“Everything’s coming together, while everything’s falling apart.”
That’s the summary of the 2014 “year in review” from climate justice super-group 350.org.
It’s wonderfully concise, i.e., expressing a great deal in few words. (more…)
It looks like the Keystone XL Pipeline is going to face a tough time on U.S. President Obama’s desk, and an American Petroleum Institute spokesperson says he’s “disappointed” by this countervailing force that appears ready to fight a Republican-led congress. On we go.
There a few energy experts with honest environmental sensibilities who think the pipeline is a reasonable idea, most of whom reason that Canada will very likely exploit the oil in its vast tar sands reserves regardless of what we do here. Proponents and fence-sitters, however, occupy a slim minority. (more…)
A young reader asks for advice:
My name is Cole, and I’m 15 years old. My future plan is to start a company named Nova. Nova supports renewable energy sources. I want to make a new renewable energy source that will change the world. I hope you will email me re: what you think on this.
Hi, Cole. First, let me say that I think your goal here is terrific. To get started, I would encourage you to take a course in physics while you’re in high school, in which you’ll learn the difference between the possible and the impossible. This might sound like a stupid or condescending remark, but most people, until they’ve studied the subject at least a little bit, don’t fully get this. (more…)
As shown in this conversation (see comments) my esteemed colleague Glenn Doty and I can’t seem to agree that there are circumstances where electric vehicles are good for the environment.
The purpose of this post is not to further the discussion, but to allow me an opportunity to point to an altogether different subject, related only because it seems unresolvable.
Those hoping for campaign finance reform that would reduce the corruptive influence of money on politics took a drubbing in November. Witness the election postmortem of the ambitious MayDay SuperPAC, an attempt to use contributions from grass roots sources to elect candidates who refuse to accept contributions from the huge special interests. MayDay lost every one of the congressional races in which it participated.
So if MayDay is a failure, is there hope for those of us who honestly care about this stuff? (more…)
I wrote a piece earlier in which I lamented that the producers of PBS’s “This Old House” (which I love) will not even mention that better efficiency in the way houses are built, insulated, heated and cooled might have a beneficial effect on the environment. They talk about “lowering the homeowner’s utility bills,” dozens of times in the course of a season, but they are extremely careful not to utter a syllable about any possible interest anyone could have about doing the right thing environmentally. (more…)
Wow, the Catholic Church is going through some turmoil. It’s an example of the fact that things one never thought possible are commonplace today.
Here’s confirmation that the highest-ranking U.S. cardinal has been demoted over his unwillingness to bend to accommodate Pope Francis’s broadminded view on homosexuality. (more…)
Glenn Doty, one of the most brilliant people I’ve ever known, has a wide panorama of arguments as to why EVs are bad for the environment. In response to those who say that many EV buyers nowadays also buy solar PV to charge them, and thus their cars will never be connected to the grid, Glenn says:
I have great respect for those who buy solar power systems for their home in order to offset the burden of their EV. My problem is that I have equal respect for those who buy solar panels to offset their ICEV. Or those that just invest in wind farms in the Midwest, or in aforestation projects in Africa and Brazil… The atmosphere doesn’t really make a distinction: In both cases, there is a burden, and in both cases there is a purchased offset for that burden.
I’ve spent the last few minutes milling around my office chewing on this. (more…)
A colleague who specializes in eco-friendly building writes: I’m sure your next book will have a chapter covering the changes going on in the home building market. If you need some consultation, I would be happy to contribute!
Perhaps. Thanks for the offer. I sure find the subject interesting. And I’m really miffed that the mainstream news cover this so poorly. Is it somehow politically incorrect to suggest that people might want to do something good for the environment? If this had come out of some ridiculous news channel that feeds on the credulous/fearful/uninformed, I could understand that. But PBS? Et tu?
I’m not sure how many readers are following the (extensive) discussions of the validity of electric vehicles. The conversation pertains to today’s U.S. energy market—one that features coal as the resource by which incremental load on the grid is met.
The take-away is that right here in 2015, if they are charged via the grid, EVs are worse ecologically than their ICE counterparts. Yes, this flies in the teeth of common wisdom, and yes, it’s a bitter pill for most environmentally conscious people to swallow.
Having said all this, here are a few reasons that I support EVs—even at this point: (more…)
