The focus of this blog

Hi!  This blog will focus on various matters relating to the topic - sustainability.  Mostly, I'll be focusing on issues of resource sustainability, like water, energy, and so forth.  There's a veritable plethora of information on sustainability, as you likely know.  As my blog takes shape, I'll probably re-visit this description.  Come back and watch it morph.

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What is Sustainability?

To some extent, this term suffers from the same problems as does the term - natural, or, better yet, "Green."  What is natural versus what isn't natural?  It's not defined in law, and as a result, to a large extent, what it means is in the eye of the beholder.  Here are some takes on it's meaning. The project in Sustainable Management of the Presidio Graduate School starts by stating the obvious "There are many ways to measure or define sustainability."  One particularly inciteful definition is "the property of being sustainable."  The AFSC defines it thus: "Sustainability: Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."   Scripps Colleg e for Women takes a similar approach - "Sustainability: Sustainability seeks to provide the best outcomes for the human and natural environments both now and into the indefinite future."  The NADA also takes this approach...
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Challenges with Solving the Climate Change Problem

The fundamental problem , I think, is that the globe is already above the CO2 concentration that is widely considered to allow for sustainability.  This makes this problem very difficult to solve politically since it requires people to change just to get back on target.  In economics terms, we have a surplus of CO2 and a shortage of carrying capacity.  This is a very different problem than if we'd be starting with a surplus of carrying capacity. Here's an analogy.  Let's say you have a bakery and another bakery is going to open.  Yet, there doesn't seem to be enough people around to support both bakeries.  What to do?  Contrast this with the situation where the same circumstances exist except one - there's demand for baked goods that's been going unmet.  Ah, very different problem.  Right now, the situation we're in with Co2 is closer to the former situation.  Whose willing to make changes in order to share the carrying capacity? ...
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An Overview Article on Deep De-Carbonization of the Electric Grid

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One paper that recently crossed my desk helps immensely with keeping track of all the numerous studies conducted on deep de-carbonization of the electric grid.  It's well written, concise, and provides an even-handed review of the challenges shifting to a high level of renewables use.  In the process, it discusses in a very readable and straightforward way various stages in shifting the electric sector from where it is today to different levels of future renewable electricity generating sources. Click this link to read the study. image courtesy of c|net
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