Posts Tagged by Thomas Jefferson
Take a COOL Guess – the Fun Quiz on Clean Energy. Today’s Topic: Environmental Toxins
| April 12, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Sustainability |
Question: How is it possible for the concentration of certain toxins to increase in our groundwater for several decades after those chemicals have been banned? For example, the concentration of soil disinfectant DCP (used heavily in the 1970s and finally banned in 1990) will peak about 2020, and will remain in significant quantities until about 2050.
Answer: Can be found at http://2greenenergy.com/cool-guess-answers/8732.
Relevance: Most of the effects of the actions we take today – good or bad — have repercussions for extremely long periods of time. This reminds us of what Thomas Jefferson famously said, “It is incumbent upon every generation to pay its own debts as it goes.” Not to moralize, but I think he nailed something there.
Celebrating the U.S. Constitution
| March 13, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
Here’s a piece I wrote originally in 2009 for another website, but I wanted to make it available to 2GreenEnergy readers as well.
220 years after the birth of our beloved U.S. Constitution we see its basic tenets challenged from many different directions. The complaints against the G.W. Bush administration that are most likely to endure through the coming generations are likely be rooted not so much in unpopular actions, but rather in actions that were deemed to have violated the supreme law of the land. Similarly, Republicans’ rancor with Obama’s financial bailout is based on the notion of his team’s having exceeded the powers specifically granted to the executive branch under the Constitution.
Last Friday I had the pleasure of hearing Sandra Day O’Connor speak at a luncheon. When she and I were introduced, I felt myself under pressure to keep my words brief. “A great honor to meet you,” I smiled as a shook her hand. But I sure would have liked to ask her: “Didn’t you find it frustrating to be forced to write an opinion of the narrow case you were hearing, rather than making a decision that would speak to the wider issue at stake and the way you felt it needed to be viewed vis-à-vis the Constitution? Didn’t you finding yourself constantly wanting to write, ‘This is what the nine of us think in this case. But here’s what we believe the Constitution means with respect to gun control, or abortion, or capital punishment–or whatever the larger issue happened to be?’”
She made a warm and resonant speech — one that everyone clearly appreciated — but she scrupulously avoided making comments on her personal views on philosophy and law. And she left immediately upon the completion of her talk, I presume specifically to avoid taking questions like these from people like me.
In any case, the one thing we can agree upon — almost unanimously, I think — is that the U.S. Constitution was written very carefully and thoughtfully, and that it’s a very good thing that we have something as solid and revered as this to serve as the touchstone of our conversations about law.
The Chippendale tallcase clock behind my daughter in the picture above was made circa 1790 — certainly within a few years of the construction and ratification of our Constitution. Before the clock stood in my dining room it was in my parents’ living room — and in my grandparents’ house before that. It’s not really a distinguished piece of furniture (sorry, Mom) — i.e., it’s not terrifically valuable as an antique. It was built in the fledgling U.S. by an unknown clockmaker; its movement had been imported from England, and it has no special design features that would make it particularly collectible.
But its modest monetary value does not begin to diminish my love of the piece. I look forward to winding it each Sunday evening; in fact, doing the math, I believe that I may have given it its 10,000th winding one such Sunday in the last few years. But one thing I know for certain is this: when I turn its crank each week, I feel a great sense of connectedness — to my loving parents, of course. But I also feel a mysterious connection to its previous owners — the earliest of whom lived and died in the very early days of our beloved republic. I’m proud to carry on a tradition that involves people whose names I’ll never know — people whose most basic relationship to me is the respect for a single document that was written by a group of gentlemen in Philadelphia, 220 years ago.
Financing Renewables – The Gap Between the Interests of Venture Capitalists and Institutional Investors
| September 17, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
I don’t know how many readers check out Stephen Lacey’s podcasts on Renewable Energy World, but they’re absolutely terrific. Here’s a post I just wrote on this week’s episode, covering the gap between the interests of venture capitalists and those institutional investors and banks. I also mention the role of government in the migration to renewables, and what the gentleman pictured here would have told us to do.
Pay It NOW — In Energy Policy — Or Anywhere Else — It's Wrong To Pass Burdens On
| July 28, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
More people each day are disgusted with the course our civilization is taking. Whether your main concern is social injustice, proliferation of nuclear weapons, environmental ruination, white-collar criminality, the decay of morality, growing rates of addiction to recreational and psychiatric drugs, the decline in educational standards, or the ravages of corporatocracy, one thing’s for sure: you’re one of very few if you believe the human race is on the right track.
I don’t have a lot of answers. But I think I can say this without fear of contradiction: It’s up to all of us to raise our voices when we see things we don’t like.
Here’s something else I suggest we do with issues: analyze them honestly. Is there any commonality among all these social ills? I believe there is: the concept that someone else – another person living now somewhere on Earth – or someone who will be born in the future – should pay for the benefit you’re taking here and now. Read More
