EPRI, the Electric Power Resource Institute, is a non-profit organization that functions to perform research and provide assistance in the development of advanced systems in generation, delivery and use of electricity. I’m sure there was a time a few decades ago that there really wasn’t too much going on in this space, but that’s certainly not the case now. That’s why I wanted to make sure I included an interview with a spokesperson from EPRI in my first book, Renewable Energy – Facts and Fantasies; Mark Duvall, whom I had met at numerous conferences, was kind enough to oblige. (more…)
Question: We all know that gang violence is a scourge on our civilization. Can you estimate the average cost to society of a typical criminal gang member?
Relevance: In many cases, the cost of cleaning up after a mess is far greater than preventing the mess in the first place, and this is certainly the case with gang membership. There are numerous non-profit organizations, e.g., El Nido, that keep young people away from gangs far less expensively than dealing with the bloodshed they leave in their wake. Thus the old adage: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
Perhaps we should think about applying this wisdom to the damage we’re wreaking upon our environment with our continued and expanding use of fossil fuels.
As we bump along into a new year, perhaps it’s time to ask ourselves: What do the world’s scientists tell us about our course vis-à-vis sustainability? Well, a lot of things, really. For example, our oceans are over-fished and filled with mercury, and the natural mineral content of our farmland is so depleted that the chemical fertilizers and poisons we’ve chosen to mitigate the damage is crippling our environment, while leaving us with food increasingly lacking in nutritional content.
This could be the beginning of a very long list, so I’ll skip ahead to the granddaddy of them all: our society’s burning coal for energy. In brief, the developing world expects to enable its huge and ever-growing populations to enjoy the fruits of cheap and abundant energy in the 21st Century, the same way the developed world did in the 19th and 20th Centuries. There’s a catch, though, as there often is. If we pull all that carbon out of the ground and release it into the atmosphere, we’ll cause catastrophic climate change, not to mention other forms of ecologic collapse of monumental proportion.
Harnish notes that sadly, where the U.S. and Germany are similar in many ways, e.g., GDP per capita, Germany exports four times as much per capita as the U.S.; even Spain exports twice as much as we do here. When the recession came in 2008, the U.S. bailed out only the largest corporate entities and paid people not to work. Not Germany. Angela Merkel focused on keeping everyone working, regardless of the size (and political clout) of the employer.
The point? Perhaps the U.S. can learn something from the Germans, and build products that people want outside our borders. And here’s an idea, as if you didn’t see it coming: clean energy. It’s true (amazingly) that we ourselves have little reach for clean energy solutions; we seem to have no problem amping up fossil fuel exploration, building pipelines with obscene environmental characteristics, etc.
But since the rest of the world doesn’t see it that way, let’s foster innovation in cleantech – renewables in particular – even if the focus is export.
I’ve referred to my friend, Jim Boyden a few times here. Jim got his Ph.D. in high-energy particle physics from Cal Tech the same year I entered kindergarten, and generously consented to an interview for my current book project, “Renewable Energy – Following the Money.”
Several bills are making their way through the U.S. Congress that would put an end to the unfair imbalance here, but none has come up for a vote. Here, Jennifer explains how Richard Kauffman, Senior Advisor to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, who came out of the private sector, explains how such a move by Congress would dramatically reduce the cost of capital for large renewable energy projects, while simultaneously providing five other major benefits.
As always, this whole discussion goes back to the same old place: all we’re asking for is a level playing field.
In a post yesterday, I tried to tie together the work that certain humanitarian groups perform together with our need for a progressive energy policy. The connection? Both are rooted in a viewpoint of the future, along the lines of the old adages: “A stitch in time saves nine” and “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Just like preventing gang membership is a great deal less costly and deadly than mopping up after the damage has been done, a forward-looking energy policy that curtails our addiction to fossil fuels will be a far easier pill to swallow than dealing with droughts, famines, dead oceans, extreme weather events, and potentially hundreds of millions of climate refugees.
If you’re at all compelled by this logic, you may be interested in this presentation of El Nido, the Los Angeles-based organization I mentioned in that post, which looks at the world of gang membership as follows: The cost to society of the average criminal gang member is approximately $2 million. If we can spend less than that (in El Nido’s case, a tiny fraction of that) to get that kid through school and into an honest, productive life, we have a huge bargain.
You may want to check out slide #8 for some of the most shocking ROI calculations you’ll ever see.
It’s only been a few minutes since I posted this piece on my friend Brandi Veil and her unique approach to what she calls “humanistic sustainability.” As I’ve already gotten some positive feedback, I consider this auspicious, so I thought I’d add a bit more content.
First, here’s the introduction she wrote to her speech at the World Information Technology (WIT) Conference presenting to the United Nations on Environment and Health.
Amidst the global crisis of a dysfunctional old paradigm, a new renaissance of human culture is underway.
A blossoming phenomenon of Transformational & Music Festivals, immersive participatory realities that are having a profound life-changing effect on millions of lives.
With attendance at Festivals growing in the millions annually, many attendees have had life-changing experiences at them and are deeply passionate about sharing the culture with their friends, family and social networks. (more…)
I thought readers would be interested in a presentation that a friend of mine, Brandi Veil, made recently at the 21st United Nations Conference on Health and Environment: “Global Partners for Global Solutions.” Brandi is a wonderful person with a heart the size of Texas. She bills herself as an “Ambassador for Transformational Events,” and she really does have a considerable flair for pulling people together.
Again, here’s a transcription of her talk to the audience. If, after reading this, you’d like to get involved, please let me know.
I am here today as an Ambassador of the festival culture to present you, a new audience, with new possibilities via new systems. I am a Hollywood event producer who was influenced by transformational festivals and has now made it my life’s mission to expose the many gifts of this community! I am here to alert you to a generational shift in global society driven by art, music and dance; and, to share with you a plan to guide these individuals into your organizations and communities to create a new type of workforce with new skill sets and values along with a plan, which I call “humanitarian sustainability”. WIT has invited me to present to you a possible means of developing and sustaining resources for the programs this conference has occupied itself with for over 20 years–Health and Environment. (more…)
I’ve referred to my friend, 
