What do I think, What can I do?

More spills and $/€ moving arround

10 09 02

One interesting point of view to embrace climate change struggle is the practical one. Instead of less widespread ethic or environmental criteria the practical point of view should be able to reach a wider spectrum of people living their own busy urban life without too much time to worry for far problems (far geographically, socially or in time). Because if this is something that may affect my own small life it is more likely I will find some time or effort to do something or change something in my behaviour, or, at least accept stoically an imposed sacrifice.

This way of thinking was mentioned in this blog before related with BP oil spill. And I have just recalled it after reading news from other not so famous spills. Or the not so far China spill . How much are we paying in many ways for all this spills? How expensive is really the petroleum dependence nowadays?

Sceptics will continue to explain carbon-free economy is too expensive, impossibly expensive. Are they considering all the cost in this moment?  And the future ones? And the risks? And the cost of the risks?

The eternal problem again: actual cost are “easy” to measure, at least some of them, while future ones are difficult to measure or maybe easy to forget.

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Nuclear, yes or not?

10 09 02

This is an old debate many times repeated. The interesting question about repeating a debate is that sometime new points of view appear and gain strength. This happened when James Lovelock claimed a “Climate Change point of view” to rediscover nuclear as the planetary energy solution for the present. I suppose that terrible discussions between ecologist followed this statement.

I have never been a nuclear supporter, even if I am physicist and know many supporter close to me. Maybe the main reason is subjective, related with my father point of view and campaigns against “Lemoiz” nuclear in my childhood. They are vague memories of complicate issues but the clear conclusions for me over the years is that most people here were against nuclear but they have used several nuclear Kwh during last decades from Garoña and French nuclear power stations.

I still think that nuclear power stations are risky in spite of the controls. I also have many doubts about their economical profitability considering the eternal residuals and dismantling cost of the power station itself. Nevertheless I agree in some points with Lovelock’s idea:

  • “Climate Change point of view” may be different from classical ecology, and Climate Change should be the priority in this moment because if we fail too much here the consequences will worsen many other ecological, social and economic problems.
  • It is true we need to act now and fast and change our minds in many aspects to address this challenging situation. Fossil fuels have to be substituted from this moment.
  • I also think there is no magic and perfect solution. We will have to sacrifice. I agree that reneweables alone are not able to maintain our energy thirst in this moment.

But I do not agree in the main idea, I do not think nuclear power stations are the solution for the following reasons:

  • Nuclear fuel is also scarce and I do not know how many energy is possible to obtain from it or how many time it can spare us but likely not enough to bridge to a renewable future.
  • Nuclear power stations are very expensive at the beginning and we-don’t-know-how-expensive at the end of their life. A total transition to nuclear in this moment would lead to add the cost of closing all stations and opening new ones. Would not be cheaper to research more intensively in renewables?
  • Widespread nuclear would increase the risk.

I do not believe nuclear is the magic card but I also consider very difficult to get ride of nuclear Kws in this moment, they will be something we have to live with for many years and I prefer to have new, safer and more efficient nuclear power stations instead of the old-fashioned ones, just in case.

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My own climatechangemeter

10 07 15

One of the targets of starting this blog was explaining my point of views to exert an influence in public opinion about this subject I consider very important.
Of course, the main index to measure this effect are the views, comments,. in the blog itself. In these first moments of the blog I am not doing anything to make it too public, so visits and comment are not too encouraging. I am not worried, I am mostly practicing.  But the real key question is not this blog or any other one, is public opinion, and subsequent actions.
I will try to measure it indirectly recording google result figures for two searches: “climate change ” and “climate change skeptics”. From some date in the second one I am trying also some orthographic possibilities , sceptic, skeptic, skeptics and sceptics to make it more general. This index is under construction like this blog, so it should be expected to evolve considerably in the previous stages. This climatechangemeter is really a measurement of interest more than any other feeling, but it is a beginning and I will informally continue doing it, just to see. Maybe the searches could be tuned, and suggestions are welcome, although I want to maintain it simple.

Here you have the fist figure. It is curious, but from initial measurement a month ago climate change has suffered a low peak but has recovered strongly in recent days. The skeptics in single form however suffered the same peak but a weaker recovery. We will go on checking the trend.

climatechangemeter

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Will lemons grow in my garden?, For the prof needers

10 07 08

My wife and me bought a small land to plant trees and maybe some vegetables,… We do not have time to take care of it too much but some trees are getting adoult enought to give us some delicious fruits.

Nevertheless we failed completely in some trials: the attempt to plant lemon tree was really tragic due to the winter cold and our lack of knowledge. However, our luck is about to change, a recent research has shown that many vegetables are NOW moving due to actual climate change. The strongest changes are about to come, next generation or perhaps later, but some are happening right now. The good part is that I hope to get wonderful lemons and oranges, the counterpart is that ecosystems maintaining 1000 million people are in risk. And we still go on discussing about climate change, or worse, about who should pay the economy/society change we need. Meanwhile CO2  continues to grow in our atmosphere and the change is becoming more inevitable and stronger.

The source of my information is this interesting spanish scientific blog, concretely this link http://neofronteras.com/?p=3163

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How expensive is to allow Climate Change?

10 05 20

One of the most used arguments against Climate Change action is that is quite “expensive”, and it will be, bnecause important changes will have to be made in many aspects of our economy and life. We will be able to get less objects and services with the same effort, so, in practice, we will be poorer in average.

However, Climate Change will be very costly too, even more than changing our cheap carbon economy as explained by Tony Blair.

And some costs are not so easy to account, for example a massive oil spill in the ocean. Who will pay all these destruction? Can it be paid

Nevertheless, the real problem is more about time than about total cost. Climate Change avoiding or softening strategies have to be paid now, at least start to be paid now and the consecuences will come later, some are just perceivable but the most severe and “expensive” are one or two generations ahead. And we are not used to save for so long.

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Climate Change point of view of everything

10 05 05

If/when you are convinced that climate change menace is real and the risk is very important, one of the most relevant questions is what can I do?

Of course, there is not a single or simple answer, there are many evident possibilities as:

  • Stay informed about the issue.
  • Talk about it with family, friends, neighbours. Discuss about the importance of the subject. The more people convinced about it the easier will be taking difficult measures.
  • Collaborate with campaigns, associations, … related with CC and/or support them.
  • And something very important, live in a more sustainable way.  Important but difficult in many cases. Many small decisions affect, nearly anything may be related to CC in some aspect for example the choice between ebook or paper book or   , even the icelandic volcano can be understood from CC point of view. This is one of the obsessions of people worried by this problem like me and a great sport for many webs .

And, of ocurse, if we are able to change our lifes we will have made a big step but not everybody is equally convinced, even if he/her is supportin CC strugle. Changing everyday lifes is not easy for anyone and we have many things to think about, so I think that making priorities is a key issue because not all the presonal choices have the same effect and we need real changes to endorse this long-term global chalenge

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Earth Day

10 04 22

Today is the earth day. I do not know if this day is more to ask for improvements or to welcome the achievements, but I feel myself quite pessimistic. I do not consider myself pessimist about climate change in general, just feel pessimistic today.
Maybe one reason is that I listened in the TV to Xavier Sala-i-Martin, an important economist teaching at Columbia university. He talked mainly about economy and it is quite interesting in this subject, but at the same time he is convinced that climate change should be the least important of human global priorities, far behind of malaria or AIDS.

I agree with him in one point: we can not solve everything at the same time, the resources are limited, and many important problems have to be faced. However, I am convinced that this issue is more a mid to long term investment than an expenditure because if we do not act it will worsen many other problems and create new unexpected ones. And the poorest ones will be the first to notice it, after them we will all be affected in some way. Because climate affects harvests, food security, malaria mosquito scope,…

Nevertheless, likely investing to reduce hunger or many illnesses will help to do more actions against climate change because people starving is not able to worry about mid to long term risks with strange names.

What is first, the hen or the egg?

Maybe the actions/projects that help for globally satisfactory improvements.

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Here I Start

10 04 20

This is my first post ever, I do not if the first of a long list or maybe one of the few. It is just a trial in many senses.
But I want to try because I feel I have something to say about climate change.
I am not an expert, just a worried citizen with some scientific backgound (studied physics and work in applied research).
I am not a fluent english speaker, just try myself to communicate in most spoken language.
However I want to share my ideas and points of view about climate change because I consider it very important now and key for our future. It should be a global priority and I want to express myself about it.

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