If now seems like a good time for a mind-blowing experience, take a couple of minutes and check out this video on planet Earth, juxtaposing some incredible imagery with a voice-over from legendary astronomer Carl Sagan. Anyone with a pulse is in for quite a number of realizations about our lives, our relationships with others, and perhaps the notion of sustainability. Enjoy.
I’m very fond of the people at AWEA, the American Wind Energy Association, and I’m also quite keen on well-made infographics that speak to the job growth potential represented by the wind industry, and by renewable energy more generally. For that reason, let me suggest that you check out two fine examples, which I’ll call wind energy infographic #1 and wind energy infographic #2.
Fantastically impressive stuff. Wait until you see the flat-out economic growth that wind power brings us between now and 2020.
California has always been at the forefront of environmental regulation innovation, with a wide range of environmental policy tools aimed at reducing the human impact on the environment and encourage the use of greener technologies. But now, it seems that the state might waive some of its toughest environmental laws in an effort to land one of the most talked-about investments at the moment – Tesla’s Gigafactory. While stepping up as one of the front-runners in the self-driving cars market, Tesla Motors announced its plans to build a large plant for producing electric vehicle batteries, that would be able to churn out up to 500,000 batteries a year, immediately igniting a fierce battle between a number of states for this project, that is thought to be one of the most significant investments that the U.S. has seen in a long time. (more…)
One of the most controversial questions in the entire field of sustainability and green living is whether the damage has been done and whether the climate change is irreversible. The author of this article is not someone who claims to have the knowledge enough to make even an uneducated guess about whether this is true, but he is someone who is aware that little things we all do every day will surely do no harm. (Can’t we assert that that they will do at least some level of good? – Ed.) (more…)
I wrote earlier: Democracy is such a powerful idea that it appears capable of surviving even when the most powerful forces of Earth are trying so desperately to destroy it. It seems that this Monday, our leaders will have the opportunity to nullify a law, based on a U.S. Supreme Court decision that was made almost five years ago, that currently enables corporations to spend as much as they wish to influence our elections.
But I forgot to make the most obvious point: If this actually happens, we should all celebrate a huge victory. (more…)
Democracy is such a powerful idea that it appears capable of surviving even when the most powerful forces of Earth are trying so desperately to destroy it. It seems that this Monday, our leaders will have the opportunity to nullify a law, based on a U.S. Supreme Court decision that was made almost five years ago, that currently enables U.S.-based corporations to spend as much as they wish to influence our elections. (more…)
There are many reasons (eleven to be precise) that I believe the migration to renewable energy is happening far faster than most people understand. Thus, the name of my current book project: “Bullish on Renewable Energy – Eleven Reasons Why Clean Energy Investors Can’t Lose.”
In particular, I see many disparate ingredients coming together simultaneously that are making clean energy, wind in particular, extremely inexpensive. (more…)
Here’s a fairly noncontroversial statement: Those who publish alarming reports on unintended environmental consequences of cutting-edge renewable energy technologies have a responsibility to ensure their numbers are correct. Yet astonishingly, every major newspaper in the U.S. published the Associated Press’s report to the effect that the CSP plant at Ivanpah had killed 28,000 birds—a number that turns out to be almost 100 times higher than the correct one.
Question: Actually, this is a bonus “double question.” Earlier today the California Public Utilities Commission levied a fine against Pacific Gas and Electric, the power company that serves most of the northern part of the state and a bunch of the rest of the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. The penalty was based on the 2010 pipeline explosion in San Bruno, a city just south of San Francisco, that destroyed an entire neighborhood, killing eight people and injuring 58. Here are your two questions: 1) How large was the fine? 2) How many separate violations were found?
Answer: Can be found at Clean Energy Answers.
Relevance: Whenever a company, perhaps a utility like PG&E, or perhaps a DoD mega-contractor like Northrup Grumman, is caught having committed gross violations of the law, particularly when, as in this case, it smashes the public trust to bits, the very first thing it does is invest heavily in an extremely aggressive public relations campaign in an attempt to deal with the rebuke it’s brought on itself through its dishonesty. Here’s one of PG&E’s latest PR blasts, stressing its ostensible heartfelt concern for public safety, in the wake (here’s a hint at the second question) of literally thousands of safety violations that have been rolling along for years before they finally resulted in this catastrophe. If you can think of anything more revoltingly insincere than this series of advertisements–or, if you think I’m over-reacting–I hope you’ll enter a comment here.
Here’s a video on the travails of the young people at Yale University (pictured) and their organization “Fossil Free Yale.” These folks are working hard to get their school to follow the lead of other top-level institutions like Stanford and divest from oil, coal, and gas. Last week, however, a Yale committee refused to consider going in this direction, putting a damper on the works – at least temporarily. (more…)
