How Close Are We To Harnessing Nuclear Fusion?
Here’s an article that states that nuclear fusion is “on the horizon.” Hmmm. Hasn’t it been on the horizon for as long as any of us can remember? (more…)
Tagged with: Harnessing Nuclear Fusion
How Important is “Vehicle-to-Grid” in the EV Adoption Curve?
There is no doubt that electric transportation will make terrific headway over the coming couple of decades. Here, Forbes suggests that one-quarter of the cars on the road in 2040 will be EVs. Fair enough. But the author goes on to suggest that the opportunities that this will create for V2G (vehicle to grid, enabling the grid to absorb peak power from idle EVs) represents the “tipping point for renewable energy.” (more…)
Tagged with: affordable batteries at utility-scale, demand response, electric transportation, enabling the grid to absorb peak power from idle EVs, ensemble of renewable energy coming on line, high voltage transmission, integration of different types of renewables with different availability profiles, one-quarter of the cars on the road in 2040 will be EVs, storage associated with EVs, tipping point for renewable energy, V2G, vehicle-to-grid
In Renewables, China Picks Up the Baton that the U.S. Dropped
As pictured here, the Chinese province of Qinghai used only wind, solar and hydroelectric power to supply its population of 5.8 million for seven consecutive days. (more…)
The Healing of the Chesapeake Offers Insight Into an Important Social Phenomenon
Whether or not they’re keeping track of the results, most Americans have heard of the initiative aimed at restoring the health of the Chesapeake Bay–reducing the levels of pollution and building back the ecosystems. (more…)
Consumerism and Sustainability
Frequent commenter MarcoPolo responds to my suggestion that unbridled consumerism is unsustainable, and that it’s particularly atrocious that so much of it is focused on items that serve little if any practical value. He writes: (more…)
What’s Up with the Koch Brothers?
Charles and David Koch are well known for their radical libertarian agenda, i.e., their effort to rid the U.S. of social security as well as public support of education, healthcare, technology research, transportation, and the arts. Now, if their advocacy in this direction were all transparent, honest, and legal, perhaps we’d just accept it as part (albeit a bizarre part) of free expression. The problem, of course, is that it comes with manipulated census data, and preventing access to vote. (more…)
Killing the EPA Bit By Bit: Why, When We Can put a Spear Through the Whole Thing with the Stroke of a Pen?
The EPA is abolishing a rule that protects (or protected) clean drinking water for 117 million people. This is (was) the Clean Water Rule, the result of more than 400 meetings with stakeholders and a review of more than 1 million public comments during the previous administration.
Why not abolish the EPA completely? Make the statement you’ve been dying to make. If it’s a part of government that even remotely helps or protects the American people, and especially if it had anything to do with Obama, we want it gone, and we want it gone right now.
Survey Shows People Don’t Trust Fossil Fuel Giants
One of the world’s top accounting and consulting firms, Ernst and Young is a venerated name if there ever were one. And, as is typical for large business consulting concerns, they seem to do an awful lot of market research surveys, most of which, IMO, reveal little that anyone with any common sense would take for granted. “Study finds that unprotected teen sex leads to unwanted pregnancies.” That kind of thing. (more…)
Rethinking Consumerism
The “Climate One” conference in San Francisco is a day chock-full of interesting and compelling ideas about humankind’s behavior vis-a-vis the environment, and what can be done to improve this relationship. Did you know, for instance, that, on average, an electric drill is used eight minutes from the time it leaves the shelf at Home Depot until it makes its way into a landfill? All that resource extraction, transportation and refinement of raw materials, manufacturing and distribution goes into a product that will serve its master only eight minutes in its entire lifetime. (more…)
Loyalty Pushed To Pathological Limits: Why Lying Has Become Part of the Fabric of Our Society
Unless I’m mistaken, it was Arlene Allen, at the University of California at Santa Barbara, who left the very first comment on this blog when it came on line almost exactly eight years ago, and I’ve been eagerly anticipating her insights ever since. In response to my piece about our Orwellian society, she writes:
The whole lies, facts and alternative facts discussion has made me wonder, like so many others, what is at the heart of this? (more…)
Tagged with: alternative facts
