Month: December 2010

This per the Nashville Tennessean.

LEBANON, Tenn. — Cracker Barrel, modeled to represent a slower time of rocking chairs on old wooden porches, soon will feature a very modern technology — electric vehicle chargers.

The pilot is part of a broader effort by Ecotality, based in Tempe, Ariz., to get charging stations in more places across the country. The lack of charging stations and the high cost of vehicles are major hurdles to the spread of electric vehicle technology.

 

Sometimes you come across an application of internet technology that is so cool, so potentially transformative and powerful, that it gives you hope that we really can turn this thing around.

See if this makes you feel that way.

A lot of people who read this blog are already active, or want to become active, in this, the most important human enterprise in history, – the struggle to awaken and empower enough people, quickly enough, to save us from our sleeping, unconscious, unevolved selves.  As Einstein said, we can’t solve our problems with the consciousness that created them. We have to transcend. See if this strikes you as that kind of transformative tool.

More on Google Earth Engine here –

It’s about that time of year again, as winter snowstorms provoke the inevitable “Whatever happened to Global Warming” jokes and news stories, to be reminded of the powerfully persuasive evidence that made Stu Ostro, senior Meteorologist at the Weather Channel, belatedly wake up to the case for climate change.

I used Stu’s explanation of 2009’s deceptive warmth in one of my most popular videos, which was made to calm the brouhaha after the eastern US was slammed by several extreme snow storms last winter – snow storms that, in fact, were completely consistent with the increased moisture from a warmer climate, coupled with a negative Arctic Oscillation.

Create your own plot here.

Continue reading “Stu Ostro – The Weather Channel’s Former Skeptic”

An article this week in the New York Times discusses an awakening industrial giant that is not news to us in Michigan and the midwest.  Lead by an alliance of  few stubborn visionaries unwilling to buy into the media story of bleak decay, bright spots of the new energy future are emerging in a once gloomy landscape.

It’s particularly true in my neck of the woods, the Great Lakes Bay area of Michigan.  Hidden in sleepy farmlands in the state’s midsection, Hemlock Semiconductor is among the largest producers in the world of polycrystalline silicon for semiconductors, as well as for the surging photovoltaic industry. Drawn by the emerging supply chain, several other companies are setting up operations in the area, including Suniva Inc., a Norcross, Ga.-based solar cell manufacturer, which plans to build a $250 million solar cell plant in Saginaw County’s Thomas Township; Evergreen Solar Inc., a Marlboro, Mass.-based company that produces filament used to create solar wafers, in nearby Midland; and GlobalWatt, a San Jose, Calif.-based photovoltaic module manufacturer, which is investing $177 million in a plant that will manufacture both solar modules and systems, such as a mobile solar generator.

Chemical giant Dow Chemical, which has its corporate headquarters in Midland, has broken ground on a new advanced battery facility, a joint venture with TK Advanced Battery Group and Dassault SVE, that will employ 320 people, and is one of 17 such new facilities in the state.

Continue reading “Midwest – The Renewable Powerhouse Emerges”

Last spring, a study published in Science and led by the University of Alaska’s International Arctic Research Centre and the Russian Academy of Sciences, found that the frozen cap that scientists previously assumed would keep undersea methane trapped for many decades, or centuries, has been perforated. In the video above, lead author, Natalia Shakhova explains some of the findings.  Methane Hydrates are huge potential sources of greenhouse feedback, and may have been the mechanism behind the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal maximum (PETM), a warming event of 55 million years ago which many scientists say is close parallel to our current situation in the paleo record.

Since we’ve had several posts on methane this week, it’s a good opportunity to learn more.  I found a useful lecture, from Miriam Kastner, speaking at the Scipps Institute – after the jump…

Continue reading “The Other Methane Bomb: Undersea Hydrates”

Here are the candidates for chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee.

Behind door number 1, Dana Rohrbacher, who has promised to expose and denounce what he regards as phony science of climate change – which is really a mask for an evil cabal bent on global governance.  Controls on carbon, he says, will make car and plane travel so expensive, that only the very wealthy will have those options, and “the rest of us will be stuck sitting next to gang members on public transportation.”

Continue reading “House Science Committee to become Anti Science Committee”

Sun Catalytix — an energy storage and renewable fuels company — founded by a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor, Daniel Nocera, has attracted funding from the wealthy Tata Group, a powerful Indian corporation known for it’s innovative Nano automobile, to develop a solar powered generator that would be
affordable to a large segment of rural poor throughout the third world.

Nocera and his colleagues announce a process two years ago that captured sunlight in manner similar to plant photosynthesis. A press release described the original discovery.

“Inspired by the photosynthesis performed by plants, Nocera and Matthew Kanan, a postdoctoral fellow in Nocera’s lab, have developed an unprecedented process that will allow the sun’s energy to be used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. Later, the oxygen and hydrogen may be recombined inside a fuel cell, creating carbon-free electricity to power your house or your electric car, day or night.”

At the time, MIT produced a video that explained the discovery –

Continue reading “Powering the Third World with Water and Sun”

In my two video series on wind energy, I dispelled some mininformation and distortion about wind power’s threat to birds and bats.

Continue reading “No Adverse Health Effects from Wind Turbines”