SAVING OUR PLANET FROM RUNAWAY WARMING – Bill Karsell – October 11, 2019

 

To contact Bill Karsell: 720-271-2373 or skitrees@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

The September 23^rd Global Climate Action Summit is now behind us and leaders are seeking to adopt further mitigation strategies. Climate accords are focused on reducing emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂), a principal greenhouse gas that traps heat in the atmosphere. The latest climate prediction models underlying the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reveal that if we could completely stop CO₂ and other greenhouse gas emissions today, the atmosphere would still continue warming. The greenhouse gases already in our atmosphere are like the flame under a pot of water on the stove. One can hold their finger in the water for some time, but it will eventually become too hot.

It’s not Solar radiation that heats up the Earth — it’s Earth radiation. Sunlight absorbed by Earth’s surface is re-emitted as a longer wavelength in the form of HEAT. CO₂ and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere trap the heat so it can’t escape. If we could reflect sunlight back to space without even allowing it to hit Earth’s surface, we could lower temperatures. There’s a great way to do this. Sky Brightening is a unique process that has the potential to reduce global warming to pre-industrial levels.

We also need to switch to a different energy production technology to reduce CO₂ emissions.  Many so-called renewables like wind and solar energy are not “dispatchable,” meaning that they cannot match their output to daily changes in demand. Because the vast majority of energy must be used at the moment it is produced, renewables cannot replace coal-, natural gas- and uranium-fired power plants. But there is an alternative being overlooked by many.

Thorium fission, unlike uranium, is safe and offers a 1,500-year supply.  It can detoxify about 95% of the waste we’ve already produced from uranium fission, thus reducing a 300,000-year problem by 200-fold to one of just 15,000 years. This is a bridging technology to cleaner nuclear fusion.

China, Russia and India already have thorium plants. They are reliable, safe and relatively inexpensive. The shipping industry is building plants on board. We could be doing this. Those countries are aggressively buying up thorium reserves. We need to move forward with this technology.

 BIO

Bill Karsell, Environmental Consultant

As Chief of Environmental Services with the Bureau of Reclamation, Bill managed more than 100 scientists and engineers who provide technical support to Reclamation and other clients on a fee-for-service basis, including ecological assessment and management, water treatment engineering and research, remote sensing and geographic information, and economics.

Bill now works mainly on the standardization of methods for life cycle environmental performance assessment (LCA) and reporting.  Bill chairs the U.S. Technical Advisory Group to the International Organization for Standardization subcommittee on LCA, as well as a committee developing an American national LCA standard using the ANSI process.

Bill also chairs the Board Trustees of the Climate Stabilization Council, which works toward practical, effective solutions to the climate issue.

Bill previously managed Western Area Power Administration’s environmental program, including environmental management system development, self-assessment, and quality assurance, and headed an environmental technical support center for Western’s field offices. Under Bill’s leadership, Western became a charter member of EPA’s Performance Track Program for exemplary environmental performers.

Bill’s interests include western water and power resources management, including environmental assessment techniques and systems to support water and power resource decisions.  Bill chaired an ASTM task group developing a standard for the quantification and reporting of the environmental performance of electric power generation facilities. He is past-chair of the Electric Power Research Institute’s Watershed and Ecosystem Advisory Council and the Western Electricity Coordinating Council’s Environmental Committee.

BA in Biology, Adelphi University, 1971

MS in Biology  Adelphi, University, 1975

REFERENCES

 https://youtu.be/vHr1yF1Ps1E   (30 min)

 https://youtu.be/WFba6b2ZkEA  (23 min)

 

Presentation starts at 10:15 AM & Buffet begins at 12 NOON at Nissi’s Entertainment Venue (details below)

Cost for buffet luncheon and lecture is 5 $25(same price without lunch).