Goal For The Green

We all know that America needs to become energy independent.  However, there isn’t a clear vision for achieving that goal, and no real clear cut plan either.  Here are ten steps we could make toward achieving energy freedom.

1.  There are 10 foreign government run oil companies that are much larger and have greater oil reserves than our Exxon Mobil. So, we need to quit blaming “big oil” here at home.  Even if they did make a record profit of $12 billion in less than 90 days.

2.  Congress and lawmakers should address or own domestic supply and production problems. If they increased our supply from our own sources and reserves, it could have an impact on the price we pay at the pump.

3.  We can make a difference by turning off lights at home, when not in use.  We can also save gas instead of time by slowing down our driving speed.  We can also save energy by keeping our thermostats set at 68 in the winter and 75 in the summer.

4.  Remember when grandma use to hang clothes out on the line and how nice and fresh they smelled? Or how about installing rain barrels to water the lawn instead of pumping water from the well.  If you aren’t on a well system, you can conserve water by using drip or soaker hoses.

5.  There must be a determination in this country to develop alternative energy sources such as solar, wind, biomass, and geothermal technology.  There is is no room for the NIMBY (not in my backyard) attitude.  This only slows progress that needs to happen.

6.  We need to build and reopen nuclear plants.  France gets 77% of its energy from nuclear sources.  We need to follow what they have learned in regard to safe usage of nuclear power and the recycling of nuclear waste.

7.  We should increase hydroelectric power in states where it is plentiful.  There should also be an environmental push to increase the survival rate of young salmon migrating to the Pacific regions

8.  If we develop and deploy our environmental cleanup strategies to developing economic powers such as China India and others, they could generate electricity from their abundant coal reserves.  This would drastically reduce air and water pollution in those countries, and make their people healthier.  Taking this step would also provide new markets for our American companies and create new jobs.

9  We need to produce more of our own oil and natural gas, while other technology and alternatives are being developed.  There is enough domestic natural gas offshore to supply the United States for the next 10 years easily.  The production technology is much safer than it was 30 plus years ago.  There are 109 offshore oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico that were directly hit during Hurricane Katrina without causing a significant spill.

10.  It will take patience and common since, as well as time and money to transform new technology and find new sources of energy.  The solutions won’t happen overnight, however, we need a dedicated government to get behind these issues and make sure these changes happen in a timely fashion.

Tomorrow is officially Summer. But, here in the Puget Sound area, we got gypped out of Spring.  We can count on one hand, well maybe not quite two hands the few days that have come close to 70 degrees.

The truth is, it has been flat out cold.  In this month of June, Fairbanks ,Alaska has already had 10 days above 70. The “Icebox of our Nation,” International Falls, Minnesota has had four days top 70 degrees so far this month.  The mercury has been topping seventy in Oslo, Norway nearly every day recently.

Even Tomsk, Russia, in Siberia was warmer than Seattle on the 10th of June. They hit the 70’s in Siberia and we were still sporting our sweatshirts and hoodies at 55 degrees. The snow plows were back out on Snoqualmie Pass, clearing another 7 inches of snow, just last week. That’s happened only two times in the last 30 years. This has been a record year for snow in our mountains.

We are praying for a slow thaw, or we will be looking at terrible flooding like we had in December. It was the worst flooding here in over 100 years.

Perhaps we shouldn’t complain too loud, at least we don’t have to be looking for relief like they were on the East Coast last week, sweltering at more than 100 degrees in places. Not to mention, an early start to the fire season in California, in April, and an already record number of hurricanes, tornados and severe storms in the Midwest, doing billions of dollars of damage.

According to the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, which is a combined effort of more than a dozen government agencies, we can expect to see more severe and intense weather patterns ocurring. There will be more severe droughts, more disastorous (stormier) storms covering wider and more diverse places,plus more and deeper flooding as part of our changing climate.  Events that are rare to an area, can and will become commonplace. A rise from moderate to high sea surface water temperatures have been linked to increasing power and more hurricane activity.  Last season there were approximately 900 hundred hurricanes, this year they are expecting at least 1800 to pass through the Midwest.  The season started in April, and as evedent by the damage so far, has been relentless.

CO2 emissions have caused the global average temperature to rise 15-60 times faster than the natural historic rate. Our Earth’s climate system is changing more rapidly than some species are able to adapt.  These changes are already affecting more than half of Earth’s wild species.  More than 16% of all coral reefs have become damaged, or even died because of high sea water temperatures. Coral reefs may even become extinct in this century, if we don’t concentrate on controlling and stabelising CO2 emissions.  There is no time to waste on this issue.  It affects all life, even our own.