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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

We’ve all seen the comments of the QAnon-style conspiracy theorists like the fellow at the left.  Are there powerful and rich people, perhaps Bill Gates among them, who are trying to enslave us?

Here are the remarks of a reader who doesn’t think so:

Ummm. “They” have to extract, refine, transport, and then sell you gas. It can be “Turned off” just as easily as electricity. It’s not something anyone makes themselves. And actually, if you have solar panels or other simple generators like a water wheel or windmill, you can make electricity at home without anyone’s help. You will never be able to do that with petrochemicals.

I think it’s far more likely that “they want you to go electric” because it will better enable the decarbonization of the energy and transportation sectors.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

The piece at left comes from legendary environmentalist Paul Hawken.

The way I simplify this in my own mind is as follows: We (progressives) have the people; they have the money.

The vast majority of people on this planet understand that our scientists are begging us to make wholesale changes in the way we live, in particular, in the way we consume resources.   A minority of extremely wealthy people probably understand this too, but simply don’t care, because of the intense level of comfort they enjoy.

 

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Below is a video from an ultra-right-wing fellow who favors Trump in 2024, based on the concept that Trump loves America, and all who oppose him hate our country.

This is the type of infantile thinking that must prevail in order for Trump to be re-elected.  No proof, no nuance.  No discussion of the point that progressives would like to see the same style of government that is found in the rest of the developed world, and certainly no mention of the fact that Trump is a sociopathic criminal, facing 91 felony counts.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

It could be said that what America is engaging in now is a giant test for what could be called our “boob appetite.”

How much stupidity is too much when it comes to a presidential candidate?

Is there, in fact, an upper limit?

We’ll find out in November.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

The video below shows the largest “calving event” (a piece of a glacier breaking off and becoming an iceberg) ever recorded.  It’s the size of Manhattan, but 2 – 3 times taller than the actual New York City buildings.

The frightening part of all this is that the glacier is now retreating 10 times faster than it was throughout the 20th Century.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

At left is essentially what I believe about the media coverage of the presidential election campaign.

When you think about it, the money associated with making this look like a tight contest is so large as to be virtually uncountable, and it will keep rolling in unless the media tells the truth, i.e., that American voters have little appetite for a criminal sociopath back in the White House.

The only edit I would make to this guy’s pitch comes near the bottom.  Yes, “Trump is insane,” but he’s also a career criminal.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Wildlife crossings like the one shown here are common in many parts of the world.

Here in California, we’re just about to get one on the 101 Freeway a bit north of Los Angeles.

Better late than never, of course, but obviously, they’re cheaper and easier to construct when the road itself is originally put in.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

The answer to the question at left is that there is an entire industry that has formed over the last half century whose purpose is to sew doubt into the public mind regarding the validity of anthropogenic global warming.  In the absence of this doubt, the Earth’s citizens would be demanding a swift phase-out of the use of all fossil fuels, because the consequences of greenhouse gas emissions are so catastrophic (floods, droughts, wildfires, etc.) that the public consciousness would insist upon a change.

What we have now is a world (at least a country, the United States) in which the poorly educated believe what they’re told, i.e., where scientists can send a rocket into space and land it back on Earth on something the size of a table lamp, anything associated with the climate is “junk” science, designed to destroy the U.S. economy.

It’s pathetic, but it’s fantastically effective.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

A reader notes:

Trump is responsible for a ‘bloody insurrection’ (per John Boehner).  The Republican former Speaker of the House blames Trump and his lies about election fraud for the January 6th riot at the Capitol, writing that the former President “incited that bloody insurrection for nothing more than selfish reasons, perpetuated by the bulls*** he’d been shoveling since he lost a fair election the previous November.”
Well these are the allegations, and there seems to be an inordinate amount of evidence in support of them.
If any other American had done anything remotely like this, he’d have been in prison within days of when the proof came to light.  Yet it remains in question if Trump will ever spend a minute of his life behind bars.
This doesn’t happen in countries in the which the rule of law is meaningful.
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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business
Here’s an ad that got my attention:
Fireproof your home with Neroshield’s anti-fire coating (which will) keep treated components of your home from contributing as a fuel source for a fire, and it is effective on wood, drywall, textiles, steel, leather, and other materials.
All I can say is that anyone who squirts this chemical indiscriminately across his home and furnishings is a true idiot.
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