I’m off on a hike that will ultimately take me to a vintage car show. I was explaining my viewpoint on the history of automotive design and engineering to my daughter just now, which I summarize as follows:
From the perspective of aesthetic design, the 1930s was the high-water mark (see 1935 Duesenberg pictured here). (more…)
I met a delightful woman at yesterday’s “boot camp” in preparation for the 2013 Clean Business Investment Summit. Barbara Kerr Condon, who has a great deal of experience in this arena, and is in the process of producing a film called “Three Times A Lady,” an uplifting romantic comedy. She believes that filmmakers have a responsibility to enhance our civilization, rather than to degrade it. Barbara quotes Frank Capra, who said: “Movies should be a positive expression that there is hope, love, mercy, justice, and charity…It is the filmmaker’s responsibility to emphasize the positive qualities of humanity by showing the triumph of the individual over adversities.”
Do you know what happens in the process of the fermentation of yeast and grape juice to making the 26.2 million tons of wine made each year on planet Earth? When this subject arose at today’s session in which my team and I helped coach the presenters at the 2013 Clean Business Investment Summit, I have to confess that I thought the emissions were limited to a relatively inconsequential amount of CO2, as I am (very vaguely) familiar with the Kreb’s Cycle. (Recommendation: Make sure you haven’t had a drop to drink if you expect to make any sense of this, as described here.) (more…)
Changes in the temperature in the past decades have brought the worst natural disasters that wreaked havoc everywhere in the world. From hurricane Katrina in 2005 that claimed more than a thousand lives in the country to cyclone Nargis in Myanmar where more than 100,000 lives were lost.
Scientists have been actively studying the effects of the changing climate since the 1960’s. Experts have determined that the average global temperature has risen about 1.4F (0.8 degrees) since the mid-1800’s. The numbers are not much to look at but the effects speak louder than the first glance at the statistics. (more…)
The world has suffered from several fatal disasters. News of earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, and other phenomena have shaken us. Most people say that it is nature’s own way of taking revenge against humans’ cruelties. However, could it be nature’s cruelty and not any form of revenge? We have this ecological concept about the balance of nature, and how true is it that humans are pushing down too hard on the other end of this balance? (more…)
I just got back from a day-long session in which I mentored presenters for the 2013 production of the Clean Business Investment Summit. CBIS is a group with a long list of greats: intentions, sponsors, fellow volunteers, statistics (in terms of investment dollars raised — $110 million), and ideas (I saw two presentations today that left me breathless).
The concept in mentoring, of course, is to provide constructive criticism; I find a way to validate all presenters, regardless of the value of their ideas, and to push them in a productive direction. And, as previously mentioned, some of these concepts are truly incredible. (more…)
Here’s a Business Week article whose point is that the relevance of our power utilities is disappearing. Not true. Unless there is a breakthrough in energy of unprecedented proportion, along the lines of cold fusion or something else that appears equally unlikely at this point, our electrical utilities will continue to play a critical role in our lives, largely because of the issue of scale.
Absent a miracle, despite the claims of certain pundits, energy will not become “too cheap to meter.” For example, with further advancements in technology, we can get PV down to $1 per Watt. Can we get it to $0.10 per Watt – where we no longer have to think about the economics? Nope. (more…)
Gary sent me this, and I thought I’d publish it for him, as I’ve always been so impressed with his insights:
Just today, I was reading that China is half way through a program to install ultra high voltage grid upgrades to a value of $100 billion – the primary purpose of which is to connect the huge renewable energy resources of its western provinces with the load centres of the east.
By any standards, this is a huge infrastructure investment, implying an intent to support possibly hundreds of gigawatts of wind and solar power – so clearly they get the concept of strategic investment for future energy security. (more…)
Lots of businesses and individuals are trying to do their part to go green, including local fire departments.
There are many steps fire departments can take to become environmentally friendly, including:
Reasons for Going Green (more…)
Deteriorating environmental conditions and rising energy prices are prompting many businesses and individuals to adopt eco-friendly practices.
An increasing number of medical clinics across the country are taking the role of community leaders in promoting environmental protection, setting a positive example for people in their communities.
So, what are they doing to make their communities greener? (more…)
