Home › Blog › Page 882

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Trump will very likely be remembered for his wanton criminality: fraud, tax evasion, obstruction, and dismemberment of rule of law, meaning that the devastation to the environment he has wreaked will take a back seat.

This is especially true if he is removed from office in (or before) January of 2021.  That’s because most of the orders he’s signed that are designed to increase corporate profits at the expense of disfiguring our planet are currently held up in court, and will never be implemented unless he is re-elected.

Anyone who cares a whit about the quality of the planet we will leave to our descendants is doing everything in his power to make sure this doesn’t happen.

 

Tagged with: , ,

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

There are two main problems here:

The rank-and-file Trump supporter couldn’t care less that his country is the laughing stock of the world.  They’re getting exactly what they want from Trump: the mistreatment of everyone except white Christian males.

The amoral rich don’t care either, because they too are getting exactly what they want from Trump: relaxation of regulation, whether that means taxation, banking, environmental, or health.  For God’s sake, don’t put any restrictions on the economy just because 1000 people a day are dying from the pandemic.

Tagged with: ,

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

I’d say it’s more like 60 years.  It’s a regression to the purely patriarchal society we had before the rights of women, LBGTQs, and people of color began to emerge.  It’s what those on the radical right mean when they call themselves “conservatives”; they are desperate to conserve that period in which our country was defined by gross levels of injustice for everyone except white Christian males. (more…)

Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

As suggested here, there is no law that says you can’t power your house with electricity derived from hydrogen fuel cells. Of course, that doesn’t make it a good idea.

The problem is that the processes of electrolyzing water, then running the resulting hydrogen through a fuel cell, results in a net energy loss of approximately 50%.  So if you don’t mind dealing with something that is so horribly inefficient that it requires twice as much energy to get the same job done, then maybe hydrogen isn’t a bad solution.

Even if that isn’t a deal-breaker, the fabulous capital and operational costs associated with the whole thing should be.

If hydrogen has a role in our energy future, it lies in transportation, where a portable liquid fuel is a potential competitor to batteries and petroleum derivatives.

Tagged with: , , , ,

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

From the all-seeing, all-knowing Ben Carson.

Hmmmm. I wonder who actually is jerking our chains. Who could it possibly be?

If only there were a clue, like pathological lying or refusing to condemn white supremacy.

 

Tagged with: , ,

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

I’ve run into quite a few investment bankers since Trump took office who have explained that the president’s removal from office, regardless of how it comes about, will be good for world stock markets.  The core reason, of course, is certainty and predictability.  Trump by nature is impulsive and erratic; he’s a man whose decision-making is rooted solely in what he happens to perceive to be good for him in that very moment of time. (more…)

Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Geothermal

Here’s a good video on geothermal energy that explains the science in a way everyone can understand.

Not surprisingly, it suggests there’s more promise here than there actually is, since most of the planet’s land mass is completely unsuitable for this technology. I had to laugh when the guy said, “In places that meet all these criteria, geothermal energy could grow by as much as 28% over the next four years. That’s 6.4% per year, which is essentially what General Motors pays its bondholders.

Tagged with: ,

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Here’s an interesting way of putting the whole thing about Trump and racism.

Suppose you’re one of Trump’s supporters and you want to deny that he’s a racist.  You think it’s cool that he pardoned Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was found guilty of criminal contempt of court, where, in the words of U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton, Arpaio had “willfully violated an order of the court,” persisting with his decades-long policies of race-biased policing practices.

Suppose further that Trump’s repeated failure to condemn white supremacy similarly doesn’t convince you that he’s a racist.

Still, you have to admit that the Nazi’s, the neo-confederates, the KKK and the rest absolutely adore him.  Makes one wonder.

Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

In large measure, these times here in the United States are defined by an astonishing level of selfishness.

Hell, we have a president who clearly couldn’t care less about anyone but himself. (more…)

Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

If you were a political strategist, is this what you would recommend to the President of the United States, running in the battleground state of Pennsylvania? Swearing to take vengeance on all its 13 million people?

Personally, I’d be more inclined to promise, however insincerely, to put people back to work, protect them from the pandemic, build/repair infrastructure, reduce taxes, somehow arrange for them to have more frequent and satisfying sex….anything but revenge, swearing to inflict suffering one every Pennsylvanian in retaliation for some insult I received from the state’s governor.

Yet I need to qualify my remarks: these are just my own personal instincts.  In truth, this could be an excellent strategy; perhaps masochism is a characteristic lots of people back in the Keystone State share in common.  Maybe my failure to see this is why I’m only an author/consulting in environmental sustainability and not pulling down the big bucks in the Washington lobbying scene.

Tagged with: