Pat Murphy
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An Analysis of Automobile CO2 Reduction Programs to Mitigate Climate Change
Electric cars are now a world priority and there is not an alternative at this point in time. Ride sharing is in disarray with Uber scandals but could make a comeback. Solutions proposed today require advanced technology things like autonomous cars. Transit ridership is declining. Prius sales are way down, even though it is the best and cheapest option. The key point is that each electric car today generates one half the CO2 of a …
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Compassion and Curtailment
My wife, Faith Morgan, and I have been meeting with Rob Content, a long time climate change collaborator and his partner Diane Dillar, on the topic of Near Term Extinction or NTE. NTE refers to a theory promoted by scientist Guy McPherson suggesting that the results of climate change will be species extinction, including mankind. McPhereson argues that no mediation programs, either in place or planned for, can alter this direction. Our interest has been …
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What Happened to Low Energy Cars?
In December 2010, the first few GM Volts and Nissan Leafs were delivered in the U.S. Sales grew rapidly from 17,813 units in 2011, the first full year of sales, to 118,682 units in 2014, the maximum sales year for plug-ins. For hybrids the maximum sales year was 2013, with 495,685 units shipped that year. Hybrid sales declined in 2014 and declined again in 2015 to 384,404 units sold. What happened? Did plug-ins take the …
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Curtailment in the Context of Climate Change
This presentation is about curtailment of fossil fuel use as a means to address climate change. It is not about efficiency, conservation, resilience, green, renewables or other frequently used terms. All of these are important but curtailment – that is, cutting back energy consumption to reduce C02 is vital.
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16-Years of U.S. Green and Energy-Efficient Home Building
The purpose of this paper is to estimate the energy and CO2 savings from U.S. energy-efficient and green building programs for residences over the last 16 years (2000-2015). The energy savings and CO2 reductions of rating systems such as Energy Star (EPA), LEED for Homes (USGBS), National Green Building Standard (NGBS), and Building America (BA) are calculated and compared to the total number of conventional homes built. Using this data, the weighted averages of each …
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Revisiting the Green Tragedy
In 2009 I self-published The Green Tragedy – LEED’s lost decade, a small 75-page book. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environment; it is the best known “green” building rating system in the country. LEED was developed by the US Green Building Council (USGBC), which provides updates and maintenance of the standard. My intention in writing the book was to point out that so-called “green building,” as understood at that time, did not sufficiently …
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U.S. Plug-In Sales Falter
The nation’s current plug-in car program has been underway for more than a decade. Certain events date its beginning, such as the formation of Tesla Motor Company in 2003 and the delivery of the Tesla Roadster in 2008; or the introduction of GM’s Volt Concept car in early 2007. The first production Chevrolet Volt was shipped in December 2010, the same month that the first Nissan Leaf was shipped. Today there are approximately 27 plug-in …
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Recycling and Climate Change – Real or Rationalization?
Recently several different groups in my community of Yellow Springs, Ohio began taking actions concerning climate change. This started around the time of the Pope’s visit to the U.S. in September 2015. An interfaith group was formed of citizens interested in getting the different religions in town to become more aware and more involved in climate change action. As a result of this, a Buddhist group held meetings (which I attended) to discuss a book …
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Food, Feed, Fuel, and CO2
Wendell Berry said there are really only two systems in the word, the agrarian and the industrial. About 250 years ago, industrialism was born with the invention of a particular machine – the steam engine – and a particular philosophy – capitalism. And from that time on, the relationship between the old world and the new one has been one of conquest of the agrarian world by the industrial world. But because of peak oil …
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