Speaker: Renewable energy necessary in global warming fight

Nov 16 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Melanie Brandert The Daily Republic, Mitchell, S.D.

An engineer and manager from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., said Monday an energy transition is needed to reduce air pollution and foreign oil use and increase energy security through renewable energy.

Chuck Kutscher acknowledged that climate change is a politically divisive subject; however, political arguments do not change what is happening in the world in terms of science.

"If you believe we are causing it and if it's serious, it impacts how quickly we have to make our energy transition," he said. "It adds a sense of urgency to it."

Kutscher spoke at the McGovern Conference, which focused on energy policy, new energy models and climate change, at Dakota Wesleyan University's Sherman Center.

Kutscher explained that greenhouse gases such as water vapor and carbon dioxide are trapping outgoing radiation from the Earth, causing it to be warmer than it should be.

While some books from the energy industry say climate change is a hoax and FoxNews.com reported about e-mails stolen from a British university's climate unit in 2008 appeared to show scientists discussed ways to shield data on climate change from the public, there are organizations that have credible evidence that climate change is occurring, Kutscher said. He cited the U.S. National Academy of Science and American Association for the Advancement of Science as examples.

Kutscher listed evidence such as the world temperature cooling between 1940 and 1970, with most scientists believing that occurred because of air pollution and the United States cleaning up the air with the Clean Air Act passed in 1970.

The eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines caused a drop in temperature because sulfate in the atmosphere blocked sunlight, he said.

Computer models predict that the global temperature is predicted to rise by 3 to 7 degrees Celsius by 2100, Kutscher said.

"This is enormously beyond what we've seen over the last 10,000 years," he said.

Another sign of climate change is that more than 90 percent of glaciers around the world are shrinking, Kutscher said.

He showed two photos of Mount Everest's East Rongbuk Glacier taken in August 1921 and October 2008 to illustrate the impact of glacial melting.

"It's not going to be gone by 2035, but it's having significant impacts already in terms of spring flooding and other effects," he said.

The atmosphere currently has 390,000 parts per million of carbon dioxide, and action needs to be taken now to reduce the atmosphere to below 350,000 parts per million, Kutscher said.

The solutions that are available now involve carbon-free energy options such as energy efficiency, renewable energy, coal with carbon capture and storage, and nuclear power, he said.

"I think we need to do all this stuff," Kutscher said. "This is such a huge problem I don't want to take anything off the table."

Solar energy plants are being operated in the Mojave Desert in the southwest United States with 354 megawatts, along with the 64-megawatt Acciona solar energy plant southeast of Las Vegas, he said.

The nation has a growing wind power capacity, now at 735,000 megawatts. Other methods involve biomass resources, biofuels and geothermal energy, he said.

If nothing is done to combat climate change, the cost of cleaning up the damage is estimated at $1.87 trillion a year, Kutscher said, citing a 2008 Tufts University study.

A Sioux Falls communications consultant said afterward he attended Kutscher's speech because he has a longstanding interest in climate change and wants the state to build its economy on clean energy and the tremendous opportunities that exist.

"Without realizing the crisis created by climate change, then you are sticking your head in the sand," said Rick Hauffe, who has been a state Democratic Party official. "It makes no sense talking to people about wind farms and a national grid system and everything else if they are going to play this fictional game that climate change doesn't exist.

"It's here. The science on it is overwhelming."