Hello everyone,
An interesting announcement from Yahoo this week:
Yahoo! has announced in greater detail its plans to go carbon neutral this year.
The search engine provider initially revealed its intention to invest in greenhouse gas reduction projects around the world back in April of this year.
Now, in a Yodel Anecdotal blog, Christina Page, director of climate and energy strategy with Yahoo!, unveiled how the company is planning to achieve this.
She stated that Yahoo! intends to offset its 250,000 metric tonne carbon footprint from last year by investing in hydropower in rural Brazil and wind turbines in India.
The firm has partnered with EcoSecurities and CanterCO2, who helped them to source the projects, as well as "vet and execute them".
Ms Page identified Yahoo!'s goals in achieving carbon neutrality as supporting "high-quality carbon offset projects in areas where Yahoo! has a local presence, are verifiable".
Speaking of the reasons for Yahoo!'s decision to take on the wind turbine initiative in India, Ms Page said: "This investment was particularly important to us, as India is one of the most carbon-producing regions in the world."
As the company is growing rapidly in the country, it feels a responsibility to encourage the use of cleaner energy there, she added.
Yahoo! has already invested in a number of environmentally-friendly policies, including recycling, encouraging carpooling and providing public transport subsidies.
Source:
Yahoo! announces details of carbon neutral plan
Yes, it is good to see that as Yahoo and Google are battling it out for the top search engine position, they are also both battling it out to see whom is the greener company.
The UK Carbon Footprint Project
Google has also installed over 9,000 solar panels at their campus in Mountain View, California as well. Now if we could just get these two search engines to adopt hydrogen cars for their campuses, this would be real progress. :)
Green Tech Gazette
Solar panels and hydrogen cars are both derived from oil. As the cost of oil rises so too will the cost of hydrogen cars and solar panels. Decreased consumption of energy in general must be used along with renewable energy technologies to ensure a sustainable future. We will not be able to continue to grow the economy with renewable energy. Instead we should aim for a steady-state economy.
Are you what they call a "bright green" environmentalist? These are people who believe that new tech will allow us to maintain the size of our current economy, and continue to grow it. Most people in the tech industry tend to be "bright green" while most scientists who are not involved in the tech industry tend to be "dark green".
I’m not quite sure what this statement means? In recent years, the price of oil has gone up and the price of solar and hydrogen cars has come down, so I don’t see the connection.
As far as needing to decrease consumption of energy, I agree. But, there are many ways to do this. One way is on the personal level such as turning off lights and using less water at home. Another way is to use technology that saves energy for us such as CFL bulbs or hybrid cars.
Green Tech Gazette
It requires oil to make alternative forms of energy, since heavy machinery is usually powered with oil. To build massive wind farms, solar panels, etc requires that we use oil. If the cost of gasoline was $10/gallon the cost of building such projects would also go way up.
Also, the raw materials for building renewable inftrastructure (solar panels, wind mills, etc) are extracted and shipped using oil, as the cost of oil rises the cost of these materials also rises.
Transportation of raw materials does currently use oil. The building of solar panels and hydrogen cars, however I would think would be more coal intensive, since most of the electricity is still produced using coal. Distributing the final products, would once again use oil.
Hydrogen is already making an impact in the trucking sector, though, as a fuel additive to cut down on emissions and increase the range of vehicles by 20 - 30 percent.
Several companies in Canada are offering this technology. Also South Korea is adopting this technology as well.
Hydrogen Hybrid Technologies Announces First Korean Installations
Green Tech Gazette
I was referring to the construction equipment which would burn oil.
You may be interested in this -
Ford Chairman Says New Fuels Are Developing Too Slowly - New York Times
It is pretty telling when Ford admits that alternative fuels won't be enough to meet current demand. ''The idea of individual car ownership as we know it today will change, too.'' --Pretty huge coming from Ford.
A quick glance at the EROEI of alternatives reveals that none are as cheap and plentiful as oil. We should therefore plan for a reduction in overall energy consumption. An essential part of this would be reducing the need for motorized transportation by designing communities where everything is easily obtainable by walking or mass transit.
The construction equipment implicated in building automobiles will be used to build standard gasoline-powered vehicles, hybrids and hydrogen cars. Coal and oil power will be needed to build all three of these types of automobiles. But, I would rather this energy be used to build hybrids or hydrogen cars since these vehicles in turn burn less / no oil themselves.
Just because alternative fuels will not meet current demand does not mean that we should not go down this road. This is not an all-or-nothing proposition. Solving the future energy puzzle cannot be accomplished all at once. It has to be accomplished one piece at a time. Reduced consumption by consumer behavior is one piece. Reduced consumption from technology is another piece. Reduced emissions from biofuels is another piece. Once enough pieces are laid down, the picture becomes recognizable.
Green Tech Gazette
I agree we should develop alternatives to their maximum potential but at the rate oil is peaking the alternatives are not going to come online fast enough and are not going to provide enough energy to make a serious dent in demand until several decades from now. The biggest thing would be to reduce the need for transportation altogether through better urban design. Something like 40% of U.S. gas consumption is in automobiles.