless carbon emissions

In June 2019, the carbon emissions from the state visit to the U.K. on two Boeing 747 jets was around 2,900 tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to 1,000 average families per year. During his visit with Prince Charles, a climate activist, #45 said “climate goes both ways,” and blamed China, India, and Russia, for worsening air and water quality while claiming the “U.S. has one of the cleanest climates there are.”

On August 20, Andrew Wheeler, head of the “Environmental Protection” Agency eliminated the methane regulations. “EPA has been working hard to fulfill President Trump’s promise to cut burdensome and ineffective regulations for our domestic energy industry,” he said. Wheeler is a coal lobbyist who says, “climate change is not the greatest crisis.”

When he says EPA works hard, he is talking about posting a public notice on the EPA website, asking for public comments, and then announcing the regulation has been removed “to eliminate regulatory burdens put into place by the Obama administration.”

Carbon capture and storage

Nature knows best. The forests, plants, soil, and oceans are the main natural ways to capture and store carbon. The land and ocean sinks absorb about half of the carbon emissions from human activities. However, people have made poor, short-term choices, pretending to have the right to “use” nature for profit. Industrial agriculture has destroyed the soil, and massive oil spills have polluted the oceans killing irreplaceable coral and sea-life.

Industrial carbon capture and storage (CCS)

To continue burning forests and fossil fuels, several utilities have tried mechanical ways to capture CO2 at the point of ignition. On paper, these projects look great, funds are available, and engineers find it fun to try to solve hard problems. But nothing has worked, and billions of dollars have been wasted to show these are serious engineering projects. The UK Drax Group and many U.S. utilities are all playing this game.

The reality is there are thousands of power plants and massive carbon emissions. Burning has to stop, game over. Direct Capture of CO2 from the atmosphere, is a pipedream. Oil and gas utilities’ fantasies are using CO2 to extract fossil fuels.

Grid energy storage solutions and microgrids will replace the centralized grid, with solar and wind distributed energy. Hydrogen using solar energy along with new tech nuclear plants are the future.

Decarbonize!

Last October, #TeamTrees decided to plant 20 million trees with the help of the Arbor Day Foundation, at $1 per tree. Using videos to promote the project, they have planted more than 22 million trees with donations from 800,000 people. Please visit teamtrees.org.

Operation #RescueTrees. Arkansas pine pulpwood trees are sold at $6 per ton and may be harvested at any time. The “stumpage” price does not include harvesting or transportation to the mill, but to rescue these trees can we make an offer to forest owners for 20 million trees to be left standing for 20 years?

Dr. Luis Contreras

9 COMMENTS

  1. Dr. Contreras knows what he’s talking about. The Big Piney District of the Ozark National Forest has a project to cut the oldest trees at Robert’s Gap on Cave Mountain, Newton County at the Headwaters of the Buffalo. Those trees could be better served standing in place to keep the ecosystem diverse. USFS will bulldoze roads into the area adding sediment to our first National River’s headwaters. The Forest Service will use Round-up and other weed killers to cut down on weeds along the bulldozed roads, also killing native plants that insects thrive on as well as bugs endangered bats need. There will also be burns that kill everything in their path, nesting birds, ground creatures, provoking respiratory problems in this time of Covid. Sure, we need jobs, but why not use private land and leave intact one of the largest contiguous hardwood forests in mid-USA? Let the river breath!
    Lolly Tindol

  7. The UK Drax Yorkshire 4,000 MW coal-fired power station was known as the dirtiest power plant in the EU

    Today, the coal is gone. Drax burns only US forests and fossil gas.

    Now, the 4,000 MW Yorkshire power station is worse than it ever was. In addition to carbon dioxide and methane emissions, and the destruction of the US forests carbon sink, the particulate matter from burning wood pellets has increased the COVID-19 mortality rate.

    Spending $billions on false attempts to suck carbon emissions from the flue gases and storing carbon in a deep hole in the ground proves Drax knows how to burn money. The UK National Grid and other companies are happy to design prototypes and pocket billpayers money.

    Here is a 2017 World Resources Institute report, with details of the wood-pellet scam

    https://www.wri.org/blog/2017/12/insider-why-burning-trees-energy-harms-climate

  9. Highland Pellets wants to sell US forests … to Japan

    Like the UK Drax, other countries in EU and Asia are burning our forests and screwing the climate

    Drax claims to be carbon negative … their attempt to suck carbon is 100 percent fake.

    Burning is easy, sucking is hard

    https://youtu.be/wJSpn7zCVoc

Comments are closed.