A reader asks: Why don’t we put power lines underground? I know it can be done. Good question. When the electrical grid was being established 140 years ago, there was much discussion on this subject.
Author: craigshields
The Wisdom of Wendell Berry
I have moments of pessimism where it’s hard for me to imagine a soft landing for human civilization given the direction it’s headed, vis-a-vis environmental collapse, the trend toward world fascism, and the threat of nuclear war. Wendell Berry sure …
The U.S. Political Divide
We recently celebrated the birthday of the religious leader Desmond Tutu, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his role in the opposition to apartheid in South Africa. Tutu said: “How does peace come? Peace doesn’t come because allies agree. Allies are …
Carbon Dioxide Emissions
From Bill McKibben’s recent piece in the New Yorker: Adam Kinzinger, a Republican of Illinois, went first, patiently explaining to Thunberg that, “while some may say that the United States needs to be the leader of combating climate change, I …
Political Attack Ads: What To Expect in 2020
A reader offers this: It would be nice if all parties would take the official stance of avoiding pointing fingers at the other parties’ candidates while only speaking truthfully about their own policies and platform.
Tagged with: assault on the environment
It’s Obvious
Considering the circus that is the executive branch of the U.S. government, saying that something is “obvious” is no longer a meaningful statement. What was obvious to all Americans 20 years ago, e.g., Nazis are bad, pathological liars shouldn’t run …
Tagged with: environmental stewardship
Note to Republicans: Trump Will Betray You Just Like He Betrayed the Kurds
As noted in this brilliant article, Trump’s decision to abandon the Kurds and leave them to face slaughter at the hands of the Turks has implications far past Syria. Anyone looking at this moral catastrophe who has any current or …
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Tagged with: Trump Will Betray You
EV Road Trip
NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly is about as good as it gets in the news radio biz, but she conducted a very weird interview the other day with reporter David Ferris of E&E News, an online news site that covers energy …
War Is an Industry, and Money Talks
A reader notes: We are safe here in (Los Angeles suburb) Granada Hills. Heroic fire fighters kept the blaze about two miles away. Other neighborhoods around us have not been so fortunate.
Tagged with: War is an industry
This Is What Mass Transit Looks Like
All the innovations in transportation are good, but we still haven’t shattered the basic paradigm of carting around 4000 pounds of steel to get us to work and back. The issue, of course, is profit. Selling steel and oil makes …
Tagged with: mass transit
