The New York Times has consistently been one of the leading mainstream media sources for coverage of alternative energy and global warming issues. Today, they have an article on tapping deep (1-2 mile) granite bedrock for geothermal energy harvesting, a source that could provide 10% of our energy needs by 2050. This is the real deal: totally renewable, no emissions, the technology exists today and the source is available globally. It’s not rocket science, in fact it’s very much nineteenth century drilling knowledge that’s required: drill a really deep hole until you hit granite that is always 400 degrees F, pump water down there and use the superheated steam that results to generate power.
There are challenges but none of them are insurmountable or require technology not yet developed. This should be a serious initiative. If I ran an energy company I’d be getting into this now.

Local Twist
Rochester’s downtown sits on just such a granite layer. I’d imagine on of these geothermal plants could cleanly power the entire downtown area.

There is an ethanol hysteria going on that defies all logic. This stuff costs a fortune to make, uses more fossil fuels in its production than it replaces and is a terrible use for corn in a world that needs corn for food. Sugarcane would be a much better source but a system of government protections that enriches sugar producers eliminates that source. Companies like Archer Daniels Midland, the massive corporate commodity company, have spent hundreds of millions and years creating a mythology of corn as a fuel source to drive prices up.
Am I ranting or going into conspiracy mode? No. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) chose corn ethanol as one of their year’s losers in technology stories. They are the most highly respected standards group for engineers worldwide.
We have no time to pursue short term solutions that are nothing more than farm subsidies.

Ok, take a deep breath because we’re about to get a major dose of reality. This article in the magazine IEEE Spectrum proposes a new standard for measuring our energy use on a global scale, a measure that replace units like Joules, BTUs, barrels and other measures that need to multiplied by astronomical scales to reflect actual use.
The new measure is a CMO or Cubic Mile of Oil, the approximate amount used worldwide each year. To put this into perspective this graphic (reproduced here on a smaller scale) shows what we would have to build to replace this oil usage with other energy sources. Here’s one example:

We would have to build 52 nuclear power plants every year for 50 years to replace our current oil needs.

We’re are addicted to a level of energy dependence that is appalling in its scope.

WeatherBill, a site where you can buy weather hedges and gamble on weather patterns via a trading system, is another indication that climate change can be monetized in ways no one would have considered a few years ago. The increasing unpredictability of local weather conditions has created an opportunity to arbitrage different people’s bets on how the weather might affect them.

While the site is dullsville, the concept is going to be huge, assuming they cover themselves adequately. Add this to the carbon credit schemas as a new way to speculate on global warming.