In a Week of Moving All Kinds of Interesting Discoveries and Announcements Occurred

October 2, 2015 – This last week has proven to be tougher than both my wife and I thought. Moving at our age leads to lots of aches and pains. There is only so much that these old bones and muscles can endure before they protest seeking acetaminophen or something stronger to stop the ache.

Well it’s done and we are now in the completion phase of our second downsizing. The carbon footprint has gotten smaller – a good thing. And the area we are living in is adjacent to a walking trail that takes Maya (my miniature red poodle) and me into some of Toronto’s most beautiful forested ravines. The trees are changing. The air is getting crisp and cool and even my beloved baseball team, the Toronto Blue Jays, is showing a new found energy having clinched a playoff berth for the post-season for the first time in 22 years.

But more importantly the world has not slept while we were hauling freight from our old place to the new one. Some exciting science and energy stories broke while my computer was disconnected and I thought I would briefly share the highlights with you my readers.

Hillary Clinton Says No to Keystone XL Pipeline

A political story that has climate change and fossil fuel implications is well worth discussing. When Democratic presidential hopeful, Hillary Clinton, stated in Des Moines, Iowa, this last week, that she would not support the building of the Keystone XL pipeline linking Northern Alberta oil sands to Cushing, Oklahoma, home of the largest oil storage facility in the world, she stated, “the Keystone pipeline…is a distraction from the important work we have to do to combat climate change….therefore I oppose it.”

This is truly big for those who have argued that building more pipelines will make the 2 degrees Celsius target impossible to achieve. This is considered the tipping point for catastrophic climate change.

Described by Canada’s current Prime Minister, Steven Harper, as a “no brainer,”  the Clinton announcement may prove to be the last nail in the coffin of TransCanada’s ambitious plans to get Keystone XL approved. It may also prove to be the first major step in the United States to move to a post-petroleum low-carbon future.

Clinton’s announcement also makes it easier for President Obama to end the fence sitting he has been doing on the issue hoping to appeal to both energy companies and environmental groups by not making a decision. And although the majority of Americans, according to polls still support the building of the pipeline, the opportunity for an educational moment on why not to build it may be realized as the American presidential election race for 2016 unfolds. It seems improbable that the majority of Americans support continuing to build oil infrastructure when that same majority (see recent poll results below) believes that global warming is occurring and that humans are the major contributing factor. We live in interesting times.

Bank of England Governor Calls Climate Change a Financial Risk

In the last few days Bank of England Governor Mark Carney spoke to insurers at a Lloyds of London event in which he described the impact of climate change in dollars, cents, and pounds. Calling it the “tragedy of the horizon” he talked about the importance of taking a long view on the issue rather than continuing to act based on quarterly and annual business results. Carney, a former Governor of the Bank of Canada, stated that “once climate change becomes a defining issue for financial stability, it may already be too late.”

Carney’s theme is not a new one. He made similar remarks in a response to a British Member of Parliament back in October 2014 talking about climate change as a present problem with generational and enormous financial implications. Carney also reiterated a subject that has come up in numerous speeches over the last two years – that of stranded fossil fuel assets. He pointed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and its estimates that between 20 and 33% of proven oil, gas and coal reserves will have to remain in the ground if we are to achieve the 2 degrees Celsius maximum rise in average global temperatures. Carney also talked about carbon capture technology remarking that even if it were deployed on a global scale, the cost would forever negatively alter the economics of the fossil fuel industry.

XPrize Offers $20 Million to Innovators Who Can Turn Carbon Waste into a Product

The XPrize phenomenon is about to tackle carbon emissions by turning carbon dioxide (CO2) waste into an asset. The award is $20 million U.S. The official title is the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE. There is nothing original about what the XPrize is proposing. A similar prize to address the same issue was launched by Sir Richard Branson in 2007. Called the Virgin Earth Challenge, it is a $25 million prize to be given to a company or individual who comes up with a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As of yet no one has met the criteria but eleven organizations have been selected as finalists.

This late to the game offer from XPrize may reignite research and development in converting CO2 emissions into something of value that at the same time is not contributing to global warming. A number of companies today are incorporating carbon into building materials such as concrete. For example, CarbonCure Technologies takes captured CO2 from industrial sources and injects it into its concrete blocks. If applied to concrete globally it would turn the third largest CO2 emitting industry into an effective sequestration tool.

So it would seem that companies are already doing what XPrize organizers are seeking. Maybe now a lot more will join in finding innovative ways to turn carbon pollution into a money making proposition.

More on what happened while we were on the move in my next posting.