Saturday, February 20, 2010
California Adopts Bill to Allow Homeowners to Sell Their Solar Energy | Inhabitat
Bill has flaws (why cap the amount of excess energy that can be resold?) but it's...progress. California Adopts Bill to Allow Homeowners to Sell Their Solar Energy | Inhabitat
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Bill Gates: the Most Important Climate Speech of the Year
Worldchanging.org's Alex Steffen explains why. Gates now says his top priority is to drive carbon emissions to zero. Why didn't this make front-page news in newspapers? Or on network television? Or anywhere? The summary is great, but you can probably find the original, if you want, on TED.com, the site associated with the famous meetings of the smart and accomplished (as opposed to rich and famous, or wannabes, etc.) The key points are that he thinks it's necessary to get to zero, and perhaps he can convince other people with money and power. Read and pass it on. Steffens points out a few important gaps in Gates' analysis (like the necessity of preserving and restoring ecosystems) but the endorsement of zero (as opposed to the incremental, "politically feasible" goals of even the best politicians) as a goal is a huge step.
Friedman cuts to the chase: Global Weirding Is Here - NYTimes.com
Thomas Friedman is now a certified member of the talking heads (lowercase, fortunately, for lovers of the musical group), but he spent many years as a journalist, and that training stands him in good stead here, in allowing him to cut through the haze and state the facts in simple language. In addition to his points, I would add two more:
1. Climate change deniers should be held to the same standard of accuracy and responsibility for their statements as they say they think climate change scientists are falling short of. (Friedman would never let a sentence that twisted out into public.)
2. Certainty is not the gold standard of science, nor should it be for policy. The evidence is merely overwhelming, and that should be enough!
Monday, February 8, 2010
Search for 'Jetsons family' to test home - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Search for 'Jetsons family' to test home - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
I don't qualify, since we don't have children at home...so you go for it! What bothers me is the low goal: "20-50%" energy savings. If you're running true experiments at the cutting edge, you should aiming far beyond 50% savings, considering the number of homes already at zero net or better.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
If the Senate won't act, Obama can still do a lot, by Executive Order 13514
His action takes a little-noticed Executive Order by Bush a couple of years ago, the next logical step. With the Federal government the nation's very largest user of energy (and buyer of telephones and vehicles, and so on), this will create a market that will pull the manufacturers in.
President Obama Sets Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Target for Federal Operations | The White House
Monday, January 11, 2010
Congress, without doing anything on its own, wants to block EPA
Both Sides Gird for Bruising Senate Debate Over EPA Amendment - NYTimes.com
And there's the North Dakota Democrat, Pomeroy, on the House side: http://bit.ly/7OB34j
Click this Moveon.org link to add your name to the petition to your Congressional representatives to stop this:
The petition says: "Congress must not block the Clean Air Act's limits on global warming pollution."
Friday, December 18, 2009
"Meaningful" agreement in Copenhagen? I don't think so
The only value I see from the "agreement" -- that the countries should set a goal of limiting temperature rise to 2 degrees C., and tell each other how they're going to do it-- is that it reveals the pettiness, parochialism of all the big countries. Which we knew going in. A few million people (judging by the participation in various online and in-person protests) were hoping for a different discovery. Not today.
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