Per the words of a great industrialist, “You have to think anyway, so you might as well think big.” Few places on Earth resemble New York City when it comes to deploying that concept; they’re not called the “Little Apple,” are they? (more…)
What’s the path to sustainability? Those of us who try to wrap our wits around where we are and where we need to be uniformly find that this is not a straight-forward question. For instance, would you like to see less consumption of resources? Well, sure, if you’re talking about North Americans. (more…)
I love this exhortation, Dr. Goodall. From your lips to God’s ears, but I do need to point out a few issues that need to be overcome before your wish can be realized by enough people such that it makes a measurable difference:
Hyper-Partisan Politics. For a reason I fail to understand, political conservatives, at least in the U.S., stand in opposition to environmentalism. (Don’t conservatives want to conserve?)
Financial Pressure. The shrinking buying power of the middle class is resulting in more self-preservation and less egalitarianism.
Question: How many single-use plastic bottles are sold per minute? What percentage of them are unrecycled?
Answer: Can be found at Clean Energy Answers.
Relevance: Those of us who care what life on this planet is going to be like when our children and grandchildren grow up recognize that this is not a path to sustainability. There are now six trillion pieces of plastic in our oceans, soon to outnumber fish and other aquatic animals.
If you’re going to live off the grid, you might as well do it right. Here’s a guy who’s done precisely that. His mantra: if you need something, you can either buy it from a corporation, or simply get it from nature; I prefer the latter.
What happens in the nacelle, that box-like thing shown here at the top of a wind turbine? In its simplicity, it’s where we convert mechanical into electrical energy, i.e., it’s the home of the generator. From there, however, things get a bit more complex, when one considers the trade-offs between various options for the nacelle’s guts, particularly, direct drive and geared systems. (more…)
That teenagers are far more involved politically may be more a matter of necessity than just the normal spirit of energy and enthusiasm we have always found in young folks. When people of any age feel backed into a corner, they fight back hard. Kids who lose whole classrooms of friends to mass shooters and see the future of environmental quality falling off a cliff rightfully feel compelled to take matters in their own hands. (more…)
As I wrote the other day (not that it’s a new idea): If you sincerely support our troops, you will elect leaders who will stop putting them in terrible positions around the world, defending American business interests. Instead of building better ways of killing one another (American soldiers included), perhaps those resources would be better invested in diplomacy, peace-making, and the avoidance of environmental catastrophe.
As shown at left, R. Buckminster Fuller beat me to the punch, a surprise to no one.
An engineer at GM in Detroit, Mr. Shashwat Sitesh, contacted me recently, asking if he could volunteer to perform some research and reporting on clean energy issues. Needless to say, the answer to requests like this is always yes. Welcome to the team! (more…)
There is a case to be made that autonomous driving will greatly reduce the carbon footprint associated with transportation. Though many of us wish we were able to eliminate the fossil consumption, as opposed to the driver, we shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. (more…)
