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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles
Re: the ad here, I wrote, “We need a new internal combustion engine like we need faster biplanes. What type of moron buys into this?”
Reader Andrew Dean replies:  “Literally everyone smart enough to know that electric cars are NOT the long term answer.”
Two points:
The recognition that fossil fuels are ruining this planet is held by everyone whose understanding is not rooted in Big Oil’s propaganda.
The auto industry is investing trillions of dollars to move to electric.  It makes sense, to me at least, to follow the money here.  Mercedes Benz built 6 million gas- and diesel-powered cars and trucks in 2022.  Their target for 2025?  Zero.  Not a single one.
I’m always amused by people who think that environmental movements are a sham, even when industries the size of world transportation are betting their entire future on them.
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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Here’s a clever reminder of how humankind came to fill its role as the only life form whose activities despoil its home.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Many of our civilization’s greatest thinkers believe that humankind has found itself in an “evolutionary cul-de-sac,” i.e., that we’ve progressed as far as this species is capable, along road with a dead-end ahead.

Normally, these folks talk about our superabundance of technology and our woeful lack of compassion for one another.

Another concept is, ironically, in many ways the polar opposite. I join those who fear that it is, in fact, the rejection of science that will bring us to ruin.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

As discussed here, Pence is shifting his position on the subject, but what else could be expected from a person tragically born with neither a spine nor a personality?

Could be a moot point, given that Pence could no more be the next U.S. president than he could be overlord of the Milky Way galaxy.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

If there were only some way to identify the true intentions of these insurrectionists.

What brought them to the Capitol on January 6th? They couldn’t have come to initiate a civil war, could they?

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

This might make sense if it weren’t for countries like Japan that are both a) almost completely godless and b) nearly totally safe from gun violence.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

As the United States makes its way through the first half of the 21st Century, we see terrifying reminders of ignorance and divisiveness.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Wind Energy

We know that the Earth is experiencing record high temperatures, and that these data points are not isolated, but are part of long-term warming trends that derive from the buildup of greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere, largely due to our civilization’s consumption of fossil fuels.

We also know that the overarching economic power structures on this planet couldn’t care less about abating the unprecedented levels of suffering that are making their way around the globe: the mass displacement of populations due to the disappearance of land masses, the storms, the wildfires, the loss of biodiversity, the acidification of our oceans, and so on.

I met a young fellow today who was interested in this subject, but believed that our response is based on lies foisted upon us by the woke socialists.  “Isn’t it true that wind turbines require a great deal of oil to manufacture the blades and maintain themselves in operation?” he challenged me.

I explained that, although there is no environmental “free lunch,” there are a great number of actual facts that matter.  When it comes to renewable energy, the most important metric is “EROI,” or “energy return on investment.”   Wind turbines return somewhere between 18:1 and 30:1 in terms of EROI, meaning that, on average, if we spend one kilowatt-hour producing and maintaining a wind turbine, we’ll get, say, 25 kilowatt-hours back over the time of its operation. Meanwhile, most of that energy displaces what would have come from coal, with its greenhouse gas emissions in terms of CO2 and methane, its heavy metals in the form of mercury, arsenic, cadmium, and selenium, as well as its incredible array of extremely toxic, carcinogenic radioactive isotopes.

Did I make an impact here?  Frankly, I’m not sure.  But if I failed, it wasn’t because I didn’t try. That’s all that can be expected of us, IMO.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Believe it or not, there are people all around this country who are reveling in the mass shootings that took place over the holiday weekend in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Fort Worth.  That may sound like an outrageous statement, but incidents like these bring huge spikes in gun sales, as idiots everywhere become even more convinced that they need guns, especially the weapons of war, to protect themselves, and the gun industry is all too happy to oblige them.

One might think that the ever-escalating slaughter of innocent people, especially tiny children, would bring us closer to the commonsense gun laws that exist in civilized nations around the globe.  Yet the precise opposite is true.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

South Pass, Louisiana (USA).

At left we see an example of a disturbing trend, i.e., the precipitous decline in the number of Americans who consider themselves environmentalists.  According to this article, a 1989 Gallup poll reported that 76 percent of Americans considered themselves environmentalists, but by 2021 that had declined to 41 percent.

It’s possible, however, that this is a matter of semantics, as most of us (about 70 percent) favor public policies that control air, water and toxic waste pollution.

The author of the article linked above speculates: What has happened is that the image of environmentalism and environmental advocacy itself has become entwined in the political polarization that has infected all aspects of American political life.

That’s certainly true.  The anti-woke crowd stands in vehement opposition to anything that benefits humankind, and taking care of our planet is just one example.

 

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