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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

At the risk of appearing immodest, I put together a terrific meeting this morning involving 2GreenEnergy’s transportation visionary Dan Sturges and some key industry players. I hung on every word, and really learned a lot.

I noted after we had adjourned that while the concept of sustainability was mentioned, it really didn’t get very high billing – and I just don’t understand this. The last time we changed our transportation paradigm (100 years ago when cars made our lives so much better and easier, enabled the concept of a suburb, etc.) it was really about convenience.

Now it’s about survival. Dealing with national security, climate change, ocean acidification, etc. are issues that lie at the base of  humankind’s very existence here on Earth.  One might think we’d be addressing all this with something of a sense of urgency. 

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Nuclear

Regarding my piece earlier on cold fusion, my old school friend Duke Brooks writes, “I thought the idea of cold fusion died in the 1990s with Pons and Fleischmann.”

Cold fusion, while fantastically controversial, is definitely not dead. To summarize the best and worst that can be said about it in a few words: (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Nuclear

A website covering cold fusion posted my video on the subject http://www.e-catworld.com/2012/06/author-craig-shields-on-cold-fusion/, which has garnered 54 comments over a two-day period.  Not bad!  This really is a hot subject, pardon the pun.  Here’s one: 

 Zedshort on June 15, 2012 at 11:33 pm

Craig Shields is the most articulate and rational person I have come upon in quite some time. I’m looking forward to hearing more from him.

Ha!  That put a smile on my face.   I replied:

Wow, thanks for the kind words. I try to write at least a few short posts every day at http://www.2GreenEnergy.com.

The smile lasted until I saw this one:  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

My wife and I watched a wonderful documentary called “HOME” last night, in which actress Glenn Close narrates a truly spectacular piece on the history of life on our mother planet. I’ve linked to the YouTube version, but I recommend doing what we did: seeing it on a larger, high-definition screen; the visuals are just as spectacular as the story itself. In essence: the miracle of life occurred here about four billion years ago, Homo sapiens about 200,000 years ago, and agrarian society about 10,000 years ago. Now, beginning only a century or so ago with the discovery and exploitation of fossil fuels, our impact on the environment grows exponentially.

HOME’s producers wrote:

We are living in exceptional times. Scientists tell us that we have 10 years to change the way we live, (and to) avert the depletion of natural resources and the catastrophic evolution of the Earth’s climate.

The stakes are high for our children and us. Everyone should take part in the effort, and HOME has been conceived to take a message of mobilization out to every human being.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Frequent commenter James Gover, author, speaker, and professor of electrical engineering at Kettering University writes:

My suspicion is that most of the global warming experts don’t understand the full picture very well or one would step aside and write a book that clearly presented the options so we could all read and understand. The longer this debate continues, the larger the perceived ineptness and the lesser the credibility of the scientific community.

First, Dr. Gover, let me thank you for your numerous, thoughtful comments here over the years; I’m honored (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

A couple of years ago I reconnected with an old friend from grade school who runs a good-sized hedge fund, and who, when I mention that I’m headed to New York City, routinely sets me up with a few people to see associated with investment. I always accept this kind invitation, knowing that, if I tell my story to enough of these Manhattan high-flyer types, good things will happen.

I really like this “friend-of-a-friend” method of reaching people. It’s just another extremely powerful way of getting out the message: 2GreenEnergy has sunk an enormous amount of effort into rounding up a dozen or so really solid investment opportunities in the clean energy space.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Glenn Doty notes that climate change will have benefits for some:

It depends on whether you live near the beach. Rising oceans won’t affect Canada much at all… but the arctic ice cap melting has opened up the Northwest passage for the first time in human history, and new trade between Scandinavia, Russia, and Canada is occurring every summer. If you lived up there, you’d think it was a great thing.

I suppose you have a point, but here’s the way I look at it: Even though I live at 780 feet elevation, I’m a fan of Boston, NY, Philadelphia, Miami, Los Angeles, San Diego, and all the other places in the US that would cease to exist. And I’m not looking forward to living in a world that is trying to find new homes for hundreds of millions of refugees from low-lying cities all over the world.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

When I do radio or television interviews, it’s very common for me to be asked about “my opinion” on global climate change. The article linked above captures the heart of my response. I.e., I really don’t know how to have a viewpoint on a subject that is at odds from the established scientific consensus. The reason I believe in quarks and supernovae isn’t that I’ve experienced them personally, but rather that people I trust assert their existence. I’m really not interested in what some guy at the supermarket thinks.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

I’m headed back East again next week, primarily to attend the Renewable Energy Finance Forum in New York City. I have to say that I love this event; everything about it is first-rate, starting with the venue (The Waldorf Astoria).

As always, I’m trying to “do as much damage” as I possibly can during my trip, lining up book interviews and other meetings. If anyone in that part of the world wants to meet, please let me know.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

Guest blogger Brian McGowan sent me this nauseating piece on the entrenchment of the oil and coal companies.

As we’ve noted often here, one of the leading drivers of environmentalism in the US is the military. This carries with it a certain irony, of course, in that one of its main functions is ensuring our access to oil. Having said that, the military understands that the need to protect oil supply lines in the field is an extremely dangerous proposition – one that costs a significant number of young people’s lives each month. (more…)

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