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.
Here’s a wonderful discussion that illustrates how an apparent no-brainer in terms of the replacement of diesel with solar on an island nation (Anguilla) can become a complicated mess.
In particular, the chairman of the Anguilla Renewable Energy Office says, “As we all know, you can’t store electricity, it has to be used when it is generated.” (They need a new chairman.) Also, per a local solar consultant: “(where) Jamaica, St. Lucia, Greneda, and other islands have implemented net-metering in some form, Anguilla has not. This means that you can have solar, but you cannot interconnect it with the grid. All the developed countries of the world incentivize solar, Anguilla outlaws it.”
Yep, that’s a mess all right.
Don Harmon of LiFeBatt, a long-time 2GreenEnergy reader, writes in about my recent video on clean energy:
Good interview. We are currently working on a project in the Caribbean Islands for solar and wind generation. The islands are a very ripe opportunity now for implementing green energy because they are mostly dependent on buying diesel fuel from Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and the cost is atrocious. So, may we see these islands go green way before the U.S. does? Since there is virtually no infrastructure, we have a blank slate to work with, and of course battery storage backup will be a key ingredient.
Thanks, Don. Yes, I think we’ll absolutely see this, for the reasons you name and more. (more…)
I absentmindedly forgot to get a Kindle version made of Is Renewable Really Doable? until just now. Here it is, for anyone who wants it; I recall a few people asked me about it.
Here’s an article whose theme we’ve discussed a great deal here: the disdain that certain of our elected leaders have for science. Personally, I have a tough time with people who expect to be taken seriously who write off evolution as “just a theory – one that has some holes in it” or dismiss climate change as a hoax despite the testimony of 97+% of the scientific community.
It looks like my viewpoints are losing ground here, however, since, as the article shows with a great precision, there is a large and rapidly growing segment of American voters who harbor an active distrust for science. I share the conclusion the author provided: “Yikes. That’s certainly not a good sign for fans of reality-based decision making.”
In response to my fairly pessimistic piece on global economic collapse, human nature, and its impact on sustainability, Cameron Atwood writes:
Excellent observations, Craig,
However, let me play the angel’s advocate by pointing out that we emerged from our wild hunter-gatherer state through tribal cooperation in agrarian and civic pursuits. Even the chartered corporation could be argued as a variety of cooperation (though fiercely and stridently imperfect). (more…)
Frequent commenter Cameron Atwood called my attention to a report from MIT predicting ‘global economic collapse’ by 2030.
A new study from researchers at Jay W. Forrester’s institute at MIT says that the world could suffer from “global economic collapse” and “precipitous population decline” if people continue to consume the world’s resources at the current pace.
Smithsonian Magazine writes that Australian physicist Graham Turner says, “the world is on track for disaster” and that current evidence coincides with a famous, and in some quarters, infamous, academic report from 1972 entitled, “The Limits to Growth.” (more…)
A friend just sent me this article describing the new EPA regulations on coal-fired power plants.
I respond:
Thanks. Kind of moot, though, don’t you think? The regulations don’t apply to currently existing or already permitted plants? It’s not as if we’re in a hurry to build more coal plants with natural gas prices so low. I think I’ll file this under “hoopla.” 🙂
Here’s a terrific article written by 2GreenEnergy associate Dan Sturges, who specializes in the future of transportation. I’m in the process of lining up consulting projects for Dan with forward-thinking municipalities who may want to be a beacon of leadership in terms of sustainable transportation.
As I told Dan on the phone yesterday, “I’m bullish on this, but I wouldn’t expect dozens of clients. Sadly, most cities don’t think this way. They’re not going to become leaders because they never have been in the past, and there is no reason to think they’re going to change magically in the year 2012. But that doesn’t matter. All the world really needs at this point is a few progressive, visionary mayors to stand up and say, ‘The average car on the road in this city weighs 4000 pounds and has 1.1 passengers in it, and that’s a level of waste we can no longer afford. We’re going to rethink the way we commute to work and the way we deliver packages; we’re going to reinvent every aspect of the way we move our bodies and our goods around.’ Once the world has a few of these in place, the case studies in terms of public health, safety, and happiness will speak for themselves.”
I have to think I’m right here.
According to environmentalist, entrepreneur, journalist, and author Paul Hawken, the environmentalist and social justice movement is by far the largest on Earth. Although groups like Greenpeace and the Sierra Club get the most ink, there are literally hundreds of thousands of smaller groups that help ameliorate the complex and eroding relationship between mankind and the natural world.
And in addition to its sheer size, it boasts other unique characteristics, e.g., it has no leader (though it has spokespeople) and it undergoes no schisms, since, according to Hawken, it’s already “fully atomized.” In fact, it’s undergoing a sort of reverse schism, in which various people and groups are hooking up.
Here, Hawken discusses all this and his latest book “Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It.” It’s a fascinating talk.
