This is Secretary of State John Kerry’s Op-Ed piece about the new carbon emissions agreement between the US and China.
John Kerry: Our Historic Agreement With China on Climate Change – NYTimes.com
The White House Release summarizes the carbon emissions reduction agreement between the US and China, as reported in the media. But the Release has several hidden gems, describing other elements of the agreement with China. Some of these other elements are clearly designed to benefit the coal industry by enhancing research in carbon sequestration and implementing the results of that research. This component should, in a normal political atmosphere, please Republicans and any Democrats from the “coal states.”
Here are a few examples of these other parts of the agreement:
The United States and China agreed to:
- Expand Joint Clean Energy Research and Development: A renewed and expanded commitment to the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center (CERC). This will include:
- Extending the CERC mandate for an additional five years from 2016-2020;
- Renewing funding for the three existing tracks: building efficiency, clean vehicles, and advanced coal technologies with carbon capture, use and sequestration (CCUS); and
- Launching a new track on the interaction of energy and water (the energy/water ‘nexus’).
- Advance Major Carbon Capture, Use and Storage Demonstrations: Expanding our work under the Climate Change Working Group (CCWG) and under the CERC, and partnering with the private sector, the United States and China will undertake a major carbon capture and storage project in China that supports a long term, detailed assessment of full-scale sequestration in a suitable, secure underground geologic reservoir. The United States and China will make equal funding commitments to the project and will seek additional funding commitments from other countries and the private sector. In addition, both sides will work to manage climate change by demonstrating a new frontier for CO2 use through a carbon capture, use, and sequestration (CCUS) project that will capture and store CO2 while producing fresh water, thus demonstrating power generation as a net producer of water instead of a water consumer. This CCUS project with Enhanced Water Recovery will eventually inject about 1 million tons of CO2 and create approximately 1.4 million cubic meters of freshwater per year.
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kateoplis: Van Gogh’s Starry Night bike path in Netherlands goes live tonight.
This gallery contains 6 photos.
Look at the sky. It’s not dark and black and without character. The black is, in fact deep blue. And over there: lighter blue and blowing through the blues and blackness the winds swirling through the air and then shining, … Continue reading
Yes, I read comics.
Over the last year, I read The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, V for Vendetta, Hawkeye, Watchmen, Lone Wolf and Cub, The Swamp Thing, Promethea and Saga.
At the moment, I seem to be devouring anything and everything by Alan Moore. The range of Moore i.e. his ability to delve into any genre from Victorian adventure thrillers, anarchy, superhero realism to gothic horror is astounding. His wit, his parables, wordplay, insight into society, nature, technology and his depth is unmatched.
My favorite at the moment is ‘The Swamp Thing’. To be honest, I didn’t like it at first. But the more I read, the more I was drawn. The Swamp Thing is the story of a scientist who was trying to build a restorative formula and working in a swamp. But tragedy strikes when he ends up losing his life in an accident orchestrated by his enemies. Sounds like the typical premise for our superhero? That’s what you’d think. But The Swamp Thing is not built on the story of a superhero or even a beast. Alan took the reins of the comic and made ‘The Swamp Thing’ so much more than mere horror. In his tenure as the writer of this series, he delves into the subconscious and evokes the fears that really lurk deep down. There is a chapter that is reminiscent of Dante’s path in Inferno, where he is shown the different circles of hell by Virgil. There is another chapter that has an uncanny resonance to the Biblical story of Cain and Abel. And just when you think, nothing is going to surprise you anymore, there is the ‘Rite of Spring’ entirely devoted to vegetable sex (thought one of the most illustrative and sensually captured scenes in comics.)
I also have Gaiman’s Sandman, but for some reason, I’m having trouble getting into it.
But Moore, to me, is a master of the genre. And I’ve read that he is working on a decade long novel called Jerusalem, built on the concepts of eternalism.
Ah, yes… so I love comics that can seep into my imagination and show me philosophical insights into the world that we live in.
Of course, then there are works like Hawkeye… which are a guilty pleasure, which I peruse purely for love of character, wit and relationships. Though with Hawkeye, I really like Katie and Barton’s mentor-student dynamics. 🙂
Cheers.
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