I just came across a strange article in the Boston Globe called “Inconvenient Truths for the Environmental Movement,” written by Joshua S. Goldstein and Steven Pinker. In the section below, I present a few excerpts and provide my responses in italics. They begin:
Congressional Republicans make an easy target for their denial of climate change: “I’m not a scientist” is the new “Drill, baby, drill.” (more…)
Brian Bernhard of Blight Productions is helping me expand our presence on social media, where some of the principles of success are not completely obvious. One that makes perfect sense, however, is that content should contain a bare minimum of sales/marketing messaging.
I get that, but I couldn’t resist using the shot below to promote our YouTube channel. I hope no one gets too cross at me; I’m not exactly a hipster, even on a good day, and I really don’t want to ruffle any feathers out there….. (more…)
Here’s a paper I wrote in 2010 when U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens retired, praising him for his wisdom and for the courage he demonstrated on important issues throughout his tenure. And here, to my delight, is a set of six proposed amendments to the Constitution that Stevens wrote recently.
He may be gone from the bench, but he certainly has not disappeared from the American people; John Paul Stevens continues to serve the interests of decent people everywhere.
Some regard (American whistleblower) Edward Snowden as a hero, others as a traitor. In either case, we all must admit that he comes from a long line of people in the past who have infuriated the powers of the time. I’m reminded of this insofar as it’s the birthday of Voltaire, one of my favorite characters in history; I hope readers will read through this colorful summary of his achievements when it came to irritating the living bejesus out of the great forces of 18th Century France, which I reprint from today’s edition of the Writer’s Almanac: (more…)
In response to my piece about ExxonMobil and climate change, frequent commenter MarcoPolo indicates that there are people on both sides of the fossil fuel/global warming issue whose motives are impure, and some who lie, cheat and steal.
I know for a fact that some people (probably most) involved in renewable energy are there for the money; I meet them at conferences constantly, and they’re completely unabashed about it. “We’re here because this is where the money is,” they tell me proudly. Personally, I don’t see anything there about which to be proud, but there is certainly no evil associated with trying to make money as long as it’s done with honesty and decency.
The fact that renewable energy has captured the interests of Big Money is actually a good thing. 10 years ago this was a hobby; now it’s an industry. That’s an important step in the right direction. (more…)
I’m always happy to receive updates on Ford from my colleague Daria Baxter, an account executive at Ogilvy Public Relations, who handles Ford’s PR. She writes:
Hi Craig, Hope you had a great week! I wanted to make sure you knew that earlier this week, Ford announced its plan to invest $5 Million to upgrade to LED lighting across its Asia Pacific facilities. Benefits derived from this switch include: (more…)
We live in a world in which more and more people need electricity to light their homes, and the demand always seems to be greater than the supply. Several billion people on the planet need lighting and electricity but do not have access.
Indeed, access to electricity is distributed unevenly in the world, meaning that it’s time to find new solutions. Among the proposals to illuminate the house with no grid access there is SALt, a lamp that works with water and salt. (more…)
Fair-minded people everywhere blanch when we see our media going out of its way to ridicule conservatives, e.g., waiting for Jeb Bush to say something that makes him appear dim-witted, while refusing to do the same to Bernie Sanders. Yet I challenge conservatives everywhere to take a peek at this article and explain how they continue to believe that there is a consistent liberal bias. (more…)
Those of us who concern ourselves with the challenges associated with integrating variable resources (solar and wind) into the grid-mix are paying close attention to developments in various battery chemistries, particularly those that invoke extremely common (and thus inexpensive) electrodes. After all, energy storage concepts that are doomed to remain expensive are also doomed to play no important role in generating the level of scale required to make a real difference here. (more…)
