Posts Tagged by global warming
The U.S. Has a Responsibility At This Point In History
| December 20, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Fossil Fuels |
Bill Moore, editor of EVWorld.com has written a splendid article on the failure of certain of the early electric vehicle companies, in which he points out:
Breaking into the automotive business can be relatively easy; making a success of it is pretty damned near impossible, regardless of what type of propulsion system you favor: ICE-age or otherwise; and it’s especially tough if you decide to go electric. Beyond this, the reasons for individual failures are myriad and multiple: right product, wrong time, wrong product; wrong time, etc. Management missteps, unrealistic investor expectations and impatience, government responsiveness, inept marketing, unanticipated technical setbacks, product shortcomings, public resistance to change: the list is long.
I don’t dispute any of this, but let’s look at the subject from a “big picture” perspective. As a country, we’re still married to fossil fuels, and we’re doing essentially nothing about it In particular, we have no energy policy. Hell, we’re about to build an oil pipeline Read More
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.
The Hydrogen Economy and the Migration from Fossil Fuels
| April 13, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Fossil Fuels |
Here, 2GreenEnergy Video Report host George Alger interviews me on the hydrogen economy: what it means, its validity, and its ramifications.
2GreenEnergy Report – Peak Oil
| April 11, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
In this episode of the 2GreenEnergy Video Report, host George Alger interviews me on the phenomenon known as “peak oil,” i.e., that the world has peaked in terms of its oil production capacity. I discuss my take on this, as well as its many social, financial, and political ramifications.
2GreenEnergy Video Report — Peak Oil
| March 19, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Fossil Fuels |
Here’s another episode of the 2GreenEnergy Report, in which I’m interviewed on the subject of peak oil. I manage to squeeze in references to related subjects as well: the consequences of our addiction to foreign oil, the externalities associated with fossil fuels, long-term environmental damage, the associated costs of healthcare, ocean acidification, and global climate change.
Mother Nature is Awesome — But Is She Impervious to Damage?
| March 13, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
Every time I hear intelligent people refute the idea of global warming based on the power of Mother Nature I really can’t believe my ears.
Last week, I spoke with three people who appeared bright enough, all of whom told me that humans simply don’t have the power to screw up a force as powerful as nature. As proof, one of these guys, on a live radio interview in front of 70,000 listeners, said, “Hey, the temperature of the planet was changing long before the Industrial Revolution.” Another pointed out that the BP oil spill was overhyped, because microbes instantly began eating the oil. In agreement, the third fellow pointed to the video footage of the Japanese tsunami – testimony to the awesome force of the natural world.
Sure nature is awesome. And just as sure, it doesn’t need people; if it had conscious awareness, I’m sure it would be thrilled to see us erased from the face of the globe. But I’m at a loss to understand how, regardless of its power, that anyone could think it’s impervious to damage from mankind’s ceaseless pumping out toxins, deforestation, strip-mining, fracking, ocean dumping, changing the make-up of our atmosphere, and so forth. Is it really hard to believe that our practices are making it tough for Mother Nature to support life here?
Global Climate Change and the Nature of Belief
| February 27, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
Frequent contributor Mark Vendetti sends an interesting article that I thought everyone would enjoy. I believe there is a profound (albeit sad) truth here:
Craig,
Check this out, it might help to explain why some people seem so resistant to change their thinking even when presented with the facts about climate change.
There is no doubt that people really do hate to change their minds. We’ve all seen this a million times, and it applies to ourselves just as well as it does to others. Read More
Global Warming
| January 23, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
When we discuss global warming here, we (predictably) get a range of reactions, including the comments of the deniers, like this one:
NASA has stated that ALL the planets in our solar system are heating up. I would say that this definitely points to the Sun as the source…. I do not think that humans are responsible for any global warming.
I respect the opinion of all readers here, but let me take a moment and present my own viewpoint, which goes back to numerous suggestions I received from friends when I became interested in the subject. They’d ask, “Craig, why don’t you do your own independent research of global warming?”
Well, I’ll tell you why not. Read More
Global Warming — A Quick Overview
| January 10, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
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 of the subject that are yet to be — and probably never will be — fully understood. When I encounter adamant climate change deniers, I calmly suggest that they find one of any number of other reasons to urge a rapid migration away from fossil fuels: national security, public health, etc.
However, when pressed for my true beliefs, I have to admit that I get really stern. What remaining hair I have on the back of my arms stands up and blood vessels swell in my forehead as I Read More
Are We Preaching to the Choir on Environmentalism?
| January 2, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
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, more likely than not, constitute the principal reason that people like to be here.
A reader commented the other day: Read More
