Category: Renewables – Science
Not a Good Time To Have Leaders with No Background in Science
| January 24, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
I wrote a piece recently questioning the wisdom of our leaders’ ignorance and abandonment of basic science. I could have chosen from a few of the presidential candidates, but I happened to single out Rick Perry, who hung onto his aspiration until very recently:
Rick Perry dismisses evolution as “just a theory,” one that has “got some gaps in it.” Isn’t that a remarkable thing for a man to say who wishes to be taken seriously in the 21st Century? In the circle of biologists, the theory of evolution has the same status as Newton’s universal gravitation and Einstein’s relativity have among physicists. Read More
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Documentary on the Migration to Renewable Energy
| January 4, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
Earlier today I watched this wonderful documentary, “Patent for a Pig,” outlining Monsanto Corporation’s plans to genetically modify each of the major food items, and patent the modification, enabling them to control essentially all the food on the planet, “from seed, to field, to fork” — a line from the film. (If that sounds far-fetched, you may want to check it out.)
While I watched, thinking: man, this is really well done, I realized that I’d love to do something of this quality in the field of clean energy.
But there’s a minor problem: talent. While I know a fair bit about the energy situation facing us here, I know absolutely nothing about filmmaking, and I don’t have the capital sitting around to hire a team to outsource all this.
Are there any volunteers out there who might want to partner with me on the development of such a film? There have, of course, been some very visible pieces that have touched on important aspects of the subject: Who Killed the Electric Car?, An Inconvenient Truth, Fuel, Crude, etc. But it seems that no one’s made a solid, definitive treatment of the technology, the economics, and the politics of energy.
If you have a little bit of Steven Spielberg, Ken Burns (or, dare I say, Michael Moore) in you, and a bit of time on your hands, please let me know.
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Energy Business Ideas that Violate the Laws of Physics
| January 4, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
It’s the birthday of Isaac Newton, whose book “Principia” overturned nearly everything humankind had believed about the universe up to that point (1686). I bring this up to note that perhaps we should not be so smug about “the laws of physics,” rejecting ideas out of hand that do not conform to our understanding.
I like the position that my friend, physicist and engineer Wally Rippel takes: “I have the bar raised very high for ideas that appear to violate the laws of thermodynamics or mechanics or electricity and magnetism, or quantum physics — but I do not throw the bar away.”
I’ve come to adopt this, which I translate as follows: If an idea violates the laws of physics as I understand them, I’ll need to see a working model. Do not expect to raise money – even a dime – to build a model of something that is theoretically impossible. You’d be surprised how frequently I’m forced to have this conversation.
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Energy Infographics Put Renewables Into Perspective
| December 20, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
My team and I are working hard to develop a series of infographics that introduce relative newcomers to the subject of energy — and renewables in particular.
I had fun with the first one, which looked at the history of renewable energy on this planet. The second one, which pointed out that all energy on Earth has come to us as a result of the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago, was even more interesting, in that it inspired a bit of controversy among certain religious folks that I hadn’t even imagined when I put the idea together.
I’d like to see this bloom into a dozen such graphics over the coming year or two.
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Your Thoughts on Energy Infographics
| December 11, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
My team at 2GreenEnergy and I are having fun with these infographics on energy, and I think they serve a useful purpose in presenting a few of the basics on the subject at a high level – appropriate even for relative newcomers to the subject. If you have a spare minute or two, I’m wondering if you’d like to make a suggestion for the topic of future energy infographics.
Here are a few ideas of my own:
- Global climate change – predominant beliefs of its causes and effects
- Alternative fuel vehicles – the pros and cons of each
- Concepts in energy efficiency
- Countries with progressive (or backward) energy policies
Again, I’d appreciate any direction you may be able to provide.
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Global Climate Change — Great Video
| December 9, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
At the rate of a few times a week I’m asked about global climate change, and I provide a brief summary, including the concept:
This is complicated. No one knows exactly how changes in the constitution of our atmosphere will affect global temperatures and weather conditions. I can tell you a couple of things for certain, though: 1) Special interests are working overtime to paint this picture in their favor. 2) The vast majority of climate scientists warn us that this is a very large and serious threat. 3) If there is a problem, as these people almost uniformly tell us, it’s going to be a runaway train, i.e., something that will be much harder to fix later than it would be now. 4) Prudent people buy insurance to protect themselves against devastating events — even if those events are of low probability; they don’t need to be certain they will have a house fire to buy fire insurance. The analogy here is very strong.
As of today, however, I tell them one other thing: Take 12 minutes out of your life and watch the late climatologist and Stanford professor Stephen Schneider’s video on YouTube. I wish there were a way to get everyone on Earth to check this out.
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Banner Day For All Those Into the Exploration of Space
| December 5, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
Good news for those of us hoping to find life elsewhere in the universe: today’s announcement of the discovery of Kepler 22b. It’s 600 light-years from here – too far to walk – but it has remarkably similar characteristics to our Earth.
I remember making the hour-long drive due north from Trinity College in 1975 (in Hartford, where I was an undergraduate at the time) to Amherst to listen to guest lecturer Timothy Leary. When he took the stage, Dr. Leary immediately gave us the mnemonic “SMIILE” by which we could remember the three elements of his talk, if we cared to, for the rest of our days: SM = Space Migration, II = intelligence increase, and LE = life elongation. I’m not sure I’ve seen a great deal of intelligence increase since the 70s; in fact, I could more easily argue the opposite. But the other elements of Leary’s talk seem to be walking into full bloom.
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Infographic – All Forms of Energy on Earth Came from the Big Bang
| December 4, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
As a part of our ongoing quest to produce “infographics” that lay out the basics of energy, I invite you to check out the chart here, presenting the notion that all the energy we harness and use here on Earth came to us indirectly from the Big Bang. Whether we’re talking about nuclear, fossil fuels, or the many different forms of renewables, those forms of energy have been made available to us via one of four different pathways through time and space since that event 13.7 billion years ago.
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From Guest Blogger Jim Stack: Hawaii — Land of Oil or Renewables
| December 1, 2011 | Posted by jstack6 under Renewables - Science |
Hawaii has been known as a land of paradise. They have a great climate and can grow anything anyplace. But did you know Hawaii runs most of paradise on oil-generated electricity? Of course, all of the oil is imported too.
Recently becuase of fast growing prices they started looking at renewable energy in Hawaii. They found they have great solar, wind, hydro wave and currents and even geothermal energy. They are now just starting to develop these great renewable energy sources.
In Hawaii they have have many small islands and micro grids that are not connected. This makes it difficult to combine all the great renewable energy sources they have into an efficient grid. Read More
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The Basic Renewable Energy Technologies
| November 26, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
