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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

It’s interesting to watch the ultra-right-wing Heritage Foundation, through its media arm The Daily Signal, use PR to forward its messages.  They start off with the same framework that we all use:

Find a piece of breaking news that has some conceivable relation to the story you’d like to deliver to your audience, and then write something that connects the two.  The challenge: make sure the relationship between the news and your message isn’t so far-fetched that you look like a fool, which is precisely what has happened in the case below.

Here’s the connection that the Daily Signal makes in this piece:

News: Cargo ship crashes into bridge in Baltimore

Message: If U.S. maritime regulators weren’t distracted by the radical left’s concern for climate change mitigation, this wouldn’t have happened.

Now, does this sound like utter crap to you?  Probably, but that’s because you’re not a regular consumer of this garbage, and you don’t have an appetite for “information” that is written only because it supports your political points of view.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I told my son the other day that, if Trump is re-elected, a significant number of Americans will be leaving the country, simply because they can’t stand to be led by a criminal sociopath, and all the degrading baggage than accompanies that.

Selling “God Bless the USA” bibles is just the latest example of the fact that no loss of dignity is too extreme for Trump and his supporters.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

I remember attending a trade show at which a variety of new-age food items were being introduced.  I ran across the vendor of a new orange soda that he marketed as “all-natural.”

“How much actual orange is in that can of soda?” I asked innocently.

“Zero,” came the response.

“Then are you saying that 100% of the orange flavor comes from one or more chemicals that simulate the taste of an orange?”

“Exactly.”

“Then in what sense can anyone possibly claim that this is a natural product? I’m not saying that it’s a bad product, but it’s certainly not natural.”

Greenwashing is all around us, and it’s not going away.  There are organizations whose purpose is identifying and calling out cheaters in this space, though it seems unlikely that they can keep up with the liars.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

The meat-eater pictured here is one of a large number of hateful morons who make up the American electorate.

Of course, voting is a private affair, and no one will have access to this guy’s preference for U.S. president in 2024, but doesn’t it seem obvious that his candidate is the one who’s facing 91 felony charges, largely stemming from attempting to overthrow the U.S. government?

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Immediately after my first business meeting in Paris, I spent some time walking around the City of Lights, trying not to be too conspicuous as the dreaded American tourist.

It wasn’t long before I came across a McDonalds, which, I have to admit, made me recoil.  I can fully understand how these people, who have the very best in art, architecture, literature, history, food, and wine, might resent the Golden Arches.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Wind Energy

Other than common sense, there is nothing that prohibits investors from pumping cash into companies like Flower Turbines, that one day, owners claim, will build and sell devices that capture small amounts of wind energy.

In fact, until about a decade ago, there were completely legitimate attempts to commercialize what was called “small wind.” At that point, however, it was realized that the costs of building, installing, and maintaining systems like this would literally never be recouped by the owner, and that the entire enterprise was doomed, or, to put it more accurately, limited to a customer base that didn’t care about the economics.

People like these do exist, btw.  There are luxury wristwatches that sell for six figures, that tell time no better than something you can buy in a drug store.

At right is a solar energy device that automatically folds up at night. Does that do anything of practical value? Of course not; in fact, it only adds moving parts that eventually fail. The price of electricity per kWh will be astronomical.  Apparently, some people simply do not care.

Investors, however, want profits, and profits derived from high-volume sales of products with decent operating margins.  In the case of the Flower Turbine, this is as improbable as the Earth’s getting hit by an asteroid the size of Utah.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Wind Energy
Here’s a piece from Fossbytes, the same people who claim that the costs of maintaining EVs is greater than that of gas- and diesel-powered vehicles.
A cargo ship named the Pyxis Ocean equipped with two 123-feet-tall WindWing sails embarked on a journey from China to Brazil last August, aiming to test the efficacy of the wind-powered technology.
After six months of sailing worldwide, Cargill, the ship’s owner, unveiled the results. On average, the Pyxis Ocean saved 3.3 tons of fuel daily.
It showed potential savings exceeding 12 tons per day in favorable weather conditions, resulting in a 14% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
WindWing’s makers suggest even greater fuel savings with three sails. Although promising, the challenge remains in adapting ports to accommodate such vessels. Cargill is actively engaging with ports globally to address this concern.
A couple of points:
As the wind industry has known for more than a century, the amount of power derived from capturing some of the kinetic energy from moving air is proportional to the area of the blades or sails on which the wind is incident.  From the picture above, does it seem possible that huge, ocean-going cargo ships can be powered effectively from these two tiny sails?
It’s interesting that this is an artist’s rendering, rather than a photograph.  It is significant that such devices do fact, exist?
There is no doubt that this will save on fuel.  The ships the Vikings piloted around the open seas required no fuel either.  If we don’t care how long it takes to ship our goods across the Pacific, perhaps this is a good idea.  But of course, we care a great deal about modern supply change logistics.
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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

Is the creator of the meme at left serious?  From this piece:

Electric Vehicle Drivetrains Only Have 20 Moving Parts Compared to Over 200 in Conventional Automobiles – This means lower maintenance costs and a radical shift in auto industry job skills.

While most of the media attention focuses on the big picture issues of how green-energy EVs are destined to help mitigate climate change by eliminating use of fossil fuels and will ultimately lower the costs of driving for consumers, there is another significant impact that deserves more attention too. That is the relative simplicity of EV powertrains and implications for lower maintenance costs.

Many EVs don’t even need a transmission. Those that do use a much simpler, single-speed system as opposed to the multi-speed gearboxes in gas-burning vehicles. For example, Tesla’s electric motors only have two moving parts and use single-speed “transmissions” with no gears. The company says its drivetrain has about 20 moving parts compared with 200 in conventional drivetrains. Similarly, the all-electric Chevrolet Bolt has 80% fewer moving parts than a comparable car with a gasoline engine.
And absent the power train, think about other entire systems that do not even exist in EVs, e.g., fuel delivery, pollution control, and exhaust.
This is why auto dealers dislike EVs; electric transportation virtually kills two profit centers: parts and service.
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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Re: the meme here, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has said, “If we can explore colonizing Mars because we’ve ruined Earth, we can certainly fix Earth.”

The man has a point here.

What we need is the political will to put a stop to environmental collapse, the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and the spread of world fascism.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

As shown at left, Trump’s reverence for the world’s authoritarian figures is among his most obvious, most glaring characteristics.

It jibes with his feelings for our soldiers. i.e., that they are “suckers” and “losers.”

 

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