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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

It’s the birthday of Isaac Newton, whose book “Principia” overturned nearly everything humankind had believed about the universe up to that point (1686). I bring this up to note that perhaps we should not be so smug about “the laws of physics,” rejecting ideas out of hand that do not conform to our understanding.

I like the position that my friend, physicist and engineer Wally Rippel takes: “I have the bar raised very high for ideas that appear to violate the laws of thermodynamics or mechanics or electricity and magnetism, or quantum physics — but I do not throw the bar away.”

I’ve come to adopt this, which I translate as follows: If an idea violates the laws of physics as I understand them, I’ll need to see a working model.  Do not expect to raise money – even a dime – to build a model of something that is theoretically impossible. You’d be surprised how frequently I’m forced to have this conversation.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

A reader notes:

I just received Bill McKibben’s Eaarth. I read the preface and if I weren’t so old, I would be depressed. I’m looking forward to the rest.

I reply:

First, let me acknowledge that you are old, and depending on what exactly you mean by that, you’re likely to die before I do. But in the scheme of things, I’m going to be right behind you, and I submit that the fact that we’ll both be dead soon does little to change our responsibilities to leave behind the best planet we possibly can.

Second, you’re 100% correct in that what we’ve done to our planet is depressing. And that we continue to do it in ever-greater rapacity is nothing short of incredible. I find it astonishing that multi-billionaires are hell-bent on making another few billion at the expense of the health and safety of everyone and everything — living here now and tomorrow.

What type of person thinks that way? Personally, I would find it intensely difficult to enjoy my 500-foot yacht and mansions all over the world.  But maybe that’s just me.

In any case, it’s incumbent on people like you and me to say, “Damn it, there will be change here. We’ve wrecked our home long enough, and we’re putting an end to this.”

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels


Let us briefly wrap our heads around the main points of our last article Oil: The First Shock. When the first oil well was drilled, its produce could be sold for something around $20 a barrel, which corresponds to roughly $500 in today’s money. Shortly after, thousands of new rigs were built and the markets were saturated with oil, i.e., supply outpaced demand, driving the prices all the way down to $0.10/bbl. The drilling business be­came unprofitable and people closed their taps. The demand for oil increased significantly during the Civil War (1862-1865), and due to low supplies, prices reached $80/bbl or around $1900 in inflation-adjusted terms. After the war, demand slumped and prices eventually fell to its previous low levels.

There are two things that, in our opinion, are very important to discuss about the period between 1859 and 1865 because they will help you understand similar events that will be discussed in the future. The first point we want to make is about the oil industry in general. It requires capital, lots of it. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

My wife is recovering from surgery on her shoulder, which gives us plenty of time to watch movies. Last night it was “Food, Inc.” – hardly a “feel-good flick,” but incredibly compelling.

Guess what? The food industry is really no more kind and gentle on its customers than the energy industry. Surprise!

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Recently, I wrote a few pieces around the concept, “The New Living Large Is Living Small.”  The concept suggests that society will experience significant upheaval when it becomes “cool” to be “green.” I don’t want to over-aggrandize the importance of my idea here, but I wonder if a modest “movement” couldn’t take place around this notion.

Adult Americans consume an average of about 2500 calories endosomatically (into the body) every day, but we use about 230,000 (almost 100 times that much) with all the other stuff we have around to add convenience to our lives: big cars, huge houses with perfect indoor temperatures, etc.

A few basic points: (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Reader and cool guy Brian McGowan writes in:

I once read something that I think applies here. In the old days before cars, people rode horses for transportation. 1 horse for 1 person. What can we take away from this? It only takes 1 horsepower to haul your butt around. The rest of the horsepower is to haul your ego around.

I reply:

Ha! I’m not sure that’s the exact reason we drive cars, but it’s certainly a disgracefully large part. And dig this: we (adult Americans) take in 2500 calories per day endosomatically (into the body) but we use 230,000 calories daily (almost 100 times that much energy) in our cars, HVAC, electronics, etc. This IS, at its core, unsustainable. Something’s about to change here. Thanks for being tuned in.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

I’ve finally gotten around to reading Jeremy Rifkin’s fabulous The Third Industrial Revolution, which includes the following:

In 1981, The Congressional Clearinghouse on the Future, a legislative service organization made up of more than one hundred congressmen and senators, invited me to present two informal, off-the-record lectures for congress on the thermodynamic consequences of industrially induced CO2 emissions.

I’m not sure how to react to the idea that our leaders have known about the issue since 1981, and now, 31 years later, as the evidence for all this has steadily mounted, are running for president on the platform of cutting regulations and denying the existence of global climate change.

It’s true that we live in a democracy of sorts, that our leaders do what they’re commanded by voters, and that many voters have been swayed by the propaganda of the oil and coal companies in this arena. But shouldn’t leaders lead, rather than follow?

I hate to start off the new year with a message of anger, but I can’t think of another response.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

132 years ago today, Thomas Edison first demonstrated his incandescent lightbulb and told spectators: “We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles.”

Not a bad prediction, when you think about it. Few people grouse about the price of electricity, which is one of the main reasons that the migration to renewables is so difficult; in many ways, we’re trying to fix something that at first blush doesn’t appear to be really broken. It’s only in the very recent past that we began to realize that our system of delivering energy to a world population had huge hidden costs.

As we enter the new year, let’s all pledge to heighten the awareness of those costs, and do everything we can to push the planet in the direction of clean energy sources.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

Lots of folks are wondering what the future of transportation looks like. While none of us knows for sure, we can have some level of certainty as to what it does not look like: a 4000 pound hunk of steel, transporting one 150 pound person, and using 20 times more energy than necessary in the process.

Certainly, re-inventing the way we live and move about will be important to our survival as a species. Great ideas include mixed-use development, greater reliance on mass transit, and car-sharing. But to the degree to which we stay within the passenger vehicle paradigm, it’s hard not to be intrigued with concepts for extremely light, small, affordable, battery electric vehicles, like the EMCycle that I’ve been promoting.

Here’s a related concept from San Francisco-based “LIT Motors” that my friend and colleague Bill Moore of EV World came across.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

I often consider how most of the content here is essentially bad news: climate change, ocean acidification, empowering terrorists, oil companies’ propaganda, corporatocracy, governmental corruption, and public ignorance and apathy.  But here’s some good news: Traffic at 2GreenEnergy in 2011 was up over 51% from 2010.  Not too bad! Thanks to all who contributed!

 

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