Here’s a terrifying piece from London-based consultant, author, and economist Umair Haque, who claims that America and Britain are “textbook examples of a new, gruesome phenomenon: rich nations self-destructing into poor failed states.” (more…)
Here’s a solar PV device that’s been around for at least the last 8 – 10 years. It opens in the morning and contracts in the evening, and has double-axis tracking like so much of the world’s PV. Their claim: 40% more efficiency.
Yes, devices that track the apparent motion of the sun across the sky increase the efficiency of solar PV by 40% over its stationary counterparts. But that doesn’t mean that this idea is a good one; in fact, it’s a joke. Users of the “SmartFlower” will pay many hundred times more per kWh for their electricity than those using rooftop solar. It also eats up useful space.
If that’s acceptable, buy one. Buy many, by all means.
Anyone who has attempted to learn German realizes immediately that the language makes use of compound nouns that seem to have no limit in length. If, God forbid, you’re looking for an insurance company that provides legal protection, you need a Rechtsschutzversicherungsgesellschaften. (more…)
Here we are, 120 days before the 2020 U.S. presidential election. We see Trump faltering badly, apparently on the way to his ouster. Yes, there are many factors contributing to his falling in the polls, but what might be the biggest one? Allowing the Russians to encourage others to kill American troops? Could be, but I kinda like the pandemic. (more…)
Native Americans and climate activists are celebrating what is being hailed as a “monumental victory,” as a U.S. district court delivered a significant blow to the fossil fuel industry and the Trump administration—by ordering the Dakota Access Pipeline to be shut down and emptied of oil by Aug. 5 while federal regulators conduct an environmental review of the project.
During the pandemic, the rise of the BLM movement, and the meltdown of the President of the United States, it’s easy to lose track of important environmental issues. That’s where 2GreenEnergy comes in handy. 🙂
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month that the 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline could be built, and this came as a terrible blow to Native Americans and environmentalists who had worked hard to block it. Yet just yesterday, the two energy giants who stood behind the undertaking, Dominion Energy and Duke Energy, made a statement to the effect that they had abandoned their plans, citing “litigation risk” and concern for the financial viability of the project. (more…)
The DoE will provide companies funding for R&D aimed at products such as building materials that are based on coal, in an effort to boost demand and keep the industry from disappearing.
Obviously, as long as the coal isn’t combusted, the ecological damage associated with all this is confined to the mining process itself. Having said that, it will be a happy day on Planet Earth when coal in all its uses is relegated to the past.
Comments on the fireworks (grossly illegal because of the potential to start wildfires in the semi-desert Southern California climate) by two Trump supporters: (more…)
There is a great deal of sentiment being expressed right now to the effect that the extreme stresses our society is facing can be used as springboard to launch a new and better civilization–and it’s quite gratifying to see.
In and among all our clamoring to “return to normalcy” are voices that are saying, “We don’t want normalcy. That’s what got us here in the first place. We want a brotherhood of humankind, one of peace, of compassion, of justice for all.”
We don’t want police killing unarmed black men, environmental degradation, our educational system destroyed, a sociopathic president, tens of millions of people kicked off healthcare, or a pandemic raging out of control because we don’t have the spirit of community required to stamp it out.
We can, indeed, become a better people, and this is an exciting opportunity to make that happen.
Old white people, i.e., those who were young white people in the first half of the 20th Century, grew up in a time when overt racism was the norm, and it’s for this reason that most of us forgive them for not shaking off these values of hatred and exclusion. Yet we encounter many old white folks who either never bought into racist views in the first place, or shed them at a certain point along the way, as their lived experiences made them more enlightened, more gracious people. (more…)
