CO2 Forum focuses on solutions for global warming

CO2 Forum focuses on solutions for global warming

BY LYNETTE McGLAMERY
Special to the Rice News

Rice University further strengthened its commitment to and its leadership role in addressing global warming by hosting the CO2 Forum and Sustainability Fair Jan. 31 as part of a nationwide educational initiative, in which 1,700 universities held similar events on the same day.

Optimism that CO2 emissions could be reduced with education, technology and behavioral changes permeated throughout the presentations of the forum’s five distinguished speakers.

JEFF FITLOW

President David Leebron (center) speaks with Neal Lane, the Malcolm Gillis University Professor, and Houston Mayor Bill White (right) before the CO2 Forum.

”Thanks to education, more people are aware about global warming and what they can do than just 15 years ago,” said Dominique Raynaud, senior author of the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore.

He said that the 2007 IPCC report found that the warming of the Earth during the past 50 years is unequivocally due to increases of greenhouse gasses emitted by human activities. Raynaud said that 11 of the last 12 years are the 12 warmest global averages recorded since 1850. He’s confident that global warming can be slowed, but it will be challenging and it won’t take just one solution because the ”world is diverse and we have to respect the different ways of thinking.”

Speaking from an industry perspective, John Hofmeister, Shell Oil Company president, said that his company doesn’t foresee people using less oil and gas in the near term.

”Our lifestyle and economy are built on a 100-year-old infrastructure predicated on oil, gas and coal,” he said. ”We just can’t turn off the switch and fix everything with a green economy.”

John Hofmeister, Shell Oil Company president, said that his company does not foresee people using less oil and gas in the near term.
	JEFF FITLOW

Instead, Hofmeister called for a culture of conservation that goes beyond personal behavioral changes that are useful but are hard to sustain (like driving 55 mph or setting the thermostat warmer during August). He also advocated developing and implementing technologies that make energy more efficient.

For example, he said a lot of the current technologies have a high percentage of energy that is wasted as heat. Incandescent light bulbs waste 97 percent, cars waste 80 percent, and airplanes waste 92 percent of energy as heat.

Shell is developing ways to make existing and new energy sources carbon-neutral, such as carbon capture and sequestration methods that turn coal into liquid and bury it underground rather than emitting it into the atmosphere; liquefied natural gas that is clean burning; biofuels from biomass waste like corn stalks and wheat straw and not from food crops; and hydrogen that comes from water, not hydrocarbons.

	Dominique Raynaud (right), senior author of the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, addressed global warming. He is pictured with Neal Lane.
JEFF FITLOW

Houston Mayor Bill White said that environmental issues are among his highest priorities for Houston, and he is confident that implementing existing technologies now will help reduce energy consumption and emissions — without reducing a high quality of life.

Forty percent of the city’s energy supply, for example, comes from renewable energy sources such as wind — more than any other U.S. city’s.

White said that the city also is way ahead of the pack when it comes to making older residences in low-income areas more energy-efficient and building new city buildings that are certified green. So far, the city has retrofitted 1,500 homes for a 20 percent energy savings for Houston and has built 21 energy-efficient libraries, fire stations and other city buildings. The city of Houston also is buying only hybrid vehicles for its fleet

In addition, 126 Houston companies and organizations have adopted ”Flex in the City,” which offers different work schedules and flexibility for people to work out of their homes to reduce traffic congestion and hydrocarbon emissions.

JEFF FITLOW

Prior to the forum, participants attended the Sustainability Fair, where student organizations, campus departments, and outside businesses and interest groups set up educational exhibits throughout the RMC.

In his welcoming remarks, Rice President David Leebron touted the university’s leadership role on addressing global warming issues through research, education and institutional policies and actions.

”Many of our students already come to campus with a passion about being part of a solution that will lead to a greener future, and they will graduate with an even greater appreciation and passion,” he said.

This past year, Rice asked all incoming students to read Elizabeth Kolbert’s “Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature and Climate Change”; hosted a lecture on global warming as part of the President’s Lecture Series; conducted a college energy competition that saved $15,000 to $20,000 in energy costs and prevented the release of 85 tons of CO2 in the atmosphere; and declared that future buildings will all be certified green through the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program.

Rice also is currently devising a climate action plan that will make the Rice campus carbon-neutral.

All the speakers agreed that local, state and national leadership is essential for building the infrastructure to bring about change in reducing CO2 emissions.

Neal Lane, the Malcolm Gillis University Professor at Rice and senior fellow in science and technology policy at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, said that the U.S. government should and could take a more active leadership role in addressing the world problem of global warming.

	This exhibit demonstrated how using disposable plastic utensils, plates and cups create 18 percent of garbage in the U.S.
JEFF FITLOW

Lane said the U.S. should lead in this effort because we put 30 percent of the greenhouse gasses out there, and we are a world leader in innovation and technology. He said that the U.S. also is viewed as a leader when dealing with the world’s foremost global problems.

”People are expecting us to lead on the global warming front as well,” he said.

Lane said the time is right for the U.S. to step up its leadership efforts because the American public wants action in this area. He said the challenge, however, is how to implement these transformative changes economically.

Like the other speakers, Lane praised Rice students and the nation’s young people for making personal changes to reduce their individual carbon footprint and in encouraging other people, businesses and government to make changes as well.

”I’m optimistic because of the concerned and engaged young people that we have at Rice and around the country,” he said. ”They are going to help us solve this mess that we have created.”

JEFF FITLOW

Exhibits offered alternative green ideas for reusing materials.

The forum also included two panels that responded to questions from the audience of Rice students, faculty and staff and the general public. In addition to the five speakers, panelists included John Anderson, the W. Maurice Ewing Chair in Oceanography and professor of Earth Science; André Droxler, professor of Earth Science and CSES director; Richard Johnson ’92, director of sustainability and associate CSES director; undergraduate Lauren Laustsen, president of the Student Association’s environmental committee; Gene Levy, Rice Provost and the Howard R. Hughes Professor of Physics and Astronomy; and Colin Moore, head of environmental markets for Koch Supply and Trading, Inc.

Amy Myers Jaffe, the Wallace S. Wilson Fellow in Energy Studies at the Baker Institute and associate director of the Rice Energy Program, moderated the panels.

Prior to the forum, participants attended the Sustainability Fair, where student organizations, campus departments, and outside businesses and interest groups set up educational exhibits throughout the RMC.

The CO2 Forum and the Sustainability Fair were organized by Rice’s Center for the Study of Environment and Society. The event was part of the one-day nationwide event sponsored by Focus the Nation, a project of the Green House Network — a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization based in Lake Oswego, Ore.

The CO2 Forum webcast can be viewed at http://sustainability.rice.edu. For more information about the Focus the Nation project and to vote on global warming solutions that should be a priority for the nation, go to .