Tavas Energy is a non-profit organization that helps other non-profits, e.g., volunteer firehouses, to “go green” with solar photovoltaics. I just spoke with one of the organization’s founders, Noel Smyth, and promised to share the opportunity to vote for Tavas on the Chase Community Giving app on Facebook. If they get enough votes, they get a grant to expand their operations. They got my vote, for sure. Here’s the link.
My friend and colleague Vijay Rochlani, one of our 2GreenEnergy Associates, was instrumental in arranging the interview I conducted last week (for my third book: “Renewable Energy — Following the Money“) with Dr. Raj Pachauri. To my shame, I had not written Viajy to thank him and to tell me how it went.
In a word, it was great. It was an honor to be in the presence of someone of that stature, to be sure, and he and I had a wonderful, warm discussion.
From the perspective of my book, however, I’m not sure how exciting that conversation will be for readers. In fact, if he had been interviewing me on the subject, we would have had essentially the same conversation. We established: (more…)
Here’s an article that does a good job discussing voter suppression – to be sure, off-topic for a clean energy blog by a long shot. I bring it up only because it ends with words that resonate with me: “It’s only a question of time.”
Compare the abundance of white faces at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., with the multicultural, multiracial faces at the Democratic Party’s meeting in Charlotte, N.C. Whatever we may think of the current policy shortcomings of the Democrats—and there are many—that multicultural, multiracial base is the nation’s authentic present and its certain future. Sooner or later, that base will lay …voter suppression … to rest. It’s only a question of time.
It’s true that we’re marching inexorably in the direction of so many triumphs that can turn around the gigantic challenges that face humankind; it really is only a matter of time before technology, if we pursue it aggressively, enables us to solve many of our most pressing problems. Of course, I’m more tuned into the energy and climate change situation than the myriad of other issues confronting us, but I clearly see breakthroughs that can avert the global warming that threatens to damage our civilization on a scale that we have never known. Our achieving those triumphs really is only a question of time. (more…)
I’m not big on taking sides in political disputes, especially the trashy type like those surrounding the 2012 U.S. presidential race. Yet I have to voice my approval of Elizabeth Warren’s highlighting the U.S. Supreme Court’s “Citizens United” decision in the points she made (“corporations are not people”) in her speech last night at the Democratic National Convention.
When I see things like this, and then look around to see a real groundswell of populist outcry for an amendment that would overturn Citizens United, I have an extremely strange and rare experience: some level of renewed confidence in the power of American democracy.
Some of the fastest return on investment you can get is by retrofitting a leaky, energy wasting building with high R-value insulation and efficient appliances. Many estimates show that US buildings use close to 50% of the total annual energy in the country- so this seems like a natural place to start if we want to conserve. But what if you’re building a house from scratch?
I’m looking forward to two events down in Santa Barbara this afternoon. First, it’s lunch with Jim Winsayer, CEO of Continental Wind Power, soon to be a 2GreenEnergy marketing services client. I really love what these guys are doing in midsized wind, and I can’t wait to tell their story to organizations that can use their 400 kilowatt turbines to offset the retail price of electricity.
Then it’s off to a presentation by the Eleos Foundation, only a few blocks from the restaurant. Eleos is one of the most effective groups on Earth in terms of placing real, often multi-million-dollar, investments in start-ups in developing countries. Some of their success stories bring tears to my eyes, so I try to attend their events whenever possible. And, though many of these investments have nothing to do with clean energy, the possibility is very much on the table; I’d love to see them, for example, invest in WindStream. Wouldn’t it be great to see a small factory employ a few dozen people in some impoverished city somewhere in Africa, assembling micro-wind turbines that will ultimately bring electric lighting to local people for the first time?
Guest-blogger Adam Barley from the U.K. represents Ebico, a non-profit organization that supplies both gas and electricity to households across Britain, and offers some handy and informative energy-saving tips. Here is an infographic on energy efficiency and conservation that readers may find useful.
The oil industry faces numerous battles on several different fronts (thus it’s a good thing for them and their shareholders that they have more money than God to fight them). One such battle is peak oil, the concept that the planet’s ability to produce oil has peaked, and so, regardless of demand, production can only decline. Of course, peak oil is a matter of physical fact rather than money in the bank, though its obscene wealth, in fact, has enabled the industry to convince us that peak oil will not be a significant hindrance to our ability to move our bodies and our cargo around the surface of the planet.
I’ve attended presentations from the American Petroleum Institute (API) where their laser-sharp spokespeople vigorously contest the concept of peak oil with “facts” that, to me, seem to appear out of nowhere; they certainly fly into the teeth of the vast majority of peer-reviewed reports I’ve seen. Yet I wonder what the API boys are saying about this piece in BusinessWeek, based on a report by Citigroup. In less than 20 years, Saudi Arabia, currently the world’s largest producer of oil, is predicted to be a net importer of crude. Importing from where, exactly?
I’m sure the oil industry would absolutely love to be around to provide red-blooded Americans the gas they’ll need to drag their 6.0 liter Ford Excursions around what’s left of a planet a few decades hence. But sorry, it won’t happen. All the money, and all the bought politicians in the world can’t change the basic geology, physics and chemistry at play here.
I just got off the phone with Stephan Williams, the guest blogger I wrote about a week or so back. I’m thrilled to announce that Stephan’s going to be the driving force behind the “corporate role models” blog that I’ve been chewing on for these last few months.
Here’s the basic concept:
We want to herald the good things that are happening in the corporate world vis-à-vis sustainability – and there are a ton of them. Dr. Rajendra Pachauri (chairman of the IPCC) reminded me of this in our meeting last week. Where the 200+ sovereign countries of the world may be slow to come to agreements about climate change, many of the largest corporate entities are making fantastically large and completely sincere efforts to lower our ecologic impact on the planet. (more…)
It’s the birthday of journalist and activist Jonathan Kozol, a teacher in Boston, who wrote largely on his experiences with school segregation and institutionalized racism. I had an extremely progressive English teacher my junior year in high school who guided us through a few of Kozol’s essays; I recall how impressed I was with the power of his writing, and I note, looking back, how profoundly influential he’s been over the past half century.
More to the point, Kozol said, “Pick battles large enough to matter, small enough to win.” That’s food for thought, to be sure, as we go about our work trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in a society largely indifferent – in some cases openly hostile – to the concept.
I suppose the best position, ironically, is one of indifference. Of course, we’d all like our ideas to be greeted warmly; we’d feel great to see our promotion of cleantech making clear and decisive change. Realistically, however, good ideas aren’t always embraced immediately, though that doesn’t make them any less “good.”
Whether the world realizes it or not, it needs to cut energy consumption, via conservation and efficiency, and it needs to make the remaining consumption less impactful on the environment, via the migration to renewables. Let’s never cease to tell that story and be a part of the process of taking good ideas forward, knowing that our day will come.
