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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

Here’s a New York Times article that describes the efforts of Republicans to mount legal blockades against climate change mitigation. It begins:

Within days, the conservative majority on the Supreme Court is expected to hand down a decision that could severely limit the federal government’s authority to reduce carbon dioxide from power plants — pollution that is dangerously heating the planet.

But it’s only a start.

This begets the question we’ve considered here before: What is it, specifically, that conservatives want to conserve?

After careful thought and as much creativity as one can possibly muster, there is only one valid answer: the right of rich white people to make as much money as possible, regardless of the damage they’re doing to everyone and everything around them.

Whenever I come across stories like this, I marvel at the capacity of human beings to do evil.  You’re profiting by ensuring this planet will be a terrible place to live when your grandchildren are in their retirement years.  And you think that’s acceptable behavior.  That’s evil at a level that’s hard to imagine.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

If you want to tell me there was something cool about the Cadillacs of the past, I won’t argue with you.  At left is a 1939.  Breathtaking.

And actually, if you have 10 or 11 kids whom you take skiing a few times every winter, I suppose there’s nothing wrong with the boat shown below.

But otherwise, please.  All you’re doing is making a statement that you have terrible taste, and you really couldn’t care less about the quality of the environment you’re leaving to our descendants.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Business owners have the right to refuse service to anyone, so why isn’t this guy at the very top of everyone’s list to dispose of?

Who’s going to repel more customers: some raggedy homeless person, or this hateful moron?

If I were a patron, especially if I had come in there with one of my kids, I’d ask to see the manager, and explain: “If you don’t expel this piece of garbage right now, your business will lose the support of every decent person in this town, starting with my own.”

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

There are people who seem sincere in wondering whether Nixon or Trump was the greater criminal.

Nixon lied to cover up a burglary.

Trump tried to overthrow the government of the United States.

Seems like a strange thing for an intelligent human being to be on the fence about.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

The other day I mentioned to a friend that there are more than 200,000 groups on this planet in “environmental and social justice,” which sent the conversation down the rabbit hole about controversies surrounding social justice.  I’ve had this happen before, and so I’m going to stop using this phrase.

Obviously, there is a social component to environmental justice, as the impact of environmental catastrophe falls disproportionately on poorer people.  But “social justice” connotes being “woke,” which isn’t a direction I want to take most of my conversations.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Hydrokinetics

A friend asked for my views on ocean wave energy, which I sent along (see link above).

I wrote, “Some of them are more pessimistic than others.  In essence, there are still several different basic concepts, but none has any real chance of providing even a tiny fraction of the world’s energy.”

He mentions that a huge percentage of the Earth’s population lives within 100 miles of an ocean or sea, which is true, but the relevant factor (as always) is cost.  This puts such a low limit on the possible integration of ocean wave.

If you live in a community on an island in the Hebrides, you probably have a case to be made, because of the enormous costs of competitive solutions.  But if you live in Miami or Rome, there is no chance whatsoever that ocean wave will be competitive with any conceivable grid mix, regardless of how large a tax we put on carbon.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I call the statement here “true but irrelevant.”

It’s not a crime to love oneself more than one’s country.  It’s not laudable, and it’s not something that we like to see in our elected officials, but again, it’s not a crime.

What happened here is that this characteristic motivated Trump to commit treason, and that is what’s going to take him down.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

He’s a pathological liar, and he’s attached to a new scandal every day or two.

Here’s Jimmy Kimmel: “Just in time for Father’s Day, we found out he has not one but three children he somehow forgot to mention. He has four kids and raised one of them, which is interesting because he’s a very outspoken critic of absentee fathers. He blames every societal problem on absentee dads and I guess he would know, because he is one!”

Keep in mind that he’s running for a senate seat.  The majority of Georgians from all over the state have to think that he’ll represent their interests honestly and effectively.  How on Earth is this possible?

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

So sorry to see this.

I won’t try to compete with the writers at PBS and all the other media covering his life, but I always admired his ability to summarize political events with genuine humanity.  His compassion for us all came through every time someone asked him for his views and a camera turned onto him.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I found this interesting.

That’s one damning statement, but I really don’t believe it’s true, at least for the vast majority of them.

These are not good people, but, in the absence of Trump, they would have limits. e.g., they wouldn’t have committed treason (supporting the overthrow of the U.S. government) if they weren’t terrified of Trump.

I have to think that almost all of them will be glad when Trump is gone, and they can go back to where they were before, that is, making hateful laws at the behest of the hateful, ignorant people they represent, and their rich donors.

 

 

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