Mark Z. Jacobson

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Mark Jacobson
Born
Mark Zachary Jacobson

1965 (age 58–59)
Alma materStanford University (BA, BS, MS)
University of California, Los Angeles (MS, PhD)
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of California, Los Angeles
Stanford University
ThesisDeveloping, coupling, and applying a gas, aerosol, transport, and radiation model to study urban and regional air pollution (1994)
Doctoral advisorRichard P. Turco
WebsiteOfficial website

Mark Zachary Jacobson (born 1965) is a professor of civil and

Solutions Project
.

Overview

Jacobson pursued "better understanding air pollution and global warming problems and developing large-scale clean, renewable energy solutions to them".

global warming after carbon dioxide.[4]
Due to their strong health impacts and their short time in the air, he has also hypothesized that reducing their emissions may improve people's health and rapidly slow down global warming.[5]

In a 2009 Scientific American paper, Jacobson and Mark Delucchi proposed that the world should move to 100% clean, renewable energy, namely wind, water, and solar power, across all energy sectors.[6] He discussed and promoted[7][8][9] the conversion of worldwide energy infrastructure to "100% wind, water, and sunlight (WWS) for all purposes"[10] in many interviews[11] Jacobson's 2015 study on transitioning the 50 states to WWS was cited as the scientific basis in House Resolution 540 (2015)[12] and in the 2015 New York Senate Bill S5527 on renewable energy[13] The Green New Deal appears compatible with Jacobson's scholarship.[14] In 2023, Jacobson was selected by Worth Magazine as one of "the 100 people who have made the most significant impact on the world this year."[15][16] Based on citations to published papers, Jacobson is ranked the #1 most impactful scientist in the world in the field of Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences among those first publishing after 1985 and #6 in the field of Energy among those first publishing after 1980. [17]

Jacobson's clean energy solutions exclude nuclear power, carbon capture, and bioenergy,[18] prompting a pushback by proponents of these technologies in the form of peer-reviewed letters and journal papers[19][20] He has published peer-reviewed responses to these critics.[21][22] A controversy developed in September 2017 when Jacobson sued the journal and one author of a critique for $10M, for defamation.[23] He withdrew his lawsuit five months later,[24][25][26] and was ordered to pay defendants more than $500,000 in legal fees.[27] In June, 2022, the California Labor Commission ordered Stanford University to pay Jacobson's own legal fees and reserved judgment on the remaining fees Jacobson paid in the defamation case because "defending his reputation" was necessary for his job.[27] Stanford has appealed.[27]

Jacobson has built his own net-zero home to run on renewable energy.[28] He was also an expert witness in Held v. Montana, the first climate trial in U.S. history.[29]

Research

Jacobson has published research on the role of black carbon and other aerosol chemical components on global and regional climates.[30][31]

Jacobson advocates a speedy transition to 100% renewable energy in order to limit climate change, air pollution damage, and energy security issues. Jacobson co-founded the non-profit Solutions Project in 2011 along with Marco Krapels, Mark Ruffalo, and Josh Fox. The Solutions Project was started to combine science, business, and culture in an effort to educate the public and policymakers about the ability U.S. states and communities to switch to a "100% renewable world".

Soot and aerosol

Jacobson, as a PhD student at UCLA under

computer model development in 1990 with the development of algorithms for what is now called GATOR-GCMOM (Gas, Aerosol, Transport, Radiation, General Circulation, Mesoscale, and Ocean Model).[3] This model simulates air pollution, weather, and climate from the local to global scale. Zhang (2008, pp. 2901, 2902) calls Jacobson's model "the first fully-coupled online model in the history that accounts for all major feedbacks among major atmospheric processes based on first principles."[32]

Several of the individual computer code solvers Jacobson developed for GATOR-GCMOM include the gas and aqueous chemistry ordinary differential equations solvers SMVGEAR[33] and SMVGEAR II,[34][35] alongside a slew of other related and different modules,[36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][excessive citations] The GATOR-GCMOM model has incorporated these processes and has evolved over several decades.[44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][excessive citations]

One of the most important fields of research that Jacobson has added to, with the aid of GATOR-GCMOM, is re-defining the range of values on exactly how much diffuse tropospheric black carbon from fossil fuel, biofuel, and biomass burning affects the climate. Unlike greenhouse gases, black carbon absorbs solar radiation. It then converts the solar energy to heat, which is re-emitted to the atmosphere. Without such absorption, much of the sunlight would potentially reflect back out to space since it would have struck a more reflective surface. Therefore, as a whole, soot affects the planets albedo, a unit of reflectance. On the other hand, greenhouse gases warm the atmosphere by trapping thermal-infrared heat radiation that is emitted by the surface of the Earth.[50][52]

Jacobson found that, as soot particles in the air age, they grow larger due to condensation by gases and collision/coalescence with other particles. He further found that when a soot particle obtained such a coating, more sunlight enters the particles, bounces around, and eventually gets absorbed by the black carbon. On a global scale, this may result in twice the heating by black carbon as uncoated particles. Upon detailed calculations, he concluded that black carbon may be the second-leading cause of global warming in terms of radiative forcing.[53] Jacobson further found that soot from diesel engines, coal-fired power plants and burning wood is a "major cause of the rapid melting of the Arctic's sea ice.

Jacobson's refinement to the warming impacts of soot and his conclusion that black carbon may be the second leading cause of global warming in terms of radiative forcing was affirmed in the comprehensive review of Bond et al. (2013).[54] For this body of work, he received the Henry G. Houghton Award[30] from the American Meteorological Society in 2005 and the American Geophysical Union Ascent Award in 2013. Based on citations to his papers published in scientific journals, Jacobson is ranked the #1 most impactful scientist in the world in the field of Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences among those first publishing after 1985 and #12 among those publishing after 1788; in the field of Energy, he is ranked #6 among those first publishing after 1980 and #16 among those publishing after 1788. [17]

Jacobson has also independently modeled and corroborated the work of

particulate matter produced from the burning of fossil fuels and biofuels may cause over 1.5 million premature deaths each year from diseases such as respiratory illness, heart disease and asthma. These deaths occur mostly in the developing world where wood, animal dung, kerosene, and coal are used for cooking.[50]

Because of the short atmospheric lifetime of black carbon, in 2002 Jacobson concluded that controlling soot is the fastest way to begin to control global warming and that it will likewise improve human health.[55] However, he cautioned that controlling carbon dioxide, the leading cause of global warming, was imperative for stopping warming.

100% renewable energy

Jacobson has published papers about transitioning to 100% renewable energy systems, including the grid integration of renewable energy. He has concluded that wind, water, and solar (WWS) power can be scaled up in cost-effective ways to fulfill world energy demands in all energy sectors, In 2009 Jacobson and Mark A. Delucchi published "A Plan to Power 100 Percent of the Planet with Renewables" in

solar PV power plants, 1.7 billion 3-kW rooftop PV systems, 5350 100-MW geothermal power
plants, and some 270 new 1300-MW hydroelectric power plants would be needed. All of which would require approximately 1% of the world's land to be achieved.

Jacobson and his colleagues then published papers on transitioning three states to 100% renewable/WWS energy by 2050.[57][58][59] In 2015, Jacobson was the lead author of two peer reviewed papers, one of which examined the feasibility of transitioning each of the 50 United States to a 100% energy system, powered exclusively by wind, water and sunlight (WWS), and the other that provided one proposed method to solve the grid reliability problem with high shares of intermittent sources.[60] In 2016 the editorial board of PNAS selected the grid integration study of Jacobson and his co-workers as best paper in the category "Applied Biological, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences" and awarded him a Cozzarelli Prize.[61]

Jacobson has also published papers to transition 139,[62] 143,[63] and 145 countries[64][65] as well as 54 towns[66] and cities and 74 metropolitan areas[67] to 100% WWS renewable energy for all purposes. For his work on solving large-scale air pollution and climate problems, Jacobson was awarded the Judi Friedman Lifetime Achievement award in 2018.[68] In 2021, he was named the "Visionary CleanTech Influencer of the Year" for "Visionary Individuals" at the World CleanTech Awards.[69] In 2023, he was selected as one of "the 100 people who have made the most significant impact on the world this year" by Worth Magazine.[15][16]

Jacobson is co-founder of the non-profit

renewable energy transition roadmaps and facility a transition to a 100% renewable world".[70]

Opinion on energy systems

Like his PhD advisor

wind energy
".

This analysis is controversial. Jacobson arrived at this conclusion of "25 times more carbon emissions than wind, per unit of energy generated" (68–180.1 g/kWh), by specifically expanding on some concepts that are highly contested.

Environmental Science and Technology in 2013, James Hansen has characterized Jacobson's analysis on this topic of greenhouse gas emissions, as "lack(ing) credibility" and similarly regards Jacobson's other viewpoint of extra "opportunity-cost" emissions as "dubious". With the foundation of Hansen's incredulity being based on French experience, that decarbonized ~80% of the grid in 15 years, completed 56 reactors in the 15-year period, thus raising the fact that depending on the existence of established regulator certainty & political conditions, nuclear energy facilities have been accelerated through the licensing/planning phase and have therefore rapidly decarbonizated electric grids.[74]

The

total-life-cycle nuclear power emission figures, are between 4-110 g/kWh, with the specific median value of 12 g/kWh, being deemed the strongest supported and 11 g/kWh for Wind.[75] While Jacobson's limited lifecycle figures, of 9-70 g/kWh, falls within this IPCC range. The IPCC however, does not factor in Jacobson's "opportunity cost" emissions on any energy source. The IPCC has not provided a detailed explanation for not including Jacobson's "opportunity costs". Aside from the time required for planning, financing, permitting, and constructing a power plant, for every energy source that can be analyzed, the time required and therefore Jacobson's "opportunity costs" also depends on political factors, for example hypothetical legal cases that can stall construction and other issues that can arise from site specific NIMBYISM
. It is the delay/opportunity cost CO2 of emissions that are the bulk of the difference between Jacobson's overall emissions for nuclear of 68–180.1 g/kWh and the IPCC's lifecycle emissions.

Decarbonization assessments

Jacobson's 100% renewable world approach is supported by publications among at least 17 international research groups that find 100% renewables possible at low cost throughout the world. It is also supported by the Global 100RE Strategy Group, a coalition of 47 scientists supporting 100% renewable energy to solve the climate problem. His work is also consistent with results from a study out of the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), which found that a 100% clean, renewable U.S. electricity grid with no combustion turbines might cost ~4.8 ¢/kWh to keep the grid stable. This is less than the cost of electricity from a new natural gas plant. His work is further supported by a 2016 publication by

Vermont Law School,[76] In 2016 Cooper published,[77] a comparison of the 100% WWS roadmaps of Jacobson with deep decarbonization proposals that included nuclear power and fossil fuels with carbon capture. Cooper concluded that the 100% WWS pathway was the least cost and “Neither fossil fuels with CCS or nuclear power enters the least-cost, low-carbon portfolio.” Earlier publications, from 2011 to 2015, that analyzed, with different methodologies, various strategies to get to a global zero or low carbon economy, by circa 2050, reported that a renewables-alone approach, would be "orders of magnitude" more expensive and more difficult to achieve than other energy paths that have been assessed.[78][79][80][81][82]
The more recent studies, including the NREL study, dispute these claims.

Opinions on nuclear energy

Jacobson argues that if the United States wants to reduce global warming, air pollution and energy instability, it should invest only in the best energy options, and that nuclear power is not one of them.

wind energy
".

That analysis accounted for some emission sources not included in previous analyses, The primary emissions due to nuclear energy are called “opportunity-cost emissions.” These are the emissions from the background grid due to the long time lag between planning and operation of a nuclear plant (10 to 19 years) versus a wind or solar farm (2 to 5 years), for example. Of the total estimated emissions from nuclear in the 2009 study (68–180.1 g/kWh), 59–106 g/kWh was due to opportunity-cost emissions. Most of the rest (9-70 g/kWh) was due to lifecycle emissions, and a small amount (0-4.1 g/kWh) was due to the risk of carbon emissions associated with the burning of cities resulting from a nuclear war aided by the expansion of nuclear energy to countries previously without them, and the subsequent development of weapons in those countries. Jacobson raised this last assumption during a Ted talk Does the world need nuclear energy? in 2010, with Jacobson heading the debate in the negative.[63]

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported a range of total-life-cycle nuclear power emissions as between 4-110 g/kWh[54]  Jacobson's lifecycle emission figures of 9-70 g/kWh fall within this IPCC range. The IPCC however, did not account for "opportunity cost" emissions. The IPCC did not provide any explanation for not including such emissions. Although nuclear advocates have balked at the idea of including even a small risk of emissions[citation needed], even at the high end, from a potential nuclear war arising from the spread of nuclear energy, the IPCC has stated that,

"Barriers to and risks associated with an increasing use of nuclear energy include operational risks and the associated safety concerns, uranium mining risks, financial and regulatory risks, unresolved waste management issues, nuclear weapons proliferation concerns, and adverse public opinion.”[67]

In 2012, Jacobson coauthored a paper estimating the health effects of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The paper projected approximately 180 "cancer-related morbidities" to eventually occur in the public.[76][77] Health physicist Kathryn Higley of Oregon State University wrote in 2012, "The methods of the study were solid, and the estimates were reasonable, although there is still uncertainty around them. But given how much cancer already exists in the world, it would be very difficult to prove that anyone’s cancer was caused by the incident at Fukushima Daiichi." Burton Richter, tenured in Stanford with Jacobson, who analyzed the use of the disputed Linear no-Threshold (LNT) model in the paper, similarly stated in his critique, "It is a first rate job and uses sources of radioactivity measurements that have not been used before to get a very good picture of the geographic distribution of radiation, a very good idea". Richter also noted that "I also think there is too much editorializing about accident potential at Diablo Canyon which makes [Jacobson's] paper sound a bit like an anti-nuclear piece instead of the very good analysis that it is," and "It seems clear that considering only the electricity generated by the Fukushima plant, nuclear is much less damaging to health than coal and somewhat better that [sic] gas even after including the accident. If nuclear power had never been deployed in Japan the effects on the public would have [been] much worse."[85][80]

Critiques of 100% renewable papers and court controversy

Jacobson's renewable energy solutions exclude nuclear power, carbon capture, and bioenergy.

Anti-SLAPP (Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation) Act.[24] Jacobson explained his rectraction as follows: "It became clear… that it is possible that there could be no end to this case for years."[24][25][86] In 2022, Jacobson appealed a trial court order for him to pay $428K in legal fees incurred by defendants in his lawsuit prior to his voluntary dismissal of it.[87] In February 2024, Jacobson lost the appeal and must pay defendants more than $500,000 in legal fees.[27] On June 26, 2022, the California Labor Commission ordered Stanford University to pay nearly $70,000 to Jacobson for legal expenses he incurred in the Washington D.C. case and reserved a decision on indemnifying him for his remaining expenses.[87] Stanford, which had declined to intervene on behalf of Jacobson, has appealed that ruling.[87]

Jacobson was also an expert witness on behalf of 16 youth plaintiffs in Held v. Montana, the first climate trial in U.S. history.[29] Jacobson testified that the state could transition to renewable energy.[29] The judge ruled in favor of the youth plaintiffs.[29]

Publications

Books

  • Jacobson, M. Z., Fundamentals of Atmospheric Modeling. Cambridge University Press, New York, 656 pp., 1999.
  • Jacobson, M. Z., Atmospheric Pollution: History, Science, and Regulation, Cambridge University Press, New York, 399 pp., 2002.
  • Jacobson, M. Z., Fundamentals of Atmospheric Modeling, Second Edition, Cambridge University Press, New York, 813 pp., 2005.
  • Jacobson, M. Z., Air Pollution and Global Warming: History, Science, and Solutions, Cambridge University Press, New York, 2011.
  • Jacobson, M.Z., 100% Clean, Renewable Energy and Storage for Everything, Cambridge University Press, New York, 427 pp., 2020.
  • Jacobson, M.Z., No Miracles Needed: How Today's Technology Can Save Our Climate and Clean Our Air, Cambridge University Press, New York, 454 pp., 2023.

Selected articles

  • Wikidata Q55879806.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
    )
  • Jacobson, Mark Z (February 1, 2001). "Strong radiative heating due to the mixing state of black carbon in atmospheric aerosols". .
  • Jacobson, Mark Z (January 1, 2001). "Global direct radiative forcing due to multicomponent anthropogenic and natural aerosols". .
  • Streets, David G.; Jiang, Kejun; Hu, Xiulian; Sinton, Jonathan E.; Zhang, Xiao-Quan; Xu, Deying; Jacobson, Mark Z.; .
additional articles

See also

References

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  2. ^ "Mark Jacobson | Civil and Environmental Engineering". cee.stanford.edu. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
  3. ^ a b Jacobson, M.Z. "History of, Processes in, and Numerical Techniques in GATOR-GCMOM" (PDF).[self-published source?]
  4. ^ "Soot to Blame for Global Warming?". Wired.
  5. ^ "Study Finds Controlling Soot May Be Fastest Method to Reduce Arctic Ice Loss and Global Warming; Second-Leading Cause of Global Warming After CO2". Green Car Congress.
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  7. ^ "Meet the scientist who wants to save the world with just renewables". E&E News.
  8. ^ "Mark Jacobson". MIT Energy Conference. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
  9. ^ "An Interview with Stanford University Clean Energy Champion Mark Z. Jacobson". www.sustaineurope.com. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
  10. ^ Kovo, Yael (February 10, 2016). "Mark Jacobson - Roadmaps for Transitioning all 50 U.S. States to Wind, Water, and Solar Power". NASA. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
  11. ^ Fields, Joe (February 22, 2018). "Interview with Mark Z. Jacobson". Onalytica. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
  12. ^ Grijalva, Raúl M. (December 4, 2015). "Text - H.Res.540 - 114th Congress (2015-2016): Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the policies of the United States should support a transition to near zero greenhouse gas emissions, 100 percent clean renewable energy, infrastructure modernization, green jobs, full employment, a sustainable economy, fair wages, affordable energy, expanding the middle class, and ending poverty to promote national economic competitiveness and national security and for the purpose of avoiding adverse impacts of a changing climate". www.congress.gov.
  13. ^ "NY State Senate Bill S5527". NY State Senate. October 3, 2015.
  14. ^ Shepherd, Marshall. "The Climate Science Behind The Green New Deal - A Layperson's Explanation". Forbes.
  15. ^ a b Worth Magazine (December 5, 2023). "Worthy 100 2023".
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  28. ^ "Leading Stanford climate scientist builds incredible net zero home, complete with Tesla Powerwall". October 30, 2017. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
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  53. S2CID 4423927
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  56. ^ Nancy Folbre (March 28, 2011). "Renewing Support for Renewables". New York Times.
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  60. ^ "Mark Jacobson interview on David Letterman October 9, 2013". AmericanShows.
  61. ^ "PNAS Announces Six 2015 Cozzarelli Prize Recipients". News of the National Academy of Sciences. March 1, 2016. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016.
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  68. ^ "PACE to Host Forum on 100% Renewable Energy Nov. 8 – par-newhaven.org". par-newhaven.org. September 29, 2018. Retrieved November 23, 2021.
  69. ^ "World CleanTech Awards - 2021 Edition". CleanTech Business Club.
  70. ^ Mark Schwarz (February 26, 2014). "Stanford scientist unveils 50-state plan to transform U.S. to renewable energy". Stanford Report.
  71. ^ a b The Guardian. 2009 The carbon footprint of nuclear war
  72. ^ Does Nuclear Energy Really Equate to Nuclear War? January 5, 2011 by Charles Barton
  73. ^ Does the world need nuclear energy?
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  75. ^ Bruckner et al. 2014: http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/wg3/ipcc_wg3_ar5_chapter7.pdf Energy Systems. In: Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Edenhofer, O., R. Pichs-Madruga, Y. Sokona, E. Farahani, S. Kadner, K. Seyboth, A. Adler, I. Baum, S. Brunner, P. Eickemeier, B. Kriemann, J. Savolainen, S. Schlömer, C. von Stechow, T. Zwickel and J.C. Minx (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA.
  76. ^ a b The Economics of Nuclear Reactors: Renaissance or Relapse? Vermont Law School, June 2009, p. 1 and p. 8.
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  78. ^ "Sun, wind and drain". The Economist. July 29, 2014.
  79. ^ Frank, Charles (May 20, 2014). "The Net Benefits of Low and No-Carbon Electricity Technologies". Brookings.
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  83. ^ "PNAS Announces Six 2015 Cozzarelli Prize Recipients". News of the National Academy of Sciences. March 1, 2016. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016.
  84. ^ "POLbook". web.stanford.edu.
  85. ^ THE NET BENEFITS OF LOW AND NO-CARBON ELECTRICITY TECHNOLOGIES. MAY 2014, Charles Frank PDF
  86. ^ "FAQ" (PDF). web.stanford.edu.[self-published source?]
  87. ^ a b c "Stanford prof appeals order to pay $428K in legal fees after dropping defamation suit". Retraction Watch. September 9, 2022.

External links