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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science — 1 Comment ↓

Please take a second to read this dialog between Stephen Colbert and Neil DeGrasse Tyson.  Is this what would have surprised Carl Sagan most?

I doubt it.  From what I can remember, he had a low opinion of our civilization when it came to our intellectual curiosity, thirst for truth, and demand for evidence to support our beliefs.

Of course, things have gotten much worse in the nearly 30 years since he left us, but I don’t think that would have surprised him either.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics — 1 Comment ↓

MLK’s famous quote at left and that from lesser-known Pittsburgh sportswriter Harry Psaros (below) seem to be saying essentially the same thing, i.e., that small but steady improvements are possible, and that they’re the best we can hope for.

Before Donald Trump was reelected and replaced seasoned, highly respected individuals in the highest levels of the U.S. federal government with grossly unqualified lackeys, I might have believed this.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels — No Comments ↓

Here  at 2GreenEnergy we’ve discussed the externalities of fossil fuel consumption hundreds of times since our inception in 2009.  An externality is a term in economics, meaning the costs associated with transactions that are shifted off to unwary third parties.

Here is a good example: currently, the oil industry sells gasoline and diesel to be used in vehicles with internal combustion vehicles.  Yet it’s not the oil companies, but rather the entirety of Earth’s population, that absorbs the costs of the damage to our lungs, air pollution, global warming, etc.

Here’s a fabulous piece that looks at a tiny little sliver of this: the costs associated with the mining of coal in Appalachia, then shipped through the ports of Eastern Virginia all around the globe.

If you had children who coughed 365 days per year, or you had air duct filters that needed to be changed every two weeks because they were blackened by coal dust,  you’d be looking for a solution here, and that solution would involve, at a minimum, having the coal companies reimbursing your costs.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability — No Comments ↓

Good quote here, but I’m wondering if the death of empathy and the fall into barbarism aren’t the same thing.

In any case, life here in the United States is most certainly marked by our gross indifference to the suffering of other people.

There are many examples, but our treatment of immigration may be at the top of this list.  Trump became our next president by convincing a majority of voters in 31 out of 50 states that “vermin” are flooding across our southern border.

Many Americans are aware that there are both domestic and international laws that provide a certain set of rights to asylum seekers.  But, generally, we couldn’t care less, and simply want them denied entry into the United States, regardless of how overtly criminal this act is.  Or, in the situation in which they do get in, we want them rounded up and deported.

The cruel policy of separating children  from their parents is supported by close to 100% of Trump supporters.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels — No Comments ↓

I had to laugh when a reader sent me the meme here, because I spent most of my career in marketing, writing statements intended to win people over. I hope my own weren’t this ludicrous, however.

What does it mean to say that being in favor of a fossil fuel is “who I am?” It’s equivalent to saying, “I have a financial interest in this form of energy, and I don’t care that it’s baking the planet.”

Everybody else who knows anything about the subject is in favor of the quickest feasible transition away from fossil fuels in favor of renewables and nuclear, i.e., the decarbonization of our energy and transportation sectors.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics — No Comments ↓

It’s been proven over the past few years that making claims like the one in the billboard here is a worthless, and perhaps even self-defeating activity.  Those who believe in things like false prophets, the Great Deceiver, the anti-Christ and the rest also believe that Trump was sent by God to save America.

That was established long ago; it’s not worth anyone’s time and money to try to refute it.

Given that we live in a land where Matt Gaetz can be appointed Attorney General one day, we could have Mike Lindell (Mr. Pillow) or Marjorie Taylor Greene appointed Surgeon General the next.

I’m far past the point where I expect anything coming from Trump to conform to reason.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability — No Comments ↓

The meme here came from a reader.

There is no doubt that Trump and his Republican minions would be ecstatic if the nation looked the other way while:

Matt Gaetz is appointed to be U.S. Attorney General.

Let’s suppose that there had been no Justice Department investigation into Gaetz that stemmed from a probe into the Florida congressman’s one-time friend, former Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg, who was sentenced in 2022 to 11 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to multiple charges, including sex trafficking a minor and introducing the minor to other “adult men.”  Does he have a single qualification to sit atop the country’s system of law enforcement?  Of course not.

Former congressman Lee Zeldin is made Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. 

Zeldin regularly voted against progressive climate and environment policies, earning him a lifetime score of just 14 percent from the League of Conservation Voters, an advocacy group that tracks congress members’ positions on environmental legislation.

Pete Hegseth will become Secretary of Defense.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Hegseth, despite the fact that his highest rank was major, will be appointed to head up the Pentagon.   There are now 625 full (four-star) generals, not to mention the large number of lieutenant (three-star) generals, major (two-star) generals, brigadier (one-star) generals, “full-bird” colonels, and lieutenant colonels.  As a friend wrote earlier today, “(Somehow, Hegseth) went from leading a platoon to  leading the largest military in the history of planet Earth.

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The only real commonalities among these three people is a) their glaring lack of qualifications for their soon-to-be appointed positions, and b) their fierce loyalty to Trump. Which is the only criterion that means anything whatsoever.

Sure, we could “turn off the news” and “enjoy our lives.” Frankly, I wouldn’t enjoy a single minute of having become just another Trump flunky.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics — No Comments ↓

Here’s a post on which I’ll simply comment: “From your lips to God’s ears.”

I’d love to believe there’s some merit here, but if there were, we wouldn’t be in this catastrophic situation in the first place. In fact, the evidence suggests that we have an unlimited capacity for stupidity, that we crave it like we do oxygen.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change — No Comments ↓

Question:   The New York Times reports: President-elect Donald J. Trump announced on Monday that he would nominate former Representative Lee Zeldin, Republican of New York, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, a position that is expected to be central to Mr. Trump’s plans to dismantle landmark climate regulations.  Mr. Trump campaigned on pledges to “kill” and “cancel” E.P.A. rules and regulations to combat global warming by restricting fossil fuel pollution from vehicle tailpipes, power plant smokestacks and oil and gas wells.

As we all learned some time ago, the document outlining the Republic’s “Project 2025” is over 900 pages long.  How many of them are dedicated to dismantling the EPA and encouraging more consumption of fossil fuels?

Answer: Can be found at Clean Energy Answers.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics — No Comments ↓

This makes sense, when you think about it; in fact, everyone should have seen it coming.

Hegseth meets the only truly important criterion for a cabinet post: a fierce loyalty to Trump.

Note that this loyalty has been completely absent from U.S. generals and admirals over the past few years, as virtually every top military commander has warned that Trump is dangerously unfit to be the president.

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