Acceleration

Acceleration

            The Great Acceleration provides a planetary dashboard of twelve socio-economic and 12 earth system trends that help explain why we the future of the global community is now up to us. (http://www.futureearth.org/blog/2015-jan-16/great-acceleration) Yesterday I blogged Clean Power Win. So how can we accelerate progress toward that win?

            Success stories What did they do, how did they do it, what did it cost, what are the payoffs? The 3,000 plus wastewater treatment plants have a basic mission to clean water. Managing the residuals from that basic mission to generate energy, save other residuals from landfills, and reduce costs for the ratepayers is extra. Success stories which make clear the means and benefits from taking on that extra risk will ease the path for stakeholders in wastewater treatment plants to play a vital role in promoting energy efficiency and production of renewable energy.

            Peer matching Decision makers trust other decision makers in similar positions to answer questions on concerns about things that can go right or wrong and appreciate local challenges. Public works directors trust public works directors. Mayors trust mayors. City managers trust city managers. Peer matching facilitates access to officials responsible for successful projects for those considering change.

            Information exchange Governors, State legislators, mayors, city managers, public works directors, and various professionals have annual meeting with break out sessions on topics of interest. Support break out sessions on moving waterwater treatment plants from using 3% of electricity produced in the US to producing 6% of the electricity used in the US at these annual meetings. How is Massachusetts program to encourage anaerobic digestion working? California? Which of the 47 States which USEPA found to have energy efficiency programs are happy with their results?

            Dashboard What would a dashboard tracking success stories in achieving energy efficiency and capacity to produce renewable energy look like?

 

 

 

Clean Power Win

Clean Power Win I leaned at the Biocycle East Coast Conference that wastewater treatment plants use about 3% of US electricity. With the addition of anaerobic digesters and other organic sources such as food processing wastes, 6% of US electricity can be generated. Food waste is the largest part of the US solid waste stream still going to landfills where it generates methane, a greenhouse gas much more potent than carbon dioxide. This goes beyond efficiency to production of renewable energy. To put it in perspective, the share of US electricity from renewables was 13% in 2013 and is projected by the US Energy Information Agency to be 18% in 2040. The lions share of this increased renewable capacity projected for 2040 is from solar and wind so an increase in electric power generation from anaerobic digestion is an additional win for renewables.

            Biocycle conferences bring together experts in working with the microbial universe. Microbes preferring oxygen are largely represented by the US Composting Council while microbes preferring no oxygen are represented by the American Biogas Council. The American Biogas Council had a presentation by a representative from the US Department of Agriculture who, together with the US Energy Agency and the US Environmental Protection Agency, have devised a Biogas Roadmap and are encouraging production of biogas.  

            The Blue Plains wastewater treatment plant serving the greater Washington, DC area is the largest user of electricity in that area. A speaker from DC Water which runs the Blue Plains plant (dcwater.com) explained that anaerobic digesters had been added at Blue Plains and as food processing waste was also added, the plane would go from being the bidggest user of electricity in the DC area to being an electricity producer. Rates for those served by Blue Plains were expected to fall as a result.

            Quasar Energy Group discussed public private partnerships with wastewater treatment plants. Quasar (quasareg.com) successfully adds anaerobic digesters which produce electricity as well as compressed natural gas for use by vehicles, replacing diesel.

            Biocycle’s West Coast Conference included presentations on integrated anaerobic digestion and composting. First the anaerobic digestion process produces energy and then a composting process produces soil amendment. No microbial discrimination!

Full participation from our planetary friends in the microbial universe.

            The Second Annual United Nations Sustainable Energy for All Forum in June 2015 added an example at the Bronx waste water treatment plant near the Hunts Point Produce Market. New York City is renovating this wastewater treatment plant and adding anaerobic digesters which will also take waste from the Hunt’s Point Produce Market. Electricity generated will more than meet the needs of the treatment plant for electric power. A second example from New York City was efficiencies at high rise buildings having more than 50,000 square feet. These buildings were adopting energy efficiencies on their own. Smaller buildings do not have the necessary expertise so technical assistance is being offered to encourage adoption of energy efficiencies.

Clean Power Win

Up to Us

Up to Us

Thomas Kuhn’s book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions has been a must read for many like me who express the madness gene ( see The Sixth Extinction) by undertaking a doctoral dissertation. Kuhn characterizes a field of inquiry as collections of puzzles solved (paradigms). January of 2015 brought Planetary boundaries: Guiding human development on a changing planet in Science magazine and  The Trajectory of the Anthropocene: The Great Acceleration in The Anthropocene Review.

            Planetary Boundaries describes nine dimensions in which our species has a chance to bring about unpredictable, irreversible change. The two most pressing are climate change and ocean acidification. Climate change includes concentration of carbon dioxide which has a range of 350 parts per million (ppm) to 500 ppm where sudden irreversible change is possible. We are now at about 400 ppm and climbing. For the past 10,000 years, essentially since the Ice Age, temperatures have stayed in a band of plus or minus 2 degrees centigrade which has allowed life to flourish. 

            The Great Acceleration includes 12 graphs for socio-economic dimensions and12 graphs for physical dimensions which show major accelerations since the mid- 20^th century. Increasing use of fossil fuels and economic activity through 2010 help to explain why we have moved from the Holocene (our gift of 10,000 benevolent years) to the Anthropocene where we can bring about dramatic challenges to life on earth.

            Jeffrey Sachs new book, The Age of Sustainable Development, describes the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) which addresses the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (and 169 targets) which will be presented to the United Nations General Assembly this September. SDSN also addresses “a new era of intensive problem solving in …challenges that include health, education, agriculture, cities, energy systems, conservation of biological diversity, and more.”

            I eventually get around to the point. For puzzle addicts like me, the Anthropocene provides enormous opportunity to think about new paradigms in economics, political science, and theology. Kate Raworth’s depiction of doughnut economics in Oxfam’s article for Rio plus 20, A safe and just space for humanity: CAN WE LIVE WITHIN THE DOUGHNUT? sums it up nicely. Inside the doughnut hole we have needs for good governance, poverty eradication, health sustainable environment, and economic and social justice which are currently not met for some of us. Outside the doughnut we have exceeded the planetary boundries. In the doughnut itself is the safe and just space for humanity.

            Can we live within the doughnut? What a great puzzle to solve! Up to us. 

 

 

Up to Us