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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

I check out The Writer’s Almanac every day and noticed this morning that today is the birthday of novelist and travel writer Pico Iyer who said:

“Writing should … be as spontaneous and urgent as a letter to a lover, or a message to a friend who has just lost a parent … and writing is, in the end, that oddest of anomalies: an intimate letter to a stranger.”

That really speaks to me, as a) I never know what these blog posts are about until a few seconds before they’re composed, and b) many of them contain heartfelt messages delivered to people, most of whom I’ll never know.

I’m reminded of an incident that brought a big smile to my face 14 years ago, when I was watching my then four-year-old son playing on a jungle gym. He had encountered a little girl he didn’t know, and tried to strike up a conversation.  She said something to him I couldn’t make out, but I figured it out from my son’s reply: “Oh, it’s OK. You can talk to me. I’m not a stranger. I’m Jake Shields.”

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

I’m proud that Tom Konrad, famed stock market analyst and editor of AltEnergyStocks.com, offers his comments here frequently. In a post yesterday, he offered me guidance in wrapping my wits around the issue of green jobs, directing me to his thoughtful article on Forbes.com, linked below. There, Tom looks at the issue from the standpoint of basic microeconomics’ “production function” which suggests that labor can be freely substituted for capital and energy. He provides examples recently, including this one: 

Shifting people out of their cars and onto mass transit will create jobs because there will have to be drivers and people managing the transit system, where before no one was paid to drive. To the extent that the transit system can be paid for out of the reduced fuel costs and car ownership costs of the former drivers turned riders, the number of jobs created will be a pure economic gain.

But I wonder if it’s that simple. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Uncategorized

I’m interviewing Jerry Taylor, Senior Fellow at the right wing think tank Cato Institute when I’m in Washington D.C.  next week, and I’ve spent a good part of the day preparing, checking out a number of Mr. Taylor’s writings and speeches, like the one linked here.

Yikes. This guy is brilliant, and he’s a terrific presenter, but he and I disagree on practically everything.  Of course, that’s the point; I selected him specifically because of my duty to maintain balance and fair-mindedness in my writing.  I know I’ve interviewed a few economists and social observers whose perspectives are left of center, and I really want to get a few decidedly conservative viewpoints here.  

But I can see that Mr. Taylor’s going to give me the whole nine yards of his attack-dog refutation of what we proponents of renewables are trying to do, and so I’m wondering how to play this conversation. I think I’m simply going to take his talking points one by one and just discuss them calmly.  Here are a few:

(more…)

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

A reader sent me a plan to turn low-skilled people into electricity generating machines, claiming that employees could be paid a reasonable wage.  But his math is wrong.  A human being produces about 80 Watts with his muscles, e.g., bicycling.  That’s  80 Watt-hours each hour = .08 kWhs each hour.  At the U.S. average electricity price of 11 cents/kWh, he’d be creating less than a penny of electricity an hour.  I know we’ve hit hard times, but I don’t think we’ve quite reached that level.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Ocean Thermal

As the name suggests, OTEC Corporation, whom I’m meeting next week on my trip back East, is one of the leaders in the development of ocean thermal energy conversion, a technology with huge potential to change the world energy picture. Best of all, these folks, while they’re true business professionals and leading scientists, are acutely aware of the environmental benefits that are at stake here.

Their website contains a wonderful section called “Common Ground” which begins with an excerpt from the writings of Amy Maddox: “Underneath We’re All the Same.” (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Here’s a wonderful article that gets at an issue I come across constantly: the implication that environmentalism and job growth are opposed to one another.  Considering we have the option to put literally millions of people back to work in renewable energy, energy storage, electric transportation, smart-grid, etc., I’m always stunned when I hear politicians peddling the idea that eco-friendliness must come at the expense of the economy.  

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Gary Ares, a senior marketing professional in Rhode Island, writes about my article on the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which provides broad authority for the federal government to use the military in domestic operations in order to detain Americans indefinitely and without trial. This nullifies the 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as well as the natural rights of Americans. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

Ever since solar power became an accepted alternative as an energy resource, the general consensus has been to wait and see what happens. As with anything new that has been introduced as a way of saving money, we are skeptical — and especially so when it is on something that we don’t understand. Whether it’s the environment or technology, the natural reaction is to question it`s function, benefit and place in our world. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

I try to write a short piece on global warming every week or two, but I find it difficult, given that so many people cover this subject so well. Linked here is a short Bill McKibben article that I urge everyone to read.

That we’ve taken this matter out of the hands of science and reduced it to the basest level of politics is one of the most nauseating aspects of our current-day culture.

I have to give my immediate family credit here.  Even though they generally don’t follow this stuff too closely, they are enjoying the heck out of McKibben’s masterpiece “Eaarth.”  I hope you’ll pick up a copy and share it with friends.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I have 13 meetings lined up over five days next week spread out from Washington, DC to Boston, starting with an interview with  Jerry Taylor, senior fellow at the Cato Institute, conservative think-tank in our nation’s capital. I successfully appealed to Mr. Taylor on the basis that I have frequent talks with liberal economists, clean energy advocates and progressive policy wonks, but, as I pride myself on fair-mindedness, I would love to sit down and talk about different perspectives.  After all, my next book’s working title: “Renewable Energy – Following the Money” suggests a wide range of political perspectives.  He agreed, and we’re on for Tuesday morning, at his office which is walking distance from my next two meetings.

In my use of the word “conservative,” I’m not suggesting that Mr. Taylor is some sort of knee-jerk right-winger. In fact, he’s distinguished himself as a man of incredible objectivity, in a world so pitifully lacking in this rare commodity. Here he is, arguing (very well) that President Obama handled the BP oil spill very well. Try to find that type of sane, levelheaded rhetoric coming out of any of the Republican presidential candidates.

 

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