Dr. Michael Webber
Professor, The University of Texas at Austin. On 1 show, 2 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
academicengineerauthorexecutiveinvestor@MichaelEWebber ↗michaelwebber.com ↗Wikipedia ↗
Webber is an energy researcher focused on grid reliability, decarbonization, clean fuels, and the food-energy-water nexus. He previously served as Chief Technology Officer at Energy Impact Partners and Chief Science and Technology Officer at ENGIE, and authored several books including Thirst for Power.
1shows
2appearances
39statements
27resolved
26supported
1contradicted
96%fully supported
Everything Dr. Michael Webber said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Webber: Solar panels are significantly more land-efficient than corn ethanol
“If you have an acre or whatever amount of land you have and is hit with photons, you can convert those photons into a useful form of energy, say electricity, with something like 20% efficiency. But if you convert it first into bioenergy, Corn for ethanol, then…”
Webber: Oil and gas conflicts risk being replaced by water wars
“But I worry that we're going to replace oil resource wars, or what we're seeing today, natural gas resource wars, with water resource wars. There have been water wars in the past. I'm worried that we'll have more water wars. That, that's something I really am …”
Webber: US food cold chain outspends Switzerland and Sweden's total energy
“We use more energy for our cold chain than countries like Switzerland and Sweden use combined for all purposes.”
Webber: Shipping wine from France to NY uses less energy than California
“Wine from France delivered by ship to New York is less energy intensive than the closer wine in California moved there by truck.”
Webber: Dietary choices impact the environment far more than food miles
“The transportation miles Tends to get the most attention, but actually is not as important. A great study came out of Carnegie Mellon over a decade ago, looking at sort of these food miles, and they're, the conclusion they had was that food choices, meaning th…”
Webber: Multi-paddock cattle grazing can achieve net-negative carbon life cycles
“There are some analyses just actually they will be carbon negative on life cycle because what the cattle do if it's not too concentrated will improve the soil health and take CO two out of the atmosphere.”
Webber: Cheaper energy may drive energy-intensive desalination via Jevons paradox
“The correction to that might be, if you lower the cost of energy, you might end up pursuing more energy-intensive forms of water-like desalination, so it might end up settling out at about the same price. And in fact, that's what we see in many places, is that…”
Webber: Energy emissions and water disruptions form an accelerating feedback loop
“Part of that is one of the deep ironies of the energy-water nexus is that the energy system helps create climate change through the radiative forcing of the emissions from the fuels we use, and the way climate change manifests itself is through changes to the …”
Webber: US water desperation will soon force creation of trading markets
“We're not quite at that point in the United States or elsewhere, so we haven't had the desperation, but it feels like we're knocking on the door of it, and we'll get there soon.”
Webber: The US spends nine energy units per food unit ingested
“So the food we need to ingest in the United States is about one quad of energy a year, and we consume about a hundred quads of energy over the course of a year. One quad of that is in the food we eat, but there's another, say, nine quads of energy to grow and …”
Webber: Consumers waste less meat than produce primarily because of price
“The good news of the meat world is that we tend to waste less meat because it's so expensive. We tend to waste other things that are Sort of less expensive fruits and vegetables that don't have good shelf life”
Webber: Hundreds of millions of tons of manure could supply biomethane
“We have especially hundreds of millions of tons of manure that we could turn into biomethane as opposed to just leaving it as an environmental hotspot, a liability.”
Webber: Climate change will increase energy needed for agriculture and storage
“It looks like we'll spend more energy to overcome the consequences of climate change, to make up for the lost productivity, or to store the food and the crops.”
Webber: Indoor farming economics work for produce, but not commodity grains
“It ends up being pretty expensive, so we wouldn't do it for the bulk commodity crops like wheat or corn, but for fruits and vegetables, that might work.”
Webber: US water heating uses more energy than Switzerland and Sweden combined
“That four percent of national energy consumption in water heating is bigger than what Switzerland and Sweden use for all purposes combined in a year.”
Webber: 40% of US water withdrawals cool power plants
“And about 40% of all the water withdrawals in the United States every day are just to cool power plants.”
Webber: Nuclear, carbon capture, and bioenergy are highly water-intensive
“Traditional nuclear, 19 seventies nuclear with big water cooling, very water intensive. Carbon capture systems are very water intensive. Bioenergy crops are very water intensive.”
Webber: Fuel choice impacts water use more than improving heat exchangers
“But I think the primary choice is ultimately on the energy side. Fuel choice has a bigger impact than improving the heat exchangers.”
Webber: Decarbonization will reduce water intensity by 2036 despite severe strains
“And so I think there'll be some celebration of how the process of decarbonization reduced our water intensity overall, but we're still going to have some pretty severe strains we have to deal with.”
Webber: Dietary fats share roughly the same energy density as fossil fuels
“Material, especially like the lipids and fats are kind of the same energy density as fossil fuels, which is really incredible.”
Webber: Global photosynthesis averages 0.3% efficiency, peaking at 10%
“The global photosynthetic mean is like.3% efficient, and really good crops in really healthy areas, and the ecosystem might be as high as a few percent, maybe eight or 10% in some places, and this is far shy of the efficiency of like an electric motor.”
Webber: The US food system consumes up to 15% of national energy
“Different people do the analysis and come up with anywhere between like eight and 15% of national annual energy consumption is for the food system.”
Webber: Cold chain and cooking consume 40% of food system energy
“And then another, like, 40% of the food system's energy requirements, or like four percent of national energy consumption, is in the cold chain and in the cooking.”
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Dr.'s full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 CATALYSTLEDGER | Professor, The University of Texas at Austin | 2 | 39 | 96% 26/27 | full record on Catalyst → |