Posted by Sam Su | Posted in News | Posted on 10-02-2010
According to Stephen Pacala and Rober Socolow (ecology and engineering professors at Princeton, respectively), there are 15 major ways to reduce our carbon production in a meaningful way. Unlike the magazine and newspaper articles that tout 10 easy ways to go green, these 15 are megaprojects and we, as the world, need to complete 8 of them by 2050. Choose the 8 that you would like to complete:
01. Double fuel efficency of two billion cars from 30 mpg to 60 mpg.
02. Drive two billion cars only 5000 miles per year rather than 10000 miles per year, at 30 mpg.
03. Raise efficiency at 1,600 large coal fired power plants from 40 to 60 percent.
04. Replace 1,400 large coal fired power plants with natrual-gas-powered faclities.
05. Install carbon capture and sequestration capactiy at 800 large coal-fired power plants, so that the carbon dioxide can be separated and stored underground.
06. Install carbon capture and sequestration at new coal pants that would produce hydrogen for 1.5 billion hydrogen-powered vehicles.
07. Install carbon capture and sequestration at 180 coal gassification plants.
08. Add twice today’s current global nuclear capacity to replace coal-based electricity.
09. Increase wind power fortyfold to displace all coal-fired power.
10. Insrease solar power seven-hundred fold to displace all coal fired power.
11. Increase wind power eightyfold to make hydrogen for clean cars.
12. Drive two billion cars on ethanol, using one-sixth of the world’s cropland to grow the needed corn.
13. Halt all cutting and burning of forests.
14. Adopt conservation tillage, which emits much less carbon dioxide from the land, in all agricultural soils worldwide.
15. Cut electricity use in homes, offices, and stores by 25%, and cut carbon emissions by the same amount.
This is the scale of the project that the world needs to take on and where technology needs to go. Verno Solutions will innovate and drive the world towards this goal, but the whole world needs to participate. What are you doing today to decrease your carbon footprint?