Posts Tagged by environmentalism
A Career in Clean Energy? Here’s Some Advice
| May 14, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
Each week I receive several emails requesting my advice on career paths within the clean energy space. I thought I’d take a few minutes and jot down a few of the ideas that I normally try to express in response.
First, I congratulate people who want to work in this industry, especially if their interest is rooted in a love of the natural environment and perhaps a sense of duty, or at least a wish, to do something good for mankind and the other 8.7 million species of life forms here on our home planet. But regardless of motive, clean energy is one of few arenas in which there exists a beautiful confluence of the profitable and the philanthropic; we’re helping mankind whether that’s our aim or not. Read More
The World Resents American Environmental Policy
| May 11, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
As a younger man, I had a business partner with whom I ran a marketing consultancy that was 200 employees strong, with clients on four continents — during which time I logged a great number of air miles. I used to joke that my seniority on American Airlines was sufficient that, not only would I be instantly upgraded to first class upon booking my ticket, but I could, had I wanted, bring a baby elephant on board with me, prompting the flight attendants to remark, “What a lovely animal, Mr. Shields. I assure you that we’ll make him quite comfortable.” Read More
True Environmentalism Means Making Tough Choices
| May 9, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Photo-voltaics |
I just got an email from the Sierra Club, wanting me to get on board for a piece of environmentalism that goes like this:
This year, Assembly member Felipe Fuentes has a bill that would allow the Calico Solar Project, a solar project in California that will cover 4,613 acres—four times the size of the Golden Gate Park- within an area key to the survival of the desert tortoise- to bypass the environmental review process that almost all other projects are subject to.
I see no reason that anyone or anything should be exempt from the standard environmental review processes. Having said that, it’s always struck me as inflexible to refuse to make tough choices. Imagining 4,613 acres as all PV, we’d have about a gigawatt (after using a capacity factor of 0.2) , a replacement for a coal-fired power plant. I hate to sound insensitive, but considering the larger ecological and health-related issues of burning coal, I would think that the savings would justify exiling some desert tortoises.
Environmentalism, Sustainability, and Deregulation
| April 14, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Sustainability |
I’m sure many of you have seen the inspiring video below (it has over 5 million views), in which boaters free a humpback whale from a fishing net in which it had been caught. It makes the following passage from Beyond the Limits by Donella Meadows et al all the more outrageous. Read More
Environmental Radicals and Pragmatists
| April 12, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Sustainability |
I just edited a 15-page article on sustainability a friend had written for publication in a magazine. I thought it was really good, and, in addition to my complimentary remarks on his writing, I mentioned that, in terms of environmentalism, that he an I were “almost blood brothers.”
He wrote back: “I like your ‘almost blood brothers’ sentiment.”
I responded:
The only reason we’re not completely blood brothers is that you’re a bit more radical as an environmentalist. I think I tend to be more pragmatic given that we live in a market economy. But here’s where we completely agree, which I’ll distill into a sentence:
Corporatocracy, exacerbated by (U.S. Supreme Court Decision) Citizen’s United, has turned us into roboconsumers, most of whom have extremely unenlightened viewpoints of our responsibilities as stewards of the Earth.
The Strengths and Weaknesses of Hydrokinetics
| April 10, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Hydrokinetics |
Here’s a continuation in our series of videos made for young people and newcomers to the subject who may benefit from an introduction to certain of the renewable energy technologies. This piece, less than five minutes in length, is a primer on hydrokenetics, i.e., extracting energy from moving water.
Early Books on Environmentalism and Sustainability
| April 7, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Sustainability |
I figured it was time to read the seminal pieces on environmentalism and sustainability. So, for Christmas, I asked my daughter for a copy of Beyond the Limits, the follow-up to Donella Meadows’ et. al. The Limits to Growth. Very good, but very frightening.
Weak Media Coverage of Global Warming and Environmentalism Generally
| March 22, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Sustainability |
After Amory Lovins’ lecture yesterday, he took questions, including one from me, which I prefaced by saying, “I think I speak for almost everyone in this packed auditorium when I say that I wish there were a way of making you king of the world.” I got a chuckle, and an instant rejection from Lovins. “I’m not interested,” he smiled.
But I’ve come to understand that most people don’t even know who he is. I spoke this morning with two different close friends, both well-educated people, neither of whom had ever heard of him. And that, in turn, is a function of the fact that our media covers issues of global warming and environmentalism more generally in a very cursory and erratic fashion.
To be sure, this is a big part of the problem. Here we have the most important event in the history of humankind, and, though we hear about it occasionally, most people really know very little about it, because the media largely ignores it.
“HOME” — Great Film About Our Planet and What We Must Do To Preserve It
| February 19, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Sustainability |
My friend Jim Boyden just wrote me, and recommended this incredibly well-made and poignant film: HOME, which so artfully describes the fragility of our ecosystem, the delicate balance we need to maintain, and the tough choices facing mankind at this watershed period in our history. Hope you enjoy.
Is Renewable Energy a Threat To Economic Prosperity?
| February 10, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
I’m proud that Tom Konrad, famed stock market analyst and editor of AltEnergyStocks.com, offers his comments here frequently. In a post yesterday, he offered me guidance in wrapping my wits around the issue of green jobs, directing me to his thoughtful article on Forbes.com, linked below. There, Tom looks at the issue from the standpoint of basic microeconomics’ “production function” which suggests that labor can be freely substituted for capital and energy. He provides examples recently, including this one:
Shifting people out of their cars and onto mass transit will create jobs because there will have to be drivers and people managing the transit system, where before no one was paid to drive. To the extent that the transit system can be paid for out of the reduced fuel costs and car ownership costs of the former drivers turned riders, the number of jobs created will be a pure economic gain.
But I wonder if it’s that simple. Read More
