David Warsh: Will geoengineering be needed to stem global warming?

Proposed solar geoengineering using a tethered balloon to inject sulfate aerosols into the stratosphere.

SOMERVILLE, Mass.

Of the three broad approaches to coping with the effects of global warming – reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions; various adaptations to a warmer world, and solar-radiation management – it is the idea of climate intervention, or “geoengineering,” as its enthusiasts often describe it, that engenders the most fear.

We know that the natural version works: Volcanic eruptions over the millennia have demonstrated that much.  Volcanic dust spewed into high altitudes has reduced temperature over significant portions of the Earth’s surface in the past, by making the atmosphere more reflective of the sun’s rays.

But the idea of deliberately pumping sulfates into the stratosphere to reduce global temperatures appears to some so risky, if only by dint of the “not-to-worry” incentive it seems to imply, that some climate scientists – their  opinions buttressed by Under a White Sky, the book and Snowpiercer, the film – have called for a ban any geoengineering research at all.

That would clearly be foolish. The good news is that Science magazine last month reported that the first cautious attempts to understand the Earth’s “radiation budget” have begun.  Prodded by Congress, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has launched a program to understand “the types, amounts and behavior of particles naturally present in the stratosphere.”  SilverLining, an interesting non-governmental lobbying organization, is also involved.

[T]the balloons and high-altitude aircraft in the program aren’t releasing any particles or gases. But the large-scalefield campaign is the first the U.S. government has ever conducted related to solar geoengineering. It’s very basic research, says Karen Rosenlof, an atmospheric scientist at NOAA’s Chemical Sciences Laboratory. “You have to know what’s there first before you can start messing with that.”

An appropriately cautious beginning. I don’t know how humankind will gradually solve the climate-change problem, but I am pretty confident that it will, through some combination of alternative fuels; massive adaptations, both physical and social; and, probably, some degree of geoengineering. I am reminded of the Christian hymn text that William Cowper wrote , in 1773, so apropos today that it is worth quoting at some length. A great deal has happened in those 250 years, of course, so feel free to substitute “Evolution” for “God,” if you prefer. It still scans.

God moves in a mysterious way,

His wonders to perform;

He plants his footsteps in the sea,

And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines

Of never failing skill;

He treasures up his bright designs,

And works His sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints fresh courage take,

The clouds ye so much dread

Are big with mercy, and shall break

In blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,

But trust him for his grace;

Behind a frowning providence,

He hides a smiling face….

David Warsh, a veteran columnist and an economic historian, is proprietor of Somerville-based economicprincipals.com, where this column first ran.

Rugged terrain

“Mountain Time,’’ by Wilson Hunt, at Alpers Fine Art, Andover, Mass. He lives in Boston’s Roslindale neighborhood.

At Roslindale Square directly across the street from the Roslindale Village Commuter Rail stop. It looks like London.

— Photo by RHKindred -

Adapting to rising seas

“Letter to the Ocean” (video still), by Alejandra Cuadra and Ashley Page, in their show at Fountain Street Gallery, Boston, through April 2.

'Lights a window in Amherst'

“It’s New England time,

the sun

comes like an old puritan

and it rises over the ocean

and gives leave to the flight of the birds,

it lights a window in Amherst

where the eyes of a woman contemplate the world….’’

— From “The Balada of New England,’’ by Fernando Valverde (born 1980), translated from the Spanish by Carolyn Forche. The “woman’’ referred to is Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), the famed poet.

Frank Carini: Lawn fertilizers and pesticides threaten public health and environment

A newly seeded, chemically fertilized and mowed lawn.

— Photo by Animaldetector

An example of eutrophication caused by fertilizer runoff. These nutrients cause the excessive growth of algae, which can block light and air exchange. The algae eventually are broken down by bacteria, causing anoxic conditions and "dead zones".

Text from article by Frank Carini in ecoRI News

“While this winter in southern New England has mostly felt more like a three-month extension of fall, spring officially arrives in a few weeks and that means the lawn-care industry’s push to douse lawns with chemicals is in full bloom.

“Industry professionals and homeowners have been dumping pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers on lawns for generations, all in hopes of creating lush, green carpets of neighborhood envy. This heavy reliance on chemicals has instead turned residential soil into de facto dumping grounds for lawn-care poisons that threaten public health and the environment….

“When these monolithic landscapes are then flooded with mass-marketed poisons and nutrients, they become bad for human and pet health, pollute local waters, deter wildlife, and degrade the environment.’’

To read the whole article, please hit this link.

Be patient

“Greylock {Mt. Greylock, in the Berkshires} Meadow Green” (drypoint engravings), by Saugus, Mass.-based artist Kelly Slater, at the gallery at WREN (Women’s Rural Entrepreneurial Network), in Bethlehem, N.H.

At the Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site — the site of the first integrated ironworks in North America, founded by John Winthrop the Younger and in operation between 1646 and about 1670.

It includes the reconstructed blast furnace, forge, rolling mill, shear, slitter and a quarter-ton trip hammer.

It has seven large waterwheels, some of which are rigged to work in tandem with wooden gears connecting them. The facility has a wharf from which to load the iron onto ocean-going vessels, as well as a large, restored 17th-Century house.

Chris Powell: Rent-control bill a fraud; college-job racket; nimbys vs. Bridgeport

In a studio apartment.

MANCHESTER, Conn.

Nearly everyone agrees that Connecticut badly needs more inexpensive apartments. Many basic two-bedroom units in the state carry monthly rents that are as high as a home mortgage payment, and rents are still rising. As was demonstrated the other day at a state legislative committee hearing, many renters are desperate, especially with unprecedented electricity price increases coming on top of rent increases.

But no one has explained how a law restricting rents -- government price control that would be exclusive to housing even as the prices of all other necessities are rising sharply as well -- is going to encourage construction and renovation of rental housing. Indeed, with a rent-control law Connecticut may send a powerful signal to rental-housing developers to avoid the state and a powerful signal to landlords to convert their apartments to condominiums and sell them.

Rent control may help people who already have apartments but it won't increase supply or slake demand.

Fortunately the major rent-control legislation under consideration in the General Assembly is a fraud. It would restrict annual rent increases to 4 percent plus inflation. With the latest official U.S. inflation rate at 6.4 percent, the legislation would hardly cap rents at all. Its main value to its advocates may be to establish the principle of expropriating property without fair compensation.

Then, after a few years, other legislation might cap rent increases at 4 percent without an inflation adjustment, and then freeze rents entirely. After all, many advocates of rent control think that everything necessary should be free. Of course nothing is really free, and decisions about who should pay can be messy, since cost-shifting is such a big objective of government.

Many people oppressed by their rents aren't familiar with economics and how the real world works. But many advocates of rent control are, and they know exactly what they are doing and what they are not doing.

They are not encouraging the crowd to understand inflation and where it comes from -- government itself. They are not encouraging the crowd to notice that since most important prices have risen sharply, landlords aren't to blame.

Nor are the rent-control advocates concentrating on the only solution to rising rents: increasing housing supply. No, expropriating is their objective.

There are solutions to supply, but they aren't quick and easy.

Liberalizing municipal zoning is the one most discussed. But any zoning solution will be slow and disjointed.

State government could build housing directly, exempting itself from municipal zoning, using eminent domain to obtain land, hiring contractors, and assigning construction plans, but that would risk much corruption.

Or maybe state government could exempt itself from local zoning, use eminent domain to obtain property near water and sewer lines and transit infrastructure, put the properties out to bid to apartment developers, and then exempt them from taxes as long as the properties were well maintained.

Such a policy would be sounder environmentally and possibly less controversial than putting apartments in rural towns that lack infrastructure.

But there can be no substantial construction of housing anywhere without controversy. In the end the issue is a choice between the haves and have-nots. Government may try to mollify the have-nots with free bus rides, diapers, and contraceptives, but what they need most is less expensive housing.

* * *

In the meantime state government will continue to take care of itself better than anything else.

Central Connecticut State University, in New Britain, has just announced its hiring of former Hartford Democratic state Rep. Edwin Vargas as the new occupant of the Gov. William A. O'Neill Endowed Chair in Public Policy and Practical Politics. The job pays $69,000, pretty sweet for someone who is 74 with pension income. That’s "practical politics" for you.

Vargas won re-election last year but, betraying his constituents, declined to take office in January so he could accept the university job. His predecessor was another state legislator, former state Sen. Donald J. DeFronzo, a Democrat from New Britain.

If Republicans ever want to occupy an endowed chair in public higher education in Connecticut, they'll have to start winning a lot more elections.

View of Sikorsky Memorial Airport (left), the Housatonic River and Stratford. The airport is named for aviation pioneer Igor Sikorsky (1889-1972).

No place in Connecticut has as much untapped potential as its largest and most impoverished city, Bridgeport -- on Long Island Sound with a great harbor, superhighways leading to the east, west and north, a major stop on the Northeast Corridor railroad line, and a city-owned airport just over the municipal line in Stratford.

But state government long has overlooked Bridgeport's potential because no one in authority has dared to deal with the poverty of the city's residents.

Refurbishing the airport and restoring scheduled commercial flights there could contribute greatly to Bridgeport's revival and economic development. But predictably enough Stratford doesn't want to cooperate. Two of its state legislators, Republican Sen. Kevin Kelly and Democratic Rep. Joe Gresko, have introduced legislation to thwart Bridgeport's sale of Sikorsky to the Connecticut Airport Authority, essentially giving Stratford control of the airport, which would mean no improvement.

Bridgeport is too poor and ill-managed to restore Sikorsky itself. But it could be done by the airport authority, which has greatly improved Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks. If Bridgeport is ever to be improved in any respect, state government will have to do it. Let it start with Sikorsky.

Chris Powell is a columnist for the Journal Inquirer in Manchester, Connecticut. (CPowell@JournalInquirer.com).

Eccentricies of Beantown

Northeastern University’s Wayne Turner with the 1980 Beanpot after Northeastern won the annual Beanpot hockey tournament.

“Boston is both a world-class city, home to some of the best academic and medical institutions on the planet, and a quirkily parochial place, where one of the biggest annual sporting events involves college hockey players competing for a beanpot and where generations of baseball fans actively believed they were victims of a curse.’’

— Steve Kornacki (born 1979 and a native of Groton, Mass.) political journalist

Real beanpots.

Using drones to monitor changing Eastern forests

Mt. Katahdin, in the midst of the Maine Woods.

Log jam at Ripogenus Gorge, Maine, during 1870s log driving.

Edited from a New England Council report (newenglandcouncil.com)

“The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded a $10 million grant to research teams from the University of Maine, Purdue University and the University of Georgia to develop technology that would use drones to monitor forests.  

“The main goal of this research project is to help landowners and stakeholders better adapt forests to complicated economic and climate conditions in the Eastern region of the United States, aiming to improve the management of 15 million acres of those forests. With this, the University of Maine will be receiving $2.7 million of the overall $10 million for its efforts on ‘PERSEUS,’ or ‘promoting economic resilience and sustainability of the eastern United States forests.’ This project will use digital technology including drones, piloted aircraft, and satellite-based sensors which will provide real-time, accurate measurements of the forests. The information collected from this project will be extremely influential to forest policy and the lawmaking of the region. 

“‘Forestry generally prides itself as a boots-on-the-ground business, while technology is rapidly changing access to information, [but] PERSEUS will provide the necessary training to help both students and landowners alike leverage these new tools,’ said Aaron Weiskittel, professor of forest biometrics and modeling, and director of the Center for Research on Sustainable Forests, at the University of Maine.’’

Mountain Men

“Moat Mountain {in the White Mountains} from North Conway,’' by Benjamin Champney (1817–1907)

“Men hang out their signs indicative of their respective trades; shoe makers hang out a gigantic shoe; jewelers a monster watch, and the dentist hangs out a gold tooth; but up in the Mountains of New Hampshire, God Almighty has hung out a sign to show that there He makes men.”

— Daniel Webster (1782-1852), American statesman, politician, lawyer and orator.

Boating formal wear

Advertisement mock-up for “This is Boatwear,” in the MIGHTY-MAC Collection of the Cape Ann Museum Library and Archives, Gloucester, Mass.

The Eastern Yacht Club, in Gloucester.

— Photo by Oceanhistory

Playing with light

“Salvator” (acrylic, gloss gel and modeling paste on linen), by Ryan Crotty, in the group shpw “Glow,’’ at the Flinn Gallery, Greenwich, Conn., through March 22.

The gallery says: “With work that wouldn't look out of place on a sci-fi movie set, cyberpunk future or high-end gallery, these artists play with light in creative and interesting ways. ‘‘

Llewellyn King: Folks want more power but not power lines

High-voltage overhead power lines.

— Photo by Magnolia677

WEST WARWICK,R.I.

If you punch in “outage map” in a search engine, you will get a series of maps, ranging from the whole country to state by state and even smaller jurisdictions. These maps show electrical outages across the United States and territories and are within 10 minutes of real time. The data come from the electrical utilities themselves.

The maps are enlightening. At this writing, there are some areas in the dark in Michigan and California. As  severe weather sweeps across the country, more outages appear on the maps.

Today’s outages are all weather-caused. But in just a few years, they will reflect something else, something more ominous: shortages in the available amount of electricity. They will occur when demand begins to outstrip supply, as it frequently does in some developing countries.

The nation is in the grips of two great transitions: a transition from fossil-based generation (coal, natural gas and some oil) to renewables (primarily wind and solar) and a transition to electricity, especially in transportation with electric vehicles.

We are in a rush to electrify in order to reduce carbon emissions.

There are an astounding 3,000 utilities, ranging in size from very small public and rural electric cooperatives to very large, investor-owned firms such as Southern Company and Exelon.

These make up the electric supply system, which has been described as the world’s largest engine. They all work together with surprising unity and are variously connected to the three electric grids, the Eastern Grid, the Western Grid and ERCOT, the free-standing Texas grid.

Their challenge isn’t only where will the power come from, but also will there be enough transmission to move it to where it is needed? Duane Highley, CEO of Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association Inc., an electric cooperative based in Westminster, Colo., told me that the addition of two electric cars to a family home can raise electric consumption by as much as 40 percent.

Many utilities, including those in such rapid growth states as Texas, are counting on distributed generation, which is when the utility enters into agreements with its customers to share the burden. This can involve agreements with incentives to allow the utility remotely to turn off certain functions during peak hours, and to buy power from its customers if they have rooftop solar installations or if they have backup generators.

After Texas was felled by Winter Storm Uri, in February 2021, many electric customers are turning to generators and rooftop solar to protect themselves, David Naylor, president of Rayburn Country Electric Cooperative Inc., in Rockwall, Texas, told me. Faced with a growth rate that has been as high as 8 and 9 percent in recent years. Naylor is vigorously pursuing distributed generation.

In the electric-utility industry, distributed generation is spoken of as “the first step in the virtual power plant.” In Connecticut there are two pilot projects, promoted by SmartPower, a nonprofit green-energy concern, with a utility, Eversource, and Connecticut Green Bank. They’re helping customers to install solar power and a substantial battery. In return the utility acquires the right to draw down from that battery on certain days at times of high demand.

All of this will help, but it doesn’t overcome the fact that between now and 2050, a target year for carbon reduction, electricity demand will double in the nation, according to many experts, and there is no way that demand can be met on the present generation and transmission trajectory.

The biggest frustration in the industry isn’t siting new wind farms and solar plants, but building new transmission to move electricity from the resource-rich areas where, as Tri-State’s Highley says, “the wind blows and the sun shines,” such as the Western states, to where it is needed.

With money pouring out of the Department of Energy for projects, the problem isn’t money but selfishness — selfishness as in “not in my backyard.” No one wants power lines, just the power. And everyone wants more of it.

The fact is that if the nation continues to electrify at the present rate, shortages could begin at the end of the decade and worsen as the century rolls on.

Those outage maps might become must-watching — until the power for our computers fails, and your region gets color-coded on the outage map you can’t see.

Llewellyn King is executive producer and host of White House Chronicle, on PBS. His email is llewellynking1@gmail.com, and he’s based in Rhode Island and Washington, D.C.

whchronicle.com

What we have

Frozen forest in Hillsborough County, N.H.

Damage done to pine forests in Wolfeboro, N.H., in the 1938 hurricane

— Photo by Peter Roome

and Lakewentworth

— Graphic by Icy98 -

“New York has people, the Northwest rain, Iowa soybeans, and Texas money. New Hampshire has weather and seasons.”

— Donald Hall (1928-2018), poet and essayist who lived for many years at his family farm, in Wilmot, N.H.

Artificial art?

“All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace and Deeper Meditations #1-#6” (video still), by Memo Akten, at Burlington (Vt.) City Arts, in the group show “Co-Created: The Artist in the Age of Intelligent Machines’’.

— Photo courtesy Burlington City Arts

The gallery says the exhibition “explores the impact, ethics and aesthetics of art created by artifical intelligence. The show tackles tough questions about the nature of artwork through the work of eight artists’’ — Jane Adams, Memo Akten, Minne Atairu, Lapo Frati, Jenn Karson, Mauro Martino, Casey Reas and Jason Rohrer.

ECHO, Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, in Burlington.

From slush to lush (in two months)

On Feb. 28, gradations of gray along a western Long Island Sound estuary in Connecticut. But March 1 marks the start of meteorological spring.

— Photo by Hilary Cosell

Sweetening a false spring

Making maple syrup in the New England woods (hand-painted lithograph, 1856), by Nathaniel Currier, at the D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Mass.

Bringing them back at night

The Shubert Theatre at the Boch Center, in Boston’s threatre district.

The Paradise Rock Club (formerly known as the Paradise Theater) is a 933-person capacity music venue in Boston.

Adapted from Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com

I love the title. Corean Reynolds has been named Boston’s “director of nightlife economy,’’ by Mayor Michelle Wu, in a post-COVID bid to re-energize consumers to patronize the capital of New England’s entertainment and eating-and-drinking sectors.

Her duties will include improving transportation and law enforcement.

Ms. Wu, like some other big city mayors, is animated by the desire to make the city less dependent on office workers as the move to remote work has slammed the city’s commercial real estate sector. This must include getting more people to live in the city, some via the conversion of office buildings into housing (much easier said than done) and, say, turning some streets into pedestrian-only ways.

I’m sure that Brett Smiley, Providence’s new mayor, will be watching how it goes

NHL promoting street hockey

A street hockey game.

Edited from a New England Council report:

“The National Hockey League has announced a partnership with RCX Sports, a leader in youth-organized sports, to create ‘NHL Street,’ a North American wide, youth street hockey league. 

“Although the NHL was involved in street hockey programs in the 1990s, this rebirth has rebranded with a new look and its mission, NHL Street is a program with the intent to build a new era in street hockey that is fun, relevant and aimed at getting more kids involved in playing the game. This program also breaks down financial barriers that have prevented children from playing in the past by advocating for an accessible form of the game….

“‘We want to create good memories,’ said Andrew Ference, National Hockey League director of social impact, growth and fan development. ‘We don’t need to create a whole batch of the next NHLers. That might happen organically on its own, but we just want [to] create really fun times and memories with hockey.’’’

Scup popular, but not so much where a lot of it comes from -- R.I.

Scup

From ecoRI News

Consider the humble scup.

Ignored, disrespected, even feared, scup is one of the most plentiful fish in Narragansett Bay, a climate-change winner whose numbers are rising with Rhode Island’s water temperatures. Yet many Rhode Islanders have never heard of it, let alone tasted one.

Rhode Island fishermen caught more than 4 million pounds of scup in 2021, making it the state’s biggest catch among fish and second in the state’s commercial seafood school only to that better-known kingpin — squid, aka calamari.

While calamari is Rhode Island’s popular state appetizer, you won’t find scup in most supermarket seafood cases in the Ocean State. Instead, most of the commercial catch is exported to large cities like New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago with large immigrant populations whose cultures are more familiar with scup.

To read the article, please hit this link.