Will we be able to survive future superstorms?

According to a report filed by the United States Department of Energy (DOE), the country’s energy infrastructure may not be able to sustain future superstorms like Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy. 

As infrastructures get older, they grow susceptible to power outages, which can cost the taxpayers anywhere between $20 and $50 billion annually. And “the damages are going to get worse…” warns Jonathan Pershing Deputy Assistant Secretary of Energy at the DOE.

By 2030, approximately $1 trillion in energy assets in the Gulf Coast will be at risk of rising sea levels and increased hurricane activity. Last year was the 2^nd most expensive year on record for weather related disasters, with $115 billion in damages caused Sandy and extended droughts (Katrina was even more costly!).

“Increasing temperatures, decreasing water availability, more intense storm events, and sea level rise will each independently, and in some cases in combination, affect the ability of the United States to produce and transmit electricity from fossil, nuclear, and existing and emerging renewable energy sources,” the DOE report claims.

New research performed by Kerry Emanuel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reveals that greenhouse gas emissions may contribute to a 40% spike in the rate of tropical cyclones by 2100. Emanuel predicts that “these storms will generate stronger winds, rain and storm surges around the world. This extreme storm activity will likely be felt most acutely in the North Pacific, the North Atlantic and the southern Indian Ocean.”

Superstorms have already ravaged energy infrastructures across the U.S. Sandy caused fuel shortages throughout New Jersey and New York. Hot summer months forced power plants in New England and Illinois to shut down. Droughts and a lack of access to water resulted in fracking restrictions in Texas, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania.

The DOE report cites that these phenomenon “may become more frequent and intense in the future decades.” 2012 was the hottest year since the U.S. began recording temperatures back in 1895. These temperatures were followed by historic droughts, which reduced water available for generating hydroelectric power, cooling coal burning power plants, and supplying fracking operations.

 “We don’t have a robust energy system, and the costs of dealing with adverse environmental conditions are significant,” says Pershing. “The cost today is measured in the billions. Over the coming decades, it will be in the trillions. You can’t just put your head in the sand anymore.”

In the future, will you be able to rely on your regular utility company to provide for you? Or, when supply struggles to meet demand, will you be treated like an animal and left to forage for energy? Hopefully when that day comes you’ll have invested in the SH-Box by NRGLab, a renewable generator that’s portable, long-lasting, and completely carbon-free! That’s right - you could cut ties with public utilities and save money doing it! The SH-Box produces electricity for as little as $.03 per kWh. That’s less than a third of what you’re probably paying now…

Become energy independent. Be prepared for the future. Visit nrglab.asia for updates on the revolutionary SH-Box.

Prepared to adapt to climate change?

The United States recently conducted its first nation-wide survey on the public’s preparedness for, and perception of, climate change. Turns out a majority of people don’t care to spend their tax dollars to rebuild and protect the shoreline homes of others. “Big surprise,” says no one.

The survey was conducted by Stanford University and found that only a third of people supported residential relocation away from hazardous beach areas or erecting walls to protect against flooding. The cost of such redevelopment is estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars. (After the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, the state of New Jersey received a $10 billion bailout!)

According to Stanford political science professor and director of the survey, Jon Korsnick, his is the first nation-wide poll aimed at gauging public opinion on society’s readiness to adapt to global warming.

The survey was comprised of 1,174 people, and was conducted online by GFK Custom Research. 62% of people favored heightening building codes to make new developments stormproof. However, 60% believed those individuals living on the coast should be responsible for fitting the bill, as opposed to levying a nation-wide income tax. In terms of specific solutions, about 80% said disaster relief should come from local property taxes. 47% believed the government should ban people from rebuilding their damaged homes and should be forced to relocate.
 
“(This) reflects the public’s fatalistic sense that it’s more realistic to just give up the beach than to try to save it when other storms in the future will just wash it away again,” said Korsnick. Why build a wall when the warmer the planet gets, the higher the waves will crash?

There are three main ways to protect coastlines against today’s climate-induced super storms. You can ‘hold the line’ with physical barriers, replenish the beach and add sand dunes, or simply move away from the beach altogether. As previously mentioned, most people seem to prefer the latter option.

Trillions of tourist dollars are at stake. People’s coastal lives are at stake. Should the government be able to tell a person where to live? Or do we, as citizens of a collective, have a social obligation to do what’s best for everyone, and chose where we live responsibly?

Whether people will have to give up their beautiful beach-fronts or not remains to be seen. In the meantime, while we debate how to protect ourselves against the damage we’ve already done, an equally important debate should be waged on our plans for the future of energy.

NRGLab wants to be a large part of the discussion. Better yet, they want to be a part of the solution. By developing a system of low-cost, carbon-free electricity production, NRGLab hopes to free us from our dependency on dirty oil. Eliminating carbon emissions will diminish the threat of super storms. Taxpayers won’t be stuck with the bill, either. Learn how affordable it can be to own an SH-box at nrglab.asia.

To view the study conducted by Stanford, visit: http://stanford.io/16kTvK.