Parent: Big Picture – Thoughts on “The Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline Is far from a Done Deal”

 Jesse Parent  comments on the fate of the Keystone XL Pipeline, via Danielle Droitsch’s “The Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline Is far from a Done Deal“. 

To briefly restate the broader, geopolitical perspective: because carbon emissions and other ‘bad things’ related to Keystone XL, or any other versions of tapping Canada’s tar sands will be essentially the same if some other country (China) partners with Canada, the merits of blocking KXL are questionable. In other words, unless there will be protests in Canada to stop Chinese (or whoever) from taking Canada’s oil, then blocking KXL is relatively ineffectual, in terms of actually doing anything regarding emissions. (Related, the global energy demand for oil is not going away, especially in developing Eastern Asia, so there will be a strong market demand for Canada’s resources).

What it would impact is the US ‘political climate’, potentially; it might be a political statement from the US public that ‘we don’t want any more fossil fuel infrastructure in our country’.

While the merits of both of those points are somewhat relative to other factors, I ‘personally’ feel that if the US is ready to strongly denounced the development of new hydrocarbon infrastructure, and being locked in to hydrocarbon consumption, there needs to be an equally strong, if not significantly stronger, push on developing means to replace oil and hydrocarbon fuel usage. Legions of engineers and innovators should be storming universities, making startups, sharing practices with leading nations (because the US is barely one)…. but I don’t see this related push happening, not on the same scale that there is support for anti-KXL sentiments.

Without the focus on how to replace hydrocarbon usage, anti-KXL sentiments will be shot down each time, such as (seriously if not jokingly), EnergyTomorrow’s ”Life Without Fossil Fuels” political cartoons.

So in the mean time, there is relatively significant gap between ‘short term options to meet modern energy needs’ and ‘broader realization that our climate requires changes in how we use energy’. The US will probably either need to experience (continued?) severe devastation, or a severe realization that another country is ahead of them, to more actively try to bridge that gap.

In the mean time, other geopolitical realities play out and are more easily comprehended as pressing or salient. So, for now, they win the day.

I’d be surprised if KXL is fully blocked, I really would. I feel that if the US as a country is ready to say no to KXL, it might be able to say yes to other necessary changes in lifestyle to become sustainable, which may have significance in terms of other US geopolitical issues. Still, as at this time, I don’t think the US is likely to break any molds or trends or do anything other than trudge along its current path.

- Jesse Parent
@_JesseParent

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Yes, Nuclear Power Needs a Much Bigger Voice In U.S. Energy

Bottom line: yes, nuclear needs a much bigger voice in US energy mix. Why it doesn’t, as I’m sure we all can tell, is because there isn’t any money in externalities of nuclear power. It’s not related to military conquest or geostrategic squabbles – at least not in the same way that hydrocarbon caches are. Nuclear energy would rather lend towards self reliance and, comparatively, isolationist foreign policy — rather than dominant neoconservative trends in recent administrations.  

17 NOV 2012 | Rod Adams brings up the topic of nuclear energy in the United States again, in “Time for rational risk evaluation of energy sources – natural gas versus nuclear“. Chief Editor Jesse Parent (@_JesseParent) agrees with Adams view that nuclear power needs a much more robust platform, and offers insights as to how that could be achieved:

I say this often, but, in my opinion it is particularly true for nuclear power: the problem isn’t the science; the real challenge is the vast implications for politics, money flows, and the inertia of Big Oil/(&Gas) in terms of their influence over policy. 

So yes, to that end, I agree that nuclear supporters must be much more vocal. I continue to see the United States as being particualrly not conducive towards any sort of innovation or development in nuclear power – especially, unfortunately, something like Thorium. But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t hope for such. I would suppose a place such as India, or perhaps even Australia (and Germany, or Japan), would be much more inclined and ‘properly motivated’ for inspired nuclear innovation.

Again, I present those ‘obstacles’ not to deter nuclear hopes, but simply to point out that for nuclear advocates to successfully gain substance, particularly within the USA, the ‘affiliated’ implications of current hydrocarbon dominance must be addressed.

Nuclear advocates must show how nuclear power can benefit the country in non-energy ways, particularly at a time like this, where the longest war in US history is leaving the public weary. Combine this with fiscal conservatism, reducing the debt, and real “energy security” by moving away from hydrocarbons – that would be a powerful approach. 

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For more from Jesse Parent [INFLUENCE] throughout the week, you are invited to join the conversation via Twitter and Facebook.

First Ever “Allowance Auction”: California to Implement Cap & Trade to Limit Carbon Emissions

California will become a pioneer in carbon regulation, fulling part of the vision of Assembly Bill 32. Starting Wednesday, 15 NOV 2012, the California Air Resources Board will auction “allowances” for pollution-related activities.

 

New Learnist Board – stay tuned for updates!

 

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For more of Jesse’s thoughts throughout the week and to see what news he’s following, you are invited to join the conversation via Twitter and Facebook.

Data: #FiscalCliff – What/Why/When/How & Discussion

Unfortunately, all that money and time spent on Election 2012 doesn’t erase the serious challenges facing the US. Here’s just one, and it’s a ‘pretty big deal’. How America moves forward financially will have an impact on the rest of the global economy.

New Learnist Board – follow for updates!

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For more from  Jesse Parent [INFLUENCE], you are invited to join the conversation via Twitter and Facebook.

[Introduction] Special Project: Where do we go from here? A Look at America Following the 2012 Elections

[By Jesse Parent]

How many times have you heard: “One of the starkest contrasts in terms of America’s overall direction in some time” – perhaps the one thing everyone agreed on. Yet while America has made a choice, and a fairly significant one at that, there are so many issues to be addressed; so at least for me, personally, there is a very different feeling compared to the aftermath of the 2008 election.

I want to take a moment to capture the feeling(s) of the moment, the ‘zeitgeist‘, the state of America and thereby its relation to the global and modern historical context. To do that, I’ll be doing a great deal of thinking and reflecting, as well as (see Learnist) collecting a number of the commentaries, articles, and reflections arising from the aftermath of Election 2012. I want as broad a scope as possible; the aim is to have an accurate sample so as to produce a good illustration of this moment in history.

There is so much to process, and for many, there is a feeling of how different things ‘could have been’ if Mitt Romney was elected instead of the reelection of President Barack Obama. There is a strange sense of confusion yet also re-orientation – it’s something I personally am not sure how to capture or comment on yet, which is why I am starting this project.

The end result will be a full length essay or report, a smaller executive summary, and hopefully, several works cited and even commentary on those works cited.

Likely topics will include: The economy in general, and specifically the coming “Fiscal Cliff“, which has recently stunned or scared the stock markets ; the issue of demographics in America (I’ve never heard so many different news programs say so openly things like “Old, white, angry men aren’t all there is to America anymore”) ; related, social issues like women’s rights, equal pay, marriage equality, immigration, and so on ; climate change and environmental issues (recovering from #Sandy…); energy (see the rest of this site); and the general nature of politics in the US.

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If you have any good stories that would add to the perspective of this moment in history, please leave them in the comments below. I’m working on a collection so far on Learnist, link here.

Stay tuned and make the most of the year 2012…. 2013 is only a little over a month away, now.

- Jesse Parent

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For more of Jesse’s thoughts throughout the week and to see what news he’s following, you are invited to join the conversation via Twitter and Facebook.

Climate Change & Economic Recovery: A Very Narrow Self-Image

25 OCT 2012 – Jesse Parent | Someone actually brought up psychology today when talking about things I’m interested in! What an occasion for discussion. Curiously, in an article about energy funding in the US & presidential debates, Maslow’s Pyramid was brought up by John Miller:

Jesse, Who’s really ‘winning the future’?  Europe with their ongoing economic crisis, the Middle East with their perpetual chaos, Russia where they are trying to resurrect some of the past USSR , or Asia where their enormous populations and carbon emissions are growing faster than all Developed Countries’ current ineffective attempts to reduce their carbon footprints?

If you recall Maslow’s pyramid (hierarchy of human needs) from your old college days, it should not be surprising that the priority of climate change is not very high today.  When most U.S. families are struggling to feed and meet their families’ basic biological/physiological and safety needs (the bottom of Maslow’s pyramid) all other issues are secondary.  Until the U.S. economy and un-/under-employment truly return to normal-historic and healthy levels, higher level human needs (self esteem and self actualization), including climate change concerns should not be expected to become a general Public priority.

My response is below:

The middle east not being in perpetual chaos would be a huge loss for the war economy – don’t expect that to happen any time soon. Russia seems particularly stationary. Asia, and some elements of the middle east – look at Masdar, the UAE, Singapore, etc – are winning the future. Even Saudi Arabia is trying to become a leader in solar power.

I don’t think caring about carbon footprints is a major concern for many of the most developed nations, yes, because of self preservation, and also because it’s particularly inconvenient. Yet that climate change is not even on the map in terms of US national discourse, to me, is a litmus test for how far away from substance the US is.

“Until the U.S. economy and un-/under-employment truly return to normal-historic and healthy levels, higher level human needs (self esteem and self actualization), including climate change concerns should not be expected to become a general Public priority.”

Yes and no…

The longer climate change is unaddressed, the more severe the debt will be to pay in the future. As it was once said, “calamity cannot be avoided by running away from it” – or pretending like it’s not there. Or, “the significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them”. The point is, trying to rebuild the national or global economy without dealing with climate change is remarkably short sighted and willfully ignorant.

We’re at a time where kid gloves, fairy tells, and easy to digest stories about what we need to do to have a better world need to be discarded. Shrugging off “climate change” as unessential, or not vital, is in one sense the very essence of the problem; a very narrow self-image.

How do you see the connection between economy, climate change, and self identity interrelating?

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For more of Jesse’s thoughts throughout the week and to see what news he’s following, you are invited to join the conversation via Twitter and Facebook.