Earth and Energy: Arctic Update

Dear Friends,

In 2007, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reached a consensus that carbon emissions were warming our planet, posing serious risks to human prosperity. The Arctic Ocean could be ice-free as soon as the year 2100, the panel warned.

The world took note and continued building new coal plants.

Fast forward five years and two-hundred trillion pounds of carbon dioxide. 2012 was a stunning year of bizarre weather and climate extremes. In Chicago, we enjoyed a week of 80-degree temperatures in March. In the Rocky Mountains, massive wildfires swept through hot, dry, and beetle-killed forests. Across the Great Plains, crops were devastated by record heat and drought. We are now in the midst of the worst West Nile Virus outbreak in U.S. history.

Last week, Arctic sea ice fell to a new record low. Just five years ago, the IPCC told us we had a century to save our northern ice cap. Now, reasonable people are talking about a decade or two.

Our canary is in its final throes.

As you may know, open water absorbs considerably more solar energy than sea ice. Warm water in the Arctic can accelerate further melting and activate other positive feedback mechanisms. If warming continues unchecked, large amounts of carbon could be released from permafrost and methane clathrates. Global temperatures, sea levels, and extreme weather could spike dramatically. For example, the Greenland Ice Sheet contains enough water to raise global sea levels by 24 feet, and this ice experienced a record melt this summer, driven by warm conditions in the Arctic. Life could get very uncomfortable for a very large number of people.

Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exxon Mobil, has reassured us that humans will adapt to climate change. While certain adaptation will be necessary and possible, humans will always require food and water. Heat waves kill crops and strain water resources. To feed 9 billion people by 2050, we need to stabilize our climate.

I am confident that we can stop global warming. If humans can land a one-ton rover on Mars with a rocket-powered skycrane, sinking wind turbines into the sea floor or running HVDC transmission lines across the desert should be relatively easy. But to save the Arctic ice cap, we need to get renewables to scale fast. Here’s how:

1. Support basic science and materials research. Wind and solar power are improving rapidly, but direct competition with natural gas requires further improvements. Advanced materials will enable more powerful devices and bring down levelized costs for renewables.
2. Support R&D for grid energy storage. If we want to integrate large amounts of renewables into our electric grid, we need affordable large-scale energy storage technologies.
3. Support R&D for zero-carbon transportation. Consider breakthrough technologies such as electrofuels, sustainable biofuels, advanced batteries, fuel cells, and lightweight materials. Gasoline is a great fuel because of high energy density and easy refueling. We need alternative technologies to compete on both cost and convenience. Natural gas is a fossil fuel and is not a solution for our climate.
4. Support infrastructure projects. Efficient buildings, rail transport, bike paths, walkable cities, recycling projects, and local farms can conserve energy and improve quality of life.
5. End fossil fuel subsidies. Globally, fossil fuels still receive 15 times more subsidies than renewables. Return the extra revenue to taxpayers.
6. Extend tax credits for renewables. The fossil fuel industry has enjoyed permanent tax subsidies for a century, but the wind industry faces constant uncertainty and repeated expiration of the production tax credit.
7. Don’t count on nuclear. It’s expensive, slow to deploy, and proliferation risk means its not a global solution.
8. Leave the coal in the hole. Leave the oil in the soil. And please leave the gas, as best as possible, where the sun doesn’t shine.

Since 1987, the year I was born, the Arctic Ocean has lost two-thirds of its summer sea ice volume. For most people, myself included, climate change is both intellectually and emotionally challenging. It is fascinating and terrifying, but most importantly, it can be inspiring. At Northwestern, we have all the talent and resources to shape our planet’s future. I hope this year’s Arctic milestone will serve as a call to action, to unite and inspire our generation, and to spark a new tradition of sustainable innovation so that we can protect for our children a world full of opportunity and beauty.

I hope everyone is having an excellent summer. I look forward to seeing many of you back on campus in the Fall for another exciting year of technical innovation, entrepreneurship, and coalition building.

Best regards,

David Snydacker
Co-Director, Northwestern Energy & Sustainability Consortium (NESC)
President, Northwestern Energy Technology Group (NETG)
2011-2012 Hierarchical Materials Fellow, 2012-2013 ISEN Fellow
Woverton Research Group, Materials Science & Engineering

facebook.com/NorthwesternETG