ENERGY - Renewables / efficiency

These action sound simple, but reverberate through numerous issues we have now.
"Tiny actions" X "millions of people" = "major system change"

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FROM "NOT MUCH TIME?" SECTION, with added notes
#4) Be aware of electricity and fuel use: Notice when and why you use electricty.
Next steps:
- At night, or when leaving home, turn off computers and unplug stuff not being used. If an item has a little light on, it is still using power, even if turned off. (Power strips can help multiple-item shutdowns easy.)
- Is every light bulb in your home/office a CFL or LED? Check twice.
- Avoid heating and especially cooling. Save gas the less you use. Turn down/off the heating/cooling everywhere you go.
- Notice how many refrigerated soda pop machines are running, EVERYWHERE. Notice any other wasteful fossil fuel use?
- For your next car, consider an inexpensive used hybrid car (e.g. www.Autotrader.com).
- Drive better: 55-60 mph or below, accelerate slowly, glide to stop, slow up hills, drive less (bike, walk, carpool).
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ENERGY EFFICIENCY: Biggest opportunity for reducing climate change. Much can be done.
- See above
- See TRUSTED RESOURCES, below, for the usual: Green building, home/office/vehicle efficiency.


BEST CLEAN ENERGY ANSWERS:
First eliminate:
1) Processes that impact large amounts of land. Biofuels/fossil fuels usually worst - plus land use of pipelines. Many steps & equipment to process fuel = resources, water, energy.)
2) Fossil fuels are simply not renewable - even if they last 100 years - what do we do then?
And we will have already degraded land to get them, plus wasting resource & time.
3) Nuclear would have been a great answer, but deal-breaker: long-term horrible radiation possibilities.
4) Natural gas (NG) is a fossil fuel. Plus land & water degradation, pipelines, "mining" and shipping sand, enormous water use, chemicals. But OK if NG from closed-system true plant waste (see waste biomass, below).

This leaves simple (& local) processes - no ongoing shipping of supplies or fuel, no ongoing chemicals.

EASY TECHNOLOGY ANSWERS (ALL AGREE ON):
Solar, wind, small hydro, electric vehicles, mass transportation of any kind, human-powered.

LESSER KNOWN:
- Hydrogen from water, with water-splitter (electrolyzer) powered with wind/solar. Then hydrogen used in a fuel cell - running like a battery (can use for power or fuel).
- Hybrid vehicles, with fuel cells instead of ICEs
- Storage: Battery, flywheel, hydrogen/fuel cell
- Micro-CHP (combined heat & power), including using Stirling
- Fuel cells, using hydrogen from water can be used for home power, passenger vehicles - anywhere an internal combustion engine is used, including lawnmowers, tractors, buses, etc. Batteries are best for short distance travel; fuel cells best for long distances. Mass transportation, or human-powered is always the best answer.

- Our team is working on the viability of: Waste biomass from invasive plants, used in closed-system anaerobic digestion (really, composting) to make natural gas (methane) - without fracking and no additional carbon being added to carbon cycle from underground. Invasive plants are removed, not re-grown, and the native ecosystem restored. This NG can be used in the same ways fracked NG is used: power and fuel.


CONSIDERATIONS:
- Technologies are ready, or good enough to keep improving - policy holds back (See SYSTEM CHANGE).
- Siting (placement on land) is important - involve experienced biologists (trusted by many peers) when planning (eg wind & birds/bats, solar in desert ecosystems). Every substrate is habitat for something. Some systems are more sensitive or critical than others.
- Whenever possible, support a carbon tax (or cap-and-trade). Carbon tax may be best (see SYSTEM CHANGE).


TRUSTED RESOURCES:
Energy efficiency tips: www.eren.doe.gov
American Solar Energy Society (not just for solar): www.ases.org
US Green Building Council: www.usgbc.org
Wind and birds: www.abcbirds.org