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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Exploring Our Duties as Citizens of Earth; Happy Anniversary to Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath”When I hit the “publish” button in a few moments, this short piece will be our 4922th post, of which I’ve written just over 4400 personally.  Roughly three-quarters pertain to some aspect of renewable energy, whether it’s a comment on some aspect of the science, the economics, or perhaps the politics that govern our energy policy and our related efforts in the direction of sustainability here on planet Earth. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Removing Pest Infestations from Your Garden So As To Preserve the EnvironmentGardening is a worthy hobby as well as a beautiful way to decorate and garnish the outside of your house. Planting is always considered as the best source of a healthy environment both for the entire ecosystem and your surroundings. But what’s a nightmare is the thought of having insects and pests in your garden. Getting rid of these tiny evils is one hard thing to do. You have got to get a good hold on the life cycling and categories of the insects before applying any method to eliminate them, as there are a bunch of insects that are actually good for your gardening, because they act as predators to those plant eating pests. (more…)

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

International Energy Agency Announces Pleasant Surprise Re: Greenhouse Gas Emissions My wife was speaking with her favorite cousin the other day and the topic of environmentalism and renewable energy came up.  The cousin said, “You know that stuff Craig’s been doing for all these years?  It’s actually starting to work!  Be sure to tell him that.”

I had to smile, partially because it could be taken to imply that not everything I do actually works.  God knows that’s true.  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

McDonalds Won’t Offer Veggie Burgers—Nor Should TheyApparently, there is a push from the eco/health-conscious consumer to coax McDonalds into selling a vegetarian option to their cow (fat/salt/sugar) burgers. Why? No one will buy them. McDonalds customers either don’t know or don’t care that they’re ingesting something that’s terrible in all respects. Most of the fast-food restaurants have gotten rid of their fish-on-a-bun choices for exactly this reason.

Outside of their philanthropy, whose motivation itself can be questioned, there’s nothing nice at all you can say about McDonalds. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

Cars in England 2045Editor’s Note:  Here’s a fun little piece from my friend Gary Tulie, the fellow who was so helpful on my most recent book (“Bullish on Renewable Energy“). I hope he’s right about his predictions here, and I hope Buckinghamshire still looks like it does today (pictured left and below).

 

The year is 2045, my name is James Prescott, and I live in Buckinghamshire, England. I am 15 years old, and on the weekends, I like to swim with my friends at the local public pool followed by a snack of lentils and crispy fried locust in Thai sweet chili sauce. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

Great E-Bike Designs Are Not All TrendyI don’t claim to have a particular eye for product design that addresses the sensibilities of millennials, but I have to think that this may be on target: an e-bike that is the antimatter of the ultra-chic futurism that’s so prevalent today.  Not only is the design itself reminiscent of the 1950s, but its glaring lack of communications technology is also a bit jarring: there’s not even a GPS to guide you to the closest latte bar. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

Keystone Pipeline MyopiaSenior energy analyst Glenn Doty makes this point regarding the Keystone Pipeline:

We won’t have one drop of oil less being sold in the global market because the Keystone was rejected… we’ll just have a lot more oil in the groundwater from spills along the train tracks rather than a more efficient and safer pipeline.  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainable Building

Wood Durability & Making Wood A Green SourcePoor forestry management can have a devastating effect on the earth’s environment and it has been reported as having a significant contribution to the greenhouse effect and climate change. The reduction and great deforestation of the amazon rainforest is well documented but poor practices being carried out there are also being carried out in forests throughout the world. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Another Viewpoint on the Keystone PipelineHere’s another thought on the Keystone pipeline (and similar projects in the past and future), though I’m sure I’m not the first to express it.  Let’s try to project what an advanced extra-terrestrial would think of the job that humankind has done here on Earth, if, when he gets here, he observes that either:

A) The planet is a crisscross of pipelines and other devices designed to suck that pesky hard-to-get last drop of petroleum out of the ground and send it to a refinery—all the while the most developed species’ scientific community was begging them to stop, on the basis that they were ruining the quality of the environment in a dozen different ways. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

The Validity of the Keystone Pipeline EnvironmentallySenior Energy Analyst Glenn Doty remarks that rejecting the Keystone pipeline is a net negative for the environment:  The percentage of transported oil that is spilled when transported by train is hundreds-fold that when it is transported by pipeline. By making a symbolic stand that does absolutely nothing to impact oil production and nothing to impact oil consumption, the rejection of the Keystone pipeline has absolutely resulted in an increase in the amount of oil spilled, because it’s still being produced and sold, it’s just transported by train instead of pipeline. (more…)

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