Living in the Past
Many of us wish we could return to the 1970s, when we were almost completely unaware of the long-term environmental damage we were inflicting on our planet.
Alas.
With knowledge comes responsibility.
Tagged with: long-term environmental damage
Fake News
Journalist, author, and commentator Chris Hedges is one of America’s finest minds.
Here, he reminds us of one of the most devastating effects of Donald Trump on U.S. society, which the former president put into play according to his core policy: always accuse your opponents of the precise crimes you have committed.
We can all remember perfectly well that, before Trump got ahold of it, the term “fake news” was a reference to things like Newsmax, Fox News, etc. Within a few weeks after he took office, however, he had vigorously used it to rename the entirety of mainstream media and anyone else who dared point out Trump’s true character.
Violent Crime in the United States
2GreenEnergy supporter Gary Tulie writes from his home in Buckinghamshire, England (near London): Hi Craig,
I don’t know if people in the US realise how much higher murder rates are in parts of the US than they are in the UK.
Tagged with: indifference to human suffering
When It Comes to China, Let’s Be Careful What We Wish For
It’s true that China represents a threat to American hegemony on the planet. Personally, I expect all this to happen by entirely peaceful means, but the U.S. would be ill-advised to ignore China’s military buildup.
In any case, here’s what life was like here when the picture was taken, i.e., before our global economy in which all eyes are on China. One hundred years ago, American:
Life expectancy was 53.6 years (vs. 79.1 today).
Real (adjusted for inflation) gross domestic product was 0.8 trillion (vs. $25.5 trillion today).
Then consider illiteracy rates, indoor plumbing, and all the other miracles that come with a booming world economy.
I know this is not a popular viewpoint, but I believe that the majority of the tension between the U.S. and China would dissipate the moment the United States drops its claim to leading the world financially and militarily, by forcibly excluding other large countries.
To Our Great Chagrin, Some Rockers Are Trump Supporters
Herman’s Hermits are an English rock and pop group formed in 1964 in Manchester and fronted by singer Peter Noone.Hits include “Mrs. Brown you’ve got a lovely daughter,” “I’m into something good,” and “Can’t you hear my heart beat?”
It saddens me to report that Noone, who lives in Montecito (near Santa Barbara, CA) is a garden-variety Trump supporter.
Of course, not all pop/rock icons are progressives; witness Ted Nugent. But fortunately, the entertainment world is dominated by people with decent, humanitarian values.
Solar PV Scam
Here’s a video presented by a gentleman who calls himself “Rich,” making me wonder, for a millisecond, why he didn’t use his full name.
It’s an offer to sell instructions on how to build a small solar PV array that generates electricity for “one-tenth the current price per kilowatt-hour,” using panels that are “100% efficient.”
Their introduction: “This free video presentation reveals an MIT-Designed “Smart Tower” capable of generating up to 20x more electricity than conventional solar panels.”
Coincidentally, I was just explaining to an old friend why all this is scientific bs. The first and most obvious is that the “100% efficiency” claim violates the second law of thermodynamics.
Also, current day PV is ~25% efficient. To say that these solar panels generate 20 times more energy means that they are now, not 100% efficient, but 500%.
My friend totally gets that part, but what she didn’t understand is why the theoretical limit of PV efficiency is far below that. It’s because the energy of the sun’s photons that are incident on the Earth’s surface have a huge range of frequencies, thus energies. Some are too low to dislodge an electron in the substrate, and others are so great that, although they do dislodge an electron, the rest of their energy is lost.
Tagged with: Solar PV Scam
“It Is Impossible for a Man to Learn What He Believes He Already Knows”
Epictetus said this, though not in modern-day Spanish.
It’s just another way of saying what is attributed to Bertrand Russell: “The problem with the world is that fools are completely sure of their beliefs, where wise men are so full of doubts.”
Tagged with: Bertrand Russell
The Cult of Trump
Everywhere we look on social media we see references to the concept that Donald Trump is the leader of a cult, and that his supporters are incapable of understanding that they are following a sociopath.
Fortunately, it seems that his support base is shrinking, as the former president’s behavior becomes increasingly unhinged.
Having said that, with the general election 14 months away, we need to understand that Trump will receive votes from two distinct camps: a) what’s left of his support base, and b) those who would rather vote for an orangutan than a Democrat.
Tagged with: Donald Trump is the leader of a cult
Where To Live?
A couple of comments on the meme.
There is a distinction to be made between a natural disaster like an earthquake, which has virtually nothing to do with human activity, and wildfires and hurricanes which are greatly exacerbated by human-caused climate change.
The frequency and severity of disasters is not the only criterion for deciding on a place to live. If you’re not a hateful moron, you probably don’t want to live in a state in which you’ll be surrounded by rednecks. I would not live in Florida, even if its physical environment were Shangi-la.
Tagged with: hateful morons
Does This Car Trim Off Belly Fat Too?
The ridiculous claims made by cleantech scammers are made possible by Americans’ amazing level of ignorance when it comes to science.
Ask yourself how it is remotely possible that driving a hydrogen fuel-cell based car purifies the air.
