Study: Cutting emissions pays for itself | MIT News Office

Posted on by cathywu

The researchers found that savings from avoided health problems could recoup 26 percent of the cost to implement a transportation policy, but up to to 10.5 times the cost of implementing a cap-and-trade program. The difference depended largely on the costs of the policies, as the savings — in the form of avoided medical care and saved sick days — remained roughly constant: Policies aimed at specific sources of air pollution, such as power plants and vehicles, did not lead to substantially larger benefits than cheaper policies, such as a cap-and-trade approach.

Savings from health benefits dwarf the estimated $14 billion cost of a cap-and-trade program. At the other end of the spectrum, a transportation policy with rigid fuel-economy requirements is the most expensive policy, costing more than $1 trillion in 2006 dollars, with health benefits recouping only a quarter of those costs. The price tag of a clean energy standard fell between the costs of the two other policies, with associated health benefits just edging out costs, at $247 billion versus $208 billion.

While cutting carbon dioxide from current levels in the U.S. will result in savings from better air quality, pollution-related benefits decline as carbon policies become more stringent. Selin cautions that after a certain point, most of the health benefits have already been reaped, and additional emissions reductions won’t translate into greater improvements.
“While air-pollution benefits can help motivate carbon policies today, these carbon policies are just the first step,” Selin says. “To manage climate change, we’ll have to make carbon cuts that go beyond the initial reductions that lead to the largest air-pollution benefits.”

via Study: Cutting emissions pays for itself | MIT News Office.

Many Women Leave Engineering, Blame The Work Culture : All Tech Considered : NPR

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From the aerospace sector to Silicon Valley, engineering has a retention problem: Close to 40 percent of women with engineering degrees either leave the profession or never enter the field.

“It’s not women who need to change — it’s the work environment that does,” she said.

The study found that only 17 percent of women left engineering because of caregiving reasons, which Fouad said dispels the notion that pregnancy plays a big part in keeping women out. But she does point out that many of those who did leave to stay home with children did so because their companies did not offer flexible enough work-life policies.

“We’ve found that women stay in engineering because they want to make sure they are making a difference,” she says. “If women feel they are making that difference, retention levels will be higher.”

via Many Women Leave Engineering, Blame The Work Culture : All Tech Considered : NPR.

Mapping the Spread of Drought Across the U.S. – NYTimes.com

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Droughts appear to be intensifying over much of the West and Southwest as a result of global warming. Over the past decade, droughts in some regions have rivaled the epic dry spells of the 1930s and 1950s. About 34 percent of the contiguous United States was in at least a moderate drought as of August 5.

via Mapping the Spread of Drought Across the U.S. – NYTimes.com.

HT Nancy

What Do Chinese Dumplings Have to Do With Global Warming? – NYTimes.com

Posted on by cathywu

Cooling is already responsible for 15 percent of all electricity consumption worldwide, and leaks of chemical refrigerants are a major source of greenhouse-gas pollution

Calculating the climate-change impact of an expanded Chinese cold chain is extremely complicated. Artificial refrigeration contributes to global greenhouse-gas emissions in two main ways. First, generating the power (whether it be electricity for warehouses or diesel fuel for trucks) that fuels the heat-exchange process, which is at the heart of any cooling system, accounts for about 80 percent of refrigeration’s global-warming impact (measured in tons of CO2) and currently consumes nearly a sixth of global electricity usage.

But others, like the hydrofluorocarbons that are popular in China, are known as “supergreenhouse gases,” because they are thousands of times more warming than CO2. If current trends in refrigerant usage were to continue, experts project that hydrofluorocarbons would be responsible for nearly half of all global greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050.

via What Do Chinese Dumplings Have to Do With Global Warming? – NYTimes.com.

Food waste –> refrigeration in production chain –> better food quality –> more food demand –> more food waste

Possible mitigation: development of low-cost low-power (well insulated) storage.

HT Nancy

F1 Tech Is About to Make Buses Way More Efficient | Autopia | WIRED

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The GKN Hybrid Power Gyrodrive is an electric flywheel that captures energy as the car brakes, then uses it to drive an electric motor that boosts power and cuts fuel consumption.

Gyrodrive-equipped buses saw a whopping 20 percent bump in fuel efficiency, more than enough to convince GKN and Go-Ahead to install the system on 500 buses over the next two years, starting in London and Oxford. The system, which weighs 130 pounds and is roughly the size of a passenger car wheel, can be retrofitted onto a bus in a few days.

Gyrodrive can be installed on other big vehicles, such as garbage trucks, which are well-suited to the technology because they make frequent stops. Day says GKN is also looking at rail vehicles, possibly using bigger or multiple flywheels to account for the jump in size.

via F1 Tech Is About to Make Buses Way More Efficient | Autopia | WIRED.

I wonder if there are additional applications outside of motor vehicles.

Warming Threatens Roads, Ports and Planes, Report Says | Climate Central

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climate change could mean “sun kinks” could warp train tracks in the heat, airplanes will be more expensive to fly, highway surfaces could soften in heat waves, roadways and bridges could be washed away in rising seas and storm surges, and storms in the open ocean could increase the cost and risks associated with shipping.

Dense cities have a much smaller carbon footprint than sprawling ones because of the modes of transport they require, he said.

Focusing on making transportation more energy efficient and encouraging people to use modes of transport that emit less carbon dioxide is nearly as important as addressing the carbon emissions of the electric power sector, he said.

via Warming Threatens Roads, Ports and Planes, Report Says | Climate Central.

HT Nancy

The Number One Thing We Could Do to Improve City Life, According to Geoffrey West, M. Sanjayan, Jennifer Pahlka, and More – CityLab

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At this year’s Aspen Ideas Festival, we asked a group of journalists, professors, and non-profit leaders to predict the future of livable, walkable cities. "If I could have one wish for people who live in cities," says Conservational International’s M. Sanjayan, "it’s that we find ways to connect back to nature, to remind [people] that nature isn’t out there—outside the cities—but right in their homes where they live."

via The Number One Thing We Could Do to Improve City Life, According to Geoffrey West, M. Sanjayan, Jennifer Pahlka, and More – CityLab.

I really like the sentiment of more walkable cites, more connected and more welcome.

What I Learned Riding One of Those New Private City Buses – CityLab

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The Cambridge-based startup, part of a new field of private buses popping up in major metros, promises to shake up city transit by relying on big data to plan routes and on luxury shuttles to move riders. That buzzword-filled elevator pitch seems tailored to get both investors and car-free Millennials excited about riding the bus.

via What I Learned Riding One of Those New Private City Buses – CityLab.

A small version of Helsinki’s upcoming mobility-on-demand service. I’m glad such things are happening in the states.