The Scale of the Universe 2

via Obama Moves To Block Building Roads In National Forests.

via Hiroshima mayor calls for abolishing nuke weapons – Yahoo! News.

Expanding upon their widely referenced 2007 chart of the comparative costs of different approaches to mitigating greenhouse gas, McKinsey’s new report makes a strong case for energy efficiency, already an important component of Obama’s energy and climate plan. Just last week Obama’s energy advisor Steven Chu commented in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, “In fact, energy efficiency is not just low-hanging fruit; it is fruit that is lying on the ground. And energy efficiency means money back in your pocket because you pay less on your energy bills.”

While there are enormous potential benefits, the report sites persistent barriers to implementation: “By their nature, energy efficiency measures typically require a substantial upfront investment in exchange for savings that accrue over the lifetime of the deployed measures.”

Excerpt:
“The central conclusion of our work: Energy efficiency offers a vast, low-cost energy resource for the U.S. economy – but only if the nation can craft a comprehensive and innovative approach to unlock it. Significant and persistent barriers will need to be addressed at multiple levels to stimulate demand for energy efficiency and manage its delivery across more that 100 million buildings and literally billions of devices. If executed at scale, a holistic approach would yeild gross energy savings worth more than $1.2 trillion, well above the $520 billion needed through 2020 for upfront investment in efficiency measures (not including program costs). Such a program is estimated to reduce end-use energy consumption in 2020 by 9.1 quadrillion BTUs, roughly 23 percent of projected demand, potentially abating up to 1.1. gigatones of greenhouse gases annually.”

A key report perspective appears to elevate energy efficiency to the standing of solar, wind, and other renewables: “Recognize energy efficiency as an important energy resource that can help meet future energy needs while the nation concurrently develops new no- and low-carbon energy sources”

Read executive summary (PDF – 1.52 MB)
Read full report (PDF – 6.37 MB)

Also see:
New York Times – McKinsey Report Cites $1.2 Trillion in Potential Savings From Energy Efficiency
Reuters – Energy efficiency could save U.S. $600 billion

via By Degrees – Buses May Aid Climate Battle in Poor Cities – Series – NYTimes.com.

via Boy discovers microbe that eats plastic | MNN – Mother Nature Network.

Should we live a less resource intensive lifestyle?
Live like a green heroine – and hold the stuff

Or should we spend our way out of recession?
In rural China, a bumper crop of new car owners

Ted Turner, founder of CNN:

“We have designed, built, deployed and armed our own suicidal destruction – now is that smart? No, so why don’t we get rid of them while we still can before the get rid of us”

See the Video on FORAtv.com

‘The project has drawn national attention, coming after alarming reports in the last decade that up to 90 percent of the coral that surrounds many of Okinawa’s islands has died off.

…The result has been what marine biologists call one of the largest coral restoration projects in the world, begun four years ago. The goal, say biologists, is to perfect methods that could be used around the world to rescue reefs endangered by overfishing, pollution and global warming.’

via Sekisei Lagoon Journal – Coral Transplant Surgery Prescribed for Japan – NYTimes.com.

‘If everyone went vegetarian just for one day, the U.S. would save:
● 100 billion gallons of water, enough to supply all the homes in New England for almost 4 months;
● 1.5 billion pounds of crops otherwise fed to livestock, enough to feed the state of New Mexico for more than a year;
● 70 million gallons of gas–enough to fuel all the cars of Canada and Mexico combined with plenty to spare;
● 3 million acres of land, an area more than twice the size of Delaware;
● 33 tons of antibiotics.

If everyone went vegetarian just for one day, the U.S. would prevent:
● Greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 1.2 million tons of CO2, as much as produced by all of France;
● 3 million tons of soil erosion and $70 million in resulting economic damages;
● 4.5 million tons of animal excrement;
● Almost 7 tons of ammonia emissions, a major air pollutant.’

via Kathy Freston: The Breathtaking Effects Of Cutting Back On Meat.