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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

I freely admit that I don’t do as much as I should to stay in shape, but about once a week I take a modest run on the beach in Santa Barbara (picture here from my phone last evening). There is a bunch of controversy regarding off-shore drilling, discussed ably by my friends at SOS California (Stop Oil Seeps). Ironically, the most eco-friendly short-term approach to this whole situation may be to use slant-drilling to bring forth more oil, raising tax revenues while diminishing the upward pressure from the oil and natural gas reservoirs just off the coast.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Counterbalancing the growing levels of stupidity, hatred, apathy and greed in the world are over 200,000 groups whose mission is social and environmental justice.  Here’s one I just came across with a fabulous story to tell about the quest to improve the health conditions for refugees in the developing world.   If you invest the required five minutes to watch the video, I promise you won’t be disappointed.  

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

In the four-and-a-half years I’ve been writing these posts, I don’t think I’ve referred to Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion” even once.  Shame on me.  I hope readers will take a few minutes and listen to last night’s performance of Guy Noir.  It’s one of the very best I can recall, and it contains a hilarious mention of greenhouse gas emissions reduction.  Enjoy.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

I happened to meet a wonderful couple earlier this afternoon at a restaurant that featured the UCLA/USC game on a television screen.  When, during a pause in our conversation, the wife caught me glancing upward and asked me whom I favored, I stumbled for a moment, and told her, “Oh, I suppose I’m inclined to root for UCLA, since they host a terrific conference several times a year on corporate sustainability, and I’m always invited to participate. Also, one of my best friend’s eldest daughter goes to UCLA.” (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Ocean Thermal

I’m learning a great deal about social media by helping my fellow investors in Ocean Thermal Energy Corporation to construct their cool new website EmpowerTheOcean.com, and to build traffic/search engine optimization for it.   It’s been instructive coming up to speed on the cutting-edge thinking about the use of Facebook, Twitter, and the rest of these platforms. 

Among my jobs is coming up with ideas for compelling content, one of which is the uniqueness of the investor base: over 300 people, mostly from Central Pennsylvania, have bought stock in this early-stage high growth company.  When you think about it, that’s a story unto itself.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

I just published my 3400th blog post here, which prompted me to think about the process of coming up with ideas.  To be honest, this is easy, as these concepts spring up naturally from reading other people’s stuff – some of which inspire praise and support, some curiosity, and others rebuke.  There really is no discipline to it at all.

Apparently, the same can be said about modern novelist E. L. Doctorow, who talked about his writing routine in an interview, “Here’s how it goes: I’m up at the stroke of 10 or 10:30. I have breakfast and read the papers, and then it’s lunchtime. Then maybe a little nap after lunch and out to the gym, and before I know it, it’s time to have a drink.”

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Biofuels

The fuel versus food debate has been continuing for years. While some people aim to produce biofuels as an alternative to fossil fuels, others are concerned about our irresponsible actions and the fact that because of them our planet might stop supporting us one day. This issue has turned into a furious argument which has been going on for years. Replacing fossil fuels with environmentally-friendly biofuels does sound like a good idea. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Biomass

Almost forty million metric tons of electronic waste is produced annually by the world. Only thirteen percent of the total waste is recycled and that too primarily in developing countries. Nine million tons of waste, a conservation figure according to the United Nations Environment Programme, is produced by the European Union itself. America is the world’s largest waste producer. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

I’m working my way through a collection of esteemed essays on a variety of topics, and I happened upon a brilliant piece on environmentalism: Jedediah Purdy’s “Shades of Green.”   A professor of law at Duke University, Purdy ably makes the point that there are several different such movements that have little to do with one another, and sometimes actually come into conflict.  Consider a few different sectors, and think about the differences in ideas between those who: (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Solar Thermal

I spend a few hours every day working for a client that offers a unique approach and capability in the solar thermal hot water space.  For those who may be having trouble visualizing this, shown here is what is called “flat-plate” technology, which has been around for several decades.  My job is to tell the world that breakthroughs in this space make it quite attractive from a cost/watt perspective. (more…)

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