In this episode: measuring carbon, hydrogen backlash, flying cleaner, revenge of the NC’s, sea ice graphics

Carbon Confusion:

Next time you’re in a shoe store, pick up a pair of clogs or leather walking shoes from Timberland (TBL). Inside, right by the heel, you’ll find a single number that tells you how “green” the shoe is. This number is explained in a card in the shoe box that provides a 0-to-10 carbon rating. A zero means less than 2.5 kilograms of carbon and other greenhouse gases were emitted when the shoe was produced and shipped. And a 10? That’s a whopping 100 kg, roughly equal to the carbon released if you drive a car 240 miles.

There’s a simple premise behind the new label. Our everyday activities, whether making pancakes or jetting across the sky, are linked to the combustion of fuel, which releases gases that contribute to global warming. Timberland believes climate-conscious shoppers will buy shoes that help them cut their carbon count. And those same customers will feel more loyal to the brand because Timberland respects their wishes.

I can’t recommend this article highly enough.

It points to what I believe is “the” key trend that will shape our e+e future, from individual consumption decisions all the way up to the highest level of public and corporate policies: Transparency of environmental impact.

It really is this simple: We can’t accurately judge the impact of our consumption decisions if we can’t quantify them. As the old saying goes, you can’t manage what you can’t measure. And as I keep saying here, we need to replace mindless consumption with mindful consumption. The first step in doing that is to realize it needs to be done (i.e. “admitting we have a problem”), and the second step is to get the information needed to make better choices.

Hydrogen Cars Are Here. Now We Just Need A Fueling Infrastructure:

Hydrogen cars and their promise of a zero-emission, petroleum-free future are no longer the stuff of science fiction. Automakers have the technology largely nailed down and say vehicles like the Chevrolet Equinox FCEV and Honda FCX Clarity are poised to take us beyond gasoline. There’s just one hitch.

Where do we get the hydrogen? There are 36 hydrogen fueling stations in the United States, and two thirds of them are in California. Increasing that number in any meaningful way remains the biggest - and most pressing - challenge keeping us from traveling the hydrogen highway.

Yadda yadda yadda. More smoke and mirrors from the hydrogen crowd.

I’m linking to this one simply because of the reader comments, which are almost universally hostile towards hydrogen fuel cells for transportation. What a relief to see a discussion like this online, one in which I don’t feel an overwhelming urge to chime in and point out all the problems with hydrogen that I routinely talk about here.

Who knows–perhaps the message finally is getting out that hydrogen is a classic example of a beautiful idea slain by an ugly fact. Or, in this case, a whole basket of ugly facts.

Aviation industry must act fast on climate change: Airbus chief:

The aviation industry must act quickly to lower its own carbon emissions or face government regulation, the chief executive of European plane company Airbus wrote in a comment piece Thursday.

Writing in The Guardian daily, Tom Enders said that this year was a “moment of truth for aviation” where the industry could either take “significant action together … or as the time we lost control of our destiny and left it to others to ’solve’ our challenges for us.”

…

He said that European industry targets of cutting CO2 emissions by 50 percent, nitrous oxides by 80 percent and noise by 50 percent by 2020 compared to technologies available in 2000 were “within reach”.

The only real hope for them to reach major reductions in emissions of CO2 and other pollutants involves alternative fueling. You can’t capture the CO2 in-flight and then sequester it when you’re on the ground, and you can’t increase the fuel efficiency of airplanes enough to get to a 50% emissions reduction. (Airplane travel is already remarkably fuel efficient.)

What kind of alternative could that be? It would have to be some form of biofuel that removes CO2 from the atmosphere in the process of making the jet fuel, so that when it’s burned there’s very little or no net contribution to the atmospheric CO2 level. And doing that on a scale to get a 50% reduction across the board, at a time when we’re reeling from the effects of a horribly misguided biofuels boondoggle (i.e. corn ethanol), will be neither cheap nor easy.

Lower energy bills, longer lifecycle boost thin client’s green appeal:

Shifting from PCs to thin clients can save a company upwards of 25 percent in power savings, according to a newly released report from Forrester. The potential energy savings is driving IT execs to reconsider moving from trading in users’ thick clients for thin ones.

The lower power bills can be attributed to the fact that thin clients “consume anywhere from 6 to 50 watts — far less than the 150 to 350 watts used by typical PCs,” according to Forrester report, titled “Green Benefits Put Thin-Client Computing Back On The Desktop Hardware Agenda.” Less energy consumption, of course, also means fewer carbon emissions, which is becoming a greater selling point for eco-conscious companies.

Forrester points to a second green advantage that thin clients hold over PCs: a longer lifecycle. “Unlike PCs and laptops, which commonly have a three- to four-year replacement cycle, thin clients last an average of seven years. They slow down technology’s inevitable slide into obsolescence because they have fewer points of failure and rarely need upgrades.”

Yep.

For IT veterans, this is what used to be called an NC (networked computer), and before that it was (shudder) a “computer terminal”.

Sea Ice Yearly Minimum 1979-2007:

In 2007, Arctic summer sea ice reached its lowest extent on record - nearly 25% less than the previous low set in 2005. At the end of each summer, the sea ice cover reaches its minimum extent and what is left is what is called the perennial ice cover which consists mainly of thick multi-year ice floes. The area of the perennial ice has been steadily decreasing since the satellite record began in 1979, at a rate of about 10% per decade. But the 2007 minimum, reached on September 14, is far below the previous record made in 2005 and is about 38% lower than the climatological average. Such a dramatic loss has implications for ecology, climate and industry as new shipping lanes open.

See the linked site for a veritable icebreaker full of still graphics and movie clips related to Arctic sea ice.