Emissions: Collision Course with Disaster
Global emissions continue to rise. What happens when the United States doesn’t care and countries like India can’t afford to take action?
Perhaps the answer lies in the cartoon below. (more…)
Tagged with: Emissions: Collision Course with Disaster
Financial Health of United States’ Main Passenger Train System (Amtrak) Improving
Good news: According to Amtrak’s preliminary Fiscal Year 2019 (Oct. 1, 2018-Sept. 30, 2019) report, the railroad set ridership, revenue and financial performance records toward its FY 2020 goal of “achieving operational break-even.” (more…)
Financial Leverage in Renewable Energy
European Investment Bank in Luxembourg
One of the energy sector’s biggest lenders, the European Investment Bank, recently decided to cease all dealing with the fossil fuel industry and focus entirely on renewable energy. (more…)
Sun’s Volumetric Power Density
From a reader: I need the energy produced per cubic meter for the entire sun and not just the core.
First, you mean power, not energy. A meaningful number would be the amount of energy in a given unit of time.
I get about 0.4 W/m3. In round numbers: (more…)
Tagged with: Sun's Volumetric Power Density
Victoria Falls Faces Drought of Epic Proportion
Here is a photo comparing the historically mighty Victoria Falls, on the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia, to what it looks like today due to the worst drought in 100 years.
If it doesn’t speak for itself, there are no words I can add that will help.
Tagged with: Victoria Falls Faces Drought of Epic Proportion
Latest in the “Exxon Knew” Saga
A few years ago, we discovered that Big Oil knew that its product would cause catastrophic global warming as early as the late 1970s, that it had initially sought to morph their business models according, but the time the 1990s rolled around, they decided to deceive the outside world about the horrible truths their own scientists had discovered, and create a vast array of disinformation campaigns, making it impossible for our civilization to protect itself in time to prevent massive damage.
OK, that’s an accurate summary, but the internal workings of all this are far more twisted and elaborate, based on a trove of documents gathered from ExxonMobil’s Canadian subsidiary Imperial Oil. I hope you’ll check this out.
Tagged with: Big Oil created a vast array of disinformation campaigns, Big Oil decided to deceive the outside world about the horrible truths their own scientists had discovered, Big Oil knew that its product would cause catastrophic global warming as early as the late 1970s, Big Oil made it impossible for our civilization to protect itself in time to prevent massive damage, Exxon Knew, ExxonMobil's Canadian subsidiary Imperial Oil
What’s Ruining America
“What the hell happened?” Precisely one thing: the so-called “winners” won and the “losers” lost. Wealth, slowly at first, gradually accelerating, now at a full gallop, has eroded our democracy.
It was a multi-pronged attack: (more…)
Tagged with: corruption
How Terribly We’ve Strayed
Ike’s statement here reminds us of how thoroughly we’ve lost our way.
First, the U.S. military is the ultimate entitlement. Nothing whatsoever is ever done to curtail its growth. We call it our “Defense Department,” but it’s used to intimidate and/or attack various groups all around the globe.
Second, we have an entire political party now that couldn’t care less about those who are cold or hungry.
Learning from Nixon
This makes me smile, because it’s precisely the conversation my Trump-supporting mother and I have on the subject. It’s true, Trump has congressional Republicans’ support at this moment in time. And that will remain the case…..until it doesn’t anymore.
What happened to Nixon went down in a matter of just a few hours, and he was on a helicopter the next day. (more…)
Examining an Energy Storage Idea
More than 90% of the energy storage in the United States today is pumped hydro, using surplus energy to pump water uphill, and harvesting that energy by releasing the water to flow downhill through a turbine. There are several variations on that theme that have some level of merit, e.g., ARES (Advanced Rail Energy Storage), that replaces water in a pipe with heavy train cars on a rail track. (more…)
