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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

Largest Climate March in HistoryIt’s because we’re all aware of our own mortality that we endeavor to make the most of our days here on Earth.  I’m reminded about this, as it’s the 423rd anniversary of the baptism of poet Robert Herrick (pictured), who wrote:

“Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, / Old Time is still a-flying, / And this same flower that smiles to-day / To-morrow will be dying.”

In a similar vein, we need to acknowledge that we really are running out of time if we’re going to make a difference in the outcome of humankind vis-à-vis the vast environmental damage we’re wreaking on our home planet.  Fortunately, tens of millions of people all over the world are working hard to develop and implement solutions.

One way anyone can make a difference is to be a part of the “People’s Climate March,” September 21, in New York City.

 

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

The Toll from CoalI often quote the number 13,200 as the annual death toll associated with Americans’ breathing the aromatics from coal-fired power plants, but I never actually had seen the source document until a reader sent it to me just  this morning.  Here it is, assembled by the Clean Air Task Force, headquartered in Boston.

Looks like I’m headed back that way in a couple of weeks.  I’ll try to drop by and shake some hands.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Using Renewable Energy to Address the Destruction of the Natural EnvironmentAs I just noted, California acts as an incubator for concepts in environmentalism.  Of course, California has a lot of other things going on that have nothing to do with eco-consciousness—and one of them is car shows.   I just got back from a show of American and British cars from the 1910s to the 1970s.  I describe the early part of this chronology as follows:

If it’s primitive, with an emphasis on pragmatism and a minimum of attention on design, it was probably made before the mid-1920s.  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability, Uncategorized

California Is an Incubator for Concepts in Environmentalism, SustainabilityWe in California bear a particular responsibility, as, for some reason, many social phenomena start here, and, if they’re successful, they’re picked up by the rest of the country and ultimately by the rest of the world. This, btw, is one of several good responses to the oft-asked question: does it really matter what happens in California environmentally, considering that China is building a new coal-fired power plant at the rate of one per week? Of course it matters. What starts here doesn’t stay here.

And even if that we’re the case, here’s another response, one that would apply even if California were an island with no communication to the rest of the world at all:  Decent people do what’s right regardless of how other people are acting.  You don’t litter, do you?  Now ask yourself why you refrain from littering.  Is it because no one litters?  No, plenty of people litter; they’re called “slobs.”  You’re not a slob.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

Video Calls for Sustainable Approach To EnergyHere’s an eight-minute video called “Carbon” which summarizes nicely where our civilization finds itself vis-à-vis a sustainable use of energy, climate change, the oil companies, political corruption, etc. Very well done, IMO.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

Renewable Energy Has Unseen BenefitsIn the process of helping me on my new book project, “Bullish on Renewable Energy – Eleven Reasons Why Clean Energy Investors Can’t Lose,” my UK-based colleague Gary Tulie sent me a video to underscore the point that renewable energy has benefits most of us don’t see every day. Here’s a school with 400 students in Kenya’s Nyeri county in the Aberdere mountains, around 60 miles to the North of Nairobi, where the kids were performing poorly for two reasons:

(more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

Possible Explanation for Slowdown in Global WarmingAccording to a report published yesterday, scientists may have found the answer to the unpredicted slowing in the warming of global air temperatures. They had suspected that the heat was somehow winding up in the oceans, and it appears they are correct. But what does all this mean? I hope you’ll check out the report.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Ocean Thermal

Chris Barry, OTEC, and Carbon SequestrationChris Barry is definitely on my “visit list” for my next trip back to the East Coast.

Chris is a Senior Naval Architect at the United States Coast Guard Surface Forces Logistics Center, and says that after “forty years of experience in many areas of naval architecture and marine engineering, he’s still interested in ‘hanging steel and getting it wet.'” He goes on to note, “The oceans also provide some opportunities to solve other problems, especially alternative energy and carbon sequestration, and I am working on some of these as well.”

“Working on it” is putting it mildly. Check out his presentation on carbon sequestration. You’ll travel a long way to find someone more knowledgeable in the subject than Chris.

As I mentioned a few days ago, the part I find most fascinating in all this is that OTEC may play an important role in bringing nutrients up from the cold waters beneath the surface that will accelerate the growth of animals whose life processes absorb CO2 and ultimately dispose of it at the bottom of the oceans.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels, Uncategorized

Removing Oil as a Cause for WarIt’s the 150th anniversary of the signing of the First Geneva Convention, which, according to the Writer’s Almanac, “marked the beginning of the international humanitarian law movement.”

I’m going to resist the temptation to go off on a rant about the fact that my country, which likes to represent itself as a bastion of human rights, a century and half later, still tortures its prisoners, and take this post in another direction: war itself, and its relation to energy—in particular, to oil. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Wind Energy

ABB Takes on Tough Challenges Posed by Offshore WindOffshore wind presents many thorny challenges, the solutions of which, if they are to exist at all, require our very best engineering minds.

Some of these are related to securing the turbines. Fortunately, there are oceans, like the Atlantic off the East Coast of the U.S., whose waters are shallow enough to permit us to anchor turbines into the sea bed. (more…)

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