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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

A few minutes ago, I came across a reference to “second-degree murder,” which led me to the Wikipedia article on the subject for a quick refresher on the difference between that and involuntary manslaughter.  While I thought this would have been completely straightforward, it really wasn’t at all.  As I read along, I was reminded how strange it is that the 50 U.S. states have 50 different ways of defining and punishing crimes.  Isn’t a barroom fight that ends in a death pretty much as repugnant in Rhode Island as it is in Oregon?  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

I’ve mentioned several times over the past few years that, though I don’t normally bet against my own longevity, I sincerely doubt that I’ll still be on this planet when Chevron pays a nickel of the $9.8 billion judgment against it, even though the order was upheld in an appellate court, as restitution for the vicious crimes it committed against the people of Ecuador. 

Chevron’s current tack?  Blame the victims? (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

Here’s a good article, selected from the ton of them I see, on how to analyze the value of Tesla Motors.  The author argues, as many others have before, that those who ridicule Tesla’s astronomical market cap are missing the point that Tesla is more than just a “car company.”  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

West Virginia’s secretary of Health and Human Resources, Karen Bowling, said, “It’s hard to instill confidence when there’s little known about the chemical, but at the same time we have to trust in the science of what’s happening.” …in other words, we need to trust the science we don’t have.

I researched this stuff a bit, and the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) on this chemical – 4-Methylcyclohexanemethanol – states that it has been banned from everything but R&D purposes across Canada, Japan, South Korea and the European Union. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

Understanding the electric bike phenomenon is like anything else: the more I learn, the more I see how ignorant I am. 

At first blush, how appealing is a foldable e-bike?  Can’t you just use a bike rack, like everyone else?  But check out the video linked above, and then think about people with boats, or even planes, who come into an area and want to get around.  Think about throwing a couple of them in the trunk of your car, for a fun day tooling around some remote spot.

They’re not for everyone, but there really are some neat applications for people who are rethinking how they get themselves around.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainable Building

I just had a wonderful talk with Tina Vasile, CEO of  Swing Green, purveyor of heat exchangers of various types.  The company’s expanding, and that’s good, but Tina and I agree that it’s sometimes hard to get people excited about a set of technologies that are so “unsexy.”  People tend to want some big, conspicuous thing on their roof generating clean electricity and making their electric meter run backwards, not a coil of pipe underneath the floor of their bathroom, cost-effectively but invisibly recapturing some of the heat from their shower water.

I’m not sure exactly what to do about that, except to persevere. Tina and her team are talking to engineers, architects, government purchasing agencies – all the right people; if they stick with it, I know they’ll succeed.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

During a 30-minute drive I took earlier today, I had the pleasure of listening to a 1964 talk that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered at the Baccalaureate sermon at the commencement exercises for Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, which included that fabulous line: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”  For what it’s worth, this quote has a long and very interesting history, an article on which is linked above.

Regardless of its history, we’d all like to believe that its message is, in fact, true, insofar as it forms the basis of our optimism – at least our hope – that humankind can somehow find its way to a just, kind, and sustainable world. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

I’m headed out in a few minutes for another hike at the same place (Gaviota, CA) I mentioned a year or so back, and with the same friend – a fellow who shares my concern for the direction in which humankind is headed vis-à-vis sustainability and our environment. He told me on New Year’s that he intends to make 2014 “a year of taking action” to forward his progressive ideals. Sounds good to me, and a fine topic for discussion as we take in the scenery.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

My friend Larry Miles, whose breakthrough in wind turbines I prominently feature here on my list of clean energy investment opportunities (it’s #6), writes:

I was thinking about your piece on the sad state of the non-existent U.S. Energy Policy, I remembered the quote from Machiavelli (pictured).  Here it is, lifted from Wikipedia:

This quote from chapter six of The Prince on initiating change struck me, “We must bear in mind, then, that there is nothing more difficult and dangerous, or more doubtful of success, than an attempt to introduce a new order of things in any state. For the innovator has for enemies all those who derived advantages from the old order of things, whilst those who expect to be benefited by the new institutions will be but lukewarm defenders. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

2013 saw a significant uptick in the amount of mainstream news coverage of climate change – normally in connection with pollution and other environmental issues.  Here’s a CBS news clip in which Charlie Rose covers the air in Beijing, recently measured to be 20 times dirtier than “safe” levels.  According to the report, China consumes almost half the world’s coal.  Officials closed freeways due to inadequate visibility.  Another 15 years of unchanging behavior could put the world to a point where we would be unable to correct climate issues, even if we wanted to.  (more…)

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