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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Re: the meme at left that a reader sent me, I would say that the introduction of Fox News in 1996 was the result of an epiphany that the entire business world had around that time, to the effect that the gloves are off!  The goal of U.S. commerce should be to fleece the American customer, rather than to serve and peacefully coexist with him.

Now, to be sure, news is the very best example of this.  Until about 30 years ago, news wasn’t an industry; it was a public service.  Think of Walter Cronkite.  But in the mid-1990s, some brilliant minds came to realization that “news” could morph from a fairly honest presentation of unbiased facts at 6 and 10 PM each evening, to a 24-hour-per-day for-profit assault on the American people.

If it might be possible to divide Americans, young liberals could be sold yoga mats and Subarus and older conservatives could be sold flags and remedies for constipation.

Now, it’s true that Fox News was the first and most trusted standard in the “news” industry’s efforts to pull us apart.  It’s been an experiment in ripping us off, at the same time producing hate and ignorance, and it’s been an extremely successful one indeed.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

Memes like the one here make we wonder about the source and its underlying motivation.

Here, I’m particularly suspicious of the beef industry and Big Oil. These are the only two groups trying to stop the movement to green energy and transportation, and halting the destruction of our rainforests to make room for more cows.

Btw, a factual correction:  The methane that cows produce is a byproduct of digesting high-fiber foods, which is then released primarily through belching. 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

I don’t know if the claim at left is correct, but even if it is, I wouldn’t get too worried.  That’s because:

1) (From AI): Several countries operate climate satellites, including the United States, China, and Japan. Other countries, such as those within the European Space Agency (ESA) and those participating in the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), also contribute to climate monitoring through their satellite programs.

2) Satellites look at the Earth’s surface and transmit data about it.  Of far greater importance is what’s happening beneath the surface–in our oceans, within our glaciers, etc.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Oh, we’re deadly serious.

We’re not goofing around with our cruelty, our corruption, our removal of science from policymaking, and our demolition of our educational system.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

Are we to believe that “Burgum” on Fox Business is unaware that millions of people all around the world have perfectly reliable power using only solar energy?

This is just one more lie told to an ignorant audience.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I had to laugh when I pulled into the local hardware store a few minutes ago and saw a car parked next to me with a bumper sticker that read: “Ted Nugent for President.”

Look, I know that living in rural America requires one to make a few compromises, e.g., being cool with living among idiots.  But, as the late astronomer Carl Sagan, put it, “”Nothing disturbs me more than the glorification of stupidity.”

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Short story writer Guy de Maupassant left us this: “Patriotism is a kind of religion; it is the egg from which wars are hatched.”

FWIW, I’ve always felt the same way.  There is no good reason (especially now) to believe that the United States is a better country than France or Japan, or that Americans are better people than the Irish or the Poles.

Believing this garbage only sets the world a path toward childish hostility.

Adding religion to this only makes a bad situation worse.  If you really believe that God favors the U.S. over Sweden and Portugal, you have some sort of intellectual/moral defect.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

Comments on the bar chart here:

The gating factors to a country’s adoption of EVs are a blend of three things: a) its ability to stand up to the corrosive power of Big Oil, b) its citizens’ level of passion to avoid environmental collapse, and c) the government’s support of it own economy, which is why China (with its BYD) is doing so well in this space.

As noted in the graphic, the numbers include plug-in hybrids.  It’s a wonder that these vehicles still exist at all, as their battery-only range is pitifully small, meaning that owners must both fill up their gas tanks and charge their cars.  Most people (certainly most Americans) resent having to work any harder than they have to in order to do anything positive for the environment.

 

 

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

The point made at left appears to be that Trump does not succeed at all the crazy bullcrap he threatens, and this is true.  The United States will not be annexing Canada or Greenland, either.

Yet we must not forget that Trump represents a huge danger to American democracy and to the well-being of our civilization.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

At left we have another way of raising the question: Is the world really a worse place to live now, or are we simply more aware of its shortcomings?

For my money, today, humankind has the worst collection of world leaders, at least since the 1930s.  And, from the perspective of the United States, we have Trumpism, by far the worst thing to happen here in the entirety of U.S. history.

 

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