Day 14

My taste bud adventures in the past few days feature reindeer, which was surprisingly very good- tender and salty, halibut, and Canadian poutine. The halibut was yummy and mild as a fish, and the poutine is French fries with gravy and cheese, which is, by definition, superb. I have also discovered Kumagoro with Ali, a great sushi place on 4th Avenue, which I envision will be a loving life partner during my time in Anchorage. Ali agrees.

On Thursday, I attended a documentary screening held by the local Refugee Assistance & Immigration Services. There,  I watched a series of documentaries on refugees. The first was on Burma, the second on Uganda, and the third took place in Shelbyville, Tennessee. It was quite an emotionally taxing screening, and I learned things I didn’t know about all three areas and their demographics. This induced a 2-hour Wikipedia session on the refugee situation in each of the areas.

Park by N Street

One of my neighbors right across the street has a table with coffee and tea on it. I always assumed it was leftovers from a daily tea party. I was told that the house puts out the coffee and tea for the neighborhood. Tentative at first, I tried a coffee labeled "Kaladi". Kaladi has a very strong coffee-bean texture, and it has become a great companion to my walk to work every morning. I usually have to make sure it’s almost done before I ascend on the steep inclination next to the community park on the way up from N street.

At the Institute, I have been working on several projects. Mainly, I am working on the creation of an Arctic Energy Network (AEN). AEN will be a network encompassing all environmental institutions, government agencies, and energy corporations of the Arctic. By Arctic I mean the Arctic Circle, which is a circle of latitude encompassing the northernmost countries in the world (which, if I am not mistaken, are eight). The goal of such a network is to create a forum that brings these organizations of the Arctic together for workshops, policy tours, research opportunities, peer research exchanges, and eventually maybe even policy advocacy. With time and funding, this seems possible. However, the hindrance in this feat comes in finding the delicate balance between these institutions’ common interests while still preserving their differing environmental policy stances. This would be analogous to creating a GCC environmental forum, which holds workshops, collaborates on research, and puts forth environmental policies that could be lobbied for. Without a political stance, the network serves as a ground for debate and possible policy suggestions.

Another project I have started working on is the creation and maintenance of a renewable energy grant fund. I attended a meeting with the Alaskan senator's staff, where they discussed the local Renewable Energy Grant Fund. The main problem with this fund seems to be that it is only dependent on money given to the fund. There is no return on the money in the fund, as it is not invested (like endowment money). I am curious to look more deeply into how the grant fund is set up, as it doesn’t really make sense for such large amounts of money to just be sitting there until they are granted. During the meeting, I was assigned to develop a potential model of how to design this Renewable Energy Grant Fund. I will be looking at the methods of financing that other jurisdictions worldwide use to fund renewable energy research and engineering.

Another re-occurring topic I have been dealing with is the lack of Life Cycle Cost (LCC) analysis. It might be pretty surprising to think that countries don’t actually run LCC analysis when thinking of future energy-intensive projects, but many don’t. Or, at least do not think long-term enough. Currently in Alaska, there are several solar/hydro projects that are being put off because of initial capital costs. These initial capital costs look pretty daunting and giant when compared to the running costs of continuing fuel-based energy production. This “moment in time” analysis is obviously not the right way to look at projects, and to be honest I am surprised that those responsible for giving grants and those shaping policy adhere to such transient analysis.

There are a few things, however, that are pretty great about Alaska’s environmental policy and funding climate. The sheer amount of funds that exist here for people to innovate in the environmental field are incredible. Currently, there is an Emerging Energy Technology Fund, which is granted to advancement in energy creation that holds weighty technological prowess. There is also a movement to increasing the use of electric vehicles. Registration fees are waived with any electric car purchase. At the meeting with the Senator’s staff, we discussed electricity generation via solar energy panels to charge the cars. This sounds very idealistic in terms of costs and efficiency. But actually, for a state with not much sunlight during the year, solar energy works unexpectedly well in Alaska. Using photovoltaic cells to capture heat and decrease the fuel used in transportation could be revolutionary for any jurisdiction. In the long run, this would decrease oil dependence and fuel costs, and possibly allow for more Greenfield investments.

Ah, Greenfield investments. I cannot help but make the comparison with Bahrain. In general, say we wanted to use the money we make out of oil exports to grow economically. If we would like to use this revenue to grow sustainably, we should use it for domestic Greenfield investments (such as infrastructure enhancement), rather than simply wealth creation (such as luxury real estate activity, financial transactions in the stock market, etc). The investment in these energy development projects (which have a high initial capital cost but a possibly lower LCC) such as this solar-electric combo, develops our resource base and our maintainable capital. Nobody wants a resource-rich but capital-poor jurisdiction. As domestic human capital increases (say, with education reform, or more people pursuing graduate education), we must make sure our environmental/resource capital also expands. Even if this means a high initial cost for us.

Then, there is the coolest thing I’ve learned this week. If you’ve heard of X-Prize already, then you won’t be very impressed, but I was quite blown away. The X-Prize foundation tries to encourage innovation through competition for good-for-the-world initiatives. The concept is so simple. It reminds me of a little game my mother would engage my sisters and me in as children called بنتي الجميلة . Whoever brushes her teeth, fixes her part of the room, and falls asleep first wins. She is بنتها الجميلة. Well, in mother Earth’s rendition of this bedtime game, it’s whoever finds the best technology to clean up the BP oil spill, whoever comes up with the most feasible renewable energy scheme, or whoever discovers a breakthrough technology to stop the ice caps from slowly melting. To understand my analogy, mother Earth is X-prize. Or the Environment and Energy part of X-Prize (since the foundation focuses on other do-good sectors of life, like education and global development, exploration, and life sciences). Point is, instead of getting a good night kiss and being called بنتي الجميلة  for the night, you get millions of dollars to bring your engineered, working model, to world-saving scale. The ideas that don’t quite make the cut aren’t too shabby either, and usually end up being picked up and expanded. X-Prize is currently partnering with agencies in Alaska to give away 20 million dollars to the group, institution, or person that can come up with the best environmental engineering answer to “How do you stop a village from falling into the water?” which is a big concern in the Arctic (don’t mean to be a downer, but yes, the ice-caps are melting as you read this). Starting up competitive incentives for people to save the world might be a good way to nudge humanity and engineers into caring. Maybe this way, we will have more environmental, civil, and chemical engineers in the next ten years in economic systems that mostly reward those that go into the financial sectors. It would also be a good forefront for businesspeople, economists, and engineers to cooperate, to come up with feasibility plans and enter these competitions. Not to mention academics and researchers (who are quite under-recognized in jurisdictions that are expanding rapidly economically due to the financial sector) get to make it big and compete on the enactment of their research. 

With Sir Sheinwald

One last job-related thing. During my lunch break today, I hopped over to the Hilton, where the Alaska World Affairs Council is hosting a speaker every Friday. This week’s speaker was the British Ambassador to the United States, Sir Nigel Elton Sheinwald. Sir Sheinwald talked about the UK’s energy goals, collaboration with the US on these goals, and the similarities between Alaska and the UK. Sir Sheinwald has a sense of humor reminiscent of Hugh Grant in Love Actually, and sounds like him at times. In the evening, he was a guest at my host’s house. I asked him how renewable energy initiatives affect the economy in the short-run (because LCC analysis tells us that the long run is great). He told me that renewable energy initiatives would create a new sector. He said, anything that promotes job creation and is simultaneously innovative would be good in the short run. I would be happy to stand by this notion, as long as these renewable energy initiatives cater to the employment of people from all skill levels. The non-renewable energy sector employs a lot of low-skilled workers. The renewable energy sector will emerge on the tail of highly skilled labor that brings forth groundbreaking innovation. This will likely be in collaboration with individuals or organizations that have an existing large capital. It seems to me that it will be the low-skilled workers that will be left jobless as the world makes a shift to renewables. However, this shift seems to be quite slow, and my optimistic opinion is that low-skilled workers in the field will find a new niche in a renewable energy sector, preferably through an investment in their human capital.

On Saturday, Ali and I went to a Jazz festival downtown. It was an outdoorsy event with live Jazz, and it was great to see families come with their puppies and enjoy the live performances. We later went to the Saturday market. At night, we kicked back and watched The Proposal, which offered what seems to be a pretty accurate portrayal of Alaska (it is based in Sitka, Alaska).

Ali at the Saturday market.

Jazz Festival, downtown Anchorage.

Today, we drove up to Point MacKenzie. Looking out the window for an almost two hours, I couldn't help but see a forest with roads cutting through it. I was amazed at how intact and dense all the greenery was and how tall the trees were. Once the road turned from pavement to dirt, it was a bumpier ride, but a greener one. We visited a few baby moose, who are being raised on a farm and bottle-fed. The farm is part of an initiative to preserve the moose population, as these baby moose have lost their mothers at an age when they still needed care and milk. After that, we went up to a cabin, where we had a barbecue, and then rode four-wheelers through what seemed to be endless land. In Bahrain, we refer to these as buggies, and people ride them on the beaches and in the desert. Of course, I rode behind Ali at first. She asked me if I was sure I didn't want to try driving. We switched. I pressed down on the gas as hard as I could and went for a long stretch. It was fast, everything around me was a giant green blur. We were both laughing like maniacs.

Chopped a log of wood, right down the middle. Point MacKenzie.

Point MacKenzie

Point MacKenzie