After A Disaster, Give Me A Break

Climate change doesn't let up. Four blizzards hit the East Coast of the United States one after another this winter, and, on the West Coast, mudslides followed the fires that burnt away the trees anchoring soil. People on Caribbean islands, like Haiti, recovered from one hurricane only to be struck by drought and then the wind and torrential rain of another hurricane.

     Knowing a hurricane's devastation, or that of a war, and the effort and money needed to repair damage provides motivation for preventive measures. Immense benefit can be gained, if, for example, planting trees goes hand in hand with development, such as China has planned in its One Belt One road Initiative. Consider the benefits of tree projects in Haiti.

     A farmer in Haiti, who already had fields planted in potatoes and beans, was working to increase his income by diversifying, when a hurricane hit. His four goats, unable to bear the wind and rain, died of heart attacks. All his potatoes were lost along with at least 80% of his bean crop and what was left of the trees that had been cut down for fuel.

     Restoration of trees became a high priority, since they were needed to improve air quality, to stabilize hillsides from washing down over farms, and to provide avocado, mango, and papaya trees for food and income. Fast growing native oaks were needed to provide charcoal for cooking, and cedars and pines were a source of raw material for construction. Reforestation by the Plant With Purpose group's "Cash for Work" program gave immediate income to 2,000 employees.

     Long term, a variety of religious groups, the Arbor Day Foundation, and agronomy teams in Haiti have set up nurseries that now plant as many as 60,000 trees per year. Agronomy teams "get down and dirty" with local farmers to start income-producing fruit and other tree nurseries shaded by palm fronds propped up by sticks, to start tree plants in discarded broken buckets, and to employ procedures, such as drip irrigation, composting, and grafting citrus trees. As a result of student hikes to the forests on once barren mountains, from an early age, young people gain an appreciation for their country and learn to value and help plant trees.

   

World Energy Attitude Shifts

According to a report by the International Energy Agency (IEA), in 2016 the global economy grew and carbon dioxide emissions from energy production did not. In fact, the IEA found worldwide carbon dioxide emissions have remained the same for three years.

Progress is uneven but promising. China reduced emissions 1% last year, and India just passed tougher auto emissions standards in March, 2017. Where lower priced alternatives to coal have encouraged countries to switch to natural gas, renewable power sources, and nuclear energy. carbon dioxide output has declined or stabilized. In every country, improved energy efficiency has helped the environment in terms of carbon dioxide reduction and less deforestation. In Malawi, for example, rural and urban consumers have been willing to consider replacing traditional three-stone fires with an investment in clay, metal, or thermoelectric stoves that burn charcoal more efficiently than charcoal and much more efficiently than wood.

The growing concern about climate change has stimulated the search for green energy alternatives. In Norway, the Ocean Sun company is working on solar farms that can float on the ocean and transmit power back to crowded urban areas. Others are looking into technology for floating wind turbines, for generating power from hydrogen, and for using the hydropower of waves, tides, and rivers.

 At its gold mines in Suriname and Burkina Faso, Toronto-based IAMGOLD is using solar energy to reduce the use of diesel oil that generates greenhouse gases. The company sees the hybrid diesel solar photovoltaic engine, built by the Finnish group Wartsila at its gold mine in Burkina Faso, not only as a way to make an environmental contribution to the world but also as a way to reduce energy costs, protect against fuel price volatility, and increase local employment.

Efforts to convert the power of Atlantic Ocean waves into energy in the Orkney Islands north of the Scottish mainland and at the Wave Hub facility in Cornwell off the far southwest coast of England have been less successful. Besides the prohibitive cost, tricky engineering problems and the need to develop new materials capable of withstanding storm stresses and corrosive salt water require solutions. A device needs to handle the variety of pounding storms and normal waves, up and down motions, and wave speeds. Navigation needs to avoid these devices. And biologists view the moving parts of underwater turbines as a threat to sea mammals, fish, and diving birds. Yet, the UK's European Marine Energy Centre in the Orkneys attracts tests by Wave-tricity's Ocean Wave Rover and Finland's Wello Oy Penguin. Australia's Carnegie company has been financing CETO's Wave Energy Technology which has placed giant buoys off the coast of Cornwell in an attempt to produce emission-free energy and desalinated freshwater.