Everyone who lives anywhere near the Lake is at an elevation of at least 6225 feet. That means, among other things, that our daily temperatures and road conditions limit bicycling to perhaps six months of the year (May - October). For the rest of the year, we either walk (or trudge, if there's snow) to and from our destinations. Unless we need travel more than about a mile. Then we have to rely on either personal cars, public transit or private conveyance (taxis, limos). All of these run on gasoline, except for most of the buses, which use natural gas. All of the snow plows, which make road travel possible in the winter, use gasoline. Every tourist or part-time resident gets here by car, bus, train or airplane, or some combination of these.
While there are some hybrid vehicles and a few all electrics on the road, virtually all of Tahoe's transportation needs are met primarily by petroleum and secondarily be natural gas. To state the obvious: Neither of these occurs naturally in the Tahoe area. We have to import all the gasoline, diesel, natural gas (and for that matter, electricity) that we use for transportation. Making this situation more difficult is that there is very limited public transportation in the Tahoe area. For example: Try traveling from the SF Bay area by train to Incline Village, or South Lake Tahoe. This requires either hiring a taxi or taking one or more long bus rides. Any major increase in oil prices will have a very detrimental effect of Tahoe transportation: both because life becomes more expensive where our visitors life, and because it becomes more expensive and time consuming to get here and travel about while visiting.
There are no simple answers to dealing with the Tahoe area's strong reliance on imported fossil fuels. In the winter, life would be very difficult if the snow plows and school buses could not easily be fueled. Many residents would face extreme hardship if they could not easily afford or find gasoline. Buying food and getting to medical appointments would be very challenging. People who work in the Tahoe community, but live in Reno or Carson City, would have trouble getting to their jobs.
But because there is no "immediate emergency", it's very difficult to lobby for improved public transportation. Yet that's what will be needed if, or rather when, the price of gasoline and diesel means that increasing numbers of residents will no longer be able to afford private motor cars. If we want to keep the Tahoe area as a year round natural resort, retreat and just destination for tourists and vacationers, we need to think much harder about how we can develop and support robust, reliable and affordable systems of transportation. There is no magic bullet - this is a hard problem.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Renewable vs. Sustainable Energy
In order to establish sane long-term policies about how we, as Tahoe residents, and every other citizen produce, transport and use energy we need to understand the difference between renewable and sustainable energy. These terms are frequently used interchangeably as if they meant the same thing. Let's learn why...
Renewable energy is an energy source that exists in forms that are continually, if sporadically, created by nature. Common examples would include wind, solar, tides. These supplies are created whenever the wind blows, sun shines or tides come in and go out. Another well-known renewable energy source is water power, which has been used widely since at least the Middle Ages. Rivers power water wheels or have water collected behind dams which when released powers electric turbines. Another energy source, geothermal (thermal energy from beneath the earth's surface) is often consider renewable because it purportedly exists in large "nearly inexhaustible" quantities.
All of these energy sources are considered relatively diffuse - widely distributed around the earth's surface, but concentrated more in some regions than others. Fossil fuels, on the other hand, are very concentrated forms of energy, which is the main reason humans have found oil, natural gas and coal so valuable. When first discovered, these fossil fuels seemed inexhaustible. It wasn't until the mid 1950s that solid evidence indicted this was not the case. The idea that oil, natural gas, and coal are finite resources and have a rate of extraction that peaks and then declines remains controversial, One of these versions of the theory, "peak oil," remains politically charged today even though peak oil theory is more of an objective observation than a theory yet to be proved.
What's the difference between renewable and sustainable energy? A sustainable energy source, which should more accurately be called a sustainable energy system, is capable of indefinitely supplying useful energy to human society while also generating enough energy to cover all the costs of manufacturing, transporting, installing, maintaining and eventually replacing the system. Using this definition, it's highly unlikely that any existing solar or wind system today would be considered sustainable. Renewable energy? Yes. But are these systems sustainable? Not unless they produce a good deal more energy than they now yield.
So, if renewable energy systems are not really sustainable, at least today, should we still keep developing them? Yes, we should because even though they are not currently sustainable, their efficiencies continue to improve and their prices are dropping. They still need a fossil fuel subsidy (in the form of manufacture, transport, and maintenance) and are therefore quite a ways from being truly sustainable. But some of solar approaches, especially passive solar (really, just good architectural design) and solar hot water heating show the most potential for becoming sustainable soon.
Can solar (or wind) electric systems ever become sustainable? Can they ever produce enough electricity to pay for their own manufacture, transport, installation, maintenance and eventual replacement? It's too soon to know with any certainty, but we have to make this a goal, even if we're not that close today.... unless we're prepared to abandon electricity! Therefore, the best approach right now is to adopt as many energy conservation techniques as we can afford in order to use as little electricity as we can somewhat comfortably survive on. Add to that: whenever possible, use electricity that is generated from renewable resources: solar, wind, water power.
In the Tahoe area we have a very good amount of solar energy, but very limited ways that we can turn that into electricity without damaging the natural environment. The wind energy we have fluctuates a great during over the course of a year, and during each day. As with solar power, we cannot easily install wind power systems, to capture this wind energy without impacting the natural beauty of the area. So, do we still have any options to use renewable energy, and hope that some day it becomes sustainable? In fact we do. They involve purchasing electricity generated by wind or solar sources, at sites that are on the national electric grid, so that we can, in effect, go renewable without installing systems at the Lake.
What else can we do? We can boost the amount of insulation where we live: more in the walls, more in the ceiling, and as good a set of windows as we can afford. This cuts down on the heat energy we have to pay for and makes our houses and apartments more affordable in the long term. And if you're lucky enough to be designing your own new house, go passive!
Renewable energy is an energy source that exists in forms that are continually, if sporadically, created by nature. Common examples would include wind, solar, tides. These supplies are created whenever the wind blows, sun shines or tides come in and go out. Another well-known renewable energy source is water power, which has been used widely since at least the Middle Ages. Rivers power water wheels or have water collected behind dams which when released powers electric turbines. Another energy source, geothermal (thermal energy from beneath the earth's surface) is often consider renewable because it purportedly exists in large "nearly inexhaustible" quantities.
All of these energy sources are considered relatively diffuse - widely distributed around the earth's surface, but concentrated more in some regions than others. Fossil fuels, on the other hand, are very concentrated forms of energy, which is the main reason humans have found oil, natural gas and coal so valuable. When first discovered, these fossil fuels seemed inexhaustible. It wasn't until the mid 1950s that solid evidence indicted this was not the case. The idea that oil, natural gas, and coal are finite resources and have a rate of extraction that peaks and then declines remains controversial, One of these versions of the theory, "peak oil," remains politically charged today even though peak oil theory is more of an objective observation than a theory yet to be proved.
What's the difference between renewable and sustainable energy? A sustainable energy source, which should more accurately be called a sustainable energy system, is capable of indefinitely supplying useful energy to human society while also generating enough energy to cover all the costs of manufacturing, transporting, installing, maintaining and eventually replacing the system. Using this definition, it's highly unlikely that any existing solar or wind system today would be considered sustainable. Renewable energy? Yes. But are these systems sustainable? Not unless they produce a good deal more energy than they now yield.
So, if renewable energy systems are not really sustainable, at least today, should we still keep developing them? Yes, we should because even though they are not currently sustainable, their efficiencies continue to improve and their prices are dropping. They still need a fossil fuel subsidy (in the form of manufacture, transport, and maintenance) and are therefore quite a ways from being truly sustainable. But some of solar approaches, especially passive solar (really, just good architectural design) and solar hot water heating show the most potential for becoming sustainable soon.
Can solar (or wind) electric systems ever become sustainable? Can they ever produce enough electricity to pay for their own manufacture, transport, installation, maintenance and eventual replacement? It's too soon to know with any certainty, but we have to make this a goal, even if we're not that close today.... unless we're prepared to abandon electricity! Therefore, the best approach right now is to adopt as many energy conservation techniques as we can afford in order to use as little electricity as we can somewhat comfortably survive on. Add to that: whenever possible, use electricity that is generated from renewable resources: solar, wind, water power.
In the Tahoe area we have a very good amount of solar energy, but very limited ways that we can turn that into electricity without damaging the natural environment. The wind energy we have fluctuates a great during over the course of a year, and during each day. As with solar power, we cannot easily install wind power systems, to capture this wind energy without impacting the natural beauty of the area. So, do we still have any options to use renewable energy, and hope that some day it becomes sustainable? In fact we do. They involve purchasing electricity generated by wind or solar sources, at sites that are on the national electric grid, so that we can, in effect, go renewable without installing systems at the Lake.
What else can we do? We can boost the amount of insulation where we live: more in the walls, more in the ceiling, and as good a set of windows as we can afford. This cuts down on the heat energy we have to pay for and makes our houses and apartments more affordable in the long term. And if you're lucky enough to be designing your own new house, go passive!
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Water: Supplies and Wastes
"Water, water, every where ... Nor any drop to drink" - Samuel Taylor Coleridge (The Rime of the Ancient Mariner). Tahoe residents are very fortunate to have such a wonderful resource as the Lake, which serves as the critical focus for our communities. The lake is a source of recreation, small amounts of food (fish), and of course drinking water.
But we can't safely drink the lake's water unless it's been purified or otherwise treated to remove dangerous bacteria and any other harmful agents that may have been detected. Purifying water on a scale to serve the Tahoe communities requires that the towns (water districts) use various chemical additives, including anti-bacterial agents. None of these chemicals are native to the Tahoe area. Water purification and delivery to regional homes and businesses requires electricity to run pumps and purifying equipment. In addition, purified water must be stored in large tanks, generally at higher elevations, so it may flow downhill to where it is used.
The short story is thus: we have plenty of water, but it takes energy and chemicals from sources outside the Tahoe region in order to pump and prepare the water so it's safe for us to drink. Without safe drinking water coming out of the tap, residents would be required to purchase small purification systems or camping units in order to have access to safe water. In addition: people would need to be careful not to get shower or bath water into their mouths or eyes. Tourists would be quite reluctant to visit a region without reliably safe drinking water.
What happens to water when we are done with it? We excrete it as urine in toilets and send the dish water, cooking water and washing water down the drains. To the best of my knowledge, all of this waste water is piped away from Tahoe communities to larger urban areas in Nevada or California. No waste water is recycled, ending up back in the lake. Piping water away requires expensive periodic maintenance of the sewage systems and installation of components that are transported from distant locations. It also takes energy to manage the wastes once they end up at a sewage processing facility.
It is considered unlikely that any Tahoe community would seek to build a local wastewater recycling facility "at the Lake". Even if they did, it's very questionable whether a regional authority like TRPA, or other local communities would support the action.
If the Tahoe region is to become more sustainable in the long run, it will need to make an assessment of how much energy, chemicals and maintenance expense are currently spent on water purification and waste processing. We would need to decide to what extent these services (safe drinking water, safe waste disposal) can be supported. Assuming they are high priorities, we need to make sure that our communities generate the economic revenue to support current water and waste processing. If such support becomes difficult to impossible in the future, we need to be ready to discuss alternative approaches to purifying water and safely recycling human wastes.
But we can't safely drink the lake's water unless it's been purified or otherwise treated to remove dangerous bacteria and any other harmful agents that may have been detected. Purifying water on a scale to serve the Tahoe communities requires that the towns (water districts) use various chemical additives, including anti-bacterial agents. None of these chemicals are native to the Tahoe area. Water purification and delivery to regional homes and businesses requires electricity to run pumps and purifying equipment. In addition, purified water must be stored in large tanks, generally at higher elevations, so it may flow downhill to where it is used.
The short story is thus: we have plenty of water, but it takes energy and chemicals from sources outside the Tahoe region in order to pump and prepare the water so it's safe for us to drink. Without safe drinking water coming out of the tap, residents would be required to purchase small purification systems or camping units in order to have access to safe water. In addition: people would need to be careful not to get shower or bath water into their mouths or eyes. Tourists would be quite reluctant to visit a region without reliably safe drinking water.
What happens to water when we are done with it? We excrete it as urine in toilets and send the dish water, cooking water and washing water down the drains. To the best of my knowledge, all of this waste water is piped away from Tahoe communities to larger urban areas in Nevada or California. No waste water is recycled, ending up back in the lake. Piping water away requires expensive periodic maintenance of the sewage systems and installation of components that are transported from distant locations. It also takes energy to manage the wastes once they end up at a sewage processing facility.
It is considered unlikely that any Tahoe community would seek to build a local wastewater recycling facility "at the Lake". Even if they did, it's very questionable whether a regional authority like TRPA, or other local communities would support the action.
If the Tahoe region is to become more sustainable in the long run, it will need to make an assessment of how much energy, chemicals and maintenance expense are currently spent on water purification and waste processing. We would need to decide to what extent these services (safe drinking water, safe waste disposal) can be supported. Assuming they are high priorities, we need to make sure that our communities generate the economic revenue to support current water and waste processing. If such support becomes difficult to impossible in the future, we need to be ready to discuss alternative approaches to purifying water and safely recycling human wastes.
Monday, April 8, 2013
Energy Use
In order to begin to establish and maintain a sustainable community in the Lake Tahoe area, we need to have some idea what kinds of energy we use, what we use it for, where we use it, and how this varies throughout the year. Once we have this kind of information we can begin to develop ideas, and eventually plans, to transition to a more sustainable community that has a robust, reliable set of energy supplies.
What are the main sources of energy in use in the Tahoe area today (i.e., the year 2013)? What are they used for? By necessity, only qualitative information can be presented. Getting quantitative information (how much energy used? where does it come from? where is it used? what for? by whom? what times of year? what does it cost?)
What are the main sources of energy in use in the Tahoe area today (i.e., the year 2013)? What are they used for? By necessity, only qualitative information can be presented. Getting quantitative information (how much energy used? where does it come from? where is it used? what for? by whom? what times of year? what does it cost?)
- Electricity provides energy for lighting, powering computers, telephones, TVs, appliances, power tools, etc. These are all reasonable uses of electricity, when electricity is readily available, affordable, and environmentally safe. There is simply no viable alternative for powering light bulbs and consumer electronics. Electricity may also used, primarily in residences, for cooking and space heating. This may have made economic sense when electricity was much less expensive and people were less concerned about burning fossil fuels, especially coal. But today, we need to try to absolutely minimize the use of electricity for cooking and heating. Anyone who replaces an electric stove, kitchen range, or installed electric home heating system should try to switch to gas powered units. Not only will the energy costs go down, but the pollution generated through burning gas will be substantially less that was is generated when creating a comparable amount of electricity. In other words, it's always more efficient to create heat locally than to burn fuels remotely, generate electricity, transport it to a home, and then turn it back into heat.
NV Energy, the Nevada state electricity provider, appears to be moving away from coal plants and more towards the use of natural gas to produce electricity. Electricity in the Las Vegas area is also generated from water power at dams (e.g., Hoover Dam). - Natural gas for home heating and cooking - A small number of Tahoe residents may be lucky enough to live in fully passive homes, heated almost entirely by the sun. An even smaller number may benefit from the occasional use of a solar over or food dryer. But for the vast majority of Tahoe residential and commercial buildings, natural gas provides the source of space heating and cooking (unless electric stoves or range tops are used).
It's become quite common for environmentalists, energy researchers and pretty much anyone else who knows even the tiniest bit about energy supplies to point out that natural gas produces less greenhouse gases (primarily CO2) when burned than an energy-equivalent amount of coal or liquid fuels. While technically true, it ignores the facts that a) natural gas still produces substantial amounts of greenhouse gases, and b) modern gas extraction via fracking allows significant amounts of natural gas, primarily methane, to leak into the atmosphere. Methane is a far more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2. So, for the immediate future and probably at least the next couple decades, Tahoe homes and businesses will need to continue using modest amounts of natural gas for heating and cooking, as no safe and affordable alternative exists right now. But for the longer term, we cannot assume that supplies of natural gas will remain available, especially at prices we are prepared to pay. - Wood fuels have been in use for millennia and continue to this day. Residential use of wood and wood pellets can provide heating and, if the dwellers have a wood powered stove, then cooking power as well. In theory, wood used for heating and cooking is carbon neutral, meaning it does not add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere (which are a prime cause of global climate change). In practice, all wood delivered to residences is transported there by fossil fuel powered vehicles, so there is a modest pollution contribution. The bigger issue is this: Where does this wood come from, i.e., how far from the Tahoe region, and how much can truly be considered locally derived? Also: How sustainably are the forests that provide this wood managed?
Since almost all the lands in the Tahoe area are included in either national or state parks, it's going to be impossible to rely on the region's trees for more than a very small amount of the energy that Tahoe dwellers consume. And to state the obvious: We don't want to do anything absolutely not a matter of survival to damage the natural beauty and biological sustainability of the entire Tahoe Basin. - Solar, wind, geothermal, passive architecture. Passive architecture is the design of buildings so that they receive and capture energy from their surroundings, in order to minimize the need for additional energy inputs. Sometimes passive buildings even capture water, to reduce the need for municipal supplies. Passive architecture is one of the keys for civilized survival in the Tahoe area, and a few houses aspire to being passive today. Designing a passive house requires the use of lots of south facing glass to capture sunlight, plus a means to both store that energy as heat and prevent it from escaping when night time temperatures drop. The problem today is that almost no existing houses and other buildings in the Tahoe area have been designed as passive structures. A problem to be addressed is thus: To what extent can existing buildings, designed as "normal" fossil fuel consuming structures, be re-architected, re-engineered, to use substantially less energy?
Solar residential and commercial energy use first and foremost requires direct access to unblocked sunshine at least during the hours of 9 AM - 3 PM. Solar energy may be used to heat water (relatively inexpensive) and generate electricity (more expensive, but prices are dropping, subsidies may be available, and some new businesses are willing to pay all upfront installation and maintenance costs if the owner agrees to purchase all the electricity). The major problems in the Tahoe area are: Many buildings are at least partially surrounded by large trees, thus do not have good solar access; a number of dwellings are condominiums which would not allow the construction of on-site solar systems; Costs - many home and commercial building owners do not have the cash and/or the incentives to install supplementary solar systems. And this: there are no inexpensive ways to store electricity; retrofitting solar heating often involves substantial building modifications, not the least of which is adding a lot of insulation to the walls and upgrading windows.
The Tahoe area has some highly intermittent wind resources, but much of these are in the upper mountain areas, in forest service lands. Thus producing local wind generated electricity seems unlikely.
Geothermal energy (energy from the earth) may be available, but amounts and costs have not been well studied.
What can we do "right now"? Conserving energy - not consuming any more than the minimum required - is almost always the least expensive approach. This means that owners of residential homes and commercial buildings who want to both save energy and take a small step towards making the Tahoe region more sustainable should begin to:
- Upgrade/replace windows to well insulated double or triple pane ones.
- Seal all cracks around seams and other places cold air may leak in, including fireplace flues
- Make sure the underfloor and attic insulation is substantial. NV Energy can provide guidelines as to minimal levels you should have.
- Replace electric stoves and ranges with gas-powered ones
- Replace all incandescent lights that are one more than an hour per day with compact fluorescent or LED bulbs.
- Use Energy Star appliances
- Keep winter thermostat setting as low as you can tolerate. Programmable thermostats can help.
- If you have a south facing roof with good sunlight exposure, consider adding first solar water heating and second solar electric panels
- A wood burning stove or fireplace insert may make sense, depending on costs of wood and transport distance.
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Transition From and Transition To
Any discussion of transition has to make this distinction: What are we transitioning from, and what kind of culture and biophysical economy are we trying to transition to?
The transitioning from part starts with an inventory, including the resources we now use (all the stuff we have and buy plus the energy we use and the wastes we create) and the broader issue of how we live our lives, how we earn and maintain the income required to stay in the Tahoe area, how we raise and educate children, how we care for the sick and those who need our help, how we interact with the rest of the natural world - the lake, the trees, the rest of mountain ecosystems.
The transitioning to part involves articulating a vision of a sustainable world that we (and future Tahoe dwellers) hope to develop. It deals with energy - how much do we need, what kind of energy, how do we get it, and if we don't produce it in the Tahoe area, how is it transported here? What are our backup energy supplies? It deals with food - how much does a person - adult, child and senior - need, and how do we go about procuring it and safely storing it. How much waste may we recycle/compost? It deals with health care - how do we best take care of ourselves, and who can help take care of us when we are ailing? It deals with money - what kind of currency will we use and how will we store it? Still dollars and still store in a branch of a large national bank? We need to think about this. It deals with housing - How can we preserve and maintain what we now have, assuming we thing these structures are sustainable? How can we procure the wood, glass, roofing material, insulation, plumbing and electrical components we'll need, given that these are unlikely to be produced in a future local economy. It also deals with culture and belief and myths and practices - what stories do we tell ourselves about why our lives have meaning? What is our new creation myth? How do we explain to our children what is happening, what has happened, to the world? How do we treat death, and more immediately, how do we deal with no longer living bodies?
These are difficult issues and there are no easy or straightforward answers. I hope to address these and many more in future posts.
The transitioning from part starts with an inventory, including the resources we now use (all the stuff we have and buy plus the energy we use and the wastes we create) and the broader issue of how we live our lives, how we earn and maintain the income required to stay in the Tahoe area, how we raise and educate children, how we care for the sick and those who need our help, how we interact with the rest of the natural world - the lake, the trees, the rest of mountain ecosystems.
The transitioning to part involves articulating a vision of a sustainable world that we (and future Tahoe dwellers) hope to develop. It deals with energy - how much do we need, what kind of energy, how do we get it, and if we don't produce it in the Tahoe area, how is it transported here? What are our backup energy supplies? It deals with food - how much does a person - adult, child and senior - need, and how do we go about procuring it and safely storing it. How much waste may we recycle/compost? It deals with health care - how do we best take care of ourselves, and who can help take care of us when we are ailing? It deals with money - what kind of currency will we use and how will we store it? Still dollars and still store in a branch of a large national bank? We need to think about this. It deals with housing - How can we preserve and maintain what we now have, assuming we thing these structures are sustainable? How can we procure the wood, glass, roofing material, insulation, plumbing and electrical components we'll need, given that these are unlikely to be produced in a future local economy. It also deals with culture and belief and myths and practices - what stories do we tell ourselves about why our lives have meaning? What is our new creation myth? How do we explain to our children what is happening, what has happened, to the world? How do we treat death, and more immediately, how do we deal with no longer living bodies?
These are difficult issues and there are no easy or straightforward answers. I hope to address these and many more in future posts.
The Need for a Tahoe Inventory
What do humans need to live a sustainable life in the Lake Tahoe region? Let's start with a simple definition of sustainable: It means capable of enduring for the indefinite future, certainly many decades to centuries. It means being able to provide for ourselves food, shelter, clothing, some level of medical care, education for young people, transportation to nearby regions. It also means ways of providing fresh, drinkable water and safely processing wastes; ways of providing energy to heat and light our dwellings, cook and preserve our food; ways to compost or otherwise handle our waste products; ways of repairing places we live and work; ways of defending ourselves from unfriendly persons and any dangerous wildlife.
What about what we have now? What's wrong with electricity (generated from coal and natural gas), gas for heating, gasoline and cars/trucks/buses for transportation, food from the supermarket, and lots of other stuff from big box stores down in the valleys? The main thing wrong with these approaches is that none of them are sustainable and all of them will become increasingly expensive and eventually unaffordable for most of the people who hope to live in the Tahoe area. Then there's the issue of relying on fossil fuels, all of which create further damage to an already deteriorating climate...
Our entire way of life, in Tahoe and the rest of the country, depends on a readily available, uninterrupted supply of fossil fuels, especially products derived from oil, and secondarily from natural gas and coal. Nuclear power also supplies some of the nation's electric power. All of these energy sources are fragile in the sense that we are running our of the cheaper supplies and only have the expensive, more dangerous to use, ones left. Prices will inevitably rise and supplies will sooner or later be unreliable. If we wait for something called the "unregulated free market" to respond, we will be sadly disappointed, especially if we live in the Tahoe area, which is somewhat isolated from and at a higher elevation than the closest urban areas, primarily Reno and Carson City.
So... that's the bad news: Our current patterns of life are heavily dependent on fossil fuels. There's no miracle technology on the horizon that can provide anywhere close to the levels of energy we currently consume at anything close to a price we could afford. Yes, there's wind and solar systems and we need to start building these where we can... more in a later post. But we need to realize that these sources cannot, at least for many decades if ever, both replace most of the energy Americans are used to consuming at prices we're used to paying and provide enough energy to pay for their own replacement manufacturing and lifelong maintenance. Right now, at very best, wind and solar can provide an assist to the fossil fuel systems we all depend upon. We have a long, long way to go in order to develop sustainable lifestyles.
Future posts will discuss energy, food, shelter, water and waste water processing, medical care, transportation, education, and ideas for a new sustainable economic base that could help make the Tahoe region more robust and sustainable than it is today.
What about what we have now? What's wrong with electricity (generated from coal and natural gas), gas for heating, gasoline and cars/trucks/buses for transportation, food from the supermarket, and lots of other stuff from big box stores down in the valleys? The main thing wrong with these approaches is that none of them are sustainable and all of them will become increasingly expensive and eventually unaffordable for most of the people who hope to live in the Tahoe area. Then there's the issue of relying on fossil fuels, all of which create further damage to an already deteriorating climate...
Our entire way of life, in Tahoe and the rest of the country, depends on a readily available, uninterrupted supply of fossil fuels, especially products derived from oil, and secondarily from natural gas and coal. Nuclear power also supplies some of the nation's electric power. All of these energy sources are fragile in the sense that we are running our of the cheaper supplies and only have the expensive, more dangerous to use, ones left. Prices will inevitably rise and supplies will sooner or later be unreliable. If we wait for something called the "unregulated free market" to respond, we will be sadly disappointed, especially if we live in the Tahoe area, which is somewhat isolated from and at a higher elevation than the closest urban areas, primarily Reno and Carson City.
So... that's the bad news: Our current patterns of life are heavily dependent on fossil fuels. There's no miracle technology on the horizon that can provide anywhere close to the levels of energy we currently consume at anything close to a price we could afford. Yes, there's wind and solar systems and we need to start building these where we can... more in a later post. But we need to realize that these sources cannot, at least for many decades if ever, both replace most of the energy Americans are used to consuming at prices we're used to paying and provide enough energy to pay for their own replacement manufacturing and lifelong maintenance. Right now, at very best, wind and solar can provide an assist to the fossil fuel systems we all depend upon. We have a long, long way to go in order to develop sustainable lifestyles.
Future posts will discuss energy, food, shelter, water and waste water processing, medical care, transportation, education, and ideas for a new sustainable economic base that could help make the Tahoe region more robust and sustainable than it is today.
Speaker available
Need someone to give a presentation about energy, peak oil, climate change to your group? Feel free to get in touch: ricst (at) usa (dot) net
Background Resources
If you've found this blog, chances are you have some understanding of Peak Oil, peak resources in general, climate changes and the need for communities in industrial/industrializing countries to begin their transition to far more sustainable patterns of living.
If you're not current on peak oil and/or climate change, here are a few starter resources:
Any books by Richard Heinberg, especially The End of Growth, and The Party's Over.
Books by Jeff Rubin, Tim Flannery, Michael Klare, Bill McKibben, Thom Hartmann, Chris Martenson, John Michael Greer, Andrew Bacevich, Andrew Nikiforuk, Gwynne Dyer, James Howard Kunstlet. Most of these people have blogs worth following. I especially like:
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/
http://ourfiniteworld.com/
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/issue/
http://www.resilience.org/
http://www.theoildrum.com/
There are many videos on YouTube. Just search for "peak oil". This is one of the best:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjvSQzYj_Oc
Start with that one...
And do not miss The Crash Course:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0WuQ5-t3xM
Sites focusing on the Transition are not hard to find. Here is a start:
http://www.transitionus.org/
http://www.ted.com/talks/rob_hopkins_transition_to_a_world_without_oil.html
https://www.transitionnetwork.org/
Unsurprisingly, the best resources are on the Internet, in books, and maybe even in your community. Avoid TV, radio and most mainstream media. They rarely offer unbiased information. And avoid any visits to apocalyptic "preper" sites.
If you're not current on peak oil and/or climate change, here are a few starter resources:
Any books by Richard Heinberg, especially The End of Growth, and The Party's Over.
Books by Jeff Rubin, Tim Flannery, Michael Klare, Bill McKibben, Thom Hartmann, Chris Martenson, John Michael Greer, Andrew Bacevich, Andrew Nikiforuk, Gwynne Dyer, James Howard Kunstlet. Most of these people have blogs worth following. I especially like:
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/
http://ourfiniteworld.com/
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/issue/
http://www.resilience.org/
http://www.theoildrum.com/
There are many videos on YouTube. Just search for "peak oil". This is one of the best:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjvSQzYj_Oc
Start with that one...
And do not miss The Crash Course:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0WuQ5-t3xM
Sites focusing on the Transition are not hard to find. Here is a start:
http://www.transitionus.org/
http://www.ted.com/talks/rob_hopkins_transition_to_a_world_without_oil.html
https://www.transitionnetwork.org/
Unsurprisingly, the best resources are on the Internet, in books, and maybe even in your community. Avoid TV, radio and most mainstream media. They rarely offer unbiased information. And avoid any visits to apocalyptic "preper" sites.
Friday, April 5, 2013
Transition Tahoe: A Beginning
This blog is a very informal attempt to begin an online discussion about how the Lake Tahoe community and surrounding areas may learn more about peak oil, climate change and the types of transition activities that will be necessary if people are to be able to live a sustainable lifestyle in the Tahoe region.
For general information about the US Transition movement, go here:
http://transitionus.org/
For lots of articles about energy, resilience, transition, climate, go here:
http://www.resilience.org/
Future articles will discuss books, web sites, local activities, psychological preparation and relevant news items. If you have suggestions, please share.
I am based in Incline Village, NV, at the north end of Lake Tahoe.
For general information about the US Transition movement, go here:
http://transitionus.org/
For lots of articles about energy, resilience, transition, climate, go here:
http://www.resilience.org/
Future articles will discuss books, web sites, local activities, psychological preparation and relevant news items. If you have suggestions, please share.
I am based in Incline Village, NV, at the north end of Lake Tahoe.
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