Go Lean…Caribbean

Go Lean Commentary

“Here I am, send me*“.

This is the declaration of Advocates wanting to abate the global problem of Climate Change. They have examined the science and are confident that they can make a difference. They are thereby further declaring that:

“We can fix Climate Change. Yes, we can…”

This is conceivable, believable and achievable.

Why is this so important? Climate Change is causing more and more severe hurricanes in the Caribbean region. We have just had to “batten down the hatches” and endure the passage of Hurricane Matthew.

Endure?

Not all survived! The death toll in Haiti in the wake of this tumultuous storm has counted 473 (with 75 people missing) .. so far.

The advocacy to arrest greenhouse gases (GHG) is therefore a matter of life-and-death; it has a successful track record to consider and provide encouragement and hope:

Remember Acid Rain?

That was a big deal in the 1970’s and 1980’s. It was a big environmental problem; the stakeholders came together – many kicking and screaming – to put in the remediation and mitigation and now the problem is greatly abated. See the encyclopedia details of the problem in the Appendix A below, where it is reported that Acid Rain levels have dropped 65% since 1976.

Climate Change is another area of atmospheric pollution that can also be abated with a lot of the same strategies, tactics and implementations as was employed to abate Acid Rain. But instead of the smoke stacks of factories and power plants, the problematic culprit this time is fossil fuels.

Fossil fuels and carbon emission = Climate Change!

Unlike Acid Rain, the “bad actors” for Climate Change are not just industrial installations; this time it is “almost everybody”. Cars are one of the biggest contributors. There is no denying this cause-effect any more. The problem is now globally acknowledged! There are new international agreements – Paris Conference of the Parties (COP) or COP21 – to curb fossil fuels / carbon dioxide emissions. 195 countries have signed on to these accords, including big polluters China (#1) and the US (#2).

The overall goal of these international accords is to achieve significant environmental benefits through reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases, the primary causes of Climate Change. The remediation and mitigations employ regulatory and market based approaches for controlling GHG elements. It should be noted that the COP21 accord is a non-binding agreement, but the biggest contribution is that the community will is now entrenched.

The book Go Lean … Caribbean uses an alternate technical term for “community will”; it identifies “community ethos”, as “the fundamental character or spirit of a culture; the underlying sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices of a society” (Page 20). So, in everyday practical terms, it will now be politically incorrect to pursue policies in denial of Climate Change.

The Go Lean book presents a 370-page roadmap for re-booting, re-organizing and restructuring the economic, security and governmental institutions of the 30 member-states in the Caribbean region, especially in light of the realities of Climate Change. Though this is a global battle, the Caribbean is on the front lines. As related in a previous blog-commentary, no Caribbean member-state appears high of the list of greenhouse gases emitters and yet we must still participate in the mitigations. We must “Go Green” to arrest our own carbon footprint, so that we may be less hypocritical – have moral authority – in calling for reform from the big polluting nations.

The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The roadmap depicts how this CU federal government will take the lead in ensuring the Climate Change mitigation efforts are incentivized, executed and accounted for. There are economic (BIG dollar issues), security and governing implications to a lot of these measures. The CU/Go Lean roadmap allows for the leverage of a regional Single Market that would spread the burden across the 42 million people of the 30 member-states. Other Climate Change benefits were embedded in the motivation of the book, the opening Declaration of Interdependence stated these points (Pages 12-14):

xxvii. Whereas the region has endured a spectator status during the Industrial Revolution, we cannot stand on the sidelines of this new economy, the Information Revolution. Rather, the Federation must embrace all the tenets of Internet Communications Technology (ICT) to serve as an equalizing element in competition with the rest of the world. The Federation must bridge the digital divide and promote the community ethos that research/development is valuable and must be promoted and incentivized for adoption.

xxxiii. Whereas lessons can be learned and applied from the study of the recent history of other societies, the Federation must formalize statutes and organizational dimensions to avoid the pitfalls of communities like East Germany, Detroit, Indian (Native American) Reservations, Egypt and the previous West Indies Federation. On the other hand, the Federation must also implement the good examples learned from developments / communities like New York City, Germany, Japan, Canada, the old American West and tenants of the US Constitution.

The Go Lean book posits that the “whole is worth more than the sum of its parts”, that from this roadmap Caribbean economies will grow individually and even more collectively as a Single Market. The 3 CU prime directives of the roadmap include:

• Optimization of the economic engines of the Caribbean to elevate the regional economy to grow to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs.
• Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
• Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.

The Go Lean roadmap calls for the CU to serve as the regional administration to optimize the societal engines for the Caribbean, especially in light of our Climate Change battleground frontline status. This is the first pronouncement (Page 11) of the same opening Declaration of Interdependence:

i. Whereas the earth’s climate has undeniably changed resulting in more severe tropical weather storms, it is necessary to prepare to insure the safety and security of life, property and systems of commerce in our geographical region. As nature recognizes no borders in the target of its destruction, we also must set aside border considerations in the preparation and response to these weather challenges.

The following details from the Go Lean…Caribbean book highlights the community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementation and advocacies necessary to elevate the regions stance in this global battle consequences on Climate Change:

The quest to Go Green has frequently been detailed in previous blog-commentaries since the publication of the Go Lean book:

The quest of the CU/Go Lean roadmap is to make the Caribbean region a more self-reliant society; to act more proactively and reactively for our own emergencies and natural disaster events; and to be more efficient in our governance. Hurricane Matthew was a natural disaster; a Climate Change-induced hurricane, that was a Category 5 at one point … for 6 hours. No technocracy can dissuade such an event.

Climate Change causes the temperature of the oceans to be a little warmer, even 1 or 2 degrees can intensify storms: from Category 1 to Category 2, or from Category 2 to Category 3, or Category 3 to Category 4, or Category 4 to Category 5.

The solution for Climate Change-induced storms is a “long game”. Lowering the GHG in the atmosphere will reverse the previous bad trend: increasing GHG has raised the ocean temperatures.

To fix Climate Change, we need to support the mandates of COP21 … and other accords; (see Appendix – VIDEO). We also need to use peer pressure to convince other nations to comply with the accords. We can get them to capitulate by appealing to their “better nature”.

If Climate Change is not arrested, then even more devastating storms will come – more Category 5 storms. There is the need for the Caribbean region to establish a permanent union to provide efficient stewardship for our economic, security and governing engines; and to champion the region’s participation and fulfillment of COP21 mandates.

Now is the time for all of the Caribbean, the people and governing institutions, to lean-in to the empowerments described in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. This is the course we must pursue, how we can fix Climate Change; and how we make the Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

———

Appendix VIDEO – Can We Fix Climate Change? – https://youtu.be/sIpr0SwJncs

Published on Oct 29, 2015 – Bill Nye [the Science Guy] speaks on the ways in which we can mitigate Climate Change – National Geographic.
➡ Subscribe: http://bit.ly/NatGeoSubscribe
➡ Get More Explorer: http://bit.ly/MoreExplorer

———–

Appendix A – Reference Title: Acid Rain

Acid Rain is a rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it possesses elevated levels of hydrogen ions (low pH). It can have harmful effects on plants, aquatic animals and infrastructure. Acid rain is caused by emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, which react with the water molecules in the atmosphere to produce acids. Some governments have made efforts since the 1970s to reduce the release of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide into the atmosphere with positive results. Nitrogen oxides can also be produced naturally by lightning strikes, and sulfur dioxide is produced by volcanic eruptions. The chemicals in acid rain can cause paint to peel, corrosion of steel structures such as bridges, and weathering of stone buildings and statues.

Definition

Acid Rain is a popular term referring to the deposition of a mixture from wet (rain, snow, sleet, fog, cloudwater, and dew) and dry (acidifying particles and gases) acidic components. Distilled water, once carbon dioxide is removed, has a neutral pH of 7. Liquids with a pH less than 7 are acidic, and those with a pH greater than 7 are alkaline. “Clean” or unpolluted rain has an acidic pH, but usually no lower than 5.7, because carbon dioxide and water in the air react together to form the weak carbonic acid.

Carbonic acid then can ionize in water forming low concentrations of hydronium and carbonate ions.

[Water is H₂O ; Acid Rain is represented as H₂CO₃.] Acid deposition as an environmental issue would include additional acids to H₂CO₃

Adverse effects

Acid rain has been shown to have adverse impacts on forests, freshwaters and soils, killing insect and aquatic life-forms as well as causing damage to buildings and having impacts on human health.

Other adverse effects
Acid rain can damage buildings, historic monuments, and statues, especially those made of rocks, such as limestone and marble, that contain large amounts of calcium carbonate. Acids in the rain react with the calcium compounds in the stones to create gypsum, which then flakes off.

History

Since the Industrial Revolution, emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides into the atmosphere have increased.^[3][4] In 1852, Robert Angus Smith was the first to show the relationship between acid rain and atmospheric pollution in Manchester, England.^[5]

Though acidic rain was discovered in 1853, it was not until the late 1960s that scientists began widely observing and studying the phenomenon.^[6] The term “acid rain” was coined in 1872 by Robert Angus Smith.^[7] Canadian Harold Harvey was among the first to research a “dead” lake. Public awareness of acid rain in the U.S increased in the 1970s after The New York Times published reports from the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in New Hampshire of the myriad deleterious environmental effects shown to result from it.^[8][9]

Occasional pH readings in rain and fog water of well below 2.4 have been reported in industrialized areas.^[3] Industrial acid rain is a substantial problem in China and Russia^[10][11]and areas downwind from them. These areas all burn sulfur-containing coal to generate heat and electricity.^[12]

The problem of acid rain has not only increased with population and industrial growth, but has become more widespread. The use of tall smokestacks to reduce local pollution has contributed to the spread of acid rain by releasing gases into regional atmospheric circulation.^[13][14] Often deposition occurs a considerable distance downwind of the emissions, with mountainous regions tending to receive the greatest deposition (simply because of their higher rainfall). An example of this effect is the low pH of rain which falls in Scandinavia.

History of acid rain in the United States
In 1980, the U.S. Congress passed an Acid Deposition Act.^[16] This Act established an 18-year assessment and research program under the direction of the National Acidic Precipitation Assessment Program (NAPAP). NAPAP looked at the entire problem from a scientific perspective. It enlarged a network of monitoring sites to determine how acidic the precipitation actually was, and to determine long-term trends, and established a network for dry deposition. It looked at the effects of acid rain and funded research on the effects of acid precipitation on freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems, historical buildings, monuments, and building materials. It also funded extensive studies on atmospheric processes and potential control programs.

From the start, policy advocates from all sides attempted to influence NAPAP activities to support their particular policy advocacy efforts, or to disparage those of their opponents.^[16] For the U.S. Government’s scientific enterprise, a significant impact of NAPAP were lessons learned in the assessment process and in environmental research management to a relatively large group of scientists, program managers and the public.^[17]

In 1991, DENR provided its first assessment of acid rain in the United States. It reported that 5% of New EnglandLakes were acidic, with sulfates being the most common problem. They noted that 2% of the lakes could no longer support Brook Trout, and 6% of the lakes were unsuitable for the survival of many species of minnow. Subsequent Reports to Congress have documented chemical changes in soil and freshwater ecosystems, nitrogen saturation, decreases in amounts of nutrients in soil, episodic acidification, regional haze, and damage to historical monuments.

Meanwhile, in 1989, the U.S. Congress passed a series of amendments to the Clean Air Act. Title IV of these amendments established the Acid Rain Program, a cap and trade system designed to control emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. Title IV called for a total reduction of about 10 million tons of SO₂ emissions from power plants. It was implemented in two phases. Phase I began in 1995, and limited sulfur dioxide emissions from 110 of the largest power plants to a combined total of 8.7 million tons of sulfur dioxide. One power plant in New England (Merrimack) was in Phase I. Four other plants (Newington, MountTom, Brayton Point, and SalemHarbor) were added under other provisions of the program. Phase II began in 2000, and affects most of the power plants in the country.

During the 1990s, research continued. On March 10, 2005, EPA issued the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR). This rule provides states with a solution to the problem of power plant pollution that drifts from one state to another. CAIR will permanently cap emissions of SO₂ and NO_x in the eastern United States. When fully implemented, CAIR will reduce SO₂ emissions in 28 eastern states and the District of Columbia by over 70% and NO_x emissions by over 60% from 2003 levels.^[18]

Overall, the program’s cap and trade program has been successful in achieving its goals. Since the 1990s, SO₂ emissions have dropped 40%, and according to the Pacific Research Institute, Acid Rain levels have dropped 65% since 1976.^[19][20] Conventional regulation was used in the European Union, which saw a decrease of over 70% in SO₂emissions during the same time period.^[21]

In 2007, total SO₂ emissions were 8.9 million tons, achieving the program’s long-term goal ahead of the 2010 statutory deadline.^[22]

Prevention methods
The overall goal of the Acid Rain [reduction] program is to achieve significant environmental and public health benefits through reductions in emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and nitrogen oxides (NO_x), the primary causes of acid rain^[39]. To achieve this goal at the lowest cost to society, the program employs both regulatory and market based approaches for controlling air pollution.

Technical solutions

1. Many coal-firing power stations use flue-gas desulfurization (FGD) to remove sulfur-containing gases from their stack gases. For a typical coal-fired power station, FGD will remove 95% or more of the SO₂ in the flue gases. An example of FGD is the wet scrubber which is commonly used. A wet scrubber is basically a reaction tower equipped with a fan that extracts hot smoke stack gases from a power plant into the tower. Lime or limestone in slurry form is also injected into the tower to mix with the stack gases and combine with the sulfur dioxide present. The calcium carbonate of the limestone produces pH-neutral calcium sulfate that is physically removed from the scrubber.

2. Fluidized bed combustion also reduces the amount of sulfur emitted by power production.

3. Vehicle emissions control reduces emissions of nitrogen oxides from motor vehicles.

International treaties

A number of international treaties on the long-range transport of atmospheric pollutants have been agreed for example, the 1985 Helsinki Protocol on the Reduction of Sulphur Emissions under the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution. Canada and the US signed the Air Quality Agreement in 1991. Most European countries and Canada have signed the treaties.

Emissions trading
This refers to a regulatory scheme where polluting facilities can purchase on an open market an emissions allowance for each unit of a designated pollutant it emits. Operators can then install pollution control equipment, and sell portions of their emissions allowances they no longer need for their own operations, thereby recovering some of the capital cost of their investment in such equipment. The intention is to give operators economic incentives to install pollution controls.
…

Source: Wikipedia.com Online Encyclopedia; retrieved October 12, 2016: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_rain