dagblog - Comments for "Democracy Now! Interviews the Author of ‘Hot’; Please Spend the Sixteen Minutes to Watch"

Is there anywhere on this

we are stardust — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 16:08:40 +0000

In reply to Thanks. Interesting on all

Is there anywhere on this planet you haven't lived? (typed 'loved' first; almost left it) ;o)

Yes: Wodka good. Veddy good.

Jennifer Granholm was on Ratigan this morning (that will be $3.99 for hunting the link), leading a whole 50-sate project to plug green manufacturing, and get Congress to actually endorse an energy/jobs strategy (other than Dick Cheney's). She and Ratigan claim we lose 65% of of our energy...Japan, he says, runs at 90% efficiency. Ooops.

The Nova program was interesting, even the nuke segment. Westinghouse building plants with few moving parts and standardized, no electricity for cooling water in case of potential meltdown. Still disposal troubles...but wait! A guy is working on an efficiency to allow the fuel rods to sorta burn out all their radioactivity.

Another guy building prototypes of CO2 recapture that could be used in cities, maybe trucks driving around sucking in the poisons. Anyway, interesting. But maybe too late for US, good for some other generations in any event. ;o)

'Course by then humans may be living on other planets in galaxies far, far awaaaaaaaaay....

Thanks. Interesting on all

Obey — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 15:53:09 +0000

In reply to Quinn, you and Obey might

Thanks. Interesting on all the energy lost in transmission.

I spent a few months in Lithuania in '91, shortly after the wall fell, and their economy still was quasi-stalinist. They had 'central heating' in winter, which meant there was a central furnace ... for the whole city of Vilnius, with heated water piped under roads to all residential and commercial buildings around the city. And the pipes ... leaked. So you'd walk around these streets where the ground was warm and ... smoking. Of course not much heat actually made it to your house. And during that Russian winter, you were lucky if you had 12 degrees celsius - 50 degrees fahrenheit - indoors. Thank God for vodka...

Thanks Q. Nice to see some

Obey — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 15:38:20 +0000

In reply to No surprising shifts in the

Thanks Q. Nice to see some momentum in the right direction.

Quinn, you and Obey might

we are stardust — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 11:51:36 +0000

In reply to I watched this Nova last

Quinn, you and Obey might like this washingtonsblog piece on energy returns on investment and efficiency, too; cool charts, too.

I watched this Nova last

we are stardust — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 02:58:17 +0000

In reply to No surprising shifts in the

I watched this Nova last night and was a little encouraged, though Stuart Brand still can convince me on nuclear. They addressed efficiency, too, and ways to quit losing so much power in production and delivery. Anyhoo, you can watch online...

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/power-surge.html

No surprising shifts in the

quinn esq — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 02:36:41 +0000

In reply to I've seen you more glum in

No surprising shifts in the US, it's just been encouraging that certain trends have continued, strengthened even. For one, technologically, the focus upon and investment in EV batteries is producing major cost declines. I was always on the side of the more aggressive rates of cost-decline, but according to Deutsche Bank - amongst others - battery prices have fallen over the last 1-2 years to where a lot of major firms thought they'd be in 2020.

This is as big a deal as it gets, in terms of global GHGs. What we've been licking our chops for is the day when the first car-makers announce that the hybrid-regular car price premium has fallen almost to nothing (which you already see in some models), but then, when they announce that the PLUG-IN premium over the pure hybrid also disappears. Which is what a Toyota VP now says it's targeting by 2015. Because while it's electronics driving and enabling the change, it's electricity that is the world-changer in this. If I can run 2-4,000 cars by erecting a single wind-turbine, the pull for change - led by drivers - becomes enormous.

The other hopeful things are perverse ones. The revelations around natural gas fracking, for instance. [With Pro Publica, followed by the NYT, doing a monster job there.} Obviously, Japan, BP, a return to high oil prices, etc. These things - terrible in themselves - keep the dirty energy guys and the anti-CO2 freaks from having any saviour, any "go to guy" that they can channel all the funds to.

And back in Manitoba, we got our first families transitioning entirely off fossil fuels, in terms of meeting their 3 core energy needs - electricity, gasoline and heating. Which is pretty sweet, when our immediate neighbours often emit 30-40 tonnes a year, per home, from those end uses.

All we need now is for solar to keep dropping. After that it's just a question of whether we want the societal conversion to be a longer harder slog than it's been, or whether we just want to declare victory, and then everyone make this thing as positive a social consensus and economic change as we saw when extending some of these fuels to the populace in the first place.

The world will get

Verified Atheist — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 12:40:19 +0000

In reply to I'd say it's more hopeful

The world will get there,…

…about 50 years too late.

I'm not sure who you thinks

we are stardust — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 04:07:40 +0000

In reply to I'd say it's more hopeful

I'm not sure who you thinks believes that the GOP is all that's standing in the way of our taking this threat seriously and acting upon it; maybe one comment, and Herrtsgard or Amy mentioning the EPA cuts and all, but that was the deal they all made.

And yuo; I acknowledged China is leading in clean energy production, and that also others, and by that I kinda meant 'Quinn' would know more.

Don't know about 'debate' on the issue, but it sure bums me out that David Dayen's piece has gotten a total of 14 comments on the FDL front page.

I worry about food and water scarcity, possibly because the SW has been dry and windy for too long. Need some good dreams, maybe. G' night, and thanks for some hope.

I've seen you more glum in

Obey — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 03:38:38 +0000

In reply to I'd say it's more hopeful

I've seen you more glum in the past on this, Q. Like when you were laying out how the regulatory environment and incentives and systemic blocks were hampering any movement on this in the US. Anything change there...?

I'd say it's more hopeful

quinn esq — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 03:31:12 +0000

In reply to Democracy Now! Interviews the Author of ‘Hot’; Please Spend the Sixteen Minutes to Watch

I'd say it's more hopeful than this, and this is the field I primarily work in.

The world will get there, Republicans be damned. China's moving fast, the technology is zooming, and the economics are all lined up. Believe what you want, but at this point, the GOP is of secondary importance.

Thing is, I've learned it's one of the worst issues to debate on the blogs - brings out the Clearthinker and doomsday brigades. It's like a whole new world of Civil War.

But thanks for the video! Good for people to watch.