(Mixed) Message of Hope for the Holiday Season
Every Christmas since we opened in 2009, I’ve written a hopeful little holiday message in the spirit of the season and the expectation of a bright New Year.
At this point, however, I have to question the sanity, or at least the observational skills, of anyone who cares about environmental justice and world peace and carries an unequivocal optimism into 2017.
Yet there are many things that could happen that would turn this around. I’m struggling to identify what they might be, but I’ll bet readers can come up with some great points to be made here, and submit them as comments.
Just kidding. We have, at a minimum:
• The falling prices of renewables, energy storage, electric transportation, smart grid, and efficiency solutions
• The upsurge in distributed solar, especially in the developing world
• The recent kibosh of oil/gas exploration in the Arctic and the Northern Atlantic Oceans
• Ever-increasing recognition of the people of the world that climate change is the most important challenge facing humankind, and the consequent Paris Accord
• Growing resistance, even from his own erstwhile supporters, to our president-elect’s behavior vis-à-vis his numerous conflicts of interests, allegiance to the fossil fuel industry, xenophobia, escalating commitment to a new nuclear arms race, alignment to nefarious foreign governments, and the evisceration of all services that had previously come to the common American from the federal government. Of course, where all this resistance goes from here is anyone’s guess.
I may be on the fence about the hopes for humankind over the coming years, but there’s one thing of which I’m absolutely sure: my deep gratitude to a robust base of committed friends and supporters. Let me offer my profound thanks to everyone who has contributed to 2GreenEnergy and helped make it a significant voice for environmental stewardship and compassion in our deeply troubled world. By this, I mean to include all our clients, advertisers, guest bloggers, commenters, contributors to my books, and readers—many of whom routinely share blog posts with their friends thus expanding our traffic.
Thanks again, and may 2017 exceed our expectations….somehow.
@Craig
Definitely not an inspirational message for the majority of global buoyant enthusiastic and optimistic under 20 year old’s.
The positive attributes of the majority of under 20 year old’s everywhere are infectious, and this makes everything meaningful possible. Irrelevance is exposed in those of us who abandon these impressive and very much needed personal qualities.
Merry Xmas to all.
Lawrence Coomber
Good point about young people. Bless their hearts.
Seriously, I know I great number of people whose intellect I respect that have the same viewpoint: the enthusiasm of young people will be an irresistible force in bring our civilization to a point of sustainability. I suppose we can hope this is so.
It seems that you, my friend, need a picking up, that this election has put you in a position of continuous reflection, which each time discovered in the mirror flashes a distorted picture of a reality that seems to you to be inescapably a death march to the end of humanity.
Not the cheeriest of sentiments?
But that is the emotive landscape which your words portray. A landscape that I, myself, do not agree with.
As a libertarian, I find the intrusion of government to an accelerated degree to be the greatest harm that can be imposed upon society. And while I do not personally agree with president elect Trump on a great deal of his policies, I understand that Americans voted him to become president as a check on power in Washington. In some ways, I find this notion endearing, as it gives me hope that in the face of extreme power grabs by Washington elites, there is still the opportunity for citizens of our country to determine for ourselves what it is we desire in both our country’s leader, and the future which he/she portends to bring.
I agree wholeheartedly that there are policy concerns with president elect Trump. But I recognize something far more important. The president elect is a narcissist. And narcissists need one thing far more than anything else in this world – to be liked, to be loved, to be appreciated. And so, what many people consider to be this man’s greatest character flaw, I see as an important aspect of his persona, one that will by its very inclusion to his personality be a natural check and balance.
Have heart Craig. Have a little faith. This country was founded by great men and women. It has been enriched and built more impressive by the people who have followed in their footsteps. In time, I believe that you will live to see a future that is secure, fruitful, and one that will not be ruled by authoritarian dictates. The youth will bring the changes you desire, and no single man or woman has the ability to resist the change the future holds. The man waiting to be sworn in is merely an actor on a stage, in a story playing out over a series of plays, a quiet part that will be but an interjection into the long history of freedom, set in this country which you and I are blessed to be a part of.
Merry christmas my friend. You have a youthful friend who is here for you, and who will happily give you hope in the way of new technology, if you would only show a little patience.
Best Regards,
Scott Swanson
Founder & CEO
VDRIVE Technologies
Coincidentally, I was a Libertarian too when I was younger, and so I totally get where you’re coming from. And I grant that this will be the ultimate experiment with that political philosophy.
I also grant that government tends to be bloated and inefficient compared to the private sector, but I’m not sure that eviscerating government (except for a few billionaire cabinet members) is going to have a salubrious effect on any aspect of our society.
Having said that, I know I have to keep an open mind. I guess we’ll see what happens.
Thanks for the encouragement, and Merry Christmas to you.
Craig,
Renewable energy is a vast field with new discoveries every day.
The advance of education and new scientific information will over time:
– convince people that climate change is real and dangerous
– help people invent new stuff for a better future.
I looked at the list of clean energy topics and I am missing one:
osmotic power. I recently found some information on the internet about it. Technically it works (there are even US patents about it and they are not new, it is old stuff). The economics are not clear at the moment.
Have a nice Christmass
Mark
The economics don’t suggest that there is promise here–at least to me.
In any case, thanks for the note and best Christmas wishes.
Doubling the Worlds Energy, and Food Supply While Protecting Water Supplies
The world must, by ca 2020, undertake to roughly double its energy, food and water supplies without harm to the environment in order to meet the rapid ever growing demand generated by a growing and increasingly prosperous population. We need to act now to balance increased production of these necessities with the steps necessary to monitor, manage and mitigate climate change and all its associated huge ecological, social and environmental risks. We must fill in some of the acute gaps in thinking through our policies on discovery and implementation which currently exists in efforts to solve the world’s most pressing challenges.
To enable the world to adopt solutions to better manage our global emissions crisis we must generate and implement new solutions by developing, testing and deploying atmospheric carbon removal and reuse technologies that can be deployed by individual home and businesses as well as innovative, scalable and implementable carbon emissions reducing technology based approaches for both rural and urban areas, private and governmental agencies and institutions, businesses, smaller towns cities, villages, communities and counties.
Curing our 3E Issues by adopting the CIRCULAR ECONOMY BUSINESS MODEL when applied nationally, can boost renewable energy, help towns, cities, counties, companies and institutions create hundreds of thousands or even millions of good paying jobs, boost local infrastructure investments, cut bottom line Economic costs, reduce excessive waste, improve overall Energy efficiency, protect vital water supplies, and help enable the Environmental sustainability movement to spread over entire nations – all while reducing harmful global greenhouse emissions and even do so while keeping coal and oil in the energy mix, although on a more limited basis.
But while shifting away from a linear take-make-and-then-dispose business model to a circular approach, where many and diverse types of products and materials and resources are reused and recycled, by many and diverse types of entities is completely doable it can be difficult to convince people it can be done by first adopting different ways of thinking about how we do things.
“In addressing all 3E Trifecta issues; what we are talking about is changing our nation’s and the world’s business model, and the ways entities like towns and cities do business,” says Les Blevins of Advanced Alternative Energy. “What we really need is to get some buy-in at some level before by-in at all levels will become possible. Shifting to a local then national and then a global circular economy requires many partnerships and collaborations among diverse stakeholders. But as they say “a journey begins with one step.”
Advanced Alternative Energy Corporation (AAECorp.com) is currently urging any organization town, city, county, university or multinational to join us in empowering that first step and facilitate a new concept bridging technology AAEC has developed to begin shining a light on how that first step can be taken. AAEC is thus looking for a strategic investor/partner.
Les Blevins asks “Why not move aggressively to the circular economy model to enable us to power our energy needs on extraction of carbon from the Earth’s atmosphere instead of powering our enormous energy needs by pumping more carbon into it? That’s the primary question we all face, and as an inventor and renewable energy technology developer I would like to suggest and offer the big, bold and obvious solution to many and diverse problems that threatens our life on planet earth.
Over the next 20-30 years we all know we will see major changes in where our energy comes from and how we produce, store and use it as we attempt to tackle the huge trilemma of affordability, availability and sustainability, we also know big changes are being driven by many and diverse environmental and social pressures, and we know the choices we make now will be affecting us all far into the future.
Whether we admit it or not; fighting induced global warming and climate change will become an epic battle if we are to avoid dooming billions of our descendants to a far worse social, economic and environmental situation than that which we have enjoyed. So lets begin to think outside the box and innovate.
My firm is offering an innovative new technology that offers new solutions because we need to be innovative if we are to pass on a tenable condition to future generations. I’m hoping to put this new technology into production and license it to firms internationally that can put energy conversion projects based on this innovation into production in countries all around the world, and in that way spread its application quickly and widely enough to have a positive effect on human induced global warming before it becomes too late to make any difference. Unlike solar, hydro, nuclear and wind energy, renewable energy from biomass and wastes can be dispatchable and even carbon negative and therefore help the whole world resolve the global warming problem through adding new concept innovations in stand-alone, distributed, microgrid and grid-tied energy delivery systems that serve humanity’s long term interests much better.
My position is; to win this epic battle, humanity needs new, modern and innovative tools of battle just as America needed new tools of battle to win victory in Europe and in the Pacific during World War Two. My firm, Advanced Alternative Energy, has developed and patented negative emissions technology and therefore I’m inviting requests for more information from all interested in helping to help humanity move forward on a much saner pathway. Please call or email me if you would like information on my novel, new concept technology, a technology designed for the epic battle ahead, and designed to help us win the fight for humanity’s long term survival.
I believe we will do better and be safer in the long run if we can deploy a practical way to power whole countries on extraction of greenhouse emissions that have already been emitted into earth’s atmosphere while also reducing ongoing greenhouse emissions and begin protecting both communities and electric power grids much better. I’m claiming to be the inventor of one of the repowering “tools” needed to enable humanity to overhaul the power delivery system, in North America and elsewhere, and help get us out of the box fossil fuels and governmental inaction have humanity boxed up in. We can do this through deployment of advanced alternative energy projects at residential, community and county scale we should do so because good paying infrastructure construction jobs are needed worldwide. Thus AAEC is seeking support from any and all that may care to support this grass roots – trickle up – project.
The following is a notice I’ve posted on Facebook and elsewhere.
COLLABORATORS, STRATEGIC ALLIANCES AND/OR INVESTMENT NEEDED FOR NOVEL NEW CONCEPT CLEANER GLOBAL REPOWERING TECHNOLOGY. AAEC WILL GLADLY ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS AND PROVIDE MORE DETAILS ON REQUEST.
AAEC’s CEO invented, patented, tested and further developed a novel new concept low-carbon energy technology we’ve designed for serving as the core technology for a range of much cleaner alternative/renewable energy production systems and energy efficiency improvements across the American landscape and around the world. AAEC’s novel new concept technology consists of a biomass, fossil fuel, and waste combustion, gasification and pyrolysis conversion technology that can provide low-carbon, scalable, heat and power requirements as well as both biofuel and biochar production. AAEC’s technology is designed for both stand-alone use or as backup for alternative energy systems that depend on solar, wind or other intermittent sources of energy, and in this way it will help enable a doubling of the deployment of alternative energy projects around the world in coming decades.
AAEC developed this new concept to enable homeowners, businesses, towns, cities and even counties to convert completely to cleaner energy. AAEC is for all those who understand that distributed alternative / renewable energy derived from solar, wind, biomass and waste is a viable pathway to stall global warming and produce a much better future for our descendants, and ultimately for all humanity. AAEC offers a viable and affordable way to move to a future where people are better at controlling global warming. Fossil fuel firms and utilities may at first oppose what AAEC offers preferring to continue passing on the costs in cleaning up their operations to their customers even if better options are available that would benefit them as well.
AAEC management believes we will all do better and be safer in the long run if we can deploy a practical way to power nearly all human activities on extraction of greenhouse gases that have already been emitted into earth’s atmosphere while also cutting back on ongoing greenhouse emissions and begin protecting communities and electric power grids. I’m claiming to be an inventor of one of the “tools” needed to enable humanity to overhaul the power delivery system, in the USA and elsewhere, and help get us out of the box fossil fuels and governmental inaction have humanity bound up in. I propose that we do this through deployment of modern advanced alternative energy projects at residential, community, city and county scale as good paying, infrastructure producing, jobs are needed that protect rather than degrade sustainability.
My small tech development firm is seeking support from any and all that may care to support our trickle up distributed energy technology development project. With a small amount of financial support AAEC will enable bringing localized energy production to the people of the world much as the PC brought computing to the people of the world.
Les Blevins
President at Advanced Alternative Energy
1207 N 1800 Rd.
Lawrence, KS 66049
Ph: 785-842-1943
http://aaecorp.com/ceo.html
https://www.facebook.com/Advanced-Alternative-Energy-277213435730720/ https://www.facebook.com/Advanced-Alternative-Energy-277213435730720/?fref=ts
@ Craig @ Lee Blevins
Christmas brings many different things and feelings to all – Your Community can include and count your 2 Green Energy site as a everyday Blessing that allows for good exchanges of New Thoughts and Technologies that can bring better solutions to the Worlds energy , food and water needs and their complex interrelated Challenges ; let alone our collective Health from a reduced carbon burning world.
So its good to have this Gift as its a good Platform for many I may never ever know but enjoy listening to and learning from even when I may find great disagreement and a wide gulf of Opinions and Positions!
We live in a world of Great Diversity that’s for sure. The Challenge is to over come the obvious differences of Idea-logy’. Let go of old models and entrenched vested interests and short term profit that creates long term societal and environmental damage. The current linear system is burdened by that limitation and the carbon heads are not going to let go easily nor quietly into the Dark Night either ! The love and bondage of excessive money is their Bounty but also their Burden! And the world is replete with vast numbers of examples where their Exponential Bounty creates Great Burdens to the majority of the people. Thus the growing unrest in many so called democratic societies and nations. The challenge is just what choices are going to be made going forward, will more False Trojan Horses appear on the stage posing as reformists?? when actually they are the Wolves , Carpet Baggers and Creatures of the Swamp!
This is the Question to be answered ?
A good Gift to Humanity would be a coming together around the best current and the most promising new technologies that can be Marshall-ed into a concerted and focused effort to resolve our Looming challenges ! But this requires a good government and its policy makers and it seems policy continuity is A Elusive Butterfly when its needed more than ever.
This said – we do stand in the Looming Shadows of a BAU new regime in Washington that is a Trojan Horse CABAL for the vested interests of the old, broken no longer cost effective carbon model of delivering energy into our systems.
They do hold a Treasure Trove of Poker Chips $$$$$$ , numerous offices and mind control over a feeble Sheeple self delusional electorate – so the BAU are in a Commanding Field position from a military point of view.
Time for extensive Guerilla Warfare operations to slow down the Beast! Bleed it too !
It will be most interesting to see how far this experiment in perpetuating Short Term Gain and Profits over a Sustainable Future really goes. ( reference your other post on carbon or related for comments there) .
How far till they Hit the Wall of Reality – Too much conflicting signals rising up to get specific but there is going to be serious Blowback from many Quarters if the new Regime really try’s to execute to the Max their concepts as most are Full of Folly and Burdened by poor economics as well. The economy can’t afford worn out business models.
So I guess we look forward to the Gift of Surprise or we can collectively take Solace in the position that we thought we knew better!
Lee, while I don’t know your specific technology and its Merits or Limitations, I did share your info with two Academic / Inventor type scientists colleagues of mine. If they have interest they will contact you.
From my view your concept of a Circular Economy as the way Forward makes good sense and many others I know have reached that point of view over the years. A circular economy is a good path forward that addresses the many shortcomings and self infliction and limitations , destructive greed and concentrations of wealth that plague the global system of doing things in a Mature World.
Sorry cowboys the Frontiers are all gone now.
A Circular Economy and Social structure would over come many things and could Heal the broken economies that plague much of the developed world. Much could be written on this
Craig a Posting on this would be a good 2017 topic perhaps
How ever this Concept of Circular Economics and resulting Social structure faces severe challenges from the Status Quo and Vested interests who collaborated extensively to insert into Power forces that are Diabolically Opposed to Circular Economy notions. The new Regime represents the Manifestation of Winner Take All policy and damn the Collateral damages which will be extensive and it will even undercut (HURT) many of the frenzied supporters who are mere Pawns in the Grand Power games.
That may be the limitation of Progress toward your Concepts goal Lee
So a Collision with these Forces and Tug of war will begin and lets see how the Chips Fall. I sincerely hope that this Retro Reaction Uprising and Big Carbons Big Push back w Big Money to control the agenda is a last desperate Act of Over reach and it self implodes under the combined weight of its Greed and Folly. But given the current confusion among st the public and the lack of Facts broadcast it is a daunting task indeed to counter the BAU Forces.
Renewable Energy made huge strides in capability , deployment and much lower and going even lower costs over the last 10 years. Already cheaper than carbon and clean but still the issue is clouded by mid information and carbon entanglements. RE has a strong base of money making supporters and players that are Global now . Our exiting President and to a much lesser degree his predecessor laid the ground work for a energy transformation in the US. They can be Proud of what they got done, the private sector profits and employment growth are notable.
Let’s see if the Foundation can endure and weather the coming Storm.
Craig glad to know you shed that Intellectually and Spiritually limiting and self-centered based Libertarian concept many Moons ago.Good On You.
Societies and collections of people require good governance and order if they are to prosper and develop to the Max like the United states did and do so with Good Humanity. To pretend that it does not require rules , order , regulations and other measures to guide activity is utter foolishness. Poppycock as they say!
For those who think otherwise we say take your resources and go buy a Island have your Own Way to the Max. Don’t be disappointed if your Island of Individual freedom never becomes a Destination Resort in the Grand Scheme of things!
Good Wishes Lee maybe you will get some inquiries!
Merry Christmas to All
Hoping and praying and wishing someone begins doing something to bring about the change that’s needed doesn’t get the job done but when enough of us start getting involved it will.
Keep in mind that what I’m pushing for is for much more than recycling and alternative energy and the environment and survival of the human race. (as if that weren’t enough) It’s also about job creation and I hear our esteemed incoming president has pledged to create millions of new jobs. He is also about revival of the steel industry and as my technology is highly steel intensive and if is also going to push for new trade management measures that the incoming president is saying he supports it could be using American made steel for deployment of repowering with millions of installations from residential and business and industry to city and to county scale. Think how many jobs it would take and how much steel it would take to put up an advanced biorefinery plant in more than say half of the 3,000 counties in this country,, and then there are the tens of thousands of towns and cities to think about repowering.
Happy Holidays and thanks again..
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
— Margaret Mead