On Saturday, October 10, my wife and I were at U of Rochester to see Steven Chu and our freshman student. Chu gave what seemed like a major speech. He said the 2nd Industrial revolution must replace fossil fuels with renewables. Otherwise global warming is set to raise temperature by 5 degrees celsius which will melt glaciers and raise ocean levels. He said, “George Will and other global warming deniers are allowed to have any opinion, but they are not allowed to have their own data.” He examined the data (with error bars) and gave a convincing argument. He then proceeded to show how gloom and doom predictions from the likes of Malthus and Ehrlich have been mitigated by inventions of the likes of Norman Borlaug who ushered in the Green Revolution with high yield grains. He then urged us to invent renewable energy sources to offset the crisis of releasing too much fossilized carbon into the atmosphere. He is starting Bell Lab-lets around the country to fund research. This is a major announcement, but it didn’t get covered as far as I can tell.
Update:
Other topics covered in the Steven Chu speech:
Besides using heat reflecting colors for rooftops, energy efficiency in homes is one of the lower-cost means of lowering our carbon footprint. Banks should make money available for new home buyers to insulate their homes and buy double-pane windows. A few thousand dollar investment could be recouped in a few years through reduced heating and cooling costs. By documenting energy efficiency improvements, the homeowner may receive a higher sales price for the property.
Chu told the story of how increased appliance efficiency reduces energy demand and can save money. Once the lawyers and lobbyists got out of the way, engineers designed refrigerators with better insulation. The added R-factor led to such high efficiency gains that smaller compressors requiring less power could be used.
Steven Chu mentioned that increased reliance on nuclear power should play a role. He flashed up a picture of newly design Westinghouse nuclear power plant, and stated that he personally feels that the nuclear waste problem can be dealt with. He didn’t state how this is to be done. I wondered if he really meant it.
References:
Steven mentioned a book called the Population Bomb by Paul Ehrlichin 1968 that predicted that hundreds of millions would starve in the 1970’s and 1980’s because population growth is out stripping agricultural production. Although population has increased from 3.2 billion in 1968 to 6.5 billion in 2005, the dire predictions of starvation were staved off by the Green Revolution which is often credited to Norman Borlaug for increasing crop yields. Borlaug died Sept. 2009 and is credited for saving a billion lives. Another important innovation was the development of artificial means of fixing nitrogen in the soil through the use of fertilizer. Carl Bosch won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1931.
http://physics.syr.edu/courses/modules/ENERGY/ENERGY_POLICY/tables.html