The ozone treaty can do much more for the planet.

Here is an op-ed written in the Financial Times by my former Ph.D. surpervisor Mario Molina. Mario was an Institute Professor at MIT but has now moved to UCSD. Needless to say, he is right on the mark. I am meeting him this week and hope to learn more how he thinks Montreal Protocol/agreement can be used to understand how to deal with the global warming crises. I know that he was consulted in the development of the Kyoto Protocol, and it will be interesting to learn how he judges Kyoto’s success vis-a-vis the achievements under the Montreal protocol.

The ozone treaty can do much more for the planet.
By Mario Molina

765 words
24 August 2007
Financial Times
Asia Ed1
Page 11
English

(c) 2007 The Financial Times Limited. All rights reserved

The Montreal protocol, the treaty that protects the ozone layer, celebrates its 20th anniversary next month. Its achievements in reducing chlorofluorocarbons and other ozone-depleting chemicals give us much to cheer.

There may be even more to celebrate if leaders decide aggressively to pursue the significant greenhouse gas reductions possible by strengthening the treaty. Next month, the parties to the ozone treaty have the opportunity to reduce climate emissions by many times the reductions mandated under the Kyoto protocol on climate change. If would be the first time developing and developed countries explicitly agreed to mandatory measures for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

During its 20 years of operation, the Montreal protocol has become the world’s best global environmental agreement, having phased out 95 per cent of ozone-depleting substances in developed countries and 50-75 per cent in developing countries. The US estimates that by 2165 these efforts to restore the ozone layer will prevent 6.3m deaths from skin cancer and produce Dollars 4,200bn in health benefits to society in that country alone. Those health benefits extend to all countries of the world, and to the ecosystem itself.

But the work of the ozone treaty is not over. More needs to be done to complete the job of eliminating CFCs and related chemicals that are still attacking the ozone layer. Even more importantly, the ozone treaty can do a great deal to limit greenhouse gas emissions, because CFCs and the other chemicals that deplete the ozone layer are also powerful greenhouse gases.

Wall Street Journal: Conventional Engines Over Alternative Fuels

The Wall Street Journal just published an excellent article highlighting the tussle  in the automotive circles about what technologies need to be worked on to provide a clean transportation alternative for the next 20 years.

German Regulator Roils Auto-Emissions Debate

Friedrich Touts Low Tech Over Alternative Fuels; A ‘Tiff’ Over VW’s Golf

By STEPHEN POWER and MARCUS WALKER
August 23, 2007; Page A1

Last year, Axel Friedrich, one of Europe’s top environmental regulators, hired a group of university engineers to hunt for ways to cut carbon-dioxide emissions from Volkswagen AG’s best-selling model, the Golf, without undermining safety or performance.

At a hearing of European Union regulators last month, Mr. Friedrich, head of the transport department at Germany’s Federal Environmental Agency, reported that the team had cut emissions by 25% while keeping the Golf’s horsepower intact. Their trick was to reduce the car’s weight by substituting a variety of commonly available parts, including some from Volkswagen’s own parts bin. “We all know what to do,” he says. “It’s nothing magic.”

But Volkswagen, Europe’s biggest car maker, was far from pleased. The company’s top representative to the EU interrupted the hearing to complain that Mr. Friedrich hadn’t adequately consulted the company, which had cooperated with the researcher “There is a big difference between ‘laboratory cars’ and ‘mass-produced cars,’ ” Volkswagen said in a written statement. The company complains that some of the changes championed by Mr. Friedrich, such as installing lightweight front seats similar to those used in race cars, would make it harder to get into the car — and thus less appealing to consumers. Other alterations could make the car too expensive for some buyers, VW groused.

Mr. Friedrich, a longtime gadfly of the auto industry, has staked out a controversial position on a question that has risen in importance for nations around the world: What’s the best way to boost vehicle fuel efficiency? To the consternation of auto makers and some environmentalists, Mr. Friedrich argues that industry and government leaders are plowing too much time and money into potentially blockbuster alternative technologies such as hydrogen fuel cells. What they should be doing, he argues, is working harder to make vehicles with internal-combustion engines more efficient. [emphasis added editorially]

“We need solutions for the next 20 years, not just dreams,” Mr. Friedrich says.

Matter Blog: Diesel Filters Cut Soot and Aid Fuel Economy

Here is a plug for an interesting blog for those interested in sustainable technologies for the future. Below is also short blurb that appeared on the blog about GEO2. But more importantly, the post highlights the potential of clean diesel as a favorable alternative to more complex and less reliable technologies for human mobility.

John Gartner is the co-founder and editor of Matter, a blog and Web site that examines the strategies, technologies and products that are powering the shift to a sustainable economy (http://www.matternetwork.com/). He has been covering computer, internet and sustainable technologies for 20 years and currently writes for both Wired News and Autopia. John started Autopia two years ago and decided to launch Matter so he could focus on sustainable technologies both within and beyond the auto market. Prior to founding Matter, John was a full-time editor at Wired News, launched several Web sites for the TechWeb network, worked as an editor at TechTV and was the director of the product test lab at Windows magazine. Also, John’s writing has appeared in Popular Mechanics, Inc.com, MIT’s Technology Review, the Environment News Service, Alternet, and Revenue magazine. He has appeared as an analyst on CNN, NBC, and EcoTalk radio as well as numerous other media outlets.

Diesel Filters Cut Soot and Aid Fuel Economy

August 22, 2007

New particulate filters made from ceramic and developed by Geo2 Technologies could increase fuel efficiency while reducing the amount of soot emitted by diesel engines. Geo2 Technologies’ VP of product development Bilal Zuberi told me the technology his company is developing could filter out multiple pollutants simultaneously in a much smaller package. Zuberi says the technology can filter out both nitrogen oxide and other emissions, saving valuable space and weight in a vehicle, enhancing fuel efficiency. Geo2’s goal is reduce the size of today’s particulate filters by 1/2 to 2/3.

Particulate filters can reduce the fuel efficiency of vehicles because of building up “backpressure” when the flow of gases becomes to slow, according to Zuberi. Geo2’s filters are more porous, and will only increase backpressure by 4 percent. The filters will also remove up to 95 percent of the soot, he said.

World Clock: Statistics

I just got this link from a friend, and the information contained within it is rather overwhelming. It is a real-time counter that is predicting various phenomenon based on statistical models developed in respective fields. For example, it tells you the instantaneous world population, growth of communicable and non-communicable diseases, the mean temperature of the earth’s troposphere, the number of gallons of oil consumed, and the number of cars produced etc… I could not verify how accurate their models are, but just knowing how these numbers are adding up is enough to make one pause and think twice about what humanity is sort of experiencing in this world, exactly at the same instant as I sit down in front of my computer with a cup of coffee to catch up on the news.

Check it out: http://www.poodwaddle.com/worldclock.swf

Below is a screen shot of it from 6 minutes ago (click to enlarge). That’s how long it took me to crop and save the image, write up this short post, send a quick email to my brother, and press Publish….

Study: Global Biofuel Use Could Emit 9x More CO2 than Conventional Gasoline and Diesel

This is a fascinating report that just published in the reputed journal Science. I read this at the Green Car Congress. I am, frankly, quite surprised by this very high value to total lifetime CO2 burden from biofuels. I am aware of studies arguing that the direct production of ethanol from crops such as corn has a potentially net negative energy balance, but this large negative impact of global biofuels production is really a big worry. I look forward to follow up studies.

Researchers at the University of Leeds (UK) and the World Land Trust have concluded that up to nine times as much carbon dioxide could be emitted using biofuels compared to conventional gasoline and diesel because biofuel crops are typically grown on land which is burnt and reclaimed from tropical forests.

In a report in the journal Science, the authors conclude that protecting and restoring natural forests and grasslands is a much better way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

This study shows that if your primary concern is reducing carbon dioxide emissions, growing biofuels is not the best way to do it. In fact it can have a perverse impact elsewhere in the world. The amount of carbon that is released when you clear forests to make way for the biofuel crop is much more than the amount you get back from growing biofuels over a 30-year period. You can’t convert your car to run on biofuel and keep on driving and think that everything will be OK. You are turning a blind eye to what’s happening around the world and that in fact, you could be making things much worse.

—co-author Dominick Spracklen of the School of Earth and the Environment at the University of Leeds

The study compared the amount of carbon dioxide emissions that would be saved from entering the atmosphere by growing biofuels with the amount saved from slowing deforestation and restoring forests over a 30-year period.

Improving Fuel Economy: “need to save ourselves from ourselves”

An E-mail response to my op-ed in The Boston Globe provided a link to this article in The New Yorker. It is absolutely fascinating. I prefer you read this even before you read my article. As the piece aptly summarizes: “Sometimes, they know, we need to save ourselves from ourselves”.

My proposed solution to this problem: Increase fuel prices to accurately reflect the true societal cost of burning hydrocarbon fuel, and the market forces will put the pressure on consumers to make more rational choices. That in turn will convince the automakers to change their product mix.

Fuel for Thought

by James Surowiecki
July 23, 2007

In the auto industry, there’s one thing you can always count on: if a new environmental or safety rule is proposed, executives will prophesy disaster. In the nineteen-twenties, Alfred Sloan, the president of General Motors, insisted that the company could not make windshields with safety glass because doing so would harm the bottom line. In the fifties, auto executives told Congress that making seat belts compulsory would slash industry profits. When air bags came along, Lee Iacocca told Richard Nixon that “safety has really killed all our business.” A few years later, when Congress was thinking about requiring fuel-economy standards, auto executives warned that instituting such standards would create “massive financial and unemployment problems.” And now, with Congress debating a bill to raise fuel-economy standards, for the first time in almost twenty years, the Chicken Littles are squawking again, forecasting doom for Detroit and asserting that making higher-mileage vehicles is technologically unfeasible and economically suicidal.

 

Of course, much of this is simply stonewalling by executives determined to keep meddlesome politicians out of their business. But sometimes the industry’s fears have been founded on real market research. In the case of safety glass, G.M. believed that consumers weren’t prepared to pay more for cars with safety glass, so Sloan worried that it would be hard to recoup the cost of installing it. Similarly, when, in the mid-nineteen-seventies, G.M. offered front-seat air bags as an option on Cadillacs, Buicks, and Oldsmobiles, they didn’t sell. Fuel-economy standards present the same difficulty: although there are plenty of affordable models that get good gas mileage, over the past two decades some of the most powerful and least fuel-efficient vehicles on the market—S.U.V.s and pickup trucks—have also been among the best-selling. Thirty years ago, so-called “light trucks” accounted for about a fifth of all auto sales. Today, even with a recent slowdown, they account for more than half.

Nanocomposite Paper Energy Storage Devices That Can Function as Batteries or Supercapacitors

Very interesting! Ultra capacitors and Li-ion batteries are both used in Prius type hybrid vehicles. The ultracapacitors provide the burst of energy required for rapid acceleration and startup, while the batteries provide the energy density required for sustained driving. Ofcourse, a goal for ultra capacitors has been to increase the energy density so they could replace the Li-ion type batteries completely. The additional benefit would also include very rapid charging of such ultracapacitor based energy storage systems. (Source: Green Car Congress)

Researchers Develop Nanocomposite Paper Energy Storage Devices That Can Function as Batteries or Supercapacitors

Researchers Develop Nanocomposite Paper Energy Storage Devices That Can Function as Batteries or SupercapacitorsResearchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) have developed a new nanocomposite paper energy storage technology which integrates the three basic components of an electrochemical storage device—electrode, separator and electrolyte—into single contiguous nanocomposite units that can serve as building blocks for a variety of thin, mechanically flexible energy storage devices.

These units can build various flexible battery, supercapacitor, hybrid, and dual-storage battery-in-supercapacitor devices. The nanoengineered battery is lightweight, ultra-thin and completely flexible, and can function in temperatures up to 300 degrees Fahrenheit and down to 100 below zero.

Details of the project are outlined in the paper “Flexible Energy Storage Devices Based on Nanocomposite Paper” to be published in the 21 August issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

To build the devices, the researchers combined two essential materials—cellulose and carbon nanotubes (CNTs)—that fit the characteristics of spacer and electrode and provide inherent flexibility as well as porosity to the system.

More than 90% of the device is made up of cellulose. Rensselaer researchers infused this paper with aligned carbon nanotubes, which give the device its black color. The nanotubes act as electrodes and allow the storage devices to conduct electricity. The device, engineered to function as both a lithium-ion battery and a supercapacitor, can provide the long, steady power output comparable to a conventional battery, as well as a supercapacitor’s quick burst of high energy.

Pakistan Turns 60: Pakistan Zindabad

It is the 14th of August, the Independence Day for Pakistan. Last year I wrote a post that when I read now sounds more like ramblings than anything else. But probably all I write here appears so after some time has passed.

This year has been particularly difficult for Pakistanis, but I still wish to celebrate Pakistan and my Pakistaniat. Adil one upped me by remembering this verse today that very aptly relays what I am thinking:

mauj baRhay kay aanDhi aa-aye, diya jala-aye rakhna hai
ghar ki khatir sau dukh jhailaiN, ghar tou aakir appna hai

I am copying below here a small para that I wrote for a post on Pakistaniat.com. I urge you to read that original post at ATP to see what some good friends and I are thinking this day. In the meantime, Bilal Zuberi kee taraf sey tamam Pakistani bhaiyyon aur behnoun ko Jashn-e-Azaadi Mubarak Ho!

Bilal Zuberi: For me – the one thing that I will always remember on 14th of August is how each year my entire family worked together to raise a large flag on our house in the evening of the 13th.

One 13th of August, many many years ago, our dad brought all of us kids together and told us a story. He told us how he was a young boy at the time of independence and how his mother stitched a Pakistani flag for him so he could go out and demonstrate with the Muslim League. He had proudly raised it at the demonstration despite being in a city that had seen its fair share of Hindu-Muslim riots. Then he continued on to teach us what the different colors and the chaand sitaara on the Pakistani flag represented. Finally my mom followed the tradition and stitched a large flag from green and white cloth for us kids to put up on our house. It was the largest flag at that time in our mohalla! and we proudly raised it on our house every year until I left for the US .

Even now we talk about it and what it meant for the entire family to raise the flag together. When I saw this picture, I felt it could almost be myself and my brother on our roof, trying to tie the flag to our TV antenna. Given what is going on in Pakistan, I almost feel I need to be back there again, to raise a giant green and white flag to show that nothing can bind us together more than our common nationality.

Boston Globe: A drive toward fuel economy

I just wrote an op-ed in The Boston Globe (Aug 13, 2007). You can read it below:

A drive toward fuel economy

By Bilal Zuberi | August 13, 2007

IN THE LAST two decades, the automotive industry has been ablaze with innovation — from cars that park themselves to cars that “clean up” after themselves. Literally, the automobile has grown smarter as technology has enabled manufacturers to rethink their old ways. Unfortunately, the foresight ends there.

This past week, two bills designed to increase fuel economy standards in the United States were introduced in the House of Representatives and promptly shot down. With them, the hope that industry standards would finally catch up with innovations in the field diminished as well. Indeed, Congress has dragged its feet for far too long in forcing automakers to improve fuel economy.

Unfortunately, this latest retreat in Congress is not the first time proposed changes — changes so minor they were not nearly enough to begin with — have hinted at improvement, only to fade rapidly. In his State of the Union speech in January, President Bush suggested a 4 percent annual increase in the fuel efficiency of cars and light trucks by 2017. His words did little to catalyze any concrete change. Later, a proposal to increase fuel economy standards by 4 percent annually from 2020 to 2031 died an early death in the House. In short, the United States is no better off today than it was 20 years ago as far as fuel efficiency is concerned.

Compare the United States to similar economies: European fleets already average 43 miles per gallon and Japanese fleets are reaching 50 miles per gallon. While there are only two car models in the United States that achieve greater than 40 miles per gallon (both hybrid vehicles), there are more than 113 such vehicles in Europe.

The most astounding fact is that many of the European high fuel-economy vehicles are produced by US car makers. How can the government let manufacturers continue to convince the nation that a fuel economy of over 35 miles per gallon is difficult to achieve? Any rational person should not be willing to accept these manufacturers’ excuses.

If existing technology for vehicles with higher fuel economy has succeeded in Europe and parts of Asia in terms of both safety and commercial profit, why not implement policies to make similar vehicles more accessible in the United States? The success of Toyota Prius and other gasoline hybrids across the United States shows that there is verifiable national demand for more fuel-efficient cars.

Equally important is the fact that hybrid technology is not the only way to reach higher fuel economy; nearly 50 percent of the cars sold in Europe are clean diesel. Clean diesel autos not only provide a much higher fuel economy than gasoline models, but also run faster and more efficiently and last longer. Members of Congress should try renting one the next time they travel abroad.

A closer look at the diesel industry shows that innovations such as the nationwide availability of low-sulfur diesel and the commercial success of diesel particulate filters (the filters remove more than 99 percent of pollutants from diesel exhaust) have made clean diesels cleaner than other vehicles on the road. They also provide a hefty bonus of nearly 20-30 percent better fuel efficiency than gasoline engines and low CO{-2} emissions.

Clearly, the barrier to improving US fuel economy is not technological; the real obstacle is lack of political will. Automakers are demonstrating a remarkable ability to resist any changes in mileage standards, and instead they are producing larger and heavier cars with unnecessary amenities, such as chilled glove boxes. A better way to improve fuel economy would be for the government to let market forces do the work, which is what Europe has done so successfully over the past few decades.

Like Europe, the United States should price fuel at its actual cost. It is estimated that the US government subsidizes fuel at a cost of roughly $3-$10 per gallon, if one considers all the tax breaks accorded to the oil companies as well as the costs associated with regulatory oversight, pollution cleanup, and liability. The real price of gasoline in the United States, without the subsidies, would not differ much from the $6 per gallon that it is in Europe. What would you drive if you had to pay more than $100 the next time you filled up your tank? I know I would look for better performance with higher fuel economy.

Bilal Zuberi is vice president at GEO2 Technologies Inc. of Woburn, whose products include diesel emission control devices.

© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/08/13/a_drive_toward_fuel_economy/

Ojos Asi

It’s been a while since I wrote something on a lighter note on this blog…but believe me, I do have a lighter side as well.

Here is a favorite song from this lovely Lebanese/Colombian star. Yes, Shakira (this time she is a brunette!) - now I only wish Boston clubs played such music more often.

Born in Barranquilla, Colombia on 1977, for a Lebanese father and a Colombian mother, Shakira Isabel Mebarak is the youngest of her parents’ eight children. Shakira’s female rocker style garnered her the World Music Award for Latin Female Artist of the Year, while the phenomenal success of Laundry Service and ‘Whenever, Whenever’ has hurled her to fame.

Watch and Enjoy…