I plan to attend the last day (Wednesday, March 28th) of the 10th Cleantech Forum, to be held in San Francisco. The show does a great job in pulling together cleantech innovators, investors, corporate leaders and policy-makers from around the world. It’s always great to meet new people at the top of the field, and learn about the technologies that are shaping our future.
As the name suggests, there’s more to this than clean energy per se: energy efficiency, water, biofuels, electric vehicles, smart grid, etc.
If you happen to be in the Bay Area that day, please let me know, and let’s meet for a cup of coffee.
I’m happy to report that my new book, “Is Renewable Really Doable?” just hit #3 on Amazon.com in the “Environmental Economics” category, and it’s climbing steadily. I figure this is good news for anyone who’s a fan of living things, as the more people understand the issues here, the better chance the world will have to correct its course in terms of energy policy before it’s too late.
When I first checked this morning, it was #19, thus I want to thank everyone who jumped on board and bought a copy today, its official launch day.
Well, the big day has finally arrived. Today is the official launch of my second book: Is Renewable Really Doable? I’m stoked.
If you’ve ever wondered why the world is moving so slowly in the direction of renewables, even though the need is so obvious and so pressing, here’s your answer.
Is Renewable Really Doable? is a compilation of interviews with an incredibly wide range of people, to present the most fair-minded viewpoint possible on the energy scene: folks representing the disciplines of physics, engineering, anthropology, mathematics, economics, law, and venture capital.
Today’s the day. As always, I appreciate your support.
Over the years, I’ve learned that the most productive way to deal with climate change deniers is to point out that global warming is only one of half-a-dozen reasons to knock off our dependence on coal and oil. “Just pick your favorite,” I smile.
How about the obvious and growing damage to human health? It would seem to me that this would be a fact that even the most fanatical of the anti-government types couldn’t argue. Don’t we need some empowered body to protect our health from those who are indifferent?
One of the very clearest – and saddest – indications that we’re on the wrong road with respect to environmental regulation is our skyrocketing rate of respiratory disease, e.g., asthma, in children. (more…)
I refer frequently to the writings of Professor Michael Klare, documentarian at Amherst, as I find him so lucid and so on-target in his analysis of the macro issues on energy that we face here in the 21st Century. Here, in his piece Why High Gas Prices Are Here To Stay, he notes the difference between what the oil propagandists say (“the world is awash in oil”), and the truth: the world still contains plenty of oil, but very little “easy” oil. It’s getting harder to get to, it’s becoming harder to extract and refine, and the risks to the environment are growing with each passing year. And who’s absorbing these costs? Look in the mirror.
As an ongoing part of our series in which we introduce the basics of renewable energy to young people and newcomers to the subject, here’s a short video I made recently on geothermal. Here I talk about the fundamentals, and present the various strengths and weaknesses of geothermal as a component of our energy mix. I hope you enjoy it.
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.
Here’s another short video for young people and newcomers to the subject of renewable energy. In this brief talk on solar energy and photovoltaics (solar panels), I provide my thinking on the strengths and weaknesses of solar power. Hope you enjoy.
I’m happy to report that my new book, “
