Those trying to keep their fingers on the pulse of energy efficiency solutions will be interested in this piece on the advent of thermal imaging built into smart phones. Soon, you’ll be able to walk around your house, inside and out, “photographing” the spots where you’re losing heat in the winter and gaining it in the summer. Great idea.
For those of you who aren’t on legendary climate activist Bill McKibben’s mailing list, I thought I’d reprint this masterful and ultra-compelling email I just received from him. There are so many gems here, of which my favorite is: We’re in a fight, and like most fights, it’s about power and money. And the fossil-fuel industry has a lot of money. But I’ve learned this: Organized people beat organized money.
Wow. Here’s his message: (more…)
The ancient Greek philosopher Thales (pictured here), predated Socrates by over two hundred years, and is remembered today principally for his belief that the entire universe is composed of water in one form or another. In other words, he believed that air is some sort of rarefied water, and that rocks are densified water. 2600 years later, we now know that Thales was wrong, but the point remains that he was the very first person (we know of) to take a stab at the ultimate building blocks of the world around us. His work required vision and courage, and an intense appetite to explore a bold new idea. (more…)
Periodically, I like to catch up on the latest thinking regarding the integration of electric vehicles in Southern California, and I’ve found that there is no better place to make that happen than the annual EVs and the Grid Summit, which happens to be in Long Beach, today through Thursday.
I like to get the main gist, and meet as many people as possible who are associated with this slow but all-important shift in transportation. I wish I had a dollar for every time I approached a stranger at one of these conferences, extended my hand and said, “I’m Craig Shields. Nice to meet you.”
If any readers happen to want to meet me there, please let me know.
As we note today’s anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord in the early part of the American Revolution, it’s hard not to think of the parallels to the current scene here in the modern-day U.S. In particular, 241 years later, an enormous swath of our citizenry is infuriated at the way it’s being governed, and will not tolerate any more of this. (more…)
It’s gratifying to see the robust quantity and quality of the comments to my recent post: Ideologies that Further Environmental Sustainability Are Actually Good. Many of these remarks point to the failing U.S. democracy, i.e., the sad fact that the ballots Americans cast mean little if anything in an environment in which law-makers are exclusively concerned with doing favors for the moneyed interests that brought them into office. (more…)
Earth Day as it’s celebrated here in Santa Barbara, CA is an exhilarating and ever-growing affair. This weekend, several thousand folks of all ages packed into a charming local park, where perhaps 75 vendors made us aware of everything from water conservation to clean transportation to promoting the bee population. The beer and live music didn’t hurt either.
While everyone’s heart is in the right place, some of these ideas are stronger than others. (more…)
Hybrids are becoming the norm is many European countries. While still not as featured as traditional diesel or petrol cars, hybrids have become increasingly popular due to the increased awareness of drivers towards the environment and what can be done to preserve the air as fresh as possible.
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With the global warming and environmental issues, people are trying to build more efficient and sustainable homes and workplaces. To do that is sometimes costly, but with energy-efficient and eco-friendly materials, you can retrieve that money within just a few years. And with the technology on the rise, more and more sustainable materials are being made and introduced into market, you just have to find what suits your place and pocket the best. (more…)
Caption: This guy has lost a huge percentage of his habitat as the Arctic ice cap has been melting over the past decade. It’s not an argument; it’s an atrocity–and as the photo suggests, he’s rightfully quite angry about it.
The fewer words on the pic itself, the better.
