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Environment ArchivesXenophobia Goes Global
An additional challenge for clean energy development is to avoid reinforcing the new wave of xenophobic tendencies.
In a previous post, Michael examines how appealing to xenophobic tendencies has become a fundamental strategy for attacking any issues intended to address the health and welfare needs of the poor. By extension, this piece suggests how xenophobic appeal could extend to attacks on environmental efforts on the diplomatic front. Michael's connection is an important one because we know from history environmental concerns, particularly during times of economic hardship, are easily overwhelmed by the politics of insecurity. Car Culture
Remember the first word in "carbon" is "car" lets hope the better-buy will be the clean-buy.
Based on a reading of this blog and the comments from readers, it seems reasonable to assume that this conversation is dominated by a modern cosmopolitan culture. It is a culture of self-identified progressives living a post-material existence; in fact the closer one approaches zero-impact-person the better. More specifically the merit of a particular technology or policy is often evaluated on a per-unit-of-carbon basis. Yes, there are divergent and impassioned views over any specific technology, policy or definition of "the problem," but the discursive space and basic units of evaluation (carbon, dollars, votes) are quite consistent; this is Culture. The Sixties Were the (Population) Bomb
Ah, the politics of the sixties. Openness to other cultures. Harmony with nature and -- hysterical overpopulation screeds?...
Ah, the politics of the sixties. Openness to other cultures. Harmony with nature and -- hysterical overpopulation screeds? GMOs: Organics Best Friend?
Two recent articles create an interesting juxtaposition and raise the ironic question, "will genetically modified crops save the organic food industry?"
Yesterdays New York Times ran a piece describing renewed interest in genetically modified crops (GMOs) even in countries that had "longstanding resistance" to their use. The piece is interesting because is ran shortly after "Sticker Shock in the Organic Isle" which describes how the rise in the cost of organic foods may begin to price people out of the market. The Coming Bursting of the Green Bubble
If engaging in ecologically-aware micro-practices reinforces the widespread view that the Chinese can't have what we have, then they are the dark side of the Green Bubble that can't burst fast enough.
In 2018 we will almost certainly look back on Earth Day 2008 as the high point of the Green Bubble. We will cast our eyes over our abandoned backyard gardens and chuckle softly to ourselves about how we once thought they were the solution to skyrocketing emissions in China. We will wonder why we were more worried about future droughts caused by climate change than we were by the worst global food shortages in 30 years, which were triggering food riots at the same time that we were flipping through our special Earth Day issue of the New York Times Magazine. And we will remember how, just months later, the Green Bubble burst and images of food riots abroad and economic hardship at home finally replaced images of melting glaciers, stranded polar bears, and the lists of the 1,001 Things You Can Do to Prevent Eco-Apocalypse. Continue reading "The Coming Bursting of the Green Bubble" » Tuesday Interview: Vice Magazine: "Breakthrough Institute Wrests Environmentalism Away From the Dumbs"
In their Earth Day issue, Vice Magazine profiles Breakthrough Institute. At long last, Breakthrough finds a magazine interviewer who uses more profanity than its two co-founders. Little wonder it's the best Break Through book interview yet.
In their Earth Day issue, Vice Magazine profiles Breakthrough Institute. At long last, Breakthrough finds a magazine interviewer who uses more profanity than its two co-founders. Little wonder it's the best Break Through book interview yet. Adapting to a Changing Earth:
Why isn't adaptation to global warming part of the climate change political agenda? The Los Angeles Times weighs in.
What are we doing to adapt? Department of Energy grants $14 million dollars to Solar
In other words, It finds some change in the couch...
On Thursday, March 13 2008, the Department of Energy announced 11 grants totaling $14 million dollars to various research projects aimed at driving down the high-cost of solar energy equipment. In their words: The[se] solar projects have the potential to significantly reduce the cost of electricity produced by PV products from current levels of $0.18-$0.23 per Kilowatt hour (kWh) to $0.05 - $0.10 per kWh by 2015 - a price that is competitive in markets nationwide. [We think it'll take more like $50 billion, by the way] Continue reading "Department of Energy grants $14 million dollars to Solar" » The Answer is Blowin' in the Wind--and cheaply, too!
Re-imagined tech brings electricity to the world's poorest
When we talk about Breakthrough technologies, most of us think of large-scale research communities where all the scientists dress in white clean-suits. The IKEA version of the future comes to mind. But in between Arthur C. Clarke and Phillip K. Dick, there is the middle ground of real-world development. The "Wind Belt", a winner of the 2007 Breakthrough Award from Popular Mechanics, was the result. Continue reading "The Answer is Blowin' in the Wind--and cheaply, too!" » Solar Breakthroughs Needed, Says New UC-Berkeley Study
Major new study suggests that what's needed are major clean energy breakthroughs.
After we published Break Through last fall we constantly heard from old-school environmentalists like the Center for American Progress blogger Joe Romm that we don't need technological breakthroughs. (Romm was careful to narrowly define "breakthrough" as the invention of a brand new technology, even though we had explicitly defined it as "breakthroughs in performance and price.") One of the chief barriers to dealing with global warming is that clean energy remains much more expensive than fossil fuels. As long as that remains the case, neither rich countries like the U.S. nor poor countries like China are going to move to clean energy sources any time soon. What to do? We argue that major federal investments in clean energy are required to scale up the technologies and bring down their price. Continue reading "Solar Breakthroughs Needed, Says New UC-Berkeley Study" » Rethinking Deforestation: Macro Drivers Plow over the Amazon
Until Brazil's vast socio-economic challenges, as well as its aspirations to economic greatness, are dealt with, more of the same can unfortunately be expected.
As prices for agricultural products have skyrocketed over the past year, thousands of square miles of Amazonian rainforest have fallen. The rate of new deforestation is truly alarming: in the four months between August and December of 2007, 2,500 square miles of forest came down. According to the Brazilian Minister of the Environment Marina Silva, November and December were particularly bad, seeing 740 square miles cleared. All this, despite decades of well-intentioned environmentalists' conservation efforts and wide recognition of the potential disasters from continued deforestation. And while the link between commodity prices and deforestation is apparent, another equally important link - urban poverty and deforestation - doesn't even show up on most environmentalists' radar. Continue reading "Rethinking Deforestation: Macro Drivers Plow over the Amazon" » A Small Step for CA
Will California's small-bore energy policies snowball? Let's hope so.
Today's San Francisco Chronicle reports that the state Public Utility Commission will consider a surcharge on utility bills to fund a proposed institute for climate solutions. The surcharge would provide a projected $60 million per year to address gaps in existing research funding. Putting the Green in Green
The good news: financing a clean energy future is a topic of interest in our leading business publications and many entrepreneurs are committed to moving the field forward.
There are a number of items in today's Wall Street Journal that underscore the role of stable financing for clean energy technology. Is Clean Tech the Next Bubble underscores an inconvenient truth regarding clean technology products - consumers are not willing to pay. According to this report "a whopping 47% of U.S. adults say they just don't care" about clean technology products. A Hybrid is Born
Human intervention has created new hybrid species of wolves blurring the concept of the natural condition. Like it or not, the Wolfe story is one more example of how humans have become the meaning of the earth, so lets move on.
While you were reading the New York Times on Break Through, you may have noticed the article about how the Great Lakes wolf has hybridized into a new species. The article describes how human habitat destruction, followed by protection created conditions for the Great Lakes gray wolf to cross breed with other wolves and coyotes. Based on DNA analysis the "pure" wolf has effectively become extinct. Political Science
At a time when we face complex ecological challenges and remarkable technological opportunity, we must resist the temptation to select science to fit preconceived positions. Science can direct technology towards specific goals, but goal selection will lie firmly in the domain of values.
Health is arguably the most universal human values. Consult any parent and the health and of their child(ren) will consistently draw top rank. Consult the Global Burden of Disease project's infant mortality data and the contributors to children's health are evident - food, safe water and immunization. Absent these fundamentals dysentery and infectious disease run rampant and deadly. If you are reading this, chances are you live in a corner of the world where food is abundant, sanitation systems are established and vaccination has created heard immunity. The conditions of affluence, especially the absence of rampant infectious disease, have given rise to a modern anti-vaccination movement. Abstract Art
China-bashing fails to recognize that until countries achieve a desired level of economic development, they will make limited gains on social and ecological concerns. It's abstract art at a time when we need realism.
All too often current events provide a canvas to project our political anxieties. Consider the recent spate of China-bashing resulting from contaminated pet food, toxic tooth paste and leaded children's toys. Early reports characterized China as "a marketplace teeming with unlicensed operations and entrepreneurs willing to cut corners to make a bigger profit." From Pinots to Firestone 500s corner cutting is hardly a uniquely Chinese phenomenon - its synonymous with capitalism. Rear View Politics
A politics of possibility demands that we recognize fundamental assumptions that permeate our political subconscious, and it challenges us to look forward not backwards.
Surrealism is no stranger to politics. In a recent posting , Ted describes how a non-descript stand of oak trees in Berkeley has metamorphosed into an "ecological wonder." Equally as intriguing is how efforts by the University of California to ensure tranquility at a football game, by separating this ecological wonder from 70,000 fans with a fence, became the moral equivalent of Bloody Thursday . One Reason not to dis Barack Obama
I'm trying to decide who I'm supporting for President, and frankly, I'm not getting there. Along the way, I'm hearing lots of bad reasons for not supporting one candidate or another.
I'm trying to decide who I'm supporting for President, and frankly, I'm not getting there. Along the way, I'm hearing lots of bad reasons for not supporting one candidate or another. I understand how this works. Most of us make a decision, based on some jumble of reasons or emotions, and then go looking for ways to prop it up. And that's fine with me. If you have a horse in this race, go ride it. But I just want to be that little voice out here on the sidelines urging you to stay a little flexible. After all, your candidate just might fall by the wayside. That happens, right? And people of good will eventually will need all the help they can get for this campaign to turn out well. So, in the interest of increasing the level of cognitive dissonance among readers of this fine web-based establishment, let me suggest several reasons you shouldn't broadcast too fervently in buttressing your own choice for President. I'll start with Barack Obama. Next time, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards.
Toxic by Nature
Potentially, toxic "natural" herbal remedies are the "health" rage illustrating how social forces make categories impervious to deconstruction regardless of their incongruence. Naturally, a politics of possibility requires transcending such categories..
My neighbor recently had the unfortunate experience of being jettisoned from his bicycle into the back of a car. The incident resulted in a painful blow to the neck followed by a Good Samaritan rushing to his aid with an offer of herbs which she "takes all the time for pain." With the explosion of homeopathy, the slightest sniffle or cough can result in an offer of a specialized supplement followed by an herbalist's statement that it is "natural." Risking it All
A disproportionate emphasis on risk perpetuates a "technology as threat" culture at a time when we need to innovate ourselves out of a set of destructive technologies that are at the center of the ecological crisis we face.
In June of this year, Environmental Defense and DuPont introduced the NANO Risk Framework to "evaluate and address the potential risks of nanoscale materials." Nanotechnology refers to applied science and technology whose unifying theme isthe control of materials on the molecular level and the fabrication of devices within that range. What is striking about the framework and an earlier editorial published in the Wall Street Journal by Fred Krupp is the reliance on the eco-tragedy meta-narrative combined with the risk assessment sub-plot. Fire Up the Chainsaws
History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce. Back in the mid-nineties, Michael and I met on the campaign to save Northern California's Headwaters Forest. Headwaters was the last significant privately owned stand of ancient redwoods on the West...
History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce. Back in the mid-nineties, Michael and I met on the campaign to save Northern California's Headwaters Forest. Headwaters was the last significant privately owned stand of ancient redwoods on the West Coast and was threatened with liquidation by the corporate raider Charles Hurwitz. |
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