Posts

Selecting the Right Technologies to Solve the Climate Crisis

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Time is running out to solve the climate crisis. Energy policies that encourage nuclear generation, hydrogen fuel for transportation, and direct carbon capture and storage, are not proven technologies, nor economically viable solutions. By Michael Coppola and Nancy Williams Where We Stand Solving the Climate Crisis Under the Paris Agreement adopted in 2015, virtually all the world’s nations pledged, “…to limit global warming to well below 2C above pre-industrial levels and also, if possible, pursue efforts to cap warming at 1.5C.” In the absence of large future emissions reductions, according to the latest generation of climate models used by the United Nation’s International Governmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, that goal will not be met. Time Is Running Out The world is now about 1.2C warmer than it was in the 19th Century - and the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen by 50%. There is no way to undo the effect of that much carbon in the atmosphere anytime soon.

CBO Report on Transportation Sector Shows CO2 Emissions Could Start Moving in the Right Direction

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                                                                 Paramount Pictures Corporation Electric vehicles and green electric generation are working together to help reach the Paris agreement goal of keeping the increase in global temperature to 1.5 degrees  Celsius. By Michael Coppola and Nancy Williams All the reliable sources monitoring the climate crisis seem to agree that we are not doing nearly enough to hold the planet’s average atmosphere temperature to just 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial period. This was thought to be an acceptable increase which could allow us to eventually reduce back to a pre-industrial level. The Congressional Budget Office, a non-partisan organization of the US Federal Government, published a report in December, 2022 entitled “Emissions of Carbon Dioxide in the Transportation Sector.” The report has some encouraging information about the electricity generating and electric vehicle industries, but it also points out some limiting

One Year and 11,000 Miles Driving an All-Electric Vehicle (EV)

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By Michael Coppola and Nancy Williams Many people ask me questions about my new all-electric Vehicle, a Ford Mustang Mach-E. They stop me in parking lots, at the beach, or even on the road! This is a breakdown of the main points of owning and operating an EV and the impact I believe this market will have on Climate Change. One of the first concerns I hear is about charging the battery and the car’s miles of range. Charging both at home and on the road has worked out well, however an understanding of the battery technology currently being used will help keep your EV running at its best. It's really no different than knowing what keeps your ICEV running its best. All batteries are degraded by heat, both by an external heat source and self-generated heat from charging and discharging. Just like your cellphone, you must protect your car’s battery from overheating. What that means for an owner is deciding how you charge to protect the battery while achieving the results you require for

Is the threat of an uninhabitable Earth giving you bouts of anxiety and depression?

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  Are you tired of seeing news articles of the forest fires around the world, floods from 15 inches of rain falling in 24 hours, droughts drying up major rivers, and people dying from record high temperatures lasting for weeks? As if things are not bad enough you hear from the climate scientists that the target temperature increase that was set by the Paris agreement will not be met because the actions that were promised were not taken. So now you succumb to the feeling of hopelessness and accept your demise. Well, maybe we each can take enough actions to prevent further deterioration of our climate. I know our job is to keep a roof over our family's head, food on the table and clothes on their backs, and the governments of the world are supposed to tackle the big problems like climate change. Yet I am quite certain that there are a lot more of us than there are corporate CEO and politicians. So, if most of us take steps to reduce our carbon footprint we may achieve the Par

EV’s are Wrongfully Charged with Higher Operating Costs by Auto Industry Insiders

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Are electric cars more expensive to operate than gasoline powered cars?  By Michael Coppola and Nancy Williams If you Google the question above you will get some very recent articles that claim that electric vehicles (EV) are more expensive to operate than internal combustion engine vehicles (ICE). One of these articles was sent to me by a friend who knew I had recently received my Ford Mustang Mach-E.   Being a proud “Car Guy,” I excessively research a car before I make my purchase. Therefore, prior to placing the order for my all-electric Mustang Mach-E, I spent months reading dozens of articles and viewing dozens of YouTube videos on everything related to electric vehicles. Being both an environmentalist and a degreed scientist my research included not just the features of the car but its impact on the environment and the science and engineering behind the development of the batteries and vehicle.   I read the article that was sent to me, The Real Costs of Charging an Electric Vehic

Carbon Capture is the Boondoggle of Climate Change Projects

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  A CO2 pipeline in Mississippi ruptured last year, sickening dozens of people. What does it forecast for the massive proposed buildout of pipelines across the U.S.? By Dan Zegart, Huffington Post The US has been spending billions for unproven carbon capture technology and intends to spend more Boondoggle- A wasteful or extravagant project with no practical value By Michael Coppola and Nancy Lazar The fossil fuel industry has convinced the Biden administration that carbon capture is a critical technology needed to prevent further climate damage. They view carbon capture as a way to counter the CO2 that fossil fuel puts into the air when used as a fuel. Carbon capture is a process that sequesters carbon dioxide from the factories or power plants that produce it and stores it somewhere instead of letting it go into the atmosphere. They would like to argue that as long as they remove as much CO2 as they put in from burning fossil fuels the combined process is greenhouse gas neutral. There

“Green Hydrogen” The Fossil Fuel Industry’s Grand Deception

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  The  Eiffel   Tower  was illuminated green, using a  Toyota  fuel cell powered generator.   International hydrogen expert   Michael Liebreich, founder of energy research group Bloomberg New Energy Finance, slammed the display as one of the “stupidest things” he’d witnessed because of the light show’s gross inefficiency. By Michael Coppola and Nancy Lazar “Green Hydrogen” The Fossil Fuel Industry’s Grand Deception The fossil fuel industry joined up with Toyota to light up the  Eiffel   Tower  with a hydrogen fuel cell to show that fuel cells can make green electricity. Why are petroleum companies promoting fuel cells? They don't sell hydrogen. But, they do sell methane, coal and oil which are used to make hydrogen. By applying super heated steam to any of their three products you can get hydrogen. All commercially available hydrogen today is produced this way. The problem with this method is that it produces tremendous amounts of Green House Gases (GHGs). But that has never