EcoArts: (continued...)

On October 4th, in Music Meets Science, musician and founder of Ensemble Galilei Carolyn Anderson Surrick, CU Boulder College of Music faculty and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies Dr. Steven Bruns, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientist Dr. James Butler engaged in a discussion about the ability of music to inspire action on climate change. Surrick shared a musical presentation by Ensemble Galilei, combinding imagery from National Geographic’s “Exploration and Discovery,” Celtic music, poetry, and text. The piece evoked the mystery, sorrow, elation, and hilarity experienced by famous explorers, introspection on the optimism of humanity, and love for this world. Bruns and Butler rejected the division between art and science, noting that each is based upon technical foundations, insights, discoveries, and emotional intensity. The panelists urged the audience to embrace idealism, like that experienced during World War II and the preparations for the first moon walk, to vigorously combat climate change.

On October 25th, Lucy Lippard, curator of the “Weather Report: Art and Climate Change” exhibit, concluded the CEES/EcoArts discussions with Art and Climate Change. She urged artists and scientists to work together for social justice regarding climate change, leveraging their synergy to translate scientific knowledge into something comprehensible. Lippard believes it’s the “artists’ job to teach us how to see.” Indeed, the exhibition harnessed art’s potential to inspire and move, contemplating a vision for a sustainable future.

Breakthroughs: (continued...)

Cars like the new Volkswagen tandem-seat diesel car, which gets 235 miles per gallon, exemplify this approach. 

More commonly, people look to electric technology for maximum fuel efficiency in the form of electric vehicles, hybrids, and   hybrid plug-ins. Today, an electric vehicle can go from zero to sixty miles per hour in six seconds and get six miles per kilowatt-hour of electricity. Growing in popularity, hybrids yield forty percent more efficiency than gas-powered cars by utilizing their electrical systems during regenerative braking and deceleration. For both hybrid and electric cars, the largest impacts on overall efficiency likely will come with the technologicial advancements of plug-ins. Charging batteries from the grid, with the promise of eventually leveraging renewable energy sources, will cut U.S.          dependency on oil as well as transform the transportation sector as we know it.   

Integral to prompting business investment in vehicle technologies is  having policy mechanisms that explicitly favor resource efficiency.  One of RMI’s policy analysts, Natalie Mims, described the basics behind one such mechanism, the Feebate. Instead of strict regulations which punish inefficiency and incentives which reward efficiency, the Feebate model works on an ever-changing pivot point in each size category of vehicle to reward those pushing efficiency ahead and charging those who fall behind.  RMI’s study of this dynamic model indicates that the combination of  incentives and rewards could phase out

inefficient vehicles, while maintaining consumer choices across all size classes. Though one of the major goals of implementing this policy mechanism is to reduce U.S.      dependency on oil, RMI specifically supports this mechanism because it falls directly in line with the motto as put forth by Michael Ogburn: “Green because we think it will make green in your pocket.”

Besides sharing vehicle technology advancements, RMI’s team drove home that innovation, so necessary to solving the world’s energy crisis, often proceeds in relatively simple steps.  RMI will continue to work on increasing energy efficiency, bit by bit, with a whole systems engineering approach.