Life Takes Cue from The Onion

Soooo one thing I really enjoy is finding headlines that could have come from The Onion the news outlets I look at. So naturally I was interested when I saw this post from The Economists USA blog. Check it out, it made me chuckle.

Oil=dead dinosaurs right? WRONG

One thing that's astounded me for a while is the lack of knowledge about the nature and origins of oil. Check out KK's post on some of the current theories. I love his quote on bacteria: "In any case I am betting on bacteria as the creators of oil simply because I've learned to never bet against bacteria."

Population Bust

Check out this interesting NYT piece on western population issues. It's long and covers quite a bit but it's worth reading because it goes over many of the facts and faces of demographics today. Nothing really new, but good coverage of what's going on.

Facinating Solar Technology

I'm not sure how successful this will be, but it seems intriguing. Most large scale solars designs focus on solar thermal but this product concentrates light (using mirrors etc) on solar cells (sort of) to generate electricity more directly. This could be interesting....

US Needs Infrastructure Help

This may not seem green and leafy but please take a look at the Economist's article on American infrastructure. Poor infrastructure can lead to inefficiencies, poor economic growth,
and other nasties. For a country that relies on roads so much, investing in them could be just as effective as investing in the greenest solar power scheme.

Icky if Interesting Way to Track Drug Use

So, LA will now track drug use using tests on raw sewage. I find this fascinating, it reminds me of a quote from Cradle to Cradle: "Waste is Food".

One trend I look for in the path to Sustainability is a devaluation or change of the current conception of waste. To be sustainable I think a society needs to internalize the idea that there is no such thing as the unwanted. This doesn't just apply to physical objects, it applies to ideas, emotions, and people. Tolerance, and understanding are also part of sustainability. One major obstacle in the path to sustainability is rich world's attitude towards technology. I'm not a Luddite, in fact I'm pretty pro-technology in general, but I think we need figure out a way to make "old" not equal "bad".

US Gov. Freezes New Solar Energy Projects Citing Need for Environmental Assesments

*bangs head against wall...repeatedly*

ARRRRRRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!! This is insane!.

I'll be the first to say that solar power plants need environmental assessments. It's not something a ton of people know, but solar power plants can have serious environmental impacts (destroying habitat, hazardous waste etc). However, what was the BoLM thinking??? Isn't there a better way to do this than to stop solar power plants altogether???

Mars soil might be able to support life

It's such a small chunk of news but for some reasons it makes me wildly excited. Check it out.

Inteligence Community on Climate Change

I won't link directly to the PDF (Breakthrough Gen has the link and their take) but basically the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has put out a long term analysis of climate change politics and it's implications for US security. Check it out if you like environmental policy.

One thing I was really interested is the concept of technology transfer for climate change. Quote:
“Elsewhere, developing countries—particularly major greenhouse gas emitters—may demand that the WTO Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) be amended to allow for the production and development of generic copies of green technologies, citing the precedent of HIV AIDS drugs.”

I find it astounding that I haven't heard this way of framing the concept of technology transfer. If you think about it the entire field of Appropriate Technology could be looked at as aid through innovation man-hours. Does this concept frame change anything? I'm not sure, but I wonder if we'll start to see more non-profit design companies or initiatives ala Design that Matters, or ones that have more government funding.

Recent Energy News

Feh! I keep wanting to blog on environmental matters and summarize the current events and trends but the folks and Breakthrough Generation are on the same page and they have like....a billion writers and are always ahead of me :P. They've kindly provided an excellent summery of some recent energy events with their thoughts.

This makes me think of James Kunstler. I've heard him speak before (I need to read the Long Emergency) and although he really is Mr Doom & Gloom I can't help but recognize that life in the US without cheap gas will probably be very different. I think suburbs and exurbs will take major hits. Take my life; currently I occasionally do something very wasteful. There's an excellent Japanese restaurant that I occasionally get take out from when there's enough money to spring for a treat. That restaurant is 26 miles away, and I can't imagine that kind of drive in a world of $8-$10 gas.

All that being said I think that Mr Kunstler has position I do not agree with (from what I've heard in his lectures and interviews). His position seems to be, at it's base, reactive. He talks about how energy costs will force change. He refers to ways of life that people will have to abandon, without any allowance for human ingenuity. While I do think many have stuck their heads in the sand I also think that trying to predict the future without allowing for humanities capacities for adaptation is fundamentally flawed.