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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

For a moment, think of all the world’s scientists and the disciplines across which they operate (see below).  Then ask yourself what percentage of these people work under coercion, censorship, fake data, manipulation, cherry-picking, and fear mongering.

I know dozens of people personally who work in these fields, and it’s hard for me to accept that the fellow in the photo with the tats and the gun knows more about the subject than I do.

Did I just write “gun?” What value does that add to this guy’s point?

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Uncategorized

As we all know, a pro football player told the graduating class at Benedictine College that women should aspire to be homemakers.

This would have been newsworthy if the sponsoring body were not a small, deeply religious school in Kansas.  Does anyone think that biblical teachings on the role women play match our society’s norms in the 21st Century?

Let’s just be glad he didn’t talk about woman as the property of men, women remaining silent in church, stoning adulteresses to death, etc.

 

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

This British gentleman has nailed the core problem we face in the U.S.

I’m reminded of the occasional conversations I have with Fox News acolytes, where I’m compelled to ask, “And you believe that?”

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

At this point in the “development” (some would say “retrogression”) of human society, it appears that the hopes expressed here by the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu are not taking root.

That’s because:

1) Our species evolved to be tribal, i.e., to be at least wary of, but more often hostile to, those who don’t look and think like us.  For every Desmond Tutu on Earth, there are hundreds of people with very little capacity to look outside of the racist values with which they grew up.

and

2) Corporate profits are harder to be made when people treat each other as brothers and are thus more likely to share resources with one another. Money makes the world go ’round, and the notion of “one human value” doesn’t work for capitalism.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

I don’t know who this guy is or what his area of expertise may be.  It’s certainly not education.

Getting rid of Algebra 2 will mean the end of all college students who major in chemistry, physics, and, of course, mathematics.  In turn, it means no more pre-meds, and, a few years later, no more doctors produced in the United States.

Of course, when you walk through a medical office and read the surnames of the doctors practicing there, it’s clear that, through our eviscerating American education over the past few decades, we’re 90% of the way along this terrible process.

Also: no engineering means no new infrastructure, cars, and IT.  All advancements in technology will come from Europe and Asia.

We can teach our kids about financial fundamentals like credit cards and buying a house, but they will be so desperately poor that none of these skills will have any meaning.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

It’s quite possible that we actually are at the onset of a “collective awakening.”

Maybe we’ve seen enough.  Enough hatred.  Enough stupidity.

Maybe we see the handwriting on the wall for women’s rights, for environmental decay.

Maybe Americans don’t want a leader who came within a gnat’s fanny of overthrowing the government and setting democracy asunder.

Maybe enough is enough.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Bob Weir was only 16 years old when he cofounded The Grateful Dead with Jerry Garcia.

A full 60 years later, he’s known for having spent more time on stage than any other musician, and for his commitment to environmental and social activism.
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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

It would be interesting to know what percentage of our neighbors take the Book of Genesis literally and believe that the Earth is 6000 years old.

I suppose it depends on what we mean by “neighbors” and/or where we live, and therefore, who our neighbors actually are. If you’re in rural Mississippi, the answer will be far different than if you’re in Manhattan or San Francisco.

In any case, I grant that beliefs like this, i.e., those that require a wholesale dismissal of science, are frightening indeed.  If you want to know how it’s possible that so many Americans are anti-vaxxers, climate deniers, and Trump supporters, this gives you a pretty good insight.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

There are dozens of reasons to stay away from Texas, but this may sit at the very top of the list.

We’ve come to expect acts of white nationalist terrorism committed by rank-and-file hateful morons.  But now we see these atrocities coming from the governor of the state.

That’s too much.  Even for Texas.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

In a previous post, I presented this short and extremely general video, in which a representative of ExxonMobil explains Direct Air Capture (DAC), a set of technologies that remove CO2 from the atmosphere.

I mentioned that the concept is doomed to failure, and everyone, including Exxon, knows this.

Their latest installment in promoting this bull**** claims they’re “testing the design in Texas.”

What could these tests possibly conclude?  That the design actually does filter out CO2?  I’ll grant that, even without the testing.  In fact, there are several teams of people around the globe working on this. Only Exxon is spending a fortune promoting it, though, since they are the ones with the huge PR problem associated with baking the planet.

The problem here, and it’s insurmountable, is that this technology has a huge carbon footprint of its own, and that scaling it to deal with the Earth’s atmosphere is a joke.

 

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