U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced his approval of Cape Wind, the first offshore wind farm in the U.S., to be constructed on Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound off the coast of Massachusetts. It is expected that most of the electricity used on Cape Cod and the Islands will be generated from this new source – reducing this region’s need to import oil, coal and gas.
“Secretary Salazar’s decision today to approve Cape Wind has launched the American offshore wind industry. It allows our nation to harness an abundant and inexhaustible clean energy source for greater energy independence, a healthier environment and green jobs,” said Cape Wind President Jim Gordon.
There are still several hurdles before construction begins. Opponents of the wind farm will appeal the decision. They also warn that the costs to consumers are likely to be double or triple the costs for conventional power. Improvements to the region’s electrical grid and transmission lines could cost $10 billion.
America Abroad‘s Matt Ozug examines the ten-year battle over Cape Wind, the now green-lighted offshore wind farm in Nantucket Bay of Massachusetts, and what it may indicate for the nation’s ability to transfer to greener energy.
Listen to this segment from America Abroad‘s The Carbon Conundrum: Confronting Climate Change.
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Javier Barrera Environment
Robert N. Stavins is Professor of Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School and Director of the Harvard Environmental Economic Program. Stavins directed Project 88 (PDF), a bipartisan effort to develop unique approaches to environmental problems. Stavin’s work on Project 88 eventually led to the Acid Rain program contained in the Clean Air Act of 1990. The innovative approach to reducing sulfur dioxide, the compound that causes acid rain, was to use a “cap and trade system.” A limit (cap) was set on how much SO2 each utility could emit, and those utilities could get below that cap through however they saw fit (methods included trading, switching to cleaner coal, or installing SO2 scrubbers.)
Deborah Amos talks with Stavins to look back at the cap and trade system implemented in the U.S. in the early 1990s to mitigate the problem of acid rain, and asks whether a similar program would help to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to climate change.
Read more…
Javier Barrera Environment
Last year, President Mohammad Nasheed of the Maldives, convened a cabinet meeting at the bottom of the ocean. He wanted to call attention to the threat that climate change and rising sea levels poses to his island nation. After the meeting, he surfaced in his scuba gear and held a press conference while floating in the Indian Ocean.
“This is a challenging situation, and we want to see that everyone else is also occupied as much as we are, and would like to see that people actually do something about it.”
A publicity stunt? Most likely. But it was a sign of the growing frustration over the lack of a new global climate change agreement, a successor to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol that called on counties to limit global warming. On the ground, it’s not clear what’s actually more difficult, agreeing on reducing carbon emissions, or actually reducing emissions.
America Abroad examines some of the obstacles, opportunities, and challenges of converting to a low carbon diet. We explore the changing climate of carbon emissions – from the Peruvian rainforest where economic development is decimating forests, to the U.S. where a proposed wind farm off Cape Cod is facing resistance. We also look back at the first major cap and trade program in the U.S. and discuss some of the challenges of reducing global carbon emissions with Dr. Bjorn Lomborg, Director of The Copenhagen Consensus Center and Adjunct Professor at the Copenhagen Business School. Listen to The Carbon Conundrum.
Javier Barrera Climate Change, Environment
James Cameron’s “Avatar” has become a worldwide phenomenon, with a plethora of awards and nominations, and a box office record of over $1.8 billion, making it the highest grossing movie ever. However, the story woven around the natives of Cameron’s fictional planet “Pandora” has been reinvented and retold in Hollywood for decades, but at its heart is the history of the Native Americans and their core belief in the sanctity of Mother Earth.
One of Avatar’s pivotal scenes depicts the N’avi gathered around the “Tree of Souls,” ceremoniously attempting to bring Sigourney Weaver’s character back to life. The ceremony bears a striking resemblance to the traditional Native American Ghost Dance, which began with the vision of a Paiute Indian during an eclipse of the sun, and became a central ritual among many of the Plains tribes. The tribes who practiced the Ghost Dance ritual believed that if they danced and chanted together with enough intensity, the earth would turn upside down, the non-native invaders would be destroyed, and the sanctity of the earth would be restored. With the restoration of the earth, the souls of all American Indians would be reunited, free of death and disease, and their land would be rightly returned.
Ilana Weinberg, AAMTV producer and journalist, will begin a series of posts on religion and peace-building. Her next post will be on Hinduism.
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Ilana Weinberg Environment, Religion
During an anti-nuclear trek through the heart of the city, protesters marched through central Berlin to show their opposition to nuclear energy and the resultant waste by-products. Germany’s salt caverns in Gorleben in the north have been proposed by German officials as the underground disposal site for nuclear waste.
The protesters continued onto other areas in Germany that could also host the disposal site. Nuclear industry proponents accuse detractors of exaggerating the risks. From Deutsche Welle:
Despite claims by nuclear advocates that atomic energy is needed in the energy mix alongside renewables – at least in the medium term to head off climate change and future oil price hikes – surveys in Germany show that a majority of Germans remain sceptical about the nuclear industry, in part also because of the potential that terrorists could target nuclear facilities.
Developed and developing countries are facing off over how to create an environmentally and economically friendly way to combat global warming and eliminate fossil-burning fuels, like coal, for electricity. Listen to Feeling the Heat: The Global Politics of Climate change to find out how climate change became an international political problem.
Javier Barrera Environment
Today is Earth Day. President Obama is in Iowa on a wind farm where he will outline energy initiatives that aim to reduce greenhouse gases and create high-paying jobs. He has vowed to create five million green jobs over the next decade. Last week the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a landmark decision to set in motion the process of regulating greenhouse gases. Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA has a responsibility to address the damage caused by greenhouse gases. Time reports:
“The finding confirms that greenhouse-gas pollution is a serious problem now and for future generations,” said EPA administrator Lisa Jackson. “Fortunately, it follows President Obama’s call for a low-carbon economy and strong leadership in Congress on clean energy and climate legislation.”
There is an international debate over how other nations should try to phase out carbon fuels such as coal and switch to renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. From the Washington Post:
India calls for industrialized countries to commit to significant emission reduction targets while aiding sustainable development in developing nations with funds and technology… About 2.5 percent of India’s gross domestic product is spent on measures to address climate change, including introduction of cleaner technologies, energy-efficient consumer products and renewable energy.
Researchers at the Energy and Resources Institute in India, are finding new ways to make India more sustainable in basic services like water, transportation, buildings, and power.
Listen to a segment from Feeling the Heat: The Global Politics of Climate Change:
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Javier Barrera Environment, India
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced his approval of Cape Wind, the first offshore wind farm in the U.S., to be constructed on Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound off the coast of Massachusetts. It is expected that most of the electricity used on Cape Cod and the Islands will be generated from this new source – reducing this region’s need to import oil, coal and gas.
