Blog – Page 1473 – 2GreenEnergy.com

Today, McDonald’s Is Less Offensive To All Life Forms Than It Was Yesterday

craigshieldsPosted on April 23, 2015 Posted in Sustainability

I just sent a letter to McDonald’s to congratulate them on their recent pledge to ensure the palm oil, beef, fiber-based packaging, coffee, and poultry in their products does not contribute to tropical deforestation. Apparently, their decision to head in the right decision here was the direct result of the work by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and its supporters who sent over 140,000 emails (including mine) to tell McDonald’s and the rest of America’s fast food chains that there’s no excuse to continue buying palm oil that could cause climate change, loss of endangered species habitat, and tropical deforestation. (more…)

Tagged with: and tropical deforestation, buying palm oil that could cause climate change, loss of endangered species habitat, McDonald’s pledge tropical deforestation, Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS)

Young People: Do a Great Job in Environmental Stewardship, And Love Every Minute of It

craigshieldsPosted on April 23, 2015 Posted in Sustainability

Speaking for environmentalist baby-boomers everywhere, I hope the millennials reading this take a far more active role in environmental stewardship than my generation did. Obviously, I urge you to do your civic duty vis-à-vis voting, recycling, buying organic food from local farmers, boycotting the purveyors of poison and destruction (McDonalds, Coke, etc.), and so forth. But also, I hope a great number of you take one step further and aggressively resist the stupidity and corruption in the world around you and strive for all you’re worth to create a world of sustainability, peace, and justice. (more…)

Tagged with: active role in environmental stewardship, create a world of sustainability peace and justice, environmental stewardship, environmentalist baby-boomers

Renewable Energy World, Azerbaijan, and the Harsh Truths of Realpolitik

craigshieldsPosted on April 22, 2015 Posted in Wind Energy

Here’s the note I dictated into my phone this morning when I sat up in bed a few minutes pre-dawn and went through the features stories at RenewableEnergyWorld. I wrote, “This story on Azerbaijan is typical of ‘news coverage’ of things that haven’t happened and are extremely unlikely to occur. I could have written the same thing about Ghana or Sierra Leone, and have an equal chance of predicting the future: just this side of zero.” (more…)

Tagged with: (levelized cost of energy) associated with our project, Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan pursues a very realpolitik policy, Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, compressed air energy storage (CAES), oil-rich countries build solar and wind to provide the power they need themselves, oil-rich countries export as much oil and gas as possible, renewable energy solutions, RenewableEnergyWorld

Cuba Needs To Model Itself After the U.S. Corrupt Democracy

craigshieldsPosted on April 22, 2015 Posted in Renewables - Politics

Here’s something you may have seen going around. I have to admit that it is, in fact, funny as hell, though it would be funnier if it didn’t go over the head of 90% of Americans.

WASHINGTON—As part of the White House’s effort to mend 50 years of acrimonious U.S.-Cuba relations, members of the Obama administration called on the island nation this week to adopt a more democratic form of corruption. (more…)

Tagged with: corruption in government, Cuba democracy

Dealing with California’s Drought Requires Existing Solutions, Common Sense, and a Cessation of Political In-fighting

craigshieldsPosted on April 22, 2015 Posted in Renewables - Science

A reporter asks:

I´m traveling to California´s Central Valley soon for a story on the drought there. I would very much like to hear from anyone who´s seriously affected by the drought, perhaps especially farmers who might now have to change the way they use water. Also, I´d love to hear from anyone who is working on technological solutions to fight the ongoing drought. Who is going to save California?

The problem is this: (more…)

Tagged with: burning fossil fuels, but not limited to the hyper-environmentalists who don’t want to see solar PV in the deserts because it reduces certain habitats. survival of animal species under greater threat from anthropogenic, California´s Central Valley, Dealing with California’s Drought, electrify transportation and remove coal entirely from our grid-mix, energy efficiency solutions, including, lower the carbon footprint of our buildings, reduce environmental degradation, solutions ignored/suppressed by vast moneyed interests, support of advanced nuclear. Each of these are political footballs of enormous proportion, water conservation in California needs to apply to agriculture, water-conservation products that address multi-family dwellings

From Guest Blogger Renewable Energy Corporation: Solar Smackdowns–Which State Has Created More Solar Jobs?

craigshieldsPosted on April 22, 2015 Posted in Uncategorized

Renewable Energy Corporation, a Maryland-based Solar Panel Installation Company brings to you the Solar Smackdowns: Which State Has Created More Solar Jobs? (more…)

From Guest Blgger Hosokawa: Calculate the Energy Savings in Processing Technologies

craigshieldsPosted on April 22, 2015 Posted in Efficiency

Many of the processing technologies such as drying are, by their very nature, ‘high energy spenders’ and just eliminating that technology from your production line isn’t usually an option. (more…)

Tagged with: business efficiency, energy efficiency, processing efficiency

Want To Compete in EV Charging Stations? I’m Not Sure You’re Barking Up the Right Tree

craigshieldsPosted on April 21, 2015 Posted in Electric Vehicles

A long-time 2GreenEnergy reader proposes to build an EV charging network along the California coastline (aka Route 1, aka (in many places) the Pacific Coast Highway). There are a couple of main challenges I believe he’ll face:

Working Around the Corpses of the Already Dead Contenders in this Space. The whole EV universe has had a string of sobering experiences, including the bankruptcies of both the Ecotality charging-station network and the Better Place service in Israel. Here’s a good article that asks the question: Does a market exist here at all?

Demand. Case studies show that the presence of more charging stations alleviates range anxiety; instead of charging their batteries at 50% or 60% state of charge (SOC), drivers will let the SOC fall to perhaps 20%. That’s good for the driver, but not necessarily for the charging station entrepreneurs, whose product doesn’t get used as much as its owner might have anticipated. The people at EPRI know a great deal about this; in fact, I learned it from Mark Duvall, Director of Energy Utilization at EPRI whom I interviewed for my first book (Renewable Energy – Facts and Fantasies). (more…)

Tagged with: Ecotality, Electric Vehicles, ev chanrging stations, Mark Duvall

Thinking Deep Thoughts Doesn’t Have To Hurt–An Admittedly Off-Topic Post

craigshieldsPosted on April 21, 2015 Posted in Sustainable Building

Last Friday was the 118th birthday of Thorton Wilder, best known for his 1938 Pulitzer-prize winning play “Our Town,” a scene of which is pictured here. I was discussing this the other day with my mother, who called to my attention a remark that Wilder once made: “My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither but just enjoy your ice cream while it’s on your plate.” (more…)

Tagged with: St. Augustine, Thinking Deep Thoughts

Average Wait Time for a Liver Transplant is One Week—but There’s a Catch

craigshieldsPosted on April 21, 2015 Posted in Sustainability

In an earlier post I mentioned the enormous diversity of concepts presented at Santa Barbara’s magnificent Earth Day celebration last Saturday. I was just going through my notes and ran across this fine example: Stop Organ Pillaging in China. Apparently, because of the incredible profit associated with killing people and selling their organs to people in need of transplants, China engages in “forced organ harvesting,” where death row inmates and prisoners of conscience are executed, and their organs (corneas, livers, kidneys, lungs, hearts, etc.) are sold to supply the demands of the world market, normally at prices between $100K and $200K. A report, in 21 languages, is available here. (more…)

Tagged with: Earth Day, forced organ harvesting, obscuring the science associated with our environmental decay, Santa Barbara, Shanghai 2nd Military Medical University Hospital, Stop Organ Pillaging in China