Bonus log

March 20, 2010 02:36

Recreation of a Question and Answer with Bill Spence (note these are my words not his, all mistakes are mine)

Q1. Tell us about your personal journey to sustainability

My recreation of what Bill said: It took me 20 years to get to a position in my life where I could think about myself, about my needs. I had just graduated from University and was finally getting an income from my new job in The Hague. I could start paying back my loans, I was living in my own flat; for once I had some time for myself. I was feeling pretty happy about things. Then one day a colleague of mine from Nigeria who was on a short term training assignment to the Shell offices in The Hague came up to me and asked to have a private word. He seemed a bit concerned, I said sure go ahead. It’s not a technical question, he said. Fine I said, please go ahead. When you go home to your flat and you are sitting there in the little box, how can you tell when your neighbor needs you? My head spun. What I had spent twenty odd years of my life working towards, I realized, was a small pebble at the base of a mountain. There’s much more to my world than I had every imagined. Community. From there things flowed more smoothly and I began to understand our responsibilities not only towards my fellow man but also towards the environment in which we live. I went from me to we to collective.

Q2. Why are you concerned about climate change?

My recreation of what Bill said: Climate change will impact human society in four ways:
1.    10 million hungry
2.    35 million flooded
3.    250 million exposed to malaria
4.    2500 million thirsty
For more details look this stuff up.

Q3. Where does this CO2 come from?

My recreation of what Bill said: Most of the man-caused CO2 comes from human activities related to burning fossil fuels whether they are for generating electricity, heating, cooking or industry. It is important to note that nearly one third of the CO2 comes from agricultural sources.

Q4. What is the future of the energy sector in terms of less carbon intensive energy?

My recreation of what Bill said: A little story. The first time anyone mentioned peak oil was actually related to what we saw this morning, whales. Whale oil was actually the main source of fuel until not too recently. There was a concern that whale populations were decreasing and becoming harder to find. This same concern is repeated today with regards to natural oil. The future of hydrocarbons is likely to include a mix of fuel sources including conventional sources like oil, gas and coal as well as a greater mix of renewable sources including wind, solar, nuclear and biomass. Furthermore the future will also be one where the CO2 produced using conventional fuel sources will be abated mainly through carbon capture and storage.

Q5. What are the challenges to meeting this goal?

My recreation of what Bill said: The main challenge relates to leveling the playing field in two ways:
1. Penalties or caps on producing CO2
2. Subsidies for renewable energy

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3 Comments for "Bonus log"

The following are comments from our readers. They do not represent the view of Greening of Oil or its owner.

Hey, whale oil has not been used commercially as a fuel since the early 1900s. When crude oil was discovered in the eastern U.S., the great whaling ships were put out of business and essentially saved certain types of whales from extinction.

Adam Jensen | March 21, 2010 04:43 | Report Abuse

Some interesting observations. Climate change on the earth has always been happening, and when it does, many species go extinct. What we are doing now with CO2 and methane emissions is probably accelerating the next climate change, but, if history is a clue, climate change is inevitable. Man has always tried to control his climate with sacrifices to the gods, rain dances, cloud seeding, etc. So far, nothing has been successful. I am not sure how successful we can be in changing the next "climate change".

Probably the "recent" use of whale oil has generated some skepticism about the rest of the comments. In geologic terms, the switch from whale oil to petroleum was just an eye blink ago. In the broader sense, even though whales were a "renewable" resource, it was not a sustainable one. The same is true of petroleum, it is renewable, but at a rate that is so slow it is meaningless compared to our current consumption. The price of whale oil must have increased significantly as the supply was getting shorter, and petroleum was a cheaper source when it was found. As petroleum gets in shorter supply, the price will go up. At some point in time, the change from petroleum to the next energy resource will take place, just as the change from whale oil to petroleum took place. The question everyone must answer is do we take petroleum down to the point of near extinction to drive the price high, or do we make it economically feasible, through either incentives for wind, solar, etc or penalties for hydrocarbon use, to start the switch to other energy sources? What are the costs for wind or solar power generation? At what price for natural gas does it become financially feasible to switch to alternatives?

Alan Hastings | March 22, 2010 22:35 | Report Abuse

Alan Hastings, I really like your questions. I am very concerned about the green energy spending spree our president and Congress are engaged in--and I voted for the guy. It's enough to turn me into a Republican. I want our leaders to let our free market work for itself and concern themselves with the needs of our children.

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Bonus log

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