After I last blogged in, I headed over to the Environmental Center of the Rockies – a building across from the UC Boulder Law School housing several environmental organizations.  I had an interesting conversation with a clean energy activist organization about reforming the West’s reliance on coal-fired power plants.  The West in general, and Colorado in particular, rely heavily on Rural Electric Cooperatives, which provide power to the region’s mostly rural areas.  These REC’s are at least theoretically democratic in structure, but function less so in practice, often modifying bylaws to disenfranchise constituent voters and make decision-making processes less transparent.  Colorado’s RECs traditionally opt for relatively cheaper coal-fired power plants due in large part to the abundance of inexpensive coal harvested in large strip mines in Wyoming’s Northeastern section.  Despite allegations of and actual technological advances, these coal-fired plants produce voluminous levels of Carbon Dioxide.  Only a few progressive REC’s, in areas like Delta and Durango, realize the potential environmental and economic (albeit long run) benefits of renewable energy, and thus have either proposed or currently feed their constituent grid with power from sustainable and clean sources.  Wind Turbine and commercial Solar are popular and feasible technologies in Colorado due to an abundance of both wind and sunlight.  Several renewable energy projects are in their siting stage in the state.  Details on this subject were relatively sparse, and require additional research.

Evidently, Colorado’s legislature, governor and its states many mayors and town/city councils are beginning to come on board.  Several cities and towns are adopting subsidies and credit programs for residential use of PV Solar technology.

I came away from this meeting with useful knowledge about the energy infrastructure of the America West – which for a variety of reasons excludes Washington, Oregon and California.  Interestingly, coal power opponents in the West cite to and Northeast’s “Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative” (RGGI) as an exemplar of effective regulation.  Many Northeast states have successfully blocked coal-fired plant projects on the basis of greenhouse gas emissions.  Clean energy activists in the West are seeking to connect with groups in the Northeast to develop a collaborative strategy to oppose coal projects that continue to dominate the energy landscape in the West.

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Tuesday was an exciting day.  I hurriedly rode over to Table Mesa Drive to catch the noon-time tour of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).  This facility is a world-renowned independently operated atmospheric research center, which is supported by a consortium of university scientists.  The Building is the premier creation of I.M. Pei, who went on to have a lucrative and prolific architectural career.

The tour was absolutely fascinating.  The center operates independent of government bureaucracy and therefore presents the science of climate change in a purely a-political manner.  The tour introduced the basics of atmospheric science, the physics of air pressure and the laws of thermodynamics that effect every layer of the atmosphere and hydrosphere.  Next, I learned about the interesting- and I must admit really cool- features of the upper atmosphere, such as the Northern Lights (which can be viewed about every 3 years from Boulder in the winter…not just up in the Arctic Circle), and nocturnal clouds, which shower the sky with electric blue stripes.  I learned how scientists document climate change, using tree rings and ice core samples to determine temperature, rainfall, and carbon prevalences in the atmosphere, going back nearly 12,000 years!  Interestingly, the insidiousness of carbon in the atmosphere has been theorized since as early as the 1870’s, and climate change as a result of human behavior has been documented since about 1896.

Based upon this reliable bounty of atmospheric data, NCAR’s unparalleled computational power produces the world’s most accurate (and admittedly conservative) climate change models.  These models predict a frightening change in global temperatures over the next 100 years.  Worse yet, due to the ocean’s absorption of carbon – and 50 year retention – we are committed to a certain level of climate change for at least the next 50 years.  Climate change models show an exponential effect as China and India modernize and industrialize.  Even conservative estimates are terrifying, while the more realistic predictions are enough to make one sick with disgust at our collective myopia and selfishness. Finally, we learned about the myriad  ways individuals and entities can make simple changes that will have a dramatic collective effect to reduce carbon emissions.

I implore you to check out my photos at www.flickr.com/jrwiener and read about NCAR’s world-class atmospheric science.  Better yet would be to get out to Boulder to experience the intersection of the natural environment and atmospheric science, which unwaveringly and irrefutably demonstrate climate change.

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To come…I’m in Denver today visiting with the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado.  ASC has constructed a LEED certified green building in the LODO district of Denver that houses dozens of other environmental organizations.  The building is a benchmark in sustainable green building.