RoguePundit

Heat Pollution from Data Centers

Some industries are criticized for producing thermal (heat) pollution.  The cooling water from power plants--especially nuclear--is often cited as an example.  And while it's usually portrayed differently, urban heat islands gain part of their warmth from man's activities rather than land-use changes.  Yet, the following way of dealing with heat pollution is considered green.

Enormous sheds filled with racks of computers pop up every day and everywhere, the silent power strengthening the ever-more-connected and ever-more-digital world.

But in Ark Continuity's new SQ17 server farm buried deep in the former stone mines of Corsham, is something worth noting. The facility, unveiled today, is probably the most sustainable and environmentally friendly of its kind in the world: a combination of location and design means that it uses more than a third less energy than a typical data centre.

"Between 25-40% of the cost of running a data centre would be in the electricity," says Jeffrey Thomas, chief executive of Ark Continuity. "So if we can cut that in half, we're making a significant economic saving for our occupiers, even before their CO2 reduction obligations."

IT accounts for around 2% of the UK's carbon emissions and the sector is aware of increasing impact it will have on energy and environment as it grows. "Being more efficient in the data centre is synonymous not only with saving carbon but also saving money," says Kate Craig-Wood, co-founder of the carbon-neutral ISP Memset. "So it's pretty common sense really."

I've blogged previously about companies building data centers in northerly locations here in the U.S. to save energy on cooling.  From the standpoint of cost and energy utilization, taking advantage of colder climates makes great sense.  Meanwhile as incandescent bulbs periodically remind us, heat pollution can be rather useful when one's cold.  It's only pollution when we don't like the effects.

He acquired what is now known as Spring Park ten years ago. A hundred miles from London and with a million-square-feet hole underground, it was not immediately obvious to Thomas that the site should be used as a data centre. The facility had been an underground munitions dump and factory site during the Second World War. "In the Cold War, latterly under Macmillan and Thatcher, it became the seat of government in a time of crisis. Part of it became a nuclear bunker."

This meant the underground buildings were some of the most secure facilities in the UK, reinforced and strengthened so that they could withstand three 10-megaton nuclear strikes at the same time. And it also had interesting environmental characteristics -– being a damp mine, it was ideal at staying cool. "The sun never shines down there so there's no solar gain," says Thomas. "With the size of it and the evaporative qualities of the mine, we can dissipate 20MW of energy with adiabatic cooling with 10 litres of water a second, which is just cycled around in a fog underground."

"At our latitude and altitude, we'll get around 60-65% of the year we should achieve free air cooling -– that means the temperature of the outside of the building is cool enough to use to cool the inside of the building."

The Cold War in a cold place...  But eventually--as the subway system in London has shown (previous blog here), that ground will slowly warm up.

Quail, Limited

Nowadays, most conservation organizations that are comprised--at least in part--of hunters trying to help their favored prey are fighting an uphill battle.  Quail Unlimited has certainly been struggling with that.  The bobwhite quail thrives in areas--primarily in the Midwest and Southeast-- that have been disturbed and are recovering.  Meanwhile, hunting is on the wane, and many environmentalists and their supporters idealistically prefer to keep ecosystems from being disturbed by man.  From this link...   

Favorable quail habitats were well represented on family farms throughout the country in the 1930s through 50s. Sharecropping and the early century farming practices created a patchwork effect across the countryside that was beneficial to quail and other small game species. The annual disturbances of fields by farming, the frequent use of fire, the somewhat inefficient methods that left weeds and fencerows along the edges and waste grain in the fields created ideal habitat conditions, and quail flourished in those communities. During the Great Depression, many family farms were abandoned as families moved to town or sold their property. The farms left unattended quickly left the early successional stage and rapidly progressed to mid-to late successional plant communities. Many farms were also planted into trees or quickly developed into young forests, eliminating the most conducive stages for quail. Some family farms were combined with other farms to develop larger or, in some instances, corporate farms. In these cases, smaller fields were combined and their fencerow borders eliminated to make room for larger and more efficient equipment. The loss of the family farms and fencerows with their benefits was probably one of the most detrimental losses for quail.

All too often, those strips of land between fields have been viewed as unproductive spots that harbor various plant, insect, and animal pests.  The use/loss of that land is adversely impacting populations of butterflies, prairie plants, etc.  In the UK, preserving and reestablishing hedgerows beside roads and fields is a major environmental issue.  Those tangles of shrubs are critical habitat for a number of species.  Meanwhile, a declining number of Americans views the bobwhite quail as an indicator species any more.

Quail Unlimited is in trouble.

Quail Unlimited, the nation's largest conservation group devoted to bobwhite quail, has shut its doors, furloughed its 24 remaining employees and put its national headquarters in Edgefield, S.C., [near Augusta GA] up for sale to resolve what board members say are catastrophic financial problems.

"It is bleak," said Bill Bowles, a member of the organization's national board of directors and an officer on the board's executive committee for financial matters." On Oct. 27th we realized we couldn't make payroll for the 31st. How do you ask someone to stay when you can't pay them?"

The organization, founded in 1981, has about 30,000 members and an annual budget just shy of $6 million that is generated from sponsors, banquets and fundraising programs nationwide.

Fundraising has been more difficult for most non-profits the last couple of years. However, internal problems have contributed to the disarray.

Leadership within the group has shifted in recent months. In late March, longtime president Rocky Evans stepped down for health reasons and Craig A. Alderman--the organization's marketing director since 2006--was appointed by the board to replace Evans on an interim basis. After seven months, Alderman was dismissed in a split board vote, Bowles said, and at least six board members have subsequently resigned.

"When the board called for a meeting to discuss placing Alderman back in his marketing position and bringing in another interim president--and at same time hiring an outside financial consultant to tell us where we were--there was dissension among the ranks. Some wanted Alderman to remain."

Currently, efforts are under way to save Quail Unlimited and put its employees back to work. The current furlough will last two weeks but could be extended.

...

According to a listing with Mathis Realty, of Edgefield, the group's national headquarters, warehouses and 75 acres are being offered for $650,000.

The bobwhite quail is an exotic species in Oregon...the native species here are the California and mountain quail.  Nonetheless, Oregon does have a chapter of Quail Unlimited--Central Oregon Upland Bird in Redmond.  The nearest one in California is the North State Chapter in Red Bluff.

Climate Panhandling

Aggressive beggars can be rather creepy.  Some don't just ask for money, but demand it as if you're in possession of what should rightfully be theirs.  They try shame, intimidation, etc. to gain a few bucks, which sadly few of them will spend wisely.  Is it still a month until Copenhagen?

Keeping up pressure in Barcelona, the final preparatory session for the December meeting, the poor said that even the most ambitious offers by the European Union, tougher than most nations, were far too weak for a new U.N. climate pact.

"The result of that is to condemn developing countries to a total destruction of their livelihoods, their economies. Their land, their forests will all be destroyed. And for what purpose?" said Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aping of Sudan, chair of the Group of 77 and China, representing poor nations.

"Anything south of 40 (percent) means that Africa's population, Africa's land mass is offered destruction," he told a news conference.

Developing countries at the Barcelona talks insisted that rich nations should cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 -- far more than on offer.

The Sudan?  Let's think...multiple conflicts, human rights abuses, disease, drought, malnutrition, on and on, in a nation in the tropical latitudes where--despite the hyperbole--climate change will be at its mildest.  Heavy sigh. 

Many a Third World leader nowadays focuses upon climate change to distract folks from the magnitude of their day-to-day failures.  Blame the industrialized nations for causing the problem and not sharing more of their wealth to help its victims.  And bear in mind that the Sudan is now reaping billions from oil. China gets 10 percent of its oil from the Sudan, which spends a lot of that money buying arms from China.

In Washington, the top U.S. diplomat on climate change, Todd Stern, criticised entrenched positions in talks since the world agreed the U.N. climate convention in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro.

"The divide between developed and developing countries that has run down the center of climate change discussions for the past 17 years is still alive and well," he told a panel in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The bigger the CO2 cuts imposed on industrialized nations, the bigger the market for emissions credits, many of which will come from developing nations.  We'll pay them not to cut their forests, allow their farms to turn to desert, etc.  Never mind the fact that the powerful will pocket the lion's share of that money because the poor in most of those nations don't have land rights.  And, let's ignore the fact that the certification process has suffered from rampant incompetence and corruption.

About 100 activists blocked the exit of the U.N. climate summit building in Barcelona for an hour to demand urgent, ambitious carbon reductions by 2020, chanting "no way out".

Wow, about 100.  As the tea parties are teaching us, it's not the size of the protest but whether the media wants to cover it. 

Making Renting Eco-Fashionable

The Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) is non-profit created by the British government to promote resource efficiency.  It promotes people buying less, wasting less, owning less, etc.

No doubt there's plenty of unnecessary consumption in the UK...we certainly don't have a monopoly on that vice.  But some of the goals that WRAP is suggesting...

[WRAP] claims that overcoming our obsession with owning goods could be a "secret weapon" in meeting climate change targets. It has called for a fifth of all household spending, £148 billion out of an annual total of £732 billion, to be converted to renting by 2020.

In a report published today the watchdog calls for the transformation of a large part of the retail sector into a service industry specialising in renting goods, with each item used by many different people during its lifetime.

WRAP identifies five categories of goods suitable for renting: high-end clothing; glassware and tableware; tools and equipment for house and garden; vehicles; and telephone, audio and recreational equipment. On clothing, the report proposes that hiring should replace 10 per cent of the retail market within ten years. 

10 percent?  Beyond weddings, the occasional tux and high-end dress, what types of clothing are people supposed to rent?  WRAP's CEO suggests evening dresses, bags, and shoes.  But heck, a lot of that type of clothing goes out of style before it's worn out, whether purchased or rented.

The report, based on research by York University, calculates that better use of resources could deliver 10 per cent of the carbon dioxide savings that Britain has legally committed to making by 2020.

Shifting a fifth of household spending from purchasing to renting would cut emissions by about 2 per cent, or 13 million tonnes of CO2 a year, through a fall in manufacturing and lower consumption of raw materials.

A WRAP official said that there would be no net loss of jobs in Britain because most goods were manufactured overseas. He said that positions lost in retailing would be balanced by jobs gained in a greatly expanded rental industry. He also said that there would be additional greenhouse gas savings — not calculated in the report — from reducing the size of homes because people would not need as much storage space.

The report says that 20 per cent of the market for tools could shift from purchasing to hiring by 2020 and up to 90 per cent by 2050. On vehicles, it says renting could account for 20 per cent of the market by 2020 and 50 to 90 per cent by 2050.

Up to 90 percent, but as low as what?  I'm sick of advocates--and reporters--who give partial information.

Okay...most of the goods in question are manufactured overseas, from raw materials mined and grown overseas.  Thus, that's where most of the emission reductions take place...which is fine, but it doesn't help with the EU's emission reduction goals.  Neither does reducing shipping...yet. 

If only the rich and the rest of the politicians would lead the way on unnecessary consumption...  Same goes for climate change.

The report identifies £143 billion of annual expenditure on goods that could have been used for longer. It says that clothing is only being used, on average, for 66 per cent of its potential lifespan. Using items for their full lifespan would save consumers £47 billion a year, it claims.

Too bad the authors of this bold report lost their nerve when it comes to the unnecessary consumption driven by obesity.  For instance, how much more clothing would be worn out if adults didn't outgrow it?

Defenders of Fundraising

The Defenders of Wildlife has long championed the reintroduction of wolves into various parts of the continental U.S.  Unlike its sister organizations that promote wolves, Defenders helps reimburse ranchers who suffer losses because of those wolves.  But make no mistake, wolves are a profit center for the non-profit.  No doubt that's part of the reason it's fighting the removal of wolves from the endangered species list, regardless how various populations have recovered. 

I'm sure Defenders of Wildlife carefully analyzed the following to ensure odds were good that the expensive add would more than pay for itself. 

Defenders of Wildlife says people in New York City are in the dark about the wolf hunts taking place in Montana and Idaho and has launched a Times Square ad campaign to raise their awareness.

From now through New Year’s Day, the conservation group, which opposes the wolf hunt, is buying time on the 520-square-foot CBS superscreen on 42nd Street for a 15-second video spot showing among other things a wolf pup howling in tall grass.

"They are being killed," is written at the bottom of the screen, along with a number people can text to donate $5 to the group.

Your donation will help prevent job loss.

Curiously, despite the Eye on Palin website still being up and running, there's no mention of it anywhere on the Defender's website.  That whole thing got rather ugly in both directions.

Outsourcing Jobs via Changing Lightbulbs

GE has spent huge sums trying to position itself as smart and green.  Few companies have lobbied harder for subsides and the proposed cap & trade system, from which it would profit greatly.  It also lobbied hard for the law which set efficiency standards that will essentially outlaw incandescent light bulbs in the U.S. by 2014.  Then this past July...

GE announced it will close the Winchester [Virginia] Bulb Plant 80 miles west of D.C. As a result, 200 men and women will lose their jobs. GE is also shuttering incandescent factories in Ohio and Kentucky, axing another 200 jobs.

GE blamed environmental regulations for the closing.

...

The company said in 2007 it wanted to make sure it was working under a single federal efficiency standard, rather than a patchwork of state regulations. GE also touts its compact fluorescents as one of the green products in its "eco-magination" initiative.

The workers don't buy the green arguments, pointing to the mercury gas that's in the fluorescents. "It's illegal to dump mercury in the river, but not in the landfill," two of them say in unison—it's become a dark joke at the factory.

The nonunion plant, GE's last incandescent bulb-assembly factory in the U.S., will close in July of next year.   Yes, GE manufactures its compact fluorescent bulbs in China.  The same type of thing is happening in Europe.

US industrial giant General Electric said [yesterday] it will axe 2700 jobs in Hungary over the next two years after a decision to phase out traditional energy-guzzling light bulbs in Europe.

The cuts, which were announced at meetings with employees and trade unions on Wednesday, would begin at the start of next year, GE said.

...

A new EU regulation phasing out old-style light bulbs by 2012 came into effect in September.

GE also laid off 500 employees there last year, because of "fierce global competition." Nearly all of the jobs in question are blue-collar and unionized.

Burning Funds on Burning Fields

Eugene is home to several highly litigious environmental organizations.  It's not the economy that's causing problems at the Western Environmental Law Center.

In yet another sign that economic tough times continue to plague Lane County, a public interest environmental law firm will lay off four staff members by the end of the month.

The Eugene-based Western Environmental Law Center has laid off two administrative staff members and attorney Charlie Tebbutt. Attorney Dave Bahr will also be let go sometime in the next few weeks.

Tebbutt has specialized in federal Clean Water Act cases, while Dave Bahr’s expertise is in federal Freedom of Information Act work. He also recently represented local groups in a suit filed against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management over its plan to increase logging on Western Oregon forests.

...

While the nonprofit center expects to finish the year with about the same revenue it had in 2008 — $2 million — Costello anticipates a financial hit in 2010 to be as much as 20 percent.

So rather than waiting to see if revenues actually drop off, WELC is laying off folks now?  That can't be the whole story...and as this poorly-written article finally gets around to telling us, it's not.

The center is adding other projects to its environmental portfolio. It employed a conservation biologist this year to work on the development of wildlife corridors, an effort that has drawn interest from the state agencies and the Western Governors Association, and could lead future grant support, he said.

Tebbutt himself had recently headed a high-profile and successful campaign to persuade the Oregon Legislature to phase out field burning on grass seed farms in the Willamette Valley, an effort that did not involve the courts.

Costello estimates that WELC spent between $250,000 and $300,000 in staff and other costs on the campaign, but that it drew only about $20,000 in public support. It was a good strategic plan with a good result, but a failed business strategy, Costello said. "In the future, we need to align all three," he said.

In other words, if important environmental issues won't pay for themselves, ignore them.  Brilliant.  Guess they're not making enough money suing the government on our dime. 

One other interesting note in the article...

Eugene-based Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics saw its revenues for the first nine months of 2009 decrease by 26 percent compared with the same period last year, said Executive Director Andy Stahl.

Stahl’s nonprofit group opted to take 15 percent across-the-board pay cuts and eliminated matching retirement contributions to avoid layoffs, he said. “Those cuts kept us from closing our doors,” he said.

Well, I have to applaud the dishonestly-named organization for sharing the pain rather than laying off the junior folks. 

Craft Breweries and Urinals

The first Great Lakes Craft Brewers and Water Conservation Conference kicked off yesterday in Milwaukee WI.  While few Americans have to worry nowadays about their water supply unless there's a drought or disaster, that will eventually change.  In the meanwhile, most brewers are interested in saving money, planning for the long-term success of their businesses, and showing green credentials.

Water scarcity rapidly is becoming a concern for brewers as water supplies tighten in regions as diverse as Atlanta, southern California and Waukesha, making water an ever-more precious and pricey commodity.

Even around the Great Lakes, where water is deemed abundant, the newly ratified eight-state Great Lakes Compact is compelling a new regulatory environment and eventually is expected to usher in new conservation rules for water-intensive industries, experts on the compact say.

The link between beer and water conservation might not seem obvious to Joe Sixpack, but it was enough to fill a sobering two-day conference of craft brewers from around the country who gathered in Milwaukee Monday and Tuesday.

Oh, and a dash of condescension too...bleah.  Activists were preaching that water scarcity was just around the corner when I was studying the subject in college thirty years ago.  I'm sure some believed what they said while others were simply trying to drive water conservation...same as now. Meanwhile though in many locations, it's gotten harder to increase the water supply in response to demand.  California's proposed delta water plan could drive a 20 percent decrease in per capita water usage, though there's plenty of battling for exceptions and money for dams.

If a business doesn't plan ahead regarding water availability, it could lose its competitiveness...or the chance to grow from a craft brewery (up to 2 million barrels per year) into a large brewery. 

Water access, meanwhile, is as important as tax levels as a business relocation issue, said Fred Strachan of the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. in northern California. Sierra Nevada wants to expand with an East Coast subsidiary in order to distribute its brews nationally.

While it typically takes six pints of water to produce one pint of beer, brewers everywhere want to reduce that ratio, Strachan said at the conference.

Anticipating a new era of conservation regulations, Sierra Nevada is about to install flow meters at each stage of the filtration and brewing process throughout its flagship brewery in Chico. "We're reacting to our own local water issues," Strachan said.

At about 700,000 barrels per year, Sierra Nevada is considered a regional brewery--a craft brewery that produces between 15,000 and 2 million barrels of beer per year.  Microbreweries produce up to 15,000 barrels per year. A beer barrel is 31 gallons.

Toilet efficiency might not be tavern talk in Milwaukee but has become a common discussion in California, [technical adviser to the Alliance for Water Efficiency] Pape said. A single urinal at a tavern uses 72,000 gallons of water a year, he said. Women drinkers, who rely on toilets that flush more water than a urinal, have a larger water footprint but drink less, he noted.

The taverns he's talking about have some impressively busy urinals.  Nonetheless, let's use that number to do a bit of converting.  It takes 72,000 gallons of water to produce 12,000 gallons of beer.  At 15,000 barrels per year, a big microbrewery produces 465,000 gallons of beer...a process which consumes enough water to support the use of 38.75 tavern urinals.  For Sierra Nevada, the number is 1,808 urinals.

And if folks wash their hands when they're done... 

Rating Policy More than Results

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) has just published its third annual rating of what states are doing to pursue energy efficiency.  Oregon did well but dropped two places this year.

2009 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard, which ranks states in six categories, concludes that the 10 states doing the most to implement energy efficiency are: California (1); Massachusetts (2); Connecticut (3); Oregon (4); New York (5); Vermont (6); Washington state (7); Minnesota (8); Rhode Island (9); and Maine (10).

...

The scorecard examines six state energy efficiency policy areas: (1) utility-sector and public benefits programs and policies; (2) transportation polices; (3) building energy codes; (4) combined heat and power; (5) state government initiatives; and (6) appliance efficiency standards.  States can earn up to 50 possible points in these six policy areas combined.

Ohhh, a measurement of policies...and here I was looking for actual results.  Admittedly, data on how energy efficient the states are does present some apples and oranges problems.  While the report (here) does include some measurements of reductions in energy usage, in many instances the ratings were based simply upon states having and spending money on various programs.  Examples include...

- Oregon got credit for having financial incentives regarding renewable energy.  That's nice, but it has nothing to do with energy efficiency. 

- Oregon also got credit for offering a tax credit for the purchase of hybrids and electric vehicles.  However, we know that many of the people and businesses taking advantage of the tax credit would have purchased those vehicles anyway.  There's no penalty in the report for Oregon wasting most of that money.

Credit where credit is due...California topped the ACEEE rankings, and its energy usage per capita indeed ranks lowest in the nation.  Note though that a recent Stanford study analyzed the reasons behind this and found that only "about 23% of the overall difference between California and the United States could be due to policy measures." Other major factors were the mild climate in many major population centers, a relative lack of heavy industry, and less commercial floorspace per capita.  The high cost of real estate in much of the state surely has something to do with that last factor. 

Something else that was statistically important is that California has an unusually high percentage of homes with natural gas rather than electric hot water heaters...the latter is less efficient.  But despite natural gas being an important component of our nation's overall energy usage, few states measure it well enough for it to be included in the ACEEE report.

This is yet another report card which needs to stop giving credit for style points.  Quoting...

One of the most glaring limitations is access to recent and reliable data on results from energy efficiency efforts.  Many states do not gather data on performance of energy efficiency policy efforts, forcing us to score them using a "best practices" for some policy areas.

No, nothing is forcing ACEEE to score this way.  Set deadlines...if states can't provide measurable results, prove enforcement of regulations, etc., then you start presuming that they aren't getting desirable results.  That type of publicity can be a powerful motivator.  Also, start rating the efficiency of the spending used to achieve energy efficiency.  Money spent and regulations published are dubious measures of merit...results are what matter most. 

A Really Deep Fire Break

Last week, USFS filled a hole that was 15 feet wide and 60 feet deep on Mt. Shasta. 

Whatever their purpose was, the people who dug a deep and wide hole by hand on National Forest property on Mt. Shasta this past summer put in a great deal of effort.

Then they abandoned it.

US Forest Service law enforcement officer Carmen Kinch says she knows who is responsible and she's proceeding with filing charges.

...

She believes the goal of the illegal hole digging enterprise was to find "valuable minerals."

I believe the word for that is "mining."  Kinch said it wasn't a local resident who dug the hole.

This occurred on the site of the "Mountain Thin" project (above Mt. Shasta city). That project was fought by faux environmentalists who were more concerned about what thinning would do to "the wildlife and scenic aspects" of a smaller area than what a catastrophic wildfire would do to a much larger area.  The illegal mining hasn't drawn a mention on their websites, at least yet.

Remnants from the operation, including a wire above the hole that was connected to two trees and had a pulley mechanism on it, were left behind. Also left behind was a ladder leaning up against a tree near the hole and numerous buckets.

A large pile of dirt and rocks surrounded the hole.

...

Two of the charges that Kinch said she plans to bring against the person responsible for the hole are: damage to a National Forest and removing natural resources without a permit – "and anything else I can come up with," she added.

How about the fact that the miner didn't accomplish an environmental impact statement?  Well, since USFS doesn't punish Rainbow Family gatherings for that...