James Hansen, Top Scientist for NASA, said that the situation that the world is facing right now against Global Warming and Climate Change has long passed acceptable levels. There are only a few decades remaining before the more massive effects of global warming start taking shape. These will be in the form of extinction, ecosystem collapse and dramatic rise in world sea levels.
This was said on the 20th anniversary of his briefing in Congress where he exposed the phenomenon of Global Warming in the midst of a heat wave that the United States was experiencing. This time his talk was heard at the US Congress’ Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.
Special mention was given on how Coal Fired power plants which run without any carbon absorbing equipment are contributing greatly to Climate Change and should be prevented from running past 2030.
When asked whether there was still time to fight Global Warming, he answered:
There’s still time to stop the worst, but not much time.
I heard before that the cost to install power plants with scrubbers costs about half to equal the cost of the plant itself. When you think about it, its a worthy investment considering what is at stake. The way the government could help in this is to offer subsidies and incentives to existing power plants to add these carbon scrubbing equipment.
But the really best way to go about this is to drop the entire coal power plant dependence and go renewable. According to the Department of Energy’s Philippine Power Situationer report of 2007. Majority of the Philippine energy demand is supported by fossil fuel based power plants. The graph below also doesn’t show that majority of those Coal based plants are in the Luzon island. While the 3rd largest energy supplier, Hydro Electric, most of it are based in the island of Mindanao.
According to the recent Renewable Energy Coalition’s study, the Philippines has untapped renewable energy potential of: Geothermal (4,531 MW), Hydro electric (13,097 MW) and Wind (76,600 MW). More than enough to offset the current capacity of Coal (4,213 MW) and Fuel Oil Power Plants (3,616 MW) in the country as well as meet future need.
James Hansen said that he is willing to go to the United Kingdom to help protesters who are against putting up of a new coal fired power plant in the UK. Wouldn’t it be great if he could go to the Philippine Legislature as well and talk to those Distinguished Gentlemen to pass the much needed Renewable Energy Bill? There’s a thought.
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Category: Misc, Coal, Climate Change
