Hi there,
Most of you received only the interview with Dr. Patz, and not the full show (with Thomas Lovejoy etc).
I’m not sure why Blogger is just picking up links further down in the text, instead of sending the proper “enclosure link”. This is the second such problem, and I may have to switch away from Blogger if it persists.
Meantime, here is the correct file, and my apologies.
Alex Smith
host
Radio Ecoshock
Great recording of the Lovejoy speech. I note he discussed removing carbon from the air, as he believes, along with a number of other scientists such as James Hansen, that 350 ppm CO2 what civilization should restore the atmosphere to.
One interesting voice along the lines of carbon capture is Graciela Chilchinisky. She is a Columbia University professor who is an economist, who wrote the section of the Kyoto agreement concerning cap and trade who also happens to share Lovejoy's concern that there is too much CO2 in the atmosphere already, who happens to be the co-inventor of an air capture of CO2 process which she has been touting.
I heard her speak on a London School of Economics podcast which is available http://www2.lse.ac.uk/publicEvents/events/2009/20090819t1158z001.aspx
The talk was entitled "Climate Change: Are We Heading for a New Cold War?"
One main point she made is that a way to remove carbon from the atmosphere is by using the waste heat of industrial processes (for instance – she says use any power such as solar or whatever) to power the process she coinvented which she says, can turn any coal plant for instance into a net sink of CO2 as the waste heat can power enough CO2 removal to compensate for all the emissions and then some.
She has been trying to get the international climate negotiators to include air capture of CO2 plants in as carbon offsets so that less developed countries can build them with offset money from the developed world and remove carbon from the air while increasing their energy supply.
I found her claims to be astonishing, and engaged her in correspondence. The upshot was that she held firm to the claim, and stated that a pilot plant is being constructed in California to be unveiled first quarter 2010.
More info: http://www.chichilnisky.com/pdfs/PointCarbon.pdf
David – thanks for your tip on CO2 removal tech.
The link to the London School of Economics speech by Chilchinisky no longer connects. I've written to them asking for a copy, but did you keep a copy of the podcast? Is so, could you sent it to me, radio [at] ecoshock dot org?
I love it when I get good leads from listeners. That probably provides about half my material. In some cases, I feel like I have a bunch of co-hosts, who not only listen but participate.
Alex Smith