I’ve had the pleasure of speaking several times with Mario Gottfried, inventor, visionary, and all-around cool guy at his home in Mexico. In response to my recent piece on global warming, he writes: I was asked to predict the effects …
Category: Renewables – Science
Derailing the Energy Discussion with Meaningless Facts
A well-meaning reader quotes some figures from energy industry author Robert Bryce: Nuclear 300 hp/acre Nat gas 288 hp/acre Solar 36 hp/acre Wind 6.4 hp/acre Corn ethanol 1/4 hp/acre From what I’ve seen, Bryce appears to have made his fortune …
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Global Warming — A Quick Overview
When people ask me to explain my position on global warming, I normally assert what I’ve learned from the interviews I’ve conducted, while politely acknowledging that I’m not an expert on the subject. I also point out that the specifics …
Are We Preaching to the Choir on Environmentalism?
One of the many things I like about the community here is that we are most certainly not “preaching to the choir.” There are many people here whose viewpoints, while divergent from my own, are stimulating to the conversation, and, …
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Take a COOL Guess – the Fun Quiz on Clean Energy and Climate Change Mitigation — Answers in Reverse Chronological Order
March 24, 2026: They’re almost all social democracies. March 13, 2026: Venus is hotter than Mercury primarily due to its thick, CO2-heavy atmosphere, which traps heat through a massive runaway greenhouse effect. While Mercury is closer to the Sun, it …
Buckminster Fuller's Advice on Clean Energy
“There is no energy crisis, just a crisis of ignorance,” the great Buckminster Fuller once wrote. I’ve been Googling this, learning more about it, and challenging myself to figure out what it truly means in our world today. Check out …
The World Energy Scene – Some Basic Math
I believe everyone should have a decent level of familiarity with this Wikipedia listing on the world energy scene, which provides a bit of top-level math. As a civilization, we consume energy at the rate of 15 terawatts (15,000,000,000,000)– an …
Tagged with: world energy
Analyzing the Data Fairly: Is Renewable Energy Really "Green?"
I have a great deal of sympathy for people who struggle with the math and logic of renewables. After all, I’m one of them. It’s not that I’m bad at math per se; rather, it’s that there are dozens of …
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Our Leaders Should Understand Basic Science
John Boehner, soon-to-be Speaker of the House, told a crowd recently: The idea that carbon dioxide is a carcinogen that is harmful to our environment is almost comical. Every time we exhale, we exhale carbon dioxide. Every cow in the …
Science Is Under Violent Attack on Global Climate Change
As a civilization, we’re in trouble whenever politics trumps science — and we’ve seen plenty of that lately. That’s why the world is so frustrated with the inaction of the COP meeting in Cancun, as we listen to diplomats drone …
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