Here’s Paul Hawken’s talk at the Bioneers conference last year. The big idea here for me is one that I try to express myself from time to time, though I cannot hope to put it as grandly and as powerfully as Hawken. I would summarize it as follows:
Our civilization has taught us that we need to win, to take: to get rich, to be liked, to be powerful, to satiate ourselves with the fruits and the wealth of the world around us. (more…)
If you’re one of those people who want to go eco-friendly and you can’t stand the amount of food that is usually being thrown away every day, all the money and work can just go to waste if it goes bad in the fridge or is just not good enough after you forget it somewhere deep inside of your fridge.
You won’t need to throw as much food as you usually do if you follow these simple tips: (more…)
In an email conversation I had with a reader I noted my surprise that General Motors seems to be headed in the direction of hydrogen, and I expressed my belief that the “hydrogen economy” is not a solid idea.
I’m curious to understand their strategy re: hydrogen. If I were able to speak with them, I would ask: Why hydrogen? Aren’t they concerned about the lack of delivery infrastructure? Why are they not dedicating themselves to battery electrics? Would they have a stake in the hydrogen generation process? The delivery infrastructure? What have they learned from Honda’s extensive experience in the field? They seem to be going in the opposite direction as Honda. Why?
The reader responds:
I disagree with your saying that hydrogen isn’t the way of the future, since it’s the most abundant and powerful fuel in the universe. Now, the challenge is to find new ways of obtaining it, different from the reformation of hydrocarbons, maybe optimizing electrolysis.
I reply: Well, here’s the problem: hydrogen isn’t really a fuel, any more than electricity is a fuel; rather, it’s a carrier of energy. It’s true that it’s abundant in the universe, but not on Earth, in its elemental form, at least. As you pointed out, it needs to be made – and in ways that are fairly inefficient; the best electrolyzers are about 60% efficient, and they’re (currently, anyway) quite expensive.
As I implied above, the other, and larger, issue with hydrogen is the delivery infrastructure. Our land mass in the continental U.S. is about 3.5 million square miles, and retrofitting that for hydrogen would be a horrendously expensive proposition. Contrast that to electricity, which is ubiquitous.
I had a conversation at a party a few weeks ago in Central California that I wanted to relate. I should preface this by saying that I don’t habitually go around interviewing people at parties about their views on controversial issues; if that were the case, I’d be staying home a lot for want of invitations. But sometimes the situation simply presents itself, as it did that night when the gentleman I was talking to, a career farmer, began to explain how the American West is suffering from the most terrible drought he’s seen in his entire lifetime. (more…)
I’ve often written that we’ll see the day when concentrated solar power (CSP, aka solar thermal) sited in Northern Africa will supply an enormous amount of energy – both for the region itself and for Europe to the north. Linked above is an article that suggests that perhaps we’re on our way.
I couldn’t make this year’s Renewable Energy Finance Forum – Wall Street, though I did peruse the notes that my colleague Tom Konrad of AltEnergyStocks forwarded to me. Among the many details, I noticed this rather broad statement: “Historically, we have under-predicted.” He went on to explain: “NREL’s 1998 prediction of the penetration of renewables for 2020 was only 30% of the 2013 number.” In other words, we’re headed to beat the expectation for 2020 by an enormous margin. (more…)
Environmentalist, entrepreneur and author Paul Hawken is featured on this week’s radio show “The Bioneers” with a program called “Regeneration: Wisdom of the Wild, Generosity of the Heart.” I catch the Bioneers Mondays at 1:00 PM Pacific Time on my local NPR affiliate KCBX, which, btw, boasts recently improved Internet streaming capability. I hope you’ll check it out.
They write: (more…)
I’m having a conversation in email with a reader who asks me if I think America will be able to survive economically past the next few years.
I agree that the U.S. looks woefully unprepared to compete effectively and prosper in the 21st Century, due to the confluence of many factors: (more…)
Here’s an article based on a survey of Americans, and, frankly, most of its findings are unremarkable. But one thing that would raise any reader’s eyebrows is the amazing lack of trust that we apparently have in our utilities to inform us of energy-saving (i.e., expense-reducing) opportunities.
Perhaps this is further evidence that it’s finally time, after more than a century of experience with the regulation of electric power utilities, for us to (more…)
As the U.S. celebrates its independence from England, Americans everywhere honor the fallen soldiers who made it possible, and those who have made enormous sacrifices to maintain our liberty throughout the intervening 237 years. That makes today a good time to remember what the United States truly stands for: honesty, fairness, decency in all our affairs, both domestically and internationally. When the sun sets this evening and the fireworks and patriotic music commences, I hope we’ll all (more…)
