[GWSG] Bigger turbines; Energy Revolution; 1.5C within reach; religion matters; UN sustainable dev. goals

[Tilley, Al]

1.  Gigantic wind turbines now under development would bring low cost wind power to every US state, including those of the Southeast, by 2030.  http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/05/20/3660677/bigger-taller-wind-turbines-will-unlock-wind-power-across-united-states/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=cptop3

2.  The power of a wind turbine increases with the cube of the wind speed, and with the square of the rotor radius.  In Energy Revolution: the Physics and Promise of Energy Technology, Harvard physicist Mara Prentiss observes that completing the transition to renewable energy now already underway requires of us only the courage to make the change.  Because of efficiency gains, renewables need to generate only half the power which now comes from fossil fuels, around 60% of which is wasted, on average.  http://harvardmagazine.com/2015/05/altering-course



3.  I have fallen into mentioning 2C of warming as if it were a reasonable climate goal.  It is not.  We still can go, and should be going, for no more than 1.5C as of 2100, and an article in Nature Climate Change maintains that it is feasible if we get busy.  We may need to exceed the goal temporarily while we sequester carbon to back into it.  http://www.rtcc.org/2015/05/21/1-5c-climate-goal-still-in-reach-say-scientists/



4.  Religious practice itself is not an impediment to realizing that climate disruption poses a great threat and requires environmental regulations.  Statistically, it matters a lot what your religion is.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/05/20/this-chart-explains-why-faith-and-science-dont-have-to-be-in-conflict/



5.  The United Nations has developed a system of sixteen sustainable development goals.  The goals and their associated targets, along with ratings of their transformational challenge to developed nations, are presented as Annex 2 of the new report, Universal Sustainable Goals. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/1684SF_-_SDG_Universality_Report_-_May_2015.pdf  The goals are intended to be the successors to the Millennium Development Goals, and to set the agenda for 2015-2030.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/otto-von-troschke/mainstreaming-sustainabilty-in-2015_b_7417006.html  The goals are explicitly related to Agenda 21 and will probably become the focus of propaganda, whether generated by ideology or greed, to incite anti-government paranoia with the goal of rendering government action less likely.  Public speakers on related topics, take note.  If a ruckus were to begin we could just read a goal aloud and ask how the unsustainable version would go.  It shouldn't take too much of that to enlist the aid of most of the audience in making the point that something sustainable is likely to be preferable to the alternative.  The goals are an admirable distillation of what we ought to be doing in the near future.  The general UN site on the goals looks to be a good way to keep up with the project.  https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/index.php?page=view&type=400&nr=1684&menu=35
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