Manila Flooding Torture

This afternoon, around 3:15pm, there was heavy rain for an hour in Makati, then light rains for the next 20 minutes or so. Many parts of Metro Manila experienced such downpour, also some surrounding provinces. Many streets were flooded.

(photo from ANC24; descent from Skyway, going to Buendia intersection, Makati)

Heaaaavvyy traffic followed in many areas of the metropolis, especially in Buendia and Ayala Avenue in Makati.  Productivity losses today is big; fuel consumption by cars and buses is big. I think this unresolved flooding in many Makati streets will affect the candidacy of VP Binay in 2016.

That area at the PNR rails, Mayapis st-Buendia near SLEX flyover, is a perennial headache. Flash flood from Ayala, Buendia, other streets go to that small and narrow creek. The Binays were the Mayors (father, mother, now the son) of Makati for 28 years now, uninterrupted. They could have done something significant in that area. 

(photo from inquirer.net; Skyway and Buendia-SLEX intersection below, Makati)

One reason why I support another reclamation project in Manila Bay is that the many creeks and rivers in the metropolis need large scale, monster and sustained dredging. Get all those mud, soil and solid wastes and dump them not in sanitary landfills in Quezon City or Montalban or Bulacan, but in a new land to be created at Manila Bay. It's the quickest and cheapest solution that I can think of to minimize frequent street flooding in Makati, other cities of Metro Manila.

A friend suggested that the projected sea level rise will endanger MM and other major urban centers of the country. Well, that projected sea level rise is more alarmist and sensational than realistic. A good paper from Ed Caryl in NTZ, Data Show Holocene Sea Levels TrendingDownwards…2 Meters Higher 4000 And 7000 Years Ago! (05 May 2014),

In the last 8000 years, sea level has been substantially higher than at present, up to 2 meters or more higher in two periods four to seven thousand years ago. Sea level during the Holocene has been falling since that period.

(See level rise from 22,000 to 6,000 years ago.)

A friend who has worked for more than 15 years in Makati, Eniale S.,said that there was major drainage re-piping on both sides of the railroad (intersection Buendia & SLEX) from former Eastern Telecoms and where the new Cash n' Carry is now, across the railroad up to Makati Med area. Huge drainage pipes, diameters that can accommodate a regular-sized car, and heavy equipment were used for more than a year. 

The creek in that area, Mayapis St. along the rail tracks, is simply too narrow, too shallow, to absorb huge volume of flood waters from many parts of Makati.

Good project by the Makati City government then. But I think the drainage is not regularly dredged. Just one heavy flash flood can bring in tons of mud and solid waste into the belly of those drainage pipes, and there are many flash floods yearly. If they are not cleared and dredged yearly, perhaps even a tricycle would no longer fit in those huge pipes. And that contributes to frequent street flooding.

It's a pity that Buendia-Ayala-Pasay Road network is where the employees, managers and CEOs of many of the country's big companies and financial institutions pass daily, and they are subjected to this regular traffic torture. 

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See also:
Climate Tricks 23: Using Typhoon Haiyan for Climate and Energy Rent-Seeking, November 30, 2013 
Global Warming Hits the Philippines, Part 3, January 26, 2014 
Climate Tricks 27: More Risks and Danger Ahead, Send More Money to the UN, April 01, 2014

Energy Econ 19: Wind Power, Feed in Tariff and Electricity Subsidy

The problem with militant environmentalism, case of Oriental Mindoro (including Puerto Galera, Calapan). With occasional brown outs and high electricity cost, a wind power company will supply power at P8,20/kwh.

But the distribution utility (DU), Oriental Mindoro Electric Cooperative (ORMECO) will pay the genco only P6.50/kwh. The difference of P1.70/kwh will be collected as universal charge for missionary electrification (UC-ME). It is not clear who are the energy consumers who will pay this, those in Oriental Mindoro or the rest of Luzon or those under Meralco franchise area.

Wind farms are entitled to a feed in tariff (FIT) of P8.53/kwh. If Oriental Mindoro will insist on having wind and solar or other renewables only, then they should be ready to pay for higher electricity while having occasional brown outs at the same time. 

 FIT for renewables, Philippines, Pesos per kilowatt hour

	NREB Proposed	ERC Approved
Hydro, run of river	6.15	5.90
Biomass	7.00	6.63
Wind	10.37	8.53
Solar	17.95	9.68

Source: Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), rates approved July 27, 2012

There is another solution aside from slapping the rest of energy consumers with higher universal charge and FIT -- build conventional power plants like coal and natural gas. Mindoro island is just next to Palawan island where the Malampaya gas field is located. Cheap and stable power source. A 100 MW coal or nat-gas plant will deliver 100 MW. In contrast, a 100 MW wind farm will deliver only 20 MW on average, and yet charge higher to electricity consumers. 

But... but... but... some environmental militants would rather have brown outs and expensive electricity than have a coal power plant in Or. Mindoro. Report from Manila Standard.

So people who applaud the WWF, them campaigners of "glorify darkness for 1 hour", actually glorify darkness for many hours, IF the power plant does not come from their crony energy sources that require expensive FIT.

The WWF, Greenpeace, Oxfam, other militant environmentalists' goal, along with the UN, Al Gore and various environmental agencies of many governments worldwide, is global ecological central planning. To have more expensive electricity, and indirectly, less modernization to "save the planet." 

The WWF explicitly applauded the approval of FIT rates in 2012.

These guys are possibly high on too many fiction movies and novels. As of 2012, they projected that wind power in the Philippines can reach 7,400 MW by 2022. Data from the DOE show that total wind capacity in the whole country as of 2012-2013 was only 17-33 MW, all in Luzon. Another 67 MW supposedly to be online by September this year. And another 439 MW up to 2017, total of about 540 MW by 2017, too far from their fictional target of 7,400 MW.

Again, wind power on average produce only about 20 percent of their rated capacity. When there is no wind or it is too weak, power production is zero. When the wind is too strong, the turbine has to be disengaged and power production is zero. For communities and cities, shops and industrial zones that rely on wind or solar, they do not want even an hour of brown out, so they need back up power along with the renewables. Such back up power should come from peak load plants like diesel, not base load plants like coal that must run 24 hours day as much as possible. And this makes the cost of electricity become higher.

A friend, Todd Foster, commented,

All those people telling you to not build power plants to handle the upcoming disaster (yes, disaster, kiss your 7% growth rate goodbye) are themselves living luxuriously in societies that are swimming in power (relatively). Western leftists do not have your best interests at heart. Besides, cheap power will help in cleaning up real pollution, such as the incredibly dirty water.

Yes, and the big irony here in the anti-coal, anti-nuke, anti-nat gas, anti-"non-renewables" groups like WWF, is that they are clearly in direct conflict of interest. Take former DOE Sec. Vince Perez. His company owns the wind plants in Ilocos, that will benefit the FIT, sure revenue. Then he also chairs the WWF and WWF is an explicit campaigner for the implementation of RE law and FIT, see the link I gave above. The RE law was also enacted when he was the DOE Secretary.

Another friend, Ed Caryl, commented on that report on rare birds,

A coal plant will endanger birds and a windfarm won't? Trading a coal plant for a wind farm just increases the pollution in China, it doesn't reduce it. And what will be the backup power when the wind stops?

Ed also wrote this article in NTZ, among others.

Plots Show It Should Be Clear ThatSomething Else Besides CO2 Is In Charge…CO2 Correlates Poorly

by Ed Caryl, 26 March 2914

... This article will compare an ocean cycle, the Atlantic Multi-decadel Oscillation (AMO), and CO2 as temperature drivers over the last 133 years, since 1880. The annual temperature data is from GISS. The plots are scatter diagrams with temperature on the vertical axis and AMO index or CO2 atmospheric concentration on the horizontal axis.... 

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See also:

Energy Econ 15: Electricity Angsts, Presentation at UP Diliman, March 08, 2014

Energy Econ 16: Electricity and Development, March 20, 2014 

Energy Econ 17: Brown outs in Mindanao, Thin Reserves in Luzon, April 11, 2014 

Energy Econ 18: Brown outs in Metro Manila?, April 16, 2014

Business 360 17: Electricity and GDP Growth, April 15, 2014

Climate Tricks 25: Demonizing CO2 as a Toxic, Pollutant Gas

Carbon dioxide or CO2, is a gas composed of one molecules of carbon and two molecules of oxygen. It's not a harmful gas, it is not an evil gas. But with the UN, Al Gore, and various campaigners of more environmental and energy regulations, more government, CO2 has been demonized.

Here's a chart, global air temperature UAH and RSS average (blue) and their trend line (red) vs. CO2 concentration in the atmosphere (green), January 2002 to December 2013. There is "causality"?

Source: http://friendsofscience.org/

A friend, Dr. Tony Leachon, posted yesterday in his facebook wall, "Global warming is everyone's problem, but which countries have contributed to it the most?"

I asked him, "Doc Tony, you are a scientist yourself. You believe in the claim that CO2 is a pollutant and harmful gas?"

Then Rosel DS joined. He wrote,

“Yes Nonoy, if CO2 is in excess as it contributes to the Greenhouse effect. US EPA Chief Jackson wrote: "In the endangerment finding, Jackson declares that current and projected concentrations of “the six key well-mixed greenhouse gases–carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6)–in the atmosphere threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations.” seehttp://www.forbes.com/.../epa-administrator-resigns.../

EPA Chief Resigns: Declared Carbon Dioxide A Pollutant

www.forbes.com

EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson announced this morning she would resign as hea...See More

What happened to people’s high school or college biology? The gas that we and the rest of humanity exhale, the gas that our pets, farm and wild animals exhale, the gas that our plants, crops, trees use to produce their own food via photosynthesis, is CO2. It is a useful gas. No CO2, no plant life, no animals, humans that eat various agri crops. Now it is a harmful, pollutant, evil gas? Some institutions are just too corrupt to bend even basic natural science for their political agenda.

I asked Rosel if he or EPA head Jackson can see CO2? If so, what is its color as a pollutant? Can heand Jackson smell CO2? If so, how does it smell as a pollutant?

Rosel replied,

“Nonoy, we all agree on our biology basics. When in excess, carbon dioxide (coming mostly from industrial sources) becomes the primary green house gas that is the cause of climate change. I assume you agree on this. Hence for the public I share: http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/gases/co2.html Do you have anything to add to enlighten the discussion? Lizbeth de Padua Dante Guanlao Simbulan Jr. Gina Lopez Doc Emer Jimmy Valena Thanks

Carbon Dioxide Emissions | Climate Change | US EPA

www.epa.gov

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the primary greenhouse gas emitted through human activit...See More

And Doc Tony Leachon also replied that “Yes, CO2 is toxic.”

And Rosel added,

“I have to agree with Tony Leachon. A good thing can easily be a bad thing in excess. "Carbon dioxide content in fresh air (averaged between sea-level and 10 kPa level, i.e., about 30 km altitude) varies between 0.036% (360 ppm) and 0.039% (390 ppm), depending on the location.["CarbonTracker CT2011_oi (Graphical map of CO2)". esrl.noaa.gov.]

“CO2 is an asphyxiant gas and not classified as toxic or harmful in accordance with Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals standards of United Nations Economic Commission for Europe by using the OECD Guidelines for the Testing of Chemicals. In concentrations up to 1% (10,000 ppm), it will make some people feel drowsy. Concentrations of 7% to 10% may cause suffocation, even in the presence of sufficient oxygen, manifesting as dizziness, headache, visual and hearing dysfunction, and unconsciousness within a few minutes to an hour.[Wikipedia]”

And I have to ask again Rosel as he did not answer my questions: “Can you see CO2 as a pollutant? Can you smell CO2 as a pollutant? Answerable by yes or not, answer them, do not evade.”

His point, "When in excess, CO2... becomes the primary GHG..."
What is that excess? From about 285 ppm at the start of the Industrial Revolution or nearly 2 centuries ago, currently it's 400 ppm or 0.04%. Then you introduce 10,000 ppm, 70,000 ppm, you are introducing sort of zoombie dinosaurs and highly fictional stories. Get real. UN IPCC guys talk only of "doubling of CO2" (meaning about 800 ppm) to cause catastrophic/apocalyptic/horrific result in antropogenic global warming (AGW) of up to 4 C by the end of this century. Of course they mean "send us more money, lots and lots of money, and we will fight CC".

I suggested to Doc Tony that since he believes that  "CO2 is toxic", then he should be careful when he kisses his wife lips to lips too long, they will be poisoning each other as they both exhale CO2.

As I pointed out above, CO2 is a useful gas. No CO2, or very low levels of CO2 means plant extinction or near-extinction. No rice, no veggies, no grass for cattle, etc. In many greenhouse farming, CO2 as plant food and plant fertilizer, is introduced as supplement, up to 1,000 ppm. http://notrickszone.com/.../higher-co2-concentrations.../

Higher CO2 Concentrations Will Feed A Billion More People

notrickszone.com

If CO2 is increased 200 ppm above the current levels, (which have already increased production by the 13 to 15% cited above) production will increase by 13 to 15% (see here �and here ).

Additional articles on CO2:

(1) Carbon Dioxide And The Ocean: Temperature Is Driving CO2, And Not Vice Versa

By Ed Caryl on 8. Oktober 2013

Carbon Dioxide and the Ocean

 (2) Atmospheric CO2 Concentrations At 400 PPM Are Still Dangerously Low For Life On Earth

By P Gosselin on 17. Mai 2013

(3) CO2 Residence Times, Take Two

Posted on December 11, 2013 by Anthony Watts

(4) Newsbytes: Japan Stuns UN Climate Summit By Ditching CO2 Target

Posted on November 15, 2013 by Anthony Watts

From Dr. Benny Peiser of the GWPF

(5) Why and How the IPCC Demonized CO2 with Manufactured Information

Posted on November 13, 2013 by Guest Blogger

Guest essay by Dr. Tim Ball

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See also::
Climate Tricks 21: Arctic Ice Will be Gone This Year?, July 14, 2013 
Climate Tricks 22: Typhoon Haiyan due to Man-Made CC?, November 10, 2013 
Climate Tricks 23: Using Typhoon Haiyan for Climate and Energy Rent-Seeking, November 30, 2013 

Climate Tricks 24: Polar Vortex is Caused by Global Warming?, January 09, 2014