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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson makes a pointed observation here, but I wonder how true it is.

I grant that some of us need to be scientifically literate. Without that, our civilization could not keep up with things like vaccines against pandemics, while creating all other medical breakthroughs.  We wouldn’t have effective anti-ballistic missiles, climate change mitigation solutions, a deeper understanding of the cosmos around us, and the entire ensemble of IT and communications technologies that make our lives even more productive.

Keep in mind, however that anything of importance that’s happening in science in the 21st Century is happening at the outermost fringes of incredible levels of specificity.  What I learned about physics in college 50 years ago no more qualifies me to understand theoretical physics today than it enables me to fly to the moon in my Prius.

Another thing I would grant is that the 99.999% of us who are not “scientifically literate” in any meaningful way should respect the value of science, and reject QAnon-style beliefs, e.g., the flat Earth, the notion that COVID is a government plot, that global warming is a hoax, that Bill Gates is trying to enslave the population, etc.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

This from former U.S. labor secretary Robert Reich.

My perspective: the leader of the MAGA right has gone too far in his battle to regain the presidency in a desperate attempt to stay out of prison. The vast majority of Americans, who are not hateful morons, are outright repelled by his rhetoric, reminiscent, as it is, of Hitler’s Germany.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

I agree with what Oscar Wilde said here, and I freely admit that it fully applies to me.

We have values that we derive largely from what we learn from other people.  For my entire adult life, I’ve chosen to read the works of certain writers, which is why I’ve come to believe that science works better than superstition, and that we have an ethical obligation to treat one another fairly and kindly, and to leave this Earth a habitable place for future generations.

In turn, people who read 2GreenEnergy, I hope, take away some of my ideas and incorporate them into their own.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

What mid-20th Century screenwriter/TV producer Rod Serling, famed for “The Twilight Zone,” said 50 years ago seems to have come true.

There really is no other explanation for Trumpism, a set of beliefs so lowly and base that it’s really hard to understand how American society could have possibly arrived here.

I met a middle-aged couple from Limoges, France (between Paris and Bordeaux) yesterday. They’re not thrilled with Macron, though they regard him as “just a politician,” i.e., one who will do whatever’s required to be reelected.

They say that Trump enjoys virtually no support in France.  I responded that this is not at all surprising given that country’s grounding in education, environmental responsibility, art, and other aspects of culture.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

The graphic here shows why we do best to shop at grocery stores that source their produce locally, or at least as close to home as possible.

Even Trader Joes falls down here, to some degree.  They explain that every single SKU, e.g., a pound bag of sliced white mushrooms, should be identical in each of its 563 stores nationwide.  Sorry, but I don’t share that concern.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Here, Marla Vous is pointing to our two-tiered system of justice, in which people at the top can do essentially anything they want.

As the poem below suggests, this has been a part of Western jurisprudence for quite a while.  Having said, it certainly has been elevated to an art form since Trump came on the political scene.

It sure would be good to see Ginni Thomas’ name at the top of an indictment.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

As previously mentioned, FAIR is a national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.  It’s best known for its weekly radio program “Counterspin,” syndicated across 160 stations.

This week’s broadcast, “Richard Wiles & Matthew Cunningham-Cook on Climate Disruption Filtered Through Corporate Media,” explores how corporate media issues little honest coverage on the decades-long disinformation campaign that Big Oil is using to cover up what it knows about the climate change catastrophe and its efforts to continue the consumption of fossil fuels indefinitely.

At the same time the industry is pledging to make progress in decarbonizing our transportation sector, it’s increasing drilling in the Permian Basin by a factor of ten, while actively slowing the development of wind energy.

My favorite line from the show: “Right behind hydrocarbons, the second main product of the oil companies is lies.”

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Social media is littered with memes like this one, each trying to convince us, that a college education is unnecessary, or more commonly, simply a bad thing.

Now, if you’re today’s Christian-oriented, ultra-right-wing Republican party, it’s easy to guess the reasoning here.   College educated people tend to vote against things like abortion bans, climate denialism, cuts to public education and healthcare, white supremacy, and, to be sure, immunity from prosecution for former presidents who tried to overthrow the U.S. government.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Not to split hairs, but the 2024 election is not an opportunity to end Trumpism for good, if by the term you mean the hate and ignorance of the many tens of millions of MAGA Americans who carry this terrible infliction around with them.

I have every confidence that major right-wing political issues and the politicians who support them will lose at the polls, but all this stupidity will not simply vanish into thin air; it will go into dormancy, only to arise at some later time.

Dormancy is actually a best-case scenario, because here’s a related question: What level of violence can we expect if Trump is convicted and incarcerated on one or more of 91 felonies with which he’s charged?

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

It would be a better world if what Heraclitus said were true, but it certainly appears that good people can suffer terrible fates and vice versa.

This brings to mind the ultimate destiny of Donald Trump, certainly among the worst human beings in our history.  People all around the globe are hoping to see him go down hard.

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