Having been an enthusiastic follower of environmental issues (In fact we placed it on the Agenda of the NDCP Strategic Studies Group in 2002-2010), I have gone from naysayer to believer back to naysayer, then to a pragmatist, which certainly is a dynamic one. The reality for me today is that certainly the problem exists, as I have seen in our own environment – vanishing forests, diminishing water resources, harsher weather with stronger storms and frequent floods.

The Climate Change issue is a major agenda of the US left, highlighted by the Albert Gore agenda that started after he lost the Presidential election to Barack Obama. He did have some impressive presentations during his world tour, including in Manila. He continues this effort including a campaign he joined in partnership with Emmy-winning producer Kevin Wall, Live Earth “built upon the belief that entertainment has the power to transcend social and cultural barriers to move the world community to action.” (Wikipedia)

Many of us believe in the value of technology. I have been quite disappointed in deuterium energy development, which, after viewing a British Museum of Science exposition in 1975, made me think that it would be a panacea that would break the OPEC stranglehold on the world economy and make the Philippines, next to the United States, quite rich due to our Philippine Deep alongside the Marianas Trench. As it turned out, we’re not there yet as the scientist’s theories have not been put to practical use, and a new dimension has been thrown in: D2O can be processed from relatively shallower waters, throwing out the advantage of both Trenches, with the caveat that it could be a trade off, with cost of processing as the major element.

It is of course likewise understood that as climate change has been affected gravely by developments due to human actions, humanity can likewise develop interventions that can mitigate and even resolve the problem.

For alternative energy, one significant development, in my opinion, is forthcoming: the perfection of the application of the Tesla principle, long overshadowed by electric revolution along the AC power generation concept developed by Thomas Edison. Followers of alternative energy ideas will have noted the great amount of fake news (and SCAM ads) related to making cheap devices using this principle. But a local company that will soon emerge has actually put into fruition the real thing. It will make fossil-based power generation a thing of the past, but I surmise that given the amount of investment by existing energy players, not to mention the oil giants, that company will advance with extreme caution. Indeed they are doing so, and will limit start-up production to address islands and towns off the grid.

But a recent development in the utilities field may even change that – and allow that company to hasten the pace, and its added advantage of having no need to use the grid. It is because both solar and wind energy are now emerging faster than believed, and solar cell efficiency has not even gone beyond 50%.

In the utilities field, it seems that existing alternative energy players are gaining the upper hand, with the use of coal declining (a setback to US President Donald Trump’s passion). From a tweet from EP Administrator Scott Pruitt, power emissions are falling, “approaching Clean Power Plan goals”: (See https://twitter.com/EPAScottPruitt)

“In all that bedlam”, says Bloomberg, “it’s easy to lose sight of an equally important (if less sexy) trend: demand for electricity is stagnant.” One of the causes, it seems, is the fact that industrial output has fallen, or moved elsewhere in the past decade, especially to China. Optimists believe that this will end and industrial output will redound as a result of nanotechnology, and advancement in Artificial intelligence (AI).

Nevertheless, here’s the graphic reality:

This leads to eventual low growth, a great plus factor for the environment.

Bruce Nilles of BeyondCoal.org surmises that, “There is a lot of talk about (natural gas) being the primary cause of CO2 reductions in the US electric sector. Putting aside CH4 (for both gas and coal), the latest analysis shows: 75% of carbon reductions from efficiency, wind and solar; 25% from (natural gas).”

That new energy system I mentioned has the possibility of getting much of these percentages in the future. That new system has the potential of powering road, rail and sea transport in the future in addition to having a monopoly of the electric utilities market.
2017 is a banner year indeed, and this final graph shows the tremendous decrease in CO2 emissions in the U.S. that will most probably be followed by dramatic changes in CO2 emissions worldwide, given the trend that has been established in the United States, its withdrawal from the Paris Accords notwithstanding.

All told, this is great news for Mother Earth!!!