Dr. Michael Webber highlights the scale of energy consumption required to preserve food through refrigeration in the United States.
Opinion
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…”
Opinion
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 …”
Assertion Supported
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.”
Assertion Supported
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…”
Assertion Supported
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.”
Insight
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…”