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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainable Building

The spring season is a time of change and provides the perfect opportunity to reflect on the problems humans are facing around the world and the actions we can take to improve the situation. As we think about what we can do to help those who are suffering from the spring famine in the Sahel region of Africa, it is also a time to reflect on other water related problems around the globe. The global water crisis impacts billons of men, women and children every day and there are actions we can take to help these individuals. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

Frequent commenter Larry Lemmert writes:

Is government intervention the way to change the hearts and minds of the consumers of energy? Look at prohibition of alcohol. See the NYT article that was published today.  This is a case study that should be studied by every interventionist before embarking on a legal framework of prohibition of anything.

Larry, you raise a good point about government and unintended consequences. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

As environmentalist Paul Hawken points out in this video of his presentation to the Bioneers, there are at least 200,000 organizations in our world today whose mission is some combination of environmentalism, sustainability, and social justice. I know I face some level of ridicule when I make points like this, but that really is a heck of a lot of effort being exerted to correcting some of the world’s thorniest problems.

I know that a lot of readers think that the purity of capitalism and market forces is the best way to solve problems, but even they need to admit that 200,000 is a considerable number, and that the horsepower of the countless millions of people behind these groups will continue to have a beneficial effect on our civilization.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

A couple of years ago I bought a rowing machine on which I like to log 4 kilometers in the evening, which takes about half an hour, mostly while watching the game show “Jeopardy” which I really do enjoy. Sunday nights, however, I’m reduced to watching half of CBS’s ever-popular 60 Minutes.

The problem with the show, ironically, is the reason that it’s popular, which I would summarize as this: its creators know what works, and are willing to do that, even (or especially?) at the expense of the truth.

Tonight’s presentation on Elon Musk’s ScienceX would have us believe that space exploration: (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Today’s the birthday of the beat poet Allen Ginsberg. According to the Writer’s Almanac, when he was 17 and in his freshman year at Columbia University, Ginsberg was introduced to Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs, whom Ginsberg later said encouraged him to think for himself and to worry less about conforming.

Of course, Western Culture had been flirting with non-conformist thinking since its inception (Socrates comes immediately to mind), yet I think it could be properly said that the beat poets “institutionalized” the concept, in a way, at least here in the US. Does anyone still believe that a good education is one in which millions of unanalyzed facts are stuffed into our heads? (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Every time I speak with the gentleman who runs the teak reforesting business in Columbia, I become more astonished at how safe, sane, and civilized that part of the world appears to have become. Here’s a video on investing in Columbia which does a very good job in assuaging concern the viewer might have that he or his employees will wind up caught in the crossfire between two rival drug lords.

The video makes the point that Columbia values forestry projects very highly, offering 100% relief from income tax for the life of the project.

Again, I love the concept: Pay someone quite nominally to raise trees for you from saplings to maturity, absorbing atmospheric CO2 at the time your investment is growing – literally.  If you’re interested, please let me know, and I’ll put you in touch.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Dale writes:

Craig, you are proceeding from a liberal fallacy that only the uneducated doubt catastrophic climate change. I have BS in meteorology and an MS in environmental engineering, for the last 30 years I have been a practicing environmental professional. I have researched this subject extensively and I am convinced that we have nothing to fear from catastrophic anthropogenic climate change. We have much more to fear from energy shortages brought about by our ridiculous fear of CO2 than we do from any change in climate.

Dale:

Well, cool.  If you can enlighten us with respect to your discoveries, we’ll all sleep better tonight. Apparently, your work has landed you among the 2% – 3% of climate scientists who stand in disagreement to the countervailing theory.  I, with God as my witness, stand most sincerely ready to hear your position and the science behind it. And obviously, I’m hoping you’re right.

 

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

In response to my piece on the electric vehicle adoption curve, in which I suggested that EVs represented more than a “niche” market, frequent commenter and senior physicist Glenn Doty wrote:

Most of those multi-car households have one SUV or pickup truck and one large vehicle. Why?

Why would the majority of households, when determining the vehicle they wish to purchase in a time of high gasoline prices, choose an SUV? The answer: versatility.

The Leaf is a car that does not fulfill the requirements of a vehicle: to get you where you want to go when you want to go there. So in order to own a Leaf I have to buy another whole car!

The exact same calculation will and must occur in a two-car household if family or business requires one member of the house to leave town (which of course also cannot be done in an EV).

Niche is a completely valid market expression for an expensive vehicle that one understands at the point of purchase cannot be used in thousands of conceivable cases in which a vehicle will be needed.

Glenn, you’re a brilliant guy, and I learn from everything you write. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Here’s a report of macro-trends observed by venture capital giant Kleiner Perkins. To me, the most noteworthy thing about it is the concept that Kleiner managing partner Ray Lane explained in a conversation he and I had in his office last year: investment in clean energy is capital intensive and requires patience; investment in software (mobile Internet apps) has the potential for far greater and quicker returns.

Yes, therein lies the rub. Investors in clean energy are a different breed, and certainly patience is part of that characterization. But I would add “vision” in there too. After all, how likely is it that we’ll still be burning coal and driving Hummers a few decades hence? If we still have a civilization here, it will be precisely because we found a way (or ways) to put an end to unsustainable practices like these.

I predict that investors with vision will begin to line up behind the truly good ideas that call out to them, a few such concepts are linked here.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Biomass

When I first got into the renewable energy space, Robert Rapier was one of the first people to whom I reached out, as he’s been around this industry quite a while. I recall that he was quite gracious with me; we had a long and interesting chat on the phone.

Here’s Robert’s take on the enterprise of cellulosic ethanol, which, for what it’s worth, aligns 100% with my own: it won’t scale.

If it is to offer real value, a biomass to energy project needs to involve a feedstock that has a negative value to society, like municipal solid waste, manure, waste tires, etc.   (more…)

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