Stanford Uni – Evaluating Energy Solutions to Climate Change

In this video Mark Jacobson, professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University, tries to objectively compare the main energy sources that could be used to fuel the current US vehicle fleet. In doing so he compares a variety of factors such as life cycle carbon emissions, air pollution, land and water use. He tries to amalgamate these factors into a final weighted score but by that stage it’s clear that the winners are wind and the two varieties of solar (surprise, surprise) and the losers are biofuels and coal, even with sequestration. The main point of this is to try and give policy makers a clearer guide of what to help subsidise. Of course in the real world, where money is involved, things are never that sensible.