Energy Matters

  Trees To a non-physicist, it seems for all the world that the shade from trees could be transformational for the issue of a heating climate.  When we’re walking along a baking hot road in the summer mid-day and suddenly reach a shady stretch sheltered by a towering leafy tree, we think, “Man, it’s like night and day - trees are just the OBVIOUS ANSWER!” So when we ask the physicist, “What volume of air could we say is cooled, and cooled by how much, from the shade of one tree?” He just mutters and shakes his head.  “We couldn’t.” Non-physicist (with the righteous petulance of a 3-year old): “WHY NOT?!?!? IT’S PHYSICS!” Physicist (grimacing, head-shaking, visibly withdrawing): “No, I mean yes, it’s physics, but it’s, well, (squints, shudders) it’s biology! mixed up with geology and geography and meteorology, and well - just no.” “BUT (now ranting) IT’S OBVIOUS the air is SO much cooler when I walk through a shaded spot on a hot tar road.  If all the roads were shade...

  Food or Energy: Do We Have To Choose? Climate-anxious Liberal: “Whew, finally solar installations at scale are helping to turn the tide on fossil fuel generated electricity! Put it everywhere! Life’s a trade-off!” Food-security-anxious Liberal: “Horrors! The solar farms are stealing all the agricultural land, we’ll starve!” Tree-hugging Liberal: “The solar armies will spare no forests in their quest to dominate the surface of the planet!” Landscape enthusiast Liberal: “Ughh, I’m getting a headache just thinking about the future endless monotony of photovoltaics dominating my cherished views!” Can these over-wrought liberals find solace and mutual understanding on the subject of deploying renewable energy infrastructure? Unsurprisingly, we recommend they start by looking at some numbers. In a recent column we mentioned that, of the 10 acres of forest per person in Maine, if one acre were replaced with solar panels that would more than compensate for the average carbon footprint....