Green Blog
A better web. Better for the environment.
Building a future that's clean and green
9/22/08
The Internet has had an enormous impact on people's lives around the world in the ten years since Google's founding. It has changed politics, entertainment, culture, business, health care, the environment and just about every other topic you can think of. Which got us to thinking, what's going to happen in the next ten years? How will this phenomenal technology evolve, how will we adapt, and (more importantly) how will it adapt to us? We asked ten of our top experts this very question, and during September (our 10th anniversary month) we are presenting
their responses
. As computer scientist Alan Kay has famously observed, the best way to predict the future is to invent it, so we will be doing our best to make good on our experts' words every day. - Karen Wickre and Alan Eagle, series editors
At Grist.org they have a saying about climate change: "A frog in water doesn't feel it boil in time. Dude, we are that frog."
It isn't very Googley to stand on the sidelines – whether the challenge involves search, apps, or clean energy. So we're working to be part of the solution. Specifically, we have embraced the challenge of developing a gigawatt of renewable electricity that is cheaper than electricity from coal – in years, not decades.(We call it RE<C. Not only is it a cool, nerdy name for the project, it breaks HTML pages everywhere.)
In ten years, we envision a cleaner, greener world -- running on wind, solar, and steam - with clean cars plugged into a clean grid. But for that vision to become real, the technologies to power it will have to be economically competitive -- otherwise they won't scale. So we are focusing much of our effort on technology innovation to drive down the costs of key renewable technologies. We are fundamentally optimists -- we believe that when innovative people focus on the right problems, they can find solutions. And when renewable energy is cheaper than fossil-based alternatives, and when plug-in hybrids are as cheap as traditional cars, they will take off in the marketplace.
Our company founders, Larry and Sergey, are engineers and when they encouraged our team to tackle this issue we knew they would prefer a technological approach. This summer, we welcomed at our Mountain View headquarters the first Google engineers dedicated exclusively to exploring the development of utility-scale clean energy at a price cheaper than coal.
But we need a thousand groups of engineers focused on developing renewable energy - not just the team we're building at Google. That means we need government to set the right incentives and regulatory environment to foster clean energy innovation and R&D. Our team is also working to advance a policy agenda that stimulates clean energy projects.
We're getting the word out about tax credits, government research funding, renewable portfolio standards, and the limitations of our current transmission grid. Our philanthropic arm is doing its part too. The climate team at Google.org is working to complement the work of our engineering team with grants and investments in clean energy projects. To date, we've invested over $45 million in breakthrough technologies like solar thermal, advanced wind, and enhanced geothermal systems.
It will take the concerted efforts of many -- but dude, we don't need to be that frog.
Posted by Bill Weihl, Green Energy Czar
Variability or Change?
9/19/08
For years, first scientists, then the media and politicians debated whether the observed global warming trend is due to natural variability or human-induced changes in the climate system. Fortunately, this debate has now been mostly put to rest with the release of the
fourth assessment
of
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) last year, which stated: “Warming of the climate system is unequivocal….(and) most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations”
However, the variability vs. change discussion is now taking on a new life. This time the debate is not focused on attributing a cause to global warming but rather what to do about adapting to it impacts. Is improving management to current climate variability – an adaptation strategy? Or is climate adaptation more about developing strategies to manage the severe climate change impacts projected for 20-50 years in the future?
Questions such as these arose in a recent
workshop
that Google.org sponsored in Kenya on climate and health. "Are we talking about climate variability or climate change?" participants would ask during working groups focused on identifying strategies for reducing vulnerability to the emergence and spread of climate-sensitive diseases.
The crux of the variability vs. change discussion began when Phil Thornton from ILRI presented an overview of the state of the science on climate projections which highlighted the huge uncertainty in projections from the Global Climate Models (GCMs) out toward the middle and end of century. Then Caroline Kisia, executive director of
Action Africa Help International
(AAHI) and a medical doctor who works with communities in Kenya, spoke up and explained that the climate science stuff is interesting…but it is not clear what communities are supposed to do with this information – there is too much uncertainty to define any real actions here.
A few case studies were then presented showing how weather and seasonal climate projections have the potential for improving management for climate-sensitive diseases such as rift valley fever, malaria, meningitis and dengue. These seemed to be helpful, but how are they related to climate adaptation?
These are all good points and good questions. It seems that Caroline was asking the climate scientists and health experts in the room to put aside their fancy models and labels and just focus on the community needs.
Communities today across the globe, and especially in Africa, have many needs related to managing the risks of climate and weather– including floods, droughts, and climate-sensitive diseases. The workshop discussions highlighted the opportunities and challenges of connecting the climate and health sectors to build tools for managing these risks.
Ultimately, for the poorest regions of the world facing the increasing threats from climate change, adaption is in large part simply about a heightened need for communities and nations to do what they need to do anyway in pursuit of sustainable development – such as improve health services, develop drought-resistant crop options and diversify income sources.
Does this all then just come down to semantics? At the community level it may be best not to worry about labels such as variability, change or adaptation. However, the implications of these semantics may be far reaching as policymakers to develop much needed
climate adaptation assistance programs
and face important questions such as who should pay for climate adaptation in the poorest nations where communities are most vulnerable to but least responsible for the changes underway? And what should be paid for, that is, what constitutes climate adaptation?
These are tough questions. I am optimistic that if we don't get stuck on the semantics but keep our eyes on our goals we will find solutions to enable the most vulnerable populations to take the concrete actions needed to improve their health and livelihoods.
Rosemary Sang led a session on Rift Valley Fever (RVF) and the lessons learned from the
major RVF outbreak
in 2006-07 where 155 people died.
Posted by Amy Luers, Environment Program Manager, Predict and Prevent
Debating - and agreeing - on energy policy
9/19/08
Disagreements may make headlines in the energy policy debate, but you know we're getting somewhere when an oil company executive, a foreign policy expert, and Dan Reicher, Google.org's Director of Climate Change and Energy Initiatives, agree on the most effective way of lowering today's high energy costs: improving energy efficiency.
This past Friday, Dan Reicher participated with these and other experts in an
energy summit
convened by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee ahead of possible votes on legislative proposals pending in Congress. Energy has taken center stage in D.C. during this short session before the October recess, and more than two dozen senators participated in the summit's morning session alone.
Dan and other member of the panel stressed the importance of improving energy efficiency as the low-hanging fruit in the energy policy debate. He pointed to the role of IT in making homes, businesses, and appliances more efficient, and he called on Senators to consider setting more aggressive national efficiency standards like those in place today in California.
Dan also emphasized the need to extend renewable energy tax credits. During this discussion, senators expressed particular interest in the promise of
enhanced geothermal systems
(EGS) technology which Google has championed in recent months. Many participants also emphasized the need to make tax incentives more consistent and reliable to avoid sending "stop-and-go" signals to businesses and investors.
Check out the
video archive
of this summit to learn more.
Posted by
Harry Wingo, Policy Counsel, Google
Partnering with GE on clean energy
9/18/08
Yesterday, we
announced
that we're
joining forces
(PDF file) with
GE
to use technology, information and corporate resources to drive the changes necessary to empower consumers with better energy choices. Eric Schmidt and GE CEO Jeff Immelt discuss solutions to our energy challenge in this video:
Posted by Katy Bacon, Google.org Team
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