Category Archives: Broken in the USA

guns & gas

Water, Water Everywhere

Broken in the USA, Education, Environment

Water, Water Everywhere

Opinion: The country that is showing the world how to save water

Opinion by Seth M. Siegel

‘Playing Russian roulette’: Water conservation efforts stall as Lake Mead dries up

03:04 – Source: CNN

Editor’s Note: Seth M. Siegel is the author of “Let There Be Water: Israel’s Solution for a Water-Starved World” and “Troubled Water: What’s Wrong with What We Drink.” He is currently the Chief Sustainability Officer of N-Drip, a company which developed water-saving technology for agricultural use. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion on CNN.

CNN — 

Scorching temperatures and reports of water scarcity are grabbing headlines, as drought caused by climate change creates long-term problems for farmers and communities in the United States and around the world. Without adequate supply of water, farmers are being forced to plant less in order to conserve the water they will need to get through yet another year of prolonged drought. The consequences will be higher food prices here, but also social instability in countries important to the US.

Seth M. Siegel     Courtesy Talia Siegel

As frightening and as insurmountable a challenge as chronic and growing water shortages may seem, there are solutions at hand that can save us from crisis.

A small country in one of the driest regions in the world is among those that have developed policies and techniques to provide water in cities and farms alike. That country is Israel. And with drought becoming the new normal, policymakers would be wise to take a look at what Israel has done, and to begin the process of creating their own water-resilient societies that are less dependent on rainfall that may never return.

Although Israel gets nearly all of its tap water from desalination plants along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, and a large part of its water for agriculture by purifying and re-using the nation’s sewage, Israel refuses to rely on any single strategy or technology in addressing its water needs.

This “all of the above” approach leads to resilience from this intentional redundancy, but it also opens the door to innovation and risk taking that has often resulted in world-changing breakthroughs.

 Israel became a nation in May 1948, but decades before, while under the control of the British Mandate, the Zionist leadership began prioritizing excellence in water, along with defense and immigration policy. In most countries, the (unromantic) subjects of water infrastructure and technology are in the hands of mid-level officials and more junior cabinet members. But to read the diaries of Israel’s founders is to see the daily interest, bordering on obsession, on getting water policy right. For example, long before desalination took off in Israel, the country’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, often wrote about the prospect of “desalting the sea” in order to “make the desert bloom.”

Not everything Israel does is relevant everywhere. Because of its small size, approximately the land area of New Jersey, it can do things more easily than can water-poor countries of vast dimensions. Likewise, having a long coastline and most of its population within relatively easy reach of the country’s desalination facilities, provide opportunities that aren’t available everywhere.

But some of what Israel does, everyone can do – at least, in theory.

First, Israel charges the real price for water. (Though the cost is subsidized for those receiving social welfare; everyone else pays the full price.) By use of market forces, consumers, farmers and industry are always looking for ways to conserve water, or to use technology that leads to the most efficient use of water possible. In most of the world, water is deeply subsidized which leads to enormous wasting of water due to overuse. As one example, because at full market price it is cheaper to fix leaky pipes than to waste the water, Israel has an uncommonly low leak factor of about 7-8%. Even in the US, there are communities with water mains that lose up to 50% of the water flowing through them.

Israel’s success in water is also tied to the decision to put the administration of the country’s water is in the hands of apolitical technocrats. Their job is to get the highest quality water to the largest number of people possible. Price is a factor, but not the only one. By comparison, in some US cities, mayors know that their constituents may see a rise in water rates as a de facto tax increase. This results in suppressed water fees, and with it the inability to modernize facilities with the best equipment and software, and difficulty in attracting and retaining highly skilled engineers.

 Israel also differs from much of the world in its approach to agriculture. Decades ago, flood irrigation – which soaks soil by flooding fields with water – was discouraged by the government, effectively ending the practice. Yet, around the world, 85 percent of irrigated fields use flood irrigation, a practice that goes back to the time of ancient Egypt and the flooding of the Nile River Basin.

While this wasteful and unsustainable method may be thought to be in use only in less developed countries, here in the US, we flood irrigate millions of acres in California, Texas, and even in the parched southwest. Farmers have little incentive to switch to water-saving technology because they can continue using water as if it were as abundant and inexhaustible as sunshine or air. In Arizona, for example, 89% of the irrigation used is flood irrigation, and in the states of the rapidly depleting Colorado River Basin, there are as many as six million acres that continue wasting trillions of gallons annually by flooding fields.

Fittingly, Israeli technology may come to the rescue in the US southwest. Low-cost, gravity-fed drip irrigation, developed by an Israeli scientist, has already been deployed on thousands of acres in Arizona and elsewhere. (Full disclosure: I work with this scientist’s company.) The technology saves half of the water previously needed for flood-irrigated fields while improving yields and reducing the need for water-polluting fertilizer. This newer approach is similar to the more familiar form of drip irrigation invented in Israel more than 60 years ago. But this system uses gravity as its energy source, eliminating ongoing external energy use and expense.

It’s been said that the wars of the 21st century will be fought over water. That may be so, but it is cheaper and smarter for every water-stressed region and country to transform how it uses its water. That has to start with changing how we think about our water. And in that, every country – rich or poor, large or small, landlocked or with a long seacoast – can learn from what Israel has done.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is image-158x81.png

Coal Plants on the Decline

Broken in the USA, Environment

Coal Plants on the Decline

This state blew up its last coal plant to make way for a massive, community-changing construction project: ‘In our opinion, it’s irreversible’

Article by: Laurelle Stelle

August 26, 2023

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is image-158x81.png

New Jersey has demolished Logan Generating Station, one of its last coal-fired power plants, Bloomberg reports.

Built only 28 years ago, the plant was purchased from Atlantic City Electric in 2018 by Starwood Energy Group, Bloomberg says. The investment company intends to convert it and the nearby Chambers plant to make affordable, clean energy — meaning electricity that’s generated without putting heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere.

This project is part of a push in the U.S. and throughout the world to get rid of polluting energy sources that warm up the planet. Similar projects in Michigan, Hawaii, Colorado, Minnesota, Illinois, Massachusetts, and other states are making the country’s electric power healthier, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly.

This change could not be more timely, as a new report from the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign recently revealed the harm caused by the U.S.’s heavy reliance on coal.

The fine particle pollution from coal plants causes 3,800 premature deaths each year, often in states far away from the actual location of the plant. And that data doesn’t even include the health risks caused by other types of coal pollution.

Coal is also expensive compared to other options. According to Forbes, “209 out of 210 existing U.S. coal plants are now more expensive to run compared to replacement by new cheaper wind or solar energy in the same region.”

Meanwhile, the heat-trapping gases generated by coal plants contribute to increasing temperatures worldwide. The heat, in turn, causes more frequent and more destructive natural disasters like hurricanes and floods.

Switching to eco-friendly solar, wind, and water power is the smart move for health, finances, and long-term safety — and after the transition, former coal plants will still play a crucial role. Because these areas are wired to the power grid, they’re the perfect places to put energy storage projects, Bloomberg reports.

Most clean energy sources need battery storage because, unlike coal which generates power on demand, wind and solar depend on the weather. Providers will need to generate and store energy when conditions are favorable, then release it at night or in calm weather.

So far, New Jersey doesn’t have enough wind and solar sources to need battery storage, says Bloomberg. But Starwood Energy Group is investing in what it sees as the inevitable future.

“In our opinion, it’s irreversible,” Starwood’s CEO, Himanshu Saxena, told Bloomberg. “Folks just have to get on the train.”

Key UN reports published warn urgent and collective action needed

Broken in the USA, Education, Environment, Science

Key UN reports published warn urgent and collective action needed – as oil firms report astronomical profits

By Damian Carrington Environment editor

The climate crisis has reached a “really bleak moment”, one of the world’s leading climate scientists has said, after a slew of major reports laid bare how close the planet is to catastrophe.

Collective action is needed by the world’s nations more now than at any point since the second world war to avoid climate tipping points, Prof Johan Rockström said, but geopolitical tensions are at a high.

He said the world was coming “very, very close to irreversible changes … time is really running out very, very fast”.

Emissions must fall by about half by 2030 to meet the internationally agreed target of 1.5C of heating but are still rising, the reports showed – at a time when oil giants are making astronomical amounts of money.

On Thursday, Shell and TotalEnergies both doubled their quarterly profits to about $10bn. Oil and gas giants have enjoyed soaring profits as post-Covid demand jumps and after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The sector is expected to amass $4tn in 2022, strengthening calls for heavy windfall taxes to address the cost of living crisis and fund the clean energy transition.

All three of the key UN agencies have produced damning reports in the last two days. The UN environment agency’s report found there was “no credible pathway to 1.5C in place” and that “woefully inadequate” progress on cutting carbon emissions means the only way to limit the worst impacts of the climate crisis is a “rapid transformation of societies”.

Current pledges for action by 2030, even if delivered in full, would mean a rise in global heating of about 2.5C, a level that would condemn the world to catastrophic climate breakdown, according to the UN’s climate agency. Only a handful of countries have ramped up their plans in the last year, despite having promised to do so at the Cop26 UN climate summit in Glasgow last November.

The UN’s meteorological agency reported that all the main heating gases hit record highs in 2021, with an alarming surge in emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

Separately, the IEA’s world energy report offered a glimmer of progress, that CO2 from fossil fuels could peak by 2025 as high energy prices push nations towards clean energy, though it warned that it would not be enough to avoid severe climate impacts.

Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, said: “It’s a really bleak moment, not only because of the reports showing that emissions are still rising, so we’re not delivering on either the Paris or Glasgow climate agreements, but we also have so much scientific evidence that we are very, very close to irreversible changes – we’re coming closer to tipping points.”

Research by Rockström and colleagues, published in September, found five dangerous climate tipping points may already have been passed due to the global heating caused by humanity to date, including the collapse of Greenland’s ice cap, with another five possible with 1.5C of heating.

“Furthermore, the world is unfortunately in a geopolitically unstable state,” said Rockström. “So when we need collective action at the global level, probably more than ever since the second world war, to keep the planet stable, we have an all-time low in terms of our ability to collectively act together.”

“Time is really running out very, very fast,” he said. “I must say, in my professional life as a climate scientist, this is a low point. The window for 1.5C is shutting as I speak, so it’s really tough.”

His remarks came after the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said on Wednesday that climate action was “falling pitifully short”. “We are headed for a global catastrophe [and] for economy-destroying levels of global heating.”

He added: “Droughts, floods, storms and wildfires are devastating lives and livelihoods across the globe [and] getting worse by the day. We need climate action on all fronts and we need it now.” He said the G20 nations, responsible for 80% of emissions, must lead the way.

Inger Andersen, head of the UN environment program (UNEP), told the Guardian that the energy crisis must be used to speed up delivery of a low-carbon economy: “We are in danger of missing the opportunity and a crisis is a terrible thing to waste.”