Eco & Energy

Here's a short history of our global approach to climate change. Climate change 1.0 = before 1979  Climate change 2.0 = 1980's to Paris  Climate change 3.0 =  IPCC conferences Climate change 4.0 = Pope Francis ecumenical, good language, Drawdown, ++ I'll put some details about each of these at the end of this blog. Language We need to change our language on climate change, and we need to stop 40 years of waging a 'war on climate change'.   As if declaring war on nature will result in some sort of human victory.   Here's an excerpt from a recent climate change conference:    "... avoiding the phrase “climate change,” so loaded with partisan connotations as it is. Stop talking about who or what is most responsible. And focus instead on what is happening and how unusual it is—and what it is costing communities.   That was a main takeaway at the American Meteorological Society’s annual meeting this mo...

Everything is interconnected.   Yes - and it's complicated and simple.  I spent five years on the complicated side:  (2001-2006) with some of the leading brains in the world from  Peter Senge (MiT)and his SoL org  and their first Congress in Vienna,  then with  Dr. Andrew Ford at Eastern Washington U  and his 'environmental modeling' work, and interning with   Dr. Braungart in Hamburg with his EPEA Cradle-to-Cradle.   I have fond memories of speaking at a Systems Design conference in Bergen, Norway and a 'moose safari' in the fjords with a executive friend from Det Norske Veritas in Oslo.   I worked with Peregrine Systems, PowerSim software, and Cisco Systems on developing some pretty advanced complex SD (System Dynamic) models for lease holdings and workplace productivity.  And the result?  Once again  (sigh) , I was too far ahead of the curve and couldn't squeeze a profit to keep the business op...

The bumper sticker says  'live simply, so others may simply live'.    Sayin' it and doin' it are two diffs...  Getting simple is as easy as 1,2,3  ... sing it Len Barry As I was chillin in Tahoe recently at a local AirBnB,  I experienced real simplicity.  My host had a very minimalistic lifestyle.  An exercise machine, several hi-speed modems & satellite service to a couple big screens, and that's it!!  wow... my first impressions were that someone is just starting out - but the more I got to know my host, it seemed they are more into living life rather than gaining possessions.  They were  focusing on only two things in their living quarters: being connected/entertained and staying in shape.  It was that simple. There are many motivations in getting radically simple.  For me (don't know if others do this) the one common factor in REAL simplicity is money      If you don't have money you don'...

CMG - community micro-grids Tired of utility antics?  Tired of centralized, ancient legacy, corporate-speaking, shareholder return centered, monopolistic utilities?  (gee, tell me how i feel about utilities! :-) If you want to go off-grid for your entire house,  independent of your local utility company , there is now a mainstream, hi-end solution:  Tesla's Powerwall.  This is the first commercially available and viable community power storage solution that makes SO much sense.  It's crazy that single households within any given neighborhood have these and don't share them!  Paralleling several Tesla powerwalls can easily power an entire neighborhood (10-20 homes) .  Increase the PowerWall's size just a little bit and it can power several blocks!   The shared economy is coming to CMG's  ... yeah! read on... https://electrek.co/2018/11/05/tesla-shared-powerbank/ '.... two energy companies have decided to use Te...

I n a  2005 report, 1,360 scientists and 95 countries reported  that   we have used about 66% of all the resources our planet has available.  What happens when this reaches 80%, 90%+??  This is a good time to revisit the 1970's Donella & Dennis  Meadows  'Limits to Growth'  and Paul Erlich's  'Population Bomb'  books and premises.  Back then  (in the   1970's)  Erlich's infamous claim to fame was a bet with a WS hedgefunder  (Julian Simon)  who challenged Erlich's premise that the world was consuming resources beyond its limits and that market forces always find endless new deposits, materials thereby keeping prices in check.  Mr. Erlich bet that as the world consumed more stuff, resource availability would shrink thereby driving up prices.  Mr. Erlich lost spectacularly.  Simon challenged Ehrlich to choose any raw material he wanted and a date more than a year away, and he ...

In a  2005 report, 1,360 scientists and 95 countries reported  that   we have used about 66% of all the resources our planet has available.  What happens when this reaches 80%, 90%+??                                                                                                                                                    This is a good time to revisit the 1970's Donella & Dennis  Meadows  'Limits to Growth'  and Paul Erlich's   'Population Bomb'  books and premises.  Back then  (in the   1970's)  Erlich's infamous claim to fame w...

Most of us take showers every day.  Clean shower water is much more important than you may think.  When we shower, we are exposing our largest organ - our skin -  to about 25   gallons of chlorinated water during the   shower.  The   American Journal of Public Health  has determined that up to two-thirds of harmful chlorine exposure can be due to skin absorption and inhalation while showering.  The Journal also links chlorine to “significant increases in certain  types of cancer , asthma and skin irritations…”  The steam inhaled during a shower can contain up to 20 times the concentration of chlorine (and other synthetic chemicals) as tap water.  One can absorb as many  toxins  in one shower as you would drinking chlorinated tap water for an entire week.  Studies show that after a 10-minute shower in chlorinated water, your blood levels of THMs*  (common D isinfection B y P roduct – DBP )...