Posts Tagged by sustainability
The Enemy of Sustainability: Bad Ideas
| May 1, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Sustainability |
Last night I had a dinner meeting during which I was asked what I thought about a business plan that proposed to grow sugarcane (from which to make ethanol) in California’s Imperial Valley, one of the driest parts of the world. I was a bit stunned. Isn’t this equivalent to growing mangoes in Siberia, or raising polar bears in Panama? Read More
What’s the Plan For Phasing Out Fossil Fuels? Which Do You Want To Hear First? The Good News or the Bad News?
| April 29, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Fossil Fuels |
Germany has installed enough photovoltaics that, at this point, coal-fired power plants are beginning to become unprofitable. This is driven by a combination of factors, e.g., that coal isn’t asked to provide power at the peak of the day, when both the sun and the price of electricity are at their zenith. Of course, most of us cheer when coal runs into trouble, but issues like this raise some fantastically interesting questions about the future of power generation – and transportation – as we migrate from fossil fuels into more sustainable modalities. Read More
Locally Grown and the Green Kitchen
| April 28, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Sustainability |
With all our recent discussions on aeroponics and locally grown food, I’m delighted to note that, according to the Writer’s Almanac, it’s the birthday of chef and author Alice Waters. Waters is best known for her books on the use of fresh, local ingredients; her most recent was In the Green Kitchen: Techniques to Learn by Heart, in which she wrote:
“Our full humanity is contingent on our hospitality; we can be complete only when we are giving something away.”
What a lovely thought that is – and, no offense to other authors in this genre, but that’s certainly more profundity than one expects to find in a cookbook.
Aeroponics Addresses Many Social Issues
| April 27, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Sustainability |
Yesterday’s webinar on aeroponics went very well. Unless I’m mistaken, every single one of the participants wrote in at least one question in the course of the hour-long dialog between my guest Rafael Quezada and me. There were so many, in fact, we couldn’t get to all of them.
We’ll have the archived version on the site soon for those who missed it.
The more I learn about the subject, the more enthralled I become. I can’t think of another discipline that addresses as many social ills with a single technology. Sure, there is the subject of better nutrition itself and all that this entails: childhood obesity, diabetes, and the numerous forms of damage we’re doing to ourselves with our increasing toxic food supply. But aeroponics also addresses:
• The locally grown issue, eliminating the delays and the carbon footprint associated with agribusiness, and the trucking of food thousands of miles from harvest to destination.
• The chemical run-off issue, where our pesticides and herbicides are polluting our rivers and oceans.
• The challenge of bringing nutritious food to desert areas, or to blighted urban areas where grocers will not set up shop.
“Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.”
- Victor Hugo, French dramatist, novelist, & poet (1802 – 1885)
Please Allow Me To Introduce Myself
| April 25, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
You feel the rumblings of the cleantech revolution reverberating beneath your feet, as if you were standing next to an active volcano that could erupt at any second. You recognize that our world will soon be clamoring for sustainability in all its many forms, as we wake up to the fact that dinosaur technologies: inefficient appliances, gas-guzzling cars and trucks, toxic chemicals, last-century’s lighting and HVAC, coal-fired power plants, etc. are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Read More
This Month’s Webinar: Sustainable Supplies of Food
| April 24, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Sustainability |
Clean energy is just a part of the overall sustainability movement, yet it stands at the center of so many important issues. For example, the world supply of water and food are dependent on abundant energy, thus our very survival is threatened to the degree that we depend on non-renewable resources for generating energy.
In our webinar this month we will examine the subject of “sustainable food.” We will discuss the direction in which the world agribusinesses are taking us, and explore a cutting edge solution that has the potential to make a big difference here: aeroponics.
My guest will be Rafael Quezada, CEO of Tower Harvest, a leading expert in the deployment of aeroponics. I think you’ll be impressed by how many purely positive effects are created by aeroponics in terms of nutrition and health, energy efficiency, local growing – even job creation.
The webinar is Thursday at 10 AM PDT; I hope to see you there. Here’s the sign-up sheet: http://2greenenergy.com/free-webinar/.
Is “Business As Usual” with Respect to the Natural Environment an Acceptable Strategy?
| April 22, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
I’m delighted to see real progress being made in the public discourse surrounding sustainability. While most people still have the idea that continuing with “business as usual” with respect to our environment is an acceptable strategy, more of us are questioning this concept with each passing month. Here’s an example: a PBS special called The Journey to Planet Earth, featuring one of my personal heroes, Lester R. Brown, environmental visionary and author of “Plan B.”
It also features Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman (oops – Mom’s not going to like this one), Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, and former Governor and Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt.
I caught the first part of this incredible series last night; it’s beautifully done.
“Beyond the Limits” Deals with the Central Issue of our Times
| April 21, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Sustainability |
Just in time for Earth Day, this morning I finished up Beyond the Limits by Donella Meadows et al. Gosh, I wish there were a way I could get everyone to read this critically important work with its incredibly wide-ranging implications about our future here on this tiny, beleaguered planet.
Gro Harlem Brundtland, Chairman of the World Commission on Environment and Development writes, “This book is essential reading for everybody who is concerned with the central issue of our times: how to achieve a transition to a sustainable global future.”
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
Express Your Viewpoints On Energy To Your Elected Leaders
| April 14, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
I hope you’ll check out our newest piece of functionality: http://2greenenergy.com/express-yourself/.
Most thoughtful Americans wonder why the United States is more a roadblock than a leader in energy-related technology. It really IS a strange phenomenon, isn’t it? There are numerous, obvious reasons that we need to move steadily away from fossil fuels: respiratory disease and environmental issues are two of them — but what about national security? Why precisely are we so steadfast in borrowing an incremental billion dollars a day and handing it over to empower our own enemies, so that we can sustain our addiction to oil? Read More
