#HTE
Earth Day is this Thursday so this week I’ll be sharing posts related to places & ideas that mitigate the perils we face with a warming planet. After looking down at the planet for the last 7 years and learning more about how we impact it, I think the complex crisis that we face all comes back to the fact that we have released, and continue to release, too much carbon into the Earth’s atmosphere. Almost everything that we do produces some form of carbon emission in its processing, transportation, or consumption. This excess carbon warms the planet, both in the oceans’ waters and on land, leading to more volatility in our weather, which can disrupt and devastate our civilization that’s been constructed with predictable temperatures, precipitation, and water-levels in mind.
If we’re simplifying the problem of a warming planet, we can also think about solutions in a similarly simplified manner. First, if our activity produces too much carbon, we need to employ smarter, more sustainable technologies to generate and produce the things we need - like electricity, food, transport, etc. Second, we can implement technologies that remove carbon from the atmosphere. The best ones we have at the moment are trees - which have been photosynthetically feeding on carbon for millions of years. Brilliant people are trying to develop others.
So to start off the week, here’s the Westmont Rooftop Solar Project in San Pedro, California. 2 million square feet of solar panels now cover what was previously unused area on the roof of a distribution center. The panels have a bifacial design, meaning they collect reflected light from the surface of the roof in addition to direct sunlight. This enables the panels to generate up to 45% more power than traditional rooftop solar panels and power 5,000 nearby homes. I love this example because it shows that we can not only be more thoughtful about how we generate our energy, but also the land we use to do so.
I have a few posts lined up for the coming days. Here’s to a better future for our one and only home!
Benjamin Grant, Founder
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33.765342°, -118.286512°
Source imagery: Nearmap
https://dailyoverview.tumblr.com/post/648841834586570752