Adam Greenberg

Adam Greenberg was a great person whose life was too short. I only met him a few times, but he was very memorable. He had a great sense of humor, very witty. He could deliver these sharp one liners that would make the room erupt in laughter. Though I didn't know him that well or for that long, he touched my life. One of the most immediate ways he changed my life is through his speech at Ben and Jaclyn's wedding. He was the best man and his speech was very funny and heart-felt. Adam's speech was in July, and when it became time for me to give the best man speech at my brother Ben's wedding in October, I looked back on Adam's speech and in many ways tried to emulate his style. My speech would have been very different, and much worse, if it hadn't been for Adam.

Not knowing Adam very well, it was hard to realize how much he went through as far as his health is concerned. He never complained and embraced every hurdle he face. He had lymphoma, and though he was cancer-free for several years, he had many other health complications due to his treatment. His death was sudden and unexpected. Jodie and I were expecting to pick him up yesterday to bring him to Ben and Jaclyn's New Years party. I will miss him.

5 Million Tons of CO2 Pumped Underground

The Department of Energy has successfully pumped five million tons of carbon dioxide underground. The carbon dioxide is from a coal gasification plant in North Dakota and has been pumped underground to a Canadian oil field. This technology sounds very promising because it could significantly reduce CO2 emissions into our atmosphere while increasing the oil production of a given oil field.

When I heard about this successful test, I was very interested. This technology is highly suggested by Deffeyes in his book Beyond Oil. I hope to hear more about this technology in the future as it is implimented in more places. It seems to me a win-win situation for global warming and oil companies. The technology sounds like it could make a significant dent in our carbon dioxide emissions. The article I read states that if the process were used in all the oil fields of western Canada, “we would see billions of additional barrels of oil and a reduction of CO2 emissions equivalent to pulling more than 200 million cars off the road for a year.”

Click here to read the article.

Beyond Oil: The View From Hubbert’s Peak by Kenneth S. Deffeyes 2005

I just finished reading Beyond Oil by Deffeyes. The main point of the book is that world oil production has peaked and we need to find alternatives to fill the energy gap that will be created as oil production drops off. Deffeyes points out that heavy investment in research and development of alternatives should have started fifteen years ago. We need to start such research now, but that won’t help us in the next five to ten years. Deffeyes presents a few existing technologies that we need to focus on in the near term.

1. High Efficiency Diesel Engines: Current technology can achieve 90+ miles
per gallon and using new computer controls can reduce some of the engine pollution.
2. Coal Fired Electric Plants: Trap the carbon dioxide produced when the coal is burned and pump it underground to enhance oil recovery.
3. Wind Turbines: Turbine technology is well developed and Wyoming (and other locations) has lots of wind.
4. Nuclear Plants: Learn to stop worrying and love the cheap electricity.

Deffeyes also points out a few actions individuals can take to help the energy problem.

1. Buy a Hybrid Car and/or Move closer to work
2. Buy Local Crops to reduce food transportation energy
3. Switch to Fluorescent and LED Lighting
4. Upgrade Home insulation

For the most part I agree with Deffeyes. High efficiency diesel engines will certainly reduce the amount of oil we use, but I think hybrid engines and existing fuel cell technology should be used as well to limit the air pollution from diesel engines. Or what about a hybrid diesel-electric engine? I haven’t heard anything about that concept.

Coal electric plants make me nervous because of the air pollution they cause. Trapping the CO2 and other pollutants from the coal and storing them underground sounds great. My only question is do we really have the technology already to trap CO2? If we do, why haven’t we implemented that already?

Further implementation of wind turbines is a great idea, though I’d also add other alternative energy sources such as solar and geothermal to Deffeyes’ list.

Nuclear energy makes me worry as well. Maybe Deffeyes is right, that we need to stop worrying so much about nuclear energy, and enjoy its benefits. I’m not so much worried about the electric plant exploding as I am about the nuclear waste. Deffeyes points out the physical size of the nuclear waste produced is relatively small. That makes me feel good, but the waste has to be contained for 15,000 to 240,000 years. How exactly are we going to do that? 15,000 years is so long, it’s really beyond comprehension. We have no idea how much change the earth could go through in that time. Nuclear fusion sounds like a great solution. Deffeyes says it produces no radioactive waste, but is at least 20 years away.

The individual actions suggested by Deffeyes to reduce our energy consumption all make very good sense. I’ve heard about taking such actions before, so this wasn’t anything new to me.

Overall, I was somewhat disappointed in the book, but my disappointment was really my own fault. I didn’t do much research into this book before I purchased it and started reading. The title alone seemed reason enough to get the book. My disappointment was largely due to the fact the book primarily discusses the state of oil in the world and other possible fossil fuel replacements, such as natural gas, coal, tar sands, and oil shale. I feel we need to move away from fossil fuels by using renewable energy sources and promoting energy efficiency and conservation. The book does discuss nuclear and hydrogen energy options, but does not discuss renewable energy sources in any depth. The book sticks to the topics that Deffeyes is familiar with. He is a geologist and therefore most renewables are outside his realm of expertise. I would still have expected some discussion of geothermal energy.

I did find the overall conclusion and message of the book very interesting. I knew world oil was running out, but I didn’t realize we are already at or past the peak.

Favorite Quotes

"Anyone who believes that exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist." - Kenneth E. Boulding

"The absolute simplicity. That's what I love. When you are climbing your mind is clear. Free of all confusion. You have focus. And suddenly the light becomes sharper, sounds are richer, and you are filled with the deep, powerful presence of life." - Brad Pitt (Heinrich Harrer) in Seven Years in Tibet

Hybrid Cars and Fuel Cells are old Technology

Gas electric Hybrid cars have been around since at least 1970. Fuel Cells were used during NASA's Apollo missions during the 1960s. The reason these technologies aren't more prevalent today is simply that there hasn't been significant push to develop the technologies until more recently.

I am mentioning this fact because the other night I was early for my graduate class at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). Since I had a few minutes I was looking at the posters in the hallway. One of them was called "Mechanical Engineering Through the Years." It had a bunch of old photos, one of which was a group of guys and an old car with "WPI Hybrid Electric" on the side. I looked into it a little more and found out the car was for a Clean Car Race back in 1970. The race was organized by several colleges to raise awareness of the significant air pollution coming from automobiles.

It's hard to believe that such an event took place 35 years ago considering the lack of progress made towards cleaner vehicles.

Evangelical's Push to Curb Global Warming - What will Bush do Now?

The National Association of Evangelicals plans to release a statement calling for mandatory greenhouse gas controls. The statement will be signed by over 35 evangelical leaders from across the US. The evangelicals believe there is a moral obligation to preserve the Earth.

It will be very interesting to see if such a statement causes any change in Bush's stance on climate change. Bush will be caught between his conservative base, which based on this news is pushing for climate change legislation, and his industry base which has opposed such legislation. I would think the conservative base holds more votes than a few industry lobbyists. I hope that means Bush will choose to go along with the evangelicals and support climate change legislation.

I always thought it was weird that saying the environment was considered a liberal idea. The word conservation is the same root as conservative, so by definition environmental conservation is a conservative idea. Saving the environment is resisting change. It is preserving the environment in its original state. That is a conservative idea. Maybe the conservatives have finally figured this out and the liberals and conservatives will now agree and we'll make some progress. We can only hope.

Read the article at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network

Maybe I Should Have Voted for Lieberman

I found and interesting newspaper article online today. It was called Lieberman proposal: Hybrid autos to combat manmade global warming. Basically, the article states that Senator Joseph Lieberman plans to introduce a bill requiring 10% of new cars to be hybrids or alternative fuel vehicles by 2007. Additionally, the bill would require 50 percent of new cars sold in America to be hybrid electric or based on other gasoline-saving technology by 2012.

I was very happy to hear about this bill. It's about time we started to push for more efficient cars to decrease our dependency on fossil fuels. This bill would be similar to raising the mpg standards for vehicles.

One other thing the article mentioned, was that Lieberman and McCain are planning reintroduce their Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act, which would mandate a rollback of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. to 2000 levels by the end of the decade.

Now, let's hope these bills pass through congress.

The Rain Finally Stopped

We saw the sun today for the first time in 9 or 10 days. It was a welcome and much needed sight. There hasn't been much flooding impact in Manchester, but elsewhere in the state has been hit hard. The worst hit areas are in the westerner part of the state, Keene and Alstead in particular. I drove over the Merrimack river today and it was higher than I can ever remember seeing it. The water is so high even though only a few weeks ago, it was about as low as I've ever seen it.

Jodie and I participated in the Breast Cancer walk at Greeley Park in Nashua. It was a nice walk, but I unfortunately volunteered to help set up. The walk was at 10:00 am, so I figured helping to setup would entail getting there around 8:00 am. Instead I was told to get there around 7:00 am. Jodie and I got there early and help set up a few things, but we really didn't do much. Soon, we found ourselves without much to do, and more than 2 hours to wait until the walk began. We ended up walking around Greeley Park and playing on the swings for awhile. I don't have a problem helping setup. I mean, I did volunteer, but I didn't really enjoy carrying about 6 boxes and then having nothing to do. I'm glad to help out, but if I'm not needed, I rather not show up early to stand around.

Overall, the walk was a success. We enjoyed the walk very much, and it's great to raise money and awareness for such a good cause.

Buffalo

Last night I saw a brief part of a show about Yellowstone National Park and the railroad industry. It was on NH Public Television, and was called YELLOWSTONE: AMERICA'S EDEN. It was very depressing. It started out showing footage of huge herds of buffalo roaming the plains. There used to be 60 million buffalo in the western US. The white men, railroad people from what I took from the show, wanted to own the land that was presently occupied by native americans. They noticed that the native americans relied heavily on the buffalo for survial, and they thought that a nice indirect way of getting rid of the native americans would be to kill off the buffalo. The show had pictures of enormous piles of buffalo skulls and said that St. Louis sold 200,000 buffalo hides a day! The pictures and facts were deeply distrubing about how incredibly quickly and thoroughly the buffalo were distroyed. In fact, the buffalo were thought to be extinct until about two dozen buffalo were found in what is now Yellowstone National Park.

Ironicly, the same railroad people saw the beauty of yellowstone and realized it was worth perserving. They were one of the main groups lobbying for yellowstone to become the first national park. Of course, the beauty to them was the number of people who would ride their railroad to see the natural wonders. Suddenly the buffalo, elk, sheep, and deer were valueable to these people. So valueable that they decided to kill gray wolf and bear to reduce the predators of these animals. As a result the population of these grazing animals increased. Unfortunately, the population increased beyond what could be supported by the small yellowstone ecosystem. The over population lead to over-browsing, which lead to the decline of beaver, which lead to the loss of wetlands, which hurt duck and fish populations, etc.

The program went on to show the vast influx of people via automobiles and the detrimental impact they had. They showed the park rangers cleaning Morning Glory pool of all the trash people put in there. They pulled 86 dollars of pennies out of the pool!

I went to Yellowstone a few years ago, and luckily a lot of the damage of previous visitors, such as trash in Morning Glory Pool, is temporary. Much of the damage has not been temporary. The buffalo still are a fraction of their original numbers, grizzly bears are not present in Wyoming like they used to be, nor or the wolves.

I was depressign to me to see such destruction to beautiful and innocent creatures and habitat. There is a delicate balance between enjoyment of our natural wonders and over use.

Ben & Kate's Wedding

Saturday was Ben & Kate's wedding. It was a lot of fun. The ceremony was very nice. It was at First Church in Nashua, NH. The reception was at the radisson in Chelmsford, MA. I was the Best Man. It was my first experience being part of the wedding party. I was a little nervous about having to stand in front of the church during the ceremony and giving my speech as best man. I was nervous during the speech, but I think it turned out pretty well.

It was nice to see several people from my family who I haven't seen in a long time. I suppose that's one of the best things about weddings is getting to see everyone. Todd Thamer was their photographer. I mentioned him to Ben and he ended up using him. I didn't know until he walked in on the wedding day, so that was a bit of a surprise. I kind of was able to have a day long interview with Todd. I got to see him work, and he did a nice job. I think he'll do a great job at our wedding too.

Crappy Day

I feel like absolute crap. I only got about 3.5 hours of sleep last night. I normally get 8 or even 9 hours. Last night was my brother's bachelor party. Being the best man, I was in charge of planning it. My brother can be difficult to deal with because, for some reason, he doesn't like to give his opinion on what he'd like to do. About the only thing I could get out of him about what he'd like for his party was a list of people and the fact he'd like to drink a fair number of microbrews. When I asked him his opinion on some specifice things I had in mind, his response was generally "whatever you decide" - not much help there.

I'm definitely not the best choice to plan such an evening, as I have never gone to a bar just to hang out. It's just not something I find enjoyable. I don't drink and I don't like cigarette smoke and loud music. But away, I planned to go to a couple bars in Manchester. The first was a microbrewery, but not very nice. The next place wasn't a brewery, but did have 40+ local microbrews on tap. It was nicer. I was actually having a half way decent time, once it seemed liked everyone else liked the place, and I started to talk to Joe about climbing. Then it was getting late and it became quite apparent that most people, my brother and Steve in particular, had had too much to drink. I had to support my brother as he walked back to the car because he was all over the place. Then he puked all over my car just before we got home. Even after that I wasn't that upset. It was his bachelor party and he seemed to have had a good time.

That was yesterday though. Today, is the day I meant by calling this post crappy day. I just feel like crap. I think the lack of sleep has a lot to do with it. I spent three hours cleaning my car this morning (after about an hour of cleaning last night). Then I ate too much lasagna for lunch, got my hair cut, and came back to Manchester. I decided to go for a run and see if that made me feel any better, but it didn't. I still feel like a fat, ugly, lazy pig. Plus I have tons of homework to do - obviously I don't feel like doing it.

Crap...

Gas Prices

I filled up my gas tank this morning. It was $2.89/gallon. It was $2.77 yesterday morning. I probably should have filled up then - oh well. I suppose the gas price increase is due to Hurricane Rita, but it hasn't even made landfall yet. I have heard many of the oil refineries have temporarily shut down for the storm, but I find it hard to believe the gas supply has been affected already. No doubt, the price of gas will go over $3/gallon this weekend after the storm hits. Part of me doesn't mind the high gas prices. I drive a Toyota Prius and get about 50 miles/gallon, so I'm not impacted by the price of gas quite as much as some others, but that's not the reason I don't mind the price increase. I don't mind the increase, because it's my hope that the high gas prices will raise the energy issue in our country so that some real progress is made. I think there is real opportunity to make some drastic changes to our energy infrastructure to make it more sustainable. Our country and its economy is incredibly dependent on the oil industry, which is clearly not good. Like any good Wall Street investor would say, we need a diversified portfolio. The US needs to develop alternative energy sources, preferably environmentally friendly and sustainable sources, to create a balanced energy industry. If our energy industry is more diverse, a major disruption of one particular source, such as oil, would have a far smaller impact on the economy. The solution to high gas prices is not to increase the oil supply, it is to increase the availability of alternative energy sources.

Many alternative energy sources, such as solar, are more expensive than oil. If the price of oil continues to climb, they may not be any longer. But even if the price of oil doesn't rise high enough, the US government should step in and help the other energy industries out. One of the main reasons alternative energy sources are more expensive is because they are produced in small quantities. If the demand for these alternative energy sources increased, the price would go down, but the demand won't increase unless the price goes down. This is where the government needs to step in and help lower the price hurdle so the alternative energy industries can take off. The development of alternative energy sources benefits our environment, but also the economy as a whole by removing our dependence on a single energy source.

I am really intrigued by the idea of decentralized energy, especially for more rural areas, rather than massive power plants. It makes sense to me to have a solar panel on the roof of each house, to have each house be it's own sustainable energy source. Of course, a centralized approach does make more sense in densely populated areas. But again, why not have more diversity; a decentralized energy approach for rural areas and a centralized energy approach for cities.

62 Billion Dollars !?!

Congress has passed about 62 billion dollars in Katrina relief money. That's as of now. I've heard some people are estimating as much as 200 billion will eventually be allocated for Katrina relief. All this on top of the billions that are being spent on rebuilding Iraq!

Where does all this money come from? From what I hear, nowhere really, they are just borrowing from the American peoples' future. I heard some talk of repealing the republican enacted tax cut. I'm not exactly sure how much that equates to, but I'd imagine its still not enough for the Katrina relief. And such a repeal is rather unlikely in a republican controlled Congress. The financial behavior of the US government really frustrates me. Why aren't they subject to the same common sense rules as everyone else? In my personal finances, if an unexpected expense arises, such as an expensive car repair, the money has to come from somewhere else. I don't keep spending my money the same way I was before the unexpected expense. So why can the government do that? And why don't they save some money for unexpected costs? Most people with a good handle on their finances put away a chunk of money "for a rainy day". Does the US government have a "rainy day fund"? Not that I'm aware of. They can't even balance the budget for a single fiscal year, let alone save something for the future.

And where exactly is this 62 billion dollars going? I understand there is a lot of destruction on the Gulfcoast, but don't those people have hurricane insurance? I would think that would be requirement down there when people apply for a home mortgage. I realize that some lower income people don't own homes and may not even be able to afford renter insurance. But I would think the landlord would have insurance on the building. I know there will be a significant cost in cleaning up the cities and their public infrastruture, but won't most of the cost fall on insurance companies who have to pay claims to all the people and businesses in that area? Where the insurance companies get that kind of money is another question.

I heard someone at work today talking about the hurricane destruction and he said some really interesting things - which isn't unusual as he is very intelligent and he can rightfully say things like "when I got my first patent" and "the first billion dollars I earned the company". Anyway, he was talking about how he owns some property down along the Gulf of Mexico, and how beautiful and wonderful it is. But he said he doesn't have a mansion down there because "you know that every 10 years this storm comes through and makes the cars float down the street." I thought his comment was well said. I don't think many people have that kind of view point. I don't think they buy or build a house along the Gulf coast with the idea in there head that it is quite likely a major hurricane will come through this area in their life time. It is even more likely as global warming continues - but that is a topic for another day.

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

Lately, the stories of Hurricane Katrina, its distruction and the clean-up, have been all over the news. Now, Hurricane Rita is bearing down on the Gulfcoast again, but this time between New Orleans and Galveston, Texas. Katrina virtually destroyed New Orleans and caused gas prices all over the US to rise almost a dollar a gallon. Now, similar destruction is feared (expected) as a result of Rita. This destruction is obviously horrible for the people directly affected by the storms. It has caused me to wonder about the intelligence of building major cities, such as New Orleans, so close to the Gulf coast. Hurricanes are not exactly uncommon in these areas. It has really been a question of when, not if, something like this would happen to New Orleans. National Geographic ran a story about the potential destruction of New Orleans due to a hurricane over a year ago. I haven't read the story, but I heard about it on NPR. Apparently the story was very accurate in predicting the type and magnitude of damage.

I don't know much about the history of New Orleans, but I'd imagine one of the major reasons it is such a large city and so close to the Gulf is because it's a major port. There is probably a lot of traffic to New Orleans from the Gulf, including oil barges from the offshore oil fields. But couldn't a large portion of the city be moved slightly north to a not so hurricane prone area? As Katrina and the Asian Tsumani, have made perfectly clear, nature is very powerful, and there is little we can do to stop its desruction. Not heavily developing the areas prone to destruction is really the only solution.