Eco & Energy

The two greenest periods of the last 20 years was Y2K and the 2008 recession. We had global reductions in CO2 levels, less miles traveled and cleaner air and water during those two downturns.  But that's nothing compared to what were starting to see with this COVID19 downturn+.   With human animals confined to their nests and caves, the outside world is becoming more accessible to wildlife, way cleaner air and water, and a small healing of our planet has begun. One of the most heart warming stories was the sighting of a red fox in Yosemite. ' the park said that it was the first time the fox ― a distinct subspecies of the more common red fox ― had been seen on a camera south of Tioga Pass Road since its surveys began in 2011. ' https://news.google.com/articles/CBMifWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFvbC5jb20vYXJ0aWNsZS9uZXdzLzIwMjAvMDQvMTAvc2llcnJhLXJlZC1mb3gtb25lLW9mLW5vcnRoLWFtZXJpY2FzLXJhcmVzdC1tYW1tYWxzLXNwb3R0ZWQtaW4teW9zZW1pdGUvMjM5NzQ4NjQv0gEA?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen 

As a recent amazon prime member, i can attest to the convenience of one day deliveries.  It's been crucial for my proper car repairs of late.  BUT - at what cost?  not what I pay for it, but at what ecological and human cost? There's an article recently published that tallies the # of drivers killed by the demands of rushing packages all over the place.   https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/05/us/amazon-delivery-drivers-accidents.html?te=1&nl=morning-briefing&emc=edit_NN_p_20190905&section=topNews?campaign_id=9&instance_id=12133&segment_id=16733&user_id=3b5c7bc08104b3f7b6a59585678a66a2&regi_id=48204205tion=topNews '.... In January, the 9-month-old was killed when a driver delivering Amazon.com packages crashed a 26-foot rented box truck into the back of her mother’s Jeep. The baby was strapped into a car seat in the back.. But Amazon’s promise of speedy delivery has come at a price, one largely hidden from public view. An investigatio

Are we wolves?  If not, then why do we exhibit the same behavior as wolves?  On a recent long interstate drive, I was limited to 30mph (called limp mode) and observed this first hand - it was a harrowing experience!  I didn't realize how many truckers are texting or other distractions resulting in my being forced onto the shoulder to avoid being rear ended at 80mph by an 18 wheeler.  ouch. Over 10 hours I had a front row seat in the wolf pack mentality auditorium.  Every 5 minutes there'd be a swarm of tailgating cars whipping past me - and then 5 minutes of no cars.  Like a german train, I could've set my clock to this repetitive pattern.  We've all gotten 'involved' with truck wolf packs.  They seem to be more frequent and aggressive in more remote areas. Ever been behind two or three trucks trying to pass each other and stuck behind them?  In the 80's there was a popular song called 'convoy' ... i was the 'friend of jesus (not)

one of my all time favorite shows is 'mozart in the jungle'  it's amazing!  especially if you're musically inclined.  In the 4th season there's several episodes in Japan where WAM (an AI robot) conducts an orchestra in Mozart's unfinished 'Requiem' .  There's a whole lot of irony in the relation between Meistro (Rodrigues de Souza) and WAM.... i loved the part where he told the robot there's one thing robots can't do... 'swim' as he unceremoniously launches the robotic conductor into the creek.  WAM was looking to find Meistro's meaning of 'blood' in the music which he said was love.  How do you teach AI love?  you don't Everything in this world is digital now - every single analog relation has been digitized into 0's and 1's.   I remember this transition from analog to digital very, very well. I was in the midst of it at University  of Wyoming in 1975 when (as a research technician in the EE

A few months ago I decided to look into buying a used Nissan leaf.  For $4-6k one can get a 2012-14 Leaf with about 70% battery pack life left and around 100 miles per charge.  With a little upgrade one can increase that range to 200miles.   I could use WinSol so!ar and battery system to charge the Leaf and meet 80% of my driving needs.  I would still keep my current AWD SUV for winter and super long distance (SLC, Oregon+) trips. And then I read a WIRED article about e-cars being a big problem.  https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-i-used-to-love-cars-heres-what-drove-me-away/ https://eu.greatfallstribune.com/story/news/2019/10/23/european-countries-like-germany-italy-and-netherlands-e-bikes-now-make-up-nearly-quarter-all-bike-sa/4022117002/ And it wasn't about hydrogen or any fuel, but about the car itself and how we've been snookered by politicians and corporations into believing that all we need to do is get a zero emission car and our environment will love us for it.   Ther

California's 'planned public safety power outages' is one new concept that will require major re-thinking of our infrastructure - and this is a VERY GOOD THING.  It's about time we get away from a 150 year-old concept of centralized power grids.  I hope to see the deconstruction of those massive transmission lines and those ugly neighborhood overhead electrical lines.  We have two solutions at hand (and many more to come):  whole-house battery powerpacks, and microgrids. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Last year these frequent 'public safety' power outages bewildered California residents.  The number of complaints and whining about them was excessively unfounded.   In response, many homeowners are installing generators.  This action alone is indicative of our continued laziness, ignorance and/or denial of global warming, and more importantly a failure of the renewable energy industry to seize upon an opportune m