Category Archives: going green

Are Smart Buildings Really Smart? by Anthony Ricigliano

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News and Articles by Anthony Ricigliano: It’s actually surprising that the United States has the third largest ecological footprint per capita, behind the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. While we try to do the right thing we still face huge challenges in overcoming our environmental deficit. Sustainability comes in many forms with one of them being “smart buildings.”

What we need to do to truly make positive changes in terms of how we treat our environment is to consider the big picture of our actions to see whether we’re actually headed in the right direction. Let’s take a look at smart buildings and their role in reducing their inhabitants’ carbon footprint. Unfortunately, smart buildings may sound great in theory but could be falling short in a number of areas. In terms of sustainability and shrinking carbon footprints smart buildings fail the test under the following circumstances, according to TED.com, a non-profit organization devoted to "Ideas worth spreading”:

  • Employees are required to commute over long distances.
  • The energy they consume is carbon-intensive.
  • Their technology is too complicated to use or too difficult to maintain.
  • Their impact stops at the property line.
  • They deny the use of pre-existing infrastructure or building fabric.
  • They are conceived in isolation from larger, systemic environmental change.

By looking at the big picture, a smart building could actually do more harm than good simply by moving further away from the people that work there. Even a building that is self sufficient to the point of being off the grid will have a higher carbon footprint than a dilapidated old building if it encourages or requires dependence on an automobile to get there. To wit, shortening the daily commute of a typical person by six miles can save as much carbon as a 50 percent reduction in energy use for home heating.

"Green" buildings and green initiatives in a vacuum are not enough to make a material difference. What is required is a big picture approach to avoid the common practice of doing some good and then undoing it with an action that cancels out the position actions which preceded it.

In short, we must make the most of what we already have and be aware that all of our actions can have an impact. We have to get over the feel-good perception that going "green" and leaving it at that is the answer to all of our problems. By analogy, (also from TED.com) “the electric hybrid Toyota Prius is an energy-efficient car. However, when accounting for the energy used to manufacture a new Prius, one would actually save more energy by continuing to drive a mid-'90s Geo Metro.” This probably isn’t what Prius owners want hear but you get the picture.

Going green must become a behavior or a lifestyle as opposed to a series of isolated actions. It’s not going to easy and, by the way, this isn’t meant to diminish isolated actions. It’s often these very actions that act as the seed of change in our overall behavior.

By Anthony Ricigliano

Will BP’s Seal Stick?

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By Anthony Ricigliano: After having held gushing oil in place since the middle of July, crews from BP are carefully drilling a secondary relief well which, when completed, will deliver a permanent plug into the oil well that has become the biggest oil spill in U.S. history. The drilling of the last phase of the relief well must be done with extreme caution to ensure that it intersects the broken well line. It is hoped that the relief well can reinforce the initial cap and provide a permanent solution by pumping more mud and cement into the well.

With the oil stopped since July 15th, all eyes will be on the "bottom kill" operation which is designed to both permanently seal the well and allow for options on reopening it in the future. Prior to the temporary seal going in, oil flowed out of the broken well for almost three months after Deepwater Horizon rig, which BP had leased, exploded on April 20. The explosion killed 11 employees on the platform and released over 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf. Investigations are ongoing as whether BP cut corners in their operations in order to save money in the days preceding the blowout.

The first test after the connection of the relief well will be to see if pressure gradually builds up at the point of the seal. The lines which have been releasing oil and gas to surface ships to minimize pressure on the cap would be closed to see if pressure builds naturally within the well.  Increasing pressure would indicate that the two and a half miles of casing which lines the well bore is intact which could lead to an oil capture scheme with surface ships capturing oil from the well. Estimates are that four ships could capture up to 60,000 barrels a day. If pressure does not build in the well it would indicate that the casing is damaged and testing would be halted. The relief lines which have been shut would reopen and testing of the casing would commence.

The operation to finally seal the well should provide relief to the cleanup efforts, but for many the damage has already been done. With the Fall shrimping season set to open on August 16th, many of the fishing grounds will remain closed as federal authorities monitor toxin levels in shrimp, crabs, and other seafood. The reminder of these closures was evident as the pre-season “Blessing of the Boats” ceremonies saw barbequed sausage, chicken, and other items on the menu but no sign of the shrimp and crab dishes that are the traditional fare for the celebrations.

There hasn’t been much talk about future plans for the well but it seems unlikely that it will remain closed permanently. While establishing another rig may be extremely unpopular with residents around the Gulf, the sheer volume of oil in the well and BP’s desire to recoup some of the $6.1 billion in costs related to the blowout make it likely that surface ships will eventually be replaced by another platform along the lines of Deepwater Horizon. One certainty in that situation is that it will be closely watched with highest safety standards possible. BP owes nothing less than that to everyone and everything that has been affected by this ecological disaster.

Author Anthony Ricigliano – Articles and News by Anthony Ricigliano

Shall We Just Agree to Call It Climate De-stabilization?

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By Anthony Ricigliano: With the term “global warming” being such a hot button issue, maybe we should just start calling the wild summer weather across the northern hemisphere this summer more evidence of climate de-stabilization. Record heat waves and drought across Russia have taken lives and resulted in the loss of one-fifth of its wheat harvest to raging wildfires which are burning out of control southeast of Moscow. Crops in the neighboring countries of Ukraine and Kazakhstan are also being damaged by the drought, as the wildfires continue their westward march.

Pakistan’s weather problems are exactly the opposite of Russia’s as monsoon rains have fallen in volumes that had never before been seen.  Peshawar, located in northern Pakistan, saw six times the monthly average rainfall in only 24 hours. The monsoonal downpours have continued since then, with flooding affecting an estimated 14 million people and killing over 1,300 people. Flood waters now cover about one-fifth of the country.

Despite being approximately 2,500 miles apart, both of these disasters are linked to a single meteorological cause. A huge area of high pressure, which has stayed in place for weeks over western Russia, has blocked the jet stream, altering its path while baking the western region of the country. These high pressure areas form on a regular basis but normally move eastward after a few days in the northern hemisphere. The high pressure area causing the problems for Pakistan and Russia is called a “blocking high” and acts as an obstacle for the jet stream which has changed its path around it. This altered path has forced part of the jet stream to divert south to Pakistan, where it normally would not be found during mid-summer.

With the jet stream delivering storm after storm to the same areas flooding occurs, as seen in Poland and Germany recently. In Pakistan, the southern diversion of the jet stream brought storms which would normally track much further north. These storms combined with normal summer monsoons to deliver record volumes of rainfall. The storms passing through Pakistan via the jet stream would typically be delivering rainfall and relief from the heat in the areas of western Russia were it not for the stationary high pressure zone.

The debate rages on about whether these extreme conditions are the result of global warming or of naturally occurring cycles such as El Nino and La Nina. Scientists do agree that global temperatures this year have been the warmest on record but cannot link the high temperatures to these events. Many believe that these types of events and other extreme weather conditions will become more common should global temperatures continue to go higher. In the case of Russia and Pakistan, the cause has been a blocking high. Other extreme conditions can be triggered by completely different weather conditions. The trend seems to be that increasing extremes are following warmer temperatures. For now maybe we should all agree that the global climate is being de-stabilized and as a result people are dying. Maybe then we start from the same page and find out if there is something we can do about it before weather disasters start claiming millions of victims per event on a regular basis.

Author Anthony Ricigliano

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What About Water?

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By Anthony Ricigliano – News By Anthony Ricigliano: The world may never run out of water but an increasing number of people around the world could easily face an extreme shortage of drinkable water. According to Matthew Simmons, an early proponent of “peak oil”, many of the world's largest cities, with populations of more than 10 million people, are currently facing water shortages. The list of cities facing potable water shortages includes Mexico City, Beijing, and Cairo. The World Bank recently reported that 80 countries now have potable water shortages that threaten health, sanitation, and economies and that 40% of the world’s population, approximately two billion people, have no access to clean water or sanitation.

One of the primary causes of the looming global water shortage is the steadily increasing world population. This population growth and the industrial, agricultural and individual water needs which come with it are now doubling demand for water every 21 years, according to World Bank estimates. With the global population currently at six billion and United Nations’ projections for nine billion people by 2050, the justified fear is that water supplies will not be able to keep pace with demand, as populations soar and cities explode. Water supplies will continue to tighten as countries around the world continue to develop and raise their standard of living, as well. Like oil, the United States is a huge user of water on a per capita basis at 600 liters per day. Outside the U.S., the per capita usage amounts to 50 liters a day and growing.
These shortages, combined with certain geographic considerations have the potential to fuel hostility and potential warfare over this precious resource. In fact, more than a dozen countries receive more than half of their water from rivers that cross borders of neighboring countries viewed as hostile. Of those, seven countries receive 75% or more of their fresh water from rivers flowing out of often hostile upstream neighbors. These include Botswana, Bulgaria, Cambodia, the Congo, Gambia, the Sudan, and Syria.

The Middle East, a region well-known for its political and religious animosities is now witnessing heightened tensions regarding adequate water supplies as well. Israel and Syria have had recently contentious discussions about water supplies while Iraq, Syria and Turkey have exchanged verbal threats over their use of shared rivers. It’s not hard to imagine tensions rising if one country wants to dam a river for hydroelectric purposes that a neighboring country relies on.
The scramble for solutions to the problem is growing apace. One of the more promising solutions already exists in the form of desalinization plants of which there are 11,000 in operation around the world. The biggest issue with these plants is the cost per gallon of desalinized water. The answer to the cost issue could lie in the advance of alternative energy solutions which could run the plants with renewable energy sources such as solar, tidal, wind, and/or wave power.  Advances in these solutions will bring their costs down which in turn could make desalinization both a clean and cost effective proposition.

About Anthony Ricigliano