I light up whenever I come across a new article by Dr. Michael T. Klare, a professor at Hampshire College and the author, most recently, of The Race for What’s Left. (A documentary movie version of his book Blood and Oil is available from the Media Education Foundation.) (more…)
I had a cute little encounter yesterday at the Intersolar show in San Francisco that I thought I’d relate.
I dropped by the Pennwell booth, the huge B2B publishing concern that owns Renewable Energy World, and introduced myself to the publisher herself, Stephanie Kolodziej. She said, “Great to meet you. I’ve heard your name a lot, I presume because you’ve been at this for some time.”
“Yes,” I replied; “I’m in my eighth year. I started, I believe, the same year Stephen Lacey became the editor of Renewable Energy World. He and I are still friends, btw; he’s one of my favorite people in the world.”
She smiled. “To express what I think of him, let me tell you this: He was at my wedding.”
One of those awwwww moments.
Question: What do you suppose these screws are, pictured left? Hint: though they come in different sizes and shapes, these are approximately six feet long.
Answer: Can be found at Clean Energy Answers.
Relevance: There are three main methods of anchoring solar PV to the ground: pilings driven into the earth, extruded concrete rail, and these guys.
Trying to learn about everything at Intersolar in the day-and-half I spent there is like trying to see everything at the Metropolitan Art Museum or the Louvre in that brief period of time: a really bad idea. The three enormous floors of San Francisco’s Moscone Center are packed with great concepts, presented by some extremely bright and passionate people, all trying to make their mark on a world that is starting to perceive the value of energizing human activities from the sun. (more…)
I’m in one of my (and everybody’s) favorite cities, San Francisco, for the Intersolar show. It’s hard to overstate how robust and impressive this event has become over the years, as human civilization continues to recognize the value of powering its activities with the energy from its nearest star. (more…)
It’s the birthday of Pablo Neruda, poet, diplomat, and Nobel laureate, who gave us this:
Words / as slippery as smooth grapes / words exploding in the light / like dormant seeds waiting / in the vaults of vocabulary / alive again, and giving life: / once again the heart distills them. (more…)
While there was a time when manufacturers in America had a reputation (sometimes deservedly) as “despoilers of the natural environment”, that has changed markedly in the last several decades. As it becomes more and more apparent through climate change, global warming, and other environmental warnings that not only is it not nice to fool Mother Nature, she doesn’t care for abuse or overuse. (more…)
Humans continue to throw things away and garbage continues to accumulate in landfills. With so much garbage and the fact that it takes tens, hundreds or thousands of years for some materials to break down, eventually that garbage is going to have nowhere to go. Reducing your consumption is the best way to reserve resources, but recycling definitely helps save the environment too.
Sharing is Caring (more…)
Whether you’re glued to Google headlines or the New York Times, reading the next headline about electric vehicles probably gives you a rush.
Perhaps, it was news of Apple’s interest in charging stations that caught your attention. Or maybe it’s Tesla’s pledge to sell two cheaper Model S cars. These announcements leave you hungry to hear what else is to come, and the continuous stream of updates is what makes electric vehicles so exciting to watch. (more…)
If you don’t know who Jim Jefferies is, now’s a good time to rectify that. The Australian comedian’s routine on gun control took the world by storm, for reasons you’ll appreciate immediately when you check this out.
But here’s a piece that bypasses single issues, and gets at the larger role of the United States in the world today. (more…)
