A member of the pro-nuke group writes: Craig, we have no $ interest in nuclear. We have concern for our descendants and all the species around us. We have concern for facts, since human progress proceeds no other way. You know …
Some of the Pro-Nuke People Really Don’t Like Renewables At All Read More »
Should we be optimistic about the overall future of humankind vis-à-vis energy and the environment? True, not too many people walk around pondering this question. Of course, stock market, weight loss, professional football, and our other present-day fascinations won’t mean …
Ideas in Conflict: “Limits To Growth” and “The Third Industrial Revolution” Read More »
Frequent commenter Gary Tulie sent me this Wiki-article describing the 700-page “Stern Report” which, published in 2006, lays out a comprehensive set of economics regarding climate change mitigation. From my reading of the article (though not the complete report), my …
Glenn Doty notes with sadness: What would be nice is if someone actually tried to nail down a rough estimate for the global net economic benefit, and the national net economic benefit, for different paced CO2 reduction strategies. The fact …
Will Environmentalists Engage in a Cost/Benefit Dialog? Read More »
A reader asked that I comment on this fairly euphoric piece, suggesting that the world economy can and will be revived with the aggressive adoption of electric transportation and photovoltaics. Here are a few bits and pieces of my reaction. …
I’m wondering if I could ask your help in another of our surveys. There is not too much doubt that the last 150 years have brought ever-accelerating damage to our environment. There IS, however, a great deal of controversy about …
Thursday afternoon I had the pleasure of listening to Amory Lovins present his latest thinking on the world energy picture at the University of California at Santa Barbara, which he sums up in his book Reinventing Fire. I’m so glad …
I’m so glad I finally got around to Jeremy Rifkin’s masterpiece “The Third Industrial Revolution.” The central concept is this: we’re entering the point in human history where the first and second industrial revolutions and their unintended consequences (i.e., running …
The Age of Fossil Fuels Spirals Into Its Endgame — But What’s Next? Read More »
To simplify where we are as a civilization and where we’re going with respect to energy consumption, economics, and environmentalism, it’s useful to postulate three broad “plans”: Plan A: We continue on our current course. We ignore the fact that our …
Energy Consumption, Economics, and Environmentalism Read More »
Frequent commenter Glenn Doty points out that statistically, violence reduces oil production, and believes that the reason behind the invasion of Iraq was not about the access to oil per se, but for CONTROL of PROFIT from the oil. He …
Lateral Power, Distributed Generation, and the Third Industrial Revolution Read More »
