6 steps to meet Kyoto Protocals
1. Require all goods transportation to have a reduced carbon foot print. All vehicles need to be converted to hybrid technology, boats, trains and automobiles. All conceivable surfaces must have solar-panels to help provide power and any additional no emission power source i.e. sails, added as well. All goods will have an additional carbon travel tax to reflect carbon spent getting it there and it shall be geometric ( that is goods that were grown and brought to a local distribution center, or those with no carbon foot print are tax free and those that come from the distant reaches will be inaccessible due to the tax). Thus air transport would be eliminated.
2. The government shall provide each citizen an electric personal transportation device and each family a larger electric car, for free of charge. Must be returned to government if not needed, retuned for newer model et al. All this is free.
3. A gas tax will be imposed on citizens based on where they live and where they work. The longer the commute within an urban center, the higher the gas tax, shorter would mean lower. Rural dwellers would get a general break, but commuters to urban areas would not. Smart odometers would be installed. For rural dwellers, weather would mitigate.
4. Free urban mass transit. All mass transit would be as clean as possible.
5. All roof space will be covered with appropriate solar collection devices and micro wind turbines. Sparely populated windy locations would contain wind turbines. Turbines will be located where they will affect nature the least, i.e. off shore, in farm fields, on business and manufacturing regions and in more remote locales. Geothermal wells will provide warm water and heating in urban locations as well as power.
6. Research on all the above and any other like technology will be funded by the government indiscriminately and successful technologies will be given short term monopolies for five years after development or until better technologies exist. Technology will be freely shared to all other governments and poor countries will be retrofitted as need becomes apparent.
Growing up in the 1980s, certain foods were not available all year long. Fresh vegetables were available in the summer and the fall, preserved produce or vegetables with a long self life were available later, coconuts were special foods purchased at Christmas time, oranges were used in fundraising drives by the high school, because they were not available except once a year and they were expensive then. Fresh produce from New Zealand, Chile, Mexico, and everywhere else was unheard of. To meet the Kyoto Protocol sacrifices need to be made and if transporters are unwilling to make changes, then we will have to do without. The US-Navy has a state of the art aircraft carrier that under full steam uses less oil than one of the jets taking off from its deck at take off, because it has a hybrid engine. Experimental sails have been used to decrease fuel usage on some boats and other hard sails have been experimented with since the 80s, add better hull designs and then we can import all the foods and goods from all over the world with very low fuel usage. Hybrid trains with solar collectors on every car, brakes that generate power would reduce energy usage without reducing speed. Hybrid or electric battery road transport ditto. Together this would allow for world commerce but keep all emissions to a minimum.
Free urban transportation, single, family or mass transit makes sense in many ways. An e-bike right now costs about $900, likely this means a much lower wholesale cost and this with low production quantities. I bet supplying 20 million Canadians with one would drive the unit price even lower even with a cost of $500 that would mean outfitting the nation would cost about a billion dollars. Free electric cars would cost a bit more, but even after that they would be cheap. Most trips a person or a family takes are under 60km a day, this is the range of all these type vehicles. All these vehicles are small and light, they have maximum velocities within urban speed limits, i.e. the reduction of casualties from auto accidents and like damage, plus improved air quality, would more than pay for this large initial expense in reduced hospitalization.
Yes the car companies would hate me, I can get over that, but seriously the writing has been on the wall for a couple decades and they have done nothing. I had a sixteen year old Honda that gets better gas mileage than North American cars just off the production line and not a bit better, a lot better, 800km at 80kph on 40 liters.
People in cities need to understand that it is important to live near where you work. If they are incapable of understanding this, then they either take mass transit or pay through the nose. People who follow these rules should get a break on gas prices when they use gas. If someone takes a trip, they get gas prices equal to what they earned. Rural life is not a luxury, it is just different, some people prefer it, some people it is all they know. If they live and work in this setting they should not be penalized. Still most daily traveling would be covered by the range of the e-vehicle.
Power generation will be everywhere in multiple forms. The basic stuff like solar and wind along with hydro electric would cover the majority of it. People say solar is useless at night, and they are correct, except that most of the power usage is during the day, most of the wind is at night too and hydro can cover the rest. Cloudy days are bad, but it is sunny somewhere, or windy somewhere on the grid. The tide is constant in many places and water is always flowing to the sea. If there is a deficit, there is geothermal which can generate electricity or provide heat at all times of the day. If we need more there a re still many nuclear power stations.
Research is the best way to get innovative advances. There are a number of interesting technologies that just need a little or a lot of cash to fund research to solve problems that would help revolutionize the planet. There is the solar cell that utilizes 40% of the Sun's energy and could be applied to surfaces as a coat of paint allowing houses, roads, and other things to generate more energy than we could ever use. There is a researcher in Mexico who is trying to make synthetic gasoline from water, carbon dioxide and solar power. This would allow excess energy to be stored indefinitely save fuel inefficient technology. There is the project that would take carbon dioxide from the air and turn it into synthetic limestone, for building materials and permanent carbon dioxide sequestration. Microwave powered airplanes and much more if only we had a little cash to fund research.
I believe that if we do this now pollution would be reduced to pre industrial levels in les than twenty years and the climate change we can not stop at this point, would be mitigated substantially. I know that with out any innovation from here on out we could do this now. With a little imagination and selflessness the world's problems can be surmounted.
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