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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

The point of the meme here, of course, is that the electrification of transportation (and everything else) is going to run into temporary roadblocks.  Will there be enough lithium? Will EV battery recycling become feasible? Will the ubiquity of fast charging stations come to satisfy demand?  Will we rid ourselves of hydrocarbons from the grid-mix?

I would suggest that the answer to all these questions is yes, i.e., that we’re going to get there eventually, perhaps in a couple of decades.  A more interesting question:  Will all this happen in time to prevent our civilization’s experiencing devastating long-term environmental damage?

No one knows, though one thing is certain: there are forces at play that apply great economic pressure and make this anything but a level playing field.  The entire fossil fuel industry is doing its damndest to stay in place indefinitely, regardless of how horrific the consequences may be to humanity, and to all life forms here on Earth.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

This MSN.com article begins:

Late Sunday night, Lauren Boebert shared this post on social media, where she openly disparaged climate activists.

“You’ve got to appreciate the irony of climate protesters trudging through a foot of snow and -30 degree wind chills to yell about how the planet is warming,” she wrote.

“They just don’t see it, do they?”

Her post ignited a firestorm, with many users pointing out her apparent ignorance on the subject.

“It’s not just about the Earth getting hotter; it’s about extreme weather patterns as the Earth tries to adapt,” one user explained.

“This includes intensified cold spells, erratic rainfall, heavy snow, and more, all symptoms of climate change.”

Others shared graphs showing the drastic changes in climate across the world in recent years, noting that the science has been well-documented.

We need to face the fact that we in the U.S. are nowhere close to a point the realities of climate change are uniformly accepted, as there are plenty of people who reject science generally. This country will feature uneducated folks living in its rural districts for as long as we have a society here.  I advise not wasting our mental and emotional resources getting into a snit about American ignorance; it’s just a part of who we are as a nation.

That these people have leaders who themselves are boobs changes absolutely nothing.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

If you’re a grocery retailer, especially a convenience store, refusing to sell bottled water will lead to an immediate and severe reduction to your income stream.  Accordingly, I’d like to extend my kudos to whomever wrote this note on his refrigerator.  That’s bravery; that’s integrity.

But sadly, he finds himself submersed in one of hundreds of different business sectors in which honestly and decency is actually a considerable handicap.

Last year, PepsiCo earned $8.9 billion on $86 billion in revenue, and every single one of their customers is now (at least) a little bit unhealthier than he was the year before.  In addition to Aquafina, did the retailer featured in the meme get rid of all his sodas and salty, sugary poison, the manufacturing (not to mention consumption) of which is slowly but steadily destroying the planet and its inhabitants?

I don’t wish to sound mean, but maybe finding a truly honest career is not such a bad idea.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

Every element of American society seems so contentious, but for what real reason?

On social media, we learn that vegans, regardless of the rationale that lies at the core of their eating habits, are under attack from meat-eaters.  Why?  What’s the matter with letting people choose their lifestyles, especially when they’re not forcing themselves on you?

We see posts providing ideas from the clergy instructing the devout on how to counter atheists. Why? What’s the imperative to argue with other people who just happen to see the world differently?

The meme here speaks to the us-versus-them “logic” that the fossil fuels proponents uses against the environmentalists, and, more to the point, against the entire auto industry as it phases out gas and diesel.

Why are we so appealing about argument for its own sake?

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Below is the front page of a Florida newspaper from a couple of weeks ago.

You will try in vain to find anything remotely like this stupidity, greed, and cruelty anywhere else on this planet.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

Here’s an exciting development (not) in solar PV, which claims (falsely) that it delivers 18 times more power from sunlight than traditional technologies.

Let’s do some quick math, to see just how important (fraudulent) this breakthrough (scam) is.  Say today’s standard solar panel are 25% efficient.  18 times that is an efficiency of no less than 450%.  4.5 times as much energy is released than was incident on it in the first place!

I really don’t think there’s anyone in junior high school so ignorant as to accept this.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Where will the energy come from that will make this building spin?

Strangely, they don’t say.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Per this article, Fox News has discontinued the ad campaign of Mike Lindell (the MyPillow Guy) on the basis that he, as he admits, has become financially insolvent.

One wonders how he faltered, given that he had amassed such a fortune selling high-margin bedwear to Fox News viewers and other Trump supporters over a period of many years.

My theory: Fox is anxious to find an excuse to cut ties with Lindell, due to his position on the Big Lie.  Fox doesn’t need another close-to-billion-dollar settlement stemming for civil litigation, and Lindell still claims adamantly that he has ironclad evidence that the U.S. 2020 presidential election was stolen.

Of course, he can’t reveal what that evidence might be, but that’s not a problem for people who don’t concern themselves with facts and truth in the first place.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Here’s an article I won’t be reading, because the answer to the question is so obvious: her voting base loves her racism.

It’s the chicken-and-the-egg principle at work in politics.  MTG can hardly be called the cause of the ignorance and hatred in rural Georgia, but she certainly makes it socially acceptable for these folks to speak and act like they’re living in the 1920s, and they can’t get enough of it.

Demand creates its own supply.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Assuming that Trump is ultimately unsuccessful in overthrowing the U.S. federal government, there will be an ongoing conversation about the content of the meme here.

We will never stop wondering how it was possible that a man who was roundly regarded as a deranged moron by so many intelligent and highly accomplished public servants who worked directly with him over a period of many years, came to rise, through a free and fair election, to become the most powerful person on Earth?

Of course, the reason this is on so many people’s minds is that it appears that there is a good chance that he’ll be re-elected.

Things that would be inconceivable anywhere else in the developed nations of Earth make perfect sense here in America.

 

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