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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

Here’s a wonderful video presentation of Billy Joel’s ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire,’ the clever reminder that problems in the world are nothing new, and really nothing to get too concerned over. I infer that this philosophy must be quite dear to him, as he expresses it in many of his songs, e.g., The Angry Young Man:

There’s always a place for the angry young man

With his fist in the air and his head in the sand

He’s never been able to learn from mistakes

So he can’t understand why his heart always breaks

His honor is pure, and his courage as well

He’s fair and he’s true, and he’s boring as hell

And he’ll go to his grave as an angry old man.

….

I do believe I’ve passed the age

Of consciousness and righteous rage

I’ve found that just surviving was a noble fight

I once believed in causes too

I had my pointless point of view

But life went on no matter who was wrong or right.

While this is brilliant stuff, and extremely musical,  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

Those whose interests including super high-end exotic automobiles may know the name Alain Clenet and the eponymous retro-designed “drivable art” he built in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In the meeting I had with him at his home this morning, I was taken by the keenness of his mind, as well as the breadth of his heart and spirit. Though he still builds cars as a hobby, he’s turned most of his efforts to helping the poorest of the poor, mostly in undeveloped places in Africa.

I thought I’d relate a quick story that blends Alain’s compassion with his skill for building things – and even a bit of clean energy.

When Alain and his people go to an area, they always ask what the people lack, but they also ask, “What do you have too much of?” (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

A friend of mine who runs a very successful hedge fund cautions me to expect inflation, and suggests that perhaps it’s a good time for me to get back into real estate. But our discussion so far leaves me unconvinced:

Friend: May be time to buy real estate again.

Craig: Yes, I really think that dollar-denominated assets have to appreciate. Real estate scares me, though, with the glut of foreclosures, etc.

Friend: Yes, but it’s always darkest before the dawn.

Craig: The fundamentals of real estate don’t appeal to me, especially Americans’ gross inability to compete (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

One of our Facebook fans, Elaine Carter, writes precisely two words: “Absolutely relevant” about LifeCube, a business that we support.  It’s hard to disagree with you, Elaine.  Here’s cutting-edge R&D of on-demand emergency shelter for disaster response. In less than five minutes after arriving on the scene, a two-man first-responder team can assemble a sturdy, solid-floored space with food, water, medical supplies, communications, electricity and propane in which they can treat the wounded and conduct their operations.

I applaud Elaine’s brevity, and I think the attribute “absolutely relevant” is quite apt here. I know there is some level of controversy about global climate change and the heightened incidence of extreme weather events, at least here in the U.S. But is anyone projecting fewer disasters in the future? I’m having trouble finding them, if they exist.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Lining up a trip back east for the week of February 13th that includes Washington DC, Philadelphia, New York, and potentially Boston. Will be conducting interviews for “Renewable Energy – Following the Money,” but also meeting several clean energy entrepreneurs I’d like to help along their way. Will also stay with an old college buddy – and maybe a second. Should be quite a tour. Renting a car and hoping for good weather.

It’s amazing how certain things are dirt-cheap nowadays, while other prices have skyrocketed. I normally buy one-way plane tickets, since my itineraries are flexible. One-way from Santa Barbara to Dulles International (Washington, DC): $171. Makes me glad I’m not Greyhound, trying to sell a $126 ticket for a bus that takes almost three days to arrive.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

At this point, Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Nissan/Renault, has invested $5.6 billion into electric vehicle technology — a big bet, to be sure. But I believe he feels it to be a fairly safe one, as it rests on his certainty that EVs will ultimately come to dominate the automotive space — and that he’s the man to make it happen. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

We don’t believe in censorship of the Internet. Why not take a second and tell Congress that you feel the same? Sign the petition here.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

I just got off the phone with Dan Sturges of WheelChange. If there’s a person on this planet who’s done more work to bring along the future of transportation, I sure want to meet him.

For more than two decades, Dan and his team have been developing and promoting a complex and dynamic set of solutions built around a single concept:

Our current conception of transportation: redundant, heavy, bulky, and fossil-fuel-reliant – is simply unaffordable in every sense of the word. It’s not economically sound to the individual consumer, and it’s exorbitantly expensive to society as a whole, both financially and ecologically.

But, pragmatically, (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

Frequent commenter “Shivrat” writes:

Great that solar investment is increasing so rapidly, and agreed that many challenges lie ahead, but would you say that a paradigm shift to renewables is inevitable in the long term? After all, something like 80% of oil is produced in 6 countries, and 90% of natural gas reserves lie in 3 countries, right? Given that global energy demand is set to increase by 50% in the next few decades, wouldn’t market forces seem to make it futile for anyone to resist (fossil fuels’) decline in the long term?

This is an excellent question – one that surprisingly few people ask. The basic answer is the short-term focus of most people and entities.

I happened to ask a friend who runs a very successful hedge fund (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Last night, my daughter and I were studying her vocabulary words for her English final today, and encountered the word “concise,” i.e., “expressing a great deal in a few words.”  And speaking of concise, here’s a really neat photographic essay on the types and amounts of food we consume as a civilization. There are a few words here, but the pictures say it all.

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