January 26, 2023 posted by Peter Crownfield
How wind, sun, and water can power the world
Mark Stanford, who teaches civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University, makes the case that existing technologies for renewable energy and energy conservation can meet all our energy needs.
A January 23 article in The Guardian gives a brief recap: “ No miracles needed: Prof Mark Jacobson on how wind, sun, and water can power the world”.
The article quotes Jacobson as saying ”We have 95% of the technologies right now that we need to solve the problem.… The missing 5% is for long-distance aircraft and ships, for which hydrogen-powered fuel cells can be developed.” It’s important to note that he’s talking about all energy, not just electric power. He’s very critical of the so-called Carbon Capture and Storage/Sequestration schemes, which he said are “solely designed to keep the fossil fuel industry in business.”
Jacobson is cautious about ‘direct air capture’, but says it can be a critical way to speed the reduction of greenhouse gases [GHG] in the air, referring to straightforward approaches such as reforestation and reducing methane emissions and nitrous oxide emissions from fertilizers. (The best way to do that, of course, is regenerative organic agriculture.)
His new book, No Miracles Needed: How Today’s Technology Can Save Our Climate and Clean Our Air, is scheduled for publication at the beginning of February by Cambridge University Press.
[ISBN 9781009249546]
Also see ‘Regenerative Agriculture Is a Win-Win-Win Climate Solution‘ and Max Fern’s essay ‘We Need to Switch to Regenerative Organic Agriculture Now‘ (Sustainable Lehigh Valley 2022).