China-U.S. Cooperation

Excerpt from the 7-page paper on China-U.S. Cooperation: Connecting An Asia – North America Super-Grid that will be discussed during the Living Earth Movement on January 26.

The world faces an existential threat of climate disaster that affects all nations, the rich and the poor.  2022 was a year of worsening climate disaster globally, from floods, drought, hurricanes and tropical cyclones, wildfires, mudslides, heat waves, and even record snows from the weakening of the Arctic polar vortex. Global greenhouse gas emissions still continue to increase.

If we do not take aggressive measures to curb greenhouse gas emissions, we increase the risk of releasing irreversible global geophysical forces. We cannot refreeze melting permafrost on land and sea beds, releasing gigatons of methane, or refreeze an ice-free Arctic Ocean once it is absorbing and not reflecting sunlight.

However, the good news about accelerating our global response to climate change comes from three scientists. In January 2022, in Nature, the preeminent scientific journal, Cong Wu, Xiao Ping Zhang, and Michael Sterling found that solar energy alone can “lead to full power availability all year round” by linking continental-scale renewable energy systems with a 13-hour or more time differential.  This means that a link between Asia and North America, using solar alone, could meet all our energy needs.

As the sun sets at 6 PM in California, it’s 10 AM the next morning in Beijing. An undersea cable connection between an Asia super-grid across the Bering Strait, 52 miles wide with an average depth of only 160 feet, to Alaska and the North American super-grid will do the trans-continental job.

Continental grids will be built piece by piece, step by step, nation by nation. It’s an effective way to take advantage of the earth’s rotation to provide energy from the sun and wind. The larger the scale, the more efficient the use of renewable energy and the more cost-effective. Cooperative and continental-scale renewable energy development led by China and the United States is the basis for effective and timely global greenhouse gas displacement and climate change mitigation.

1. Solar is a readily available technology that can be installed as single panels or solar farms, or above parking lots, on rooftops, or as dual-use agriculture above pastures and crops. Each panel contributes to global greenhouse displacement.
2. Solar can be installed quickly. It has lead times of weeks to months and not the many years for large scale wind farms.
3. Solar costs continue to decrease, and solar’s efficiency in turning sunlight into electricity continues to increase. Fossil fuels cannot compete with zero-fuel-cost renewables. Taking advantage of continental-scale renewable energy systems reduces the preindustrial carbon dioxide levels below 300 parts per million.

For more details on Roy Morrison’s presentation on Thursday, January 26th