Geothermal joins the energy mix
Geothermal joins the energy mix
Clean energy in Texas, wildfire and flood in Canada and Russia, and how to engage your elected officials
Did you get to see the eclipse last week? Where we live in Texas, we were fortunate enough to be right in the path of totality for over three minutes.
Even though, as a scientist, I understood what was happening, I still didn’t anticipate how incredible a total eclipse would be. When the last fraction of the moon slipped over the sun and all you could see was the corona, it was awe-inspiring. It reminded me how powerfully nature can affect us… similar to the effect of the mini-forests discussed in last week’s newsletter. How do I know? Because I've never heard back from so many people before!
Susan Ceely Philips wrote to say, “Just spent the day planting a pocket forest on Roosevelt Island in New York City. What a wonderful way to spend the day and meet people who were interested in learning and caring about our beautiful planet.” Ben Korn, who also attended the same planting (pictured below,) added, “I was one of the 300 volunteers who helped plant over 1,500 indigenous trees and shrubs on a previously biologically barren patch of grass. I am a recent college graduate and it was so empowering to help contribute to our community.”
I heard from several at Santa Monica College in California that they’ll be planting a pocket forest of their own later this month, and the University of Virginia is getting one soon, too. Others wrote in to share they’d planted large forests - like Steve Aman, a retired farmer and great-grandfather in New York State, who has planted over a million trees in his lifetime (150 the day before the eclipse, he said!). Can we just clone Steve?
And finally, I'm thrilled to correct a massive Canadian underestimation from last week. Previously, I reported 10 tiny forests across Canada. Thanks to Michelle Oram, we now know that in the greater Waterloo region alone, just west of Toronto, there were 10 new microforests planted last year. Sustainable Waterloo director Tova Davidson added that they're planning to plant 15 more this coming year, and
on Substack sent this info on even more tiny forest projects in Kingston, just east of Toronto. I’ve never been so happy to be wrong 😊GOOD NEWS
I’ve written before about how Texas is a leader in wind and solar energy. In recent weekends, upwards of 70% of the power on our grid has been coming from these two sources alone. (During the eclipse, solar production dropped from 13.5 MW to around 0.5 MW. Natural gas and battery storage, a fast-growing aspect of our grid, made up the difference.) But did you know that the state is also becoming “an early hot spot for geothermal energy exploration”?
Unlike wind and solar, geothermal energy can provide around-the-clock renewable energy, making it an important part of the green energy mix of the future. “Geothermal heat doesn’t have those variable conditions,” explains my colleague Michael E. Webber, a clean energy expert at the University of Texas at Austin. “If you hit a hot spot below ground — might be thousands of feet down — the heat won’t matter based on whether it’s cloudy or whether it’s summer.”
Jamie Beard, the founder of a Houston start-up called Sage Geosystems Inc. gave a TED Talk on the power of geothermal that you can watch here. ”What we’re talking about here is a pivot from hydrocarbons to heat,” she said in the talk. Those in the energy industry have the expertise to help, she says, and their knowledge should be harnessed to facilitate this shift. “If we want to turn the ship, we recruit the sailors.”
At least three more Houston geothermal start-ups have cropped up in recent years. One of those companies, Fervo Energy, has the data to back Jamie up. They estimate that two-thirds of its 80 employees come from the oil and gas sector, leveraging their expertise in drilling and geology to develop geothermal energy instead. More of this, please!
NOT-SO-GOOD NEWS
I often hear from some who live in northern countries like Canada and Russia who feel that climate change won’t affect them, or it might even be a nice change: but every year, there’s more evidence that just isn’t true.
Last year was Canada’s worst wildfire season on record, and as of February over 100 of the fires were still burning. Last week, the minister for emergency preparedness took the unprecedented step of warning that we may face yet another "catastrophic" wildfire season this coming year, with climate change boosting spring and summer temperatures across the country. “Wildfires have always occurred across Canada, what's new is their frequency and their intensity," the minister for energy and natural resources added. "The science is clear. The root cause of this is climate change.”
Meanwhile in Russia and Kazakhstan, some areas have been experiencing the worst flooding in 80 years. The Ural River, the third largest in Europe, overflowed its banks, flooding more than 11,000 homes in Orenburg, a city of half a million. Heavy rains and rapid snowmelt caused by higher than normal temperatures drove the flooding. Flooding has also occurred along the Volga River and in Siberia’s Altai region. And in Kazakhstan, rivers flowing in from Russia have overflowed, causing nearly 100,000 to be evacuated.
Spring flooding does happen yearly in this region. However, this year’s flooding has also been unusually severe, and it’s clear climate change played a role. “Within days temperatures went from zero to 17, 18 and even 20 degrees Celsius. That caused a very, very rapid snowmelt,” explains Maria Shahgedanova, a professor of climate science at Reading University. Climate change, she added, is also causing heavier snowfall in the areas where the rivers flow, leading to larger spring floods. “We’re looking at a 7% increase in (snow) precipitation for each one degree change in average temperature,” she said.
For more on how climate change could impact Russia, see this 2009 report commissioned by the U.S. National Intelligence Council; and for Canada, see this series of “Canada in a Changing Climate” reports. I also have Global Weirding episodes explaining how climate change is affecting the Arctic and Canada.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
A majority of people across the world are worried about climate change, and two-thirds of Americans say they are worried and support climate action. But, as a new Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (YPCCC) poll confirms, we all underestimate how much others share those concerns.
I’ve been seeing this for years: we’re worried, we know, and some of our friends are – yet we assume nobody else is, because we’re not talking about it. And that’s discouraging!
One of the most influential groups of people who underestimate how much others care are elected officials: not just national or federal politicians, but also the leaders of states, provinces, cities, counties, townships, school boards, and more. YPCCC studies confirm that elected officials consistently underestimate their own constituents' levels of concern over climate change and support for climate action. And a big part of that is because they don’t hear from enough people.
What can we do about this? Let them know!
YPCCC calls this bridging the “attitude-behavior” gap. They recommend starting by reaching out to your elected officials and telling them you support transformative climate action. You can call them, email them, and even write them. Then encourage your friends and family to do the same. I've even partnered with artist Lauren James to make free mail-able coloring book pages that offer a creative way to get kids involved.
Consider joining a climate action group that will help you do this on a regular basis. There are some national and international organizations, from Citizens' Climate Lobby to Interfaith Power & Light, as well as literally hundreds of local organizations. I have a short list here, and I always welcome more suggestions.
As I often say, we can’t fix climate change alone – but I’m convinced we can do it together.
TONIGHT Tues Apr 16 at 6.30pm ET - Saving Us and Creation Care hosted by the Episcopal Diocese of South Virginia - virtual, registration required
Mon Apr 22 at 9pm ET (6pm PT) - Good News and Just Responses to Climate Change hosted by Seattle Pacific University - virtual
Wed Apr 24th at 5pm ET - New Climate Solutions and Galvanizing for Action, the 22nd Peter M. Wege Lecture on Sustainability at the University of Michigan - in person, in Ann Arbor MI
Hi Dr. Hayhoe, thanks for the shout out. I wonder if in a future post you’d consider exploring how revitalizing small water cycles and the related concept of the biotic pump theory might affect not only climate change but the biodiversity crisis. My understanding is that water vapour is a key component to global warming but of course we don’t want to “end” the water cycle 🙄 I also heard that the IPCC reports doesn’t account for the small water cycles. Is that true?
I bring this up because it is my understanding that by increasing the global amount of organic matter by a small amount we could greatly decrease the amount of carbon im the atmosphere. At the same time, better hydration of land would decrease the amount of land vulnerable to fire/desertification. All of this would also help to reduce the great biodiversity loss. Of course, I may be mistaken and/or you may not have time but i’d love to learn whether i sm wrong. Thank you for the good work you’re doing!
I agree about encouraging politicians to be concerned and change policies abut climate change. But it's important WHAT they do. Like any other policy climate change policy should be based on cost benefit analysis. The CO2 that a policy causes to be sequestered or whose emission is avoided is a benefit, but not an infinite benefit. It is still possible that the cost of the policy exceeds the benefit. Many policies adopted for the sake of climate change (subsidies for roof-top solar or EV) may have costs greater than benefits. The NPV could still be positive, but clearly the approach of IRA, subsidizing investment in zero projects that avoid CO2 emissions is inferior to directly and transparently subsidizing the avoidance. The only policy that is guaranteed to have a positive NPV is taxation of net emissions.