From Guest Blogger Cameron Atwood: Clean Energy Graphic
Cameron asked me to post this graphic he put together to illustrate the migration to clean energy, the importance of which he highlighted in the post linked above. (more…)
Tagged with: migration to renewable energy
From Guest Blogger Hanna: Green Car Rentals are Taking Off
Fuel prices have been on the rise over the past decade. In the UK, drivers can expect to pay 60p more than ten years ago, while US drivers have seen a price surge of 47 cents in the past year alone. Although prices have been known to ebb and flow, this general upward trend seems as if it’s here to stay. The high cost of fuel can take a bite out of any holiday budget. Even a slight uptick in gas prices can add several hundred dollars to a round trip journey of 500 miles. As a result, the green alternative of hybrid or electric vehicles starts to look more appealing to consumers. (more…)
Tagged with: Car rental, Carbon Footprint, electric vehicle, Green vehicle, Hybrid vehicle, Nissan Leaf, Toyota Prius, Volkswagen Jetta
Our News Media Avoids the Most Obvious Issues Re: Sustainability
I’ve been laid up for a couple of days with a badly tweaked back, resulting in my first major exposure to commercial television in a while. I wrote about CBS’ “Sunday Morning” a bit earlier in the day, and I spent most of the afternoon reading and half-watching a golf tournament.
Here’s a note on something I normally skip: 60 Minutes. (more…)
Is the Wind Energy Industry a Scam?
A friend sent me a long and scathing attack on the wind energy industry and writes: “From friends in Connecticut—This has a lot of right wing “anti-green” rhetoric, but how much is factual?”
Thanks very much. Good to hear from you again. Here are a few excerpts, along with my responses: (more…)
Tagged with: Ben Lieberman, energy and environmental issues, Energy Fact Check, environmental damage, Heritage Foundation, pollution, wind energy industry, wind energy is a tax scam, wind power subsidy, wind turbines kill birds, windmills produce less energy before they break down than the energy it took to make them
From Guest Blogger Cameron Atwood: Are Dirty Fighters Throwing Sand in Our Eyes?
There now rages a great contest among our species over the nature of our present and future energy infrastructure.
On the one side, we have people and entities aligned with the status quo – these include the vested moneyed interests that have long extracted massive revenue from our existing fossil energy arrangement. On the other side, we have people and entities now warning against our current path, and instead urging us to look forward toward the very real potential of an energy economy based on sustainable modern resources.
Jeremy Grantham (pictured above) is the co-founder and chief investment strategist of Grantham Mayo van Otterloo (GMO), a Boston-based asset management firm, with more than US $97 billion in assets under management as of December 2011. (more…)
Like It Or Not, Our Energy Policy Actually Affects Our Prospects for Survival
I happened to tune into U.S.-based broadcast network CBS’s weekly “Sunday Morning” just now and noticed that it featured a look at the future of humankind, a subject in which I take a keen interest. Not too surprisingly, the piece was almost uniformly optimistic: longer, healthier lives, the possibility of space migration, and the future of consumer product development aimed to render us even more comfort and convenience. There was one segment on the build-up of trash, but (more…)
A Few Chance Reminders That Maybe We Don’t Need All This “Stuff” Around Us
The sensibilities of our consumer lifestyle are so ingrained in us that the few people we encounter who simply don’t care about wealth and accumulating “stuff” appear quite odd to us. I was reminded of this yesterday, when I realized it was the birthday of Henry David Thoreau.
And coincidentally, I just got off a conference call with some folks up in Canada talking about a breakthrough in compress air energy storage, during which one of them jokingly likened me to the ancient Athenian Diogenes with his lamp. (more…)
Renewable Energy in the Developing World
Here’s an article that echoes a point I make often: bringing renewable energy to the developing world represents arguably the biggest bang for our philanthropic buck. Here, you’ll learn about the Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) and why its executive director Robert Freling agrees with me that this enterprise successfully addresses a myriad of social ills: lack of clean drinking water, deforestation, education, and, perhaps most important, family planning. (more…)
Ten Mind-blowing Facts About the Solar System
I thought readers might appreciate these 10 “mind-blowing facts about the solar system.” If nothing else, they form a reminder of how precisely balanced everything is (or at least was) here on Earth, and how vital it is that humankind respect this concept in our daily lives.
From Guest Blogger Alec Holland: The Barter Economy Grows Globally to Include Astonishing Concepts
Bartering Gains Increasing Acceptance
Bartering, meaning the practice of people and companies trading goods, is a concept that has been around for centuries. Recently, Internet communications have added a new spin to the classic practice. Niche markets and large-scale bartering websites make it possible to find partners for the most unusual trading proposals. (more…)
