Here’s a brief discussion between a reader and me on this article of which I present an excerpt:

Most of us are indebted slaves. Banks conjure money out of thin air to enslave most of us for life. We must go into debt to buy a house, a car or go to school. Many of us go into debt just to eat. Like you, you and you, I will carry my s***ty credit score to a mass paupers’ grave, with my hearse a U-Haul. There is a renewed emphasis on going to college as a means to success, but in this economy, a degree will likely only impoverish you further, since you will be in hock to the banksters even as you work a job completely unrelated to your dubious education. If you can even get a job, that is. Joining winos and bag ladies with smudgy and off-target makeup will be legions of useless scholars.

Reader:  What do you think about this?

Craig:  Who in his right mind granted this guy ten cents’ worth of credit in the first place? It’s an exercise in whining, over-generalizing, and shirking personal responsibility.

Reader:  I fully agree – a kind of surrender.

Craig:  Correct. It’s the only thing I find objectionable about the left.  Liberal minds, it seems to me, are strong on compassion and intelligence, but can lack the understanding of the importance of personal accountability and self-determination. Humankind is, at the end of the day, a part of the animal kingdom. Life didn’t evolve over four billion years here on Earth by asking our fellows to fix our problems for us. And it’s not the way we’ll survive in the future.

If you have a useless education, go get a useful one.

I can only feel sorry for people who wake up in the morning without a purpose to go out and accomplish something, who blame others for their own condition.

What I’d like to see, having said all this, is the end of unfairness.  How about justice, where all people, regardless of their backgrounds, can have equal access to opportunity?  It sure would be nice to put an end to a world in which the rich use their wealth to purchase the justice system.  I’m asking for a level playing field where all people have the chance to be healthy, educated, and productive.  It’s a tall order, but one I think that, together, we can serve up.

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I hope you can join me for our webinar in March, in which I’ll interview Jim Greenberg, Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer of Ocean Thermal Energy Corporation. I first met Jim on my last trip to the East Coast, and I was immediately impressed with the executive team, the board of advisors, and the basic thoroughness and professionalism with which this organization forwards the OTEC concept.

Jim will discuss his company’s pilot projects in both the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, and cover the potential that OTEC holds, especially for island nations in tropical waters. I hope you’ll be able to carve out time for this fast-paced conversation, Thursday, March 22nd, at 10 AM PST (1 PM EST)

Here’s the sign-up form: http://2greenenergy.com/free-webinar/.

 

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Here’s another in our ongoing series of infographics, designed to offer young people and clean energy newcomers an accessible introduction to the subject. Here, we provide an objective look at the “pros and cons” of solar.

While we advocate in favor of solar generally, we believe that it’s best to arm people with the unvarnished facts, one of which is “there is no such thing as a free lunch,” i.e., all forms of energy generation come with certain costs and other downsides. It’s by understanding the totality of these facts that one becomes able to have a meaningful, informed, and relevant discussion on the subject.

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Supporters of the Keystone XL pipeline project may want to read this excellent piece by Jim Hightower, radio commentator, writer, and public speaker.  The concept that the oil companies who are working so hard to make this happen are doing so for your benefit or mine is ridiculous – a point that Hightower makes with his classic populist style.

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Is Renewable Really Doable, by Craig Shields

I’m shooting a television show on Wednesday whose producer wants me to speak on my new book: Is Renewable Really Doable?  In preparation, he asked me for the main topics I’d like to address. I replied that we could get into the meat of the book:

• What the world’s biggest governments are doing to accelerate – and retard – the adoption of clean energy.

• How venture capitalists think with respect to clean energy start-ups.

• How pure and unbiased the thinking of the scientific community actually is.

• What the world will probably be like in ten years? 50 years.

• How the credit crunch and the end of cheap oil will affect us all.

But, while I think 2GreenEnergy readers will be absorbed by these conversations, I have to think that most people tuning into some TV channel might find this too esoteric and off-putting.

I told him, “When I go on most TV and radio shows, I talk about the basic issues: the tough realities, i.e., the technological, and the economic/political issues that make the clean energy discussion such a battleground. What exactly is renewable energy? Why is it better than extracting and burning fossil fuels? If there are good reasons for making the transition (which there are) – even though it comes at an expense, why isn’t it happening? This is much better fare for a general audience, so let’s go with this more simplified subject matter.”

I hope I’m right here. We’ll see.

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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQENswF5QQ0&w=500&h=284]

Here’s a short video I made explaining the basics of wind energy for young people, or newcomers to the subject.  I explain why the wind blows, offer a brief history of man’s attempts to harness wind energy, and discuss our current efforts to use wind to generate large amounts of electricity with relatively little environmental impact.  

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Renewable energy investment is not only for energy deployment and world ecology management, it is also for jobs. Nations can choose ruthless economic growth when economic growth is never accompanied by democracy, empowerment and human rights or fruitless economic growth when growth is accompanied by reducing job opportunities.

Throughout the world availability of good jobs is the cheapest way to create human development, enlarging peoples choices to live a long , decent and productive life. Renewable energy technologies create more jobs per megawatt of power generated, and per dollar invested in construction, manufacturing and installation as compared to coal or natural gas. (more…)

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I often write here that I’m never nasty or condescending to anyone who submits a business plan, regardless of how asinine their ideas. I have an admission to make:  while that was true early, on, it’s no longer the case.  Now, I get descriptions of perpetual motion machines and other theoretically impossible devices at the rate of approximately once a week. Each “inventor’ has one curious trait in common: he’s looking for that last couple hundred thousand dollars of investment capital to build a prototype.

True, a few years ago, I had the patience of Job with respect to garbage like this, but it’s wearing thin. I told one guy recently:

Though I don’t know anything about the securities laws in – (wherever he was from; I don’t remember) if you raise money from people here in the U.S., you’ll very likely wind up in prison.

He wrote back tersely: “I don’t need you.”  LOL.

Just now, someone wrote me from Armenia with a detailed description of a machine that makes electricity from compressed air (somehow omitting the source of the energy that was required to compress the air). I spent several minutes of my (finite) life reading this, before responding:

Sorry, what you’re describing violates the laws of physics. I’m not saying you won’t be able to find investors, just that you’ll need to target people who lack even the most basic education. Don’t fret though; that’s not too great a challenge in today’s world.

See? I can be both nasty AND condescending. Just thought I’d get that off my chest.

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As readers may have noticed, I’ve begun promoting the launch of my second book, Is Renewable Really Doable? (available March 15th) using the 32-page report “Insights into LCOE – The Levelized Cost of Energy” as a give-away.

In response to my mentioning the LCOE concept, Henk Daalder responds:

No, we do not need to know what it costs to get sustainable energy, because the fossil route is always more expensive than the sustainable route. (more…)

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Nate Hagens is  a well-known authority on issues related to global resource depletion. Until recently he was lead editor of The Oil Drum, one of the most popular and highly-respected websites for analysis and discussion of global energy supplies and the future implications of energy decline.

Shortly after we were introduced, Nate suggested that I attend a small, private conference at the Aspen Institute in Washington D.C., at which he and some colleagues made a two-hour presentation to about 30 representatives of various NGOs. I was honored, and overwhelmed to be in the presence of so many brilliant people. As I told them as I was leaving the lovely reception that followed, “Sorry, I have to catch a train. And besides, I’ve absorbed as much as I possibly can in one day. My brain hurts.”

I am very grateful to Nate for his help with the project, and I know readers will find his insights quite enlightening.

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