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Twenty Years Later: Tipping Points Near on Global Warming

Jul 2, 8:31am    (1 review)  ecology, environment, alternative-energy, science, carbon-tax  http://www.planetthoughts.org/Index.cfm?...

From the page: "Mountain glaciers are the source of fresh water for hundreds of millions of people. These glaciers are receding world-wide, in the Himalayas, Andes and Rocky Mountains. They will disappear, leaving their rivers as trickles in late summer and fall, unless the growth of carbon dioxide is reversed. Coral reefs, the rainforest of the ocean, are home to one-third of the species in the sea. Coral reefs are under stress for several reasons, including warming of the ocean, but especially because of ocean acidification, a direct effect of added carbon dioxide. Ocean life dependent on carbonate shells and skeletons is threatened by dissolution as the ocean becomes more acid. Such phenomena, including the instability of Arctic sea ice and the great ice sheets at today's carbon dioxide amount, show that we have already gone too far. We must draw down atmospheric carbon dioxide to preserve the planet we know. A level of no more than 350 ppm is still feasible, with the help of reforestation and improved agricultural practices, but just barely â€" time is running out. The steps needed to halt carbon dioxide growth follow from the size of fossil carbon reservoirs. Coal towers over oil and gas. Phase out of coal use except where the carbon is captured and stored below ground is the primary requirement for solving global warming. Oil is used in vehicles, where it is impractical to capture the carbon. But oil is running out. To preserve our planet we must also ensure that the next mobile energy source is not obtained by squeezing oil from coal, tar shale or other fossil fuels. Fossil fuel reservoirs are finite, which is the main reason that prices are rising. We must move beyond fossil fuels eventually. Solution of the climate problem requires that we move to carbon-free energy promptly. Special interests have blocked transition to our renewable energy future. Instead of moving heavily into renewable energies, fossil companies choose to spread doubt about global warming, as tobacco companies discredited the smoking-cancer link. Methods are sophisticated, including disguised funding to shape school textbook discussions. CEOs of fossil energy companies know what they are doing and are aware of long-term consequences of continued business as usual. In my opinion, these CEOs should be tried for high crimes against humanity and nature. If their campaigns continue and "succeed" in confusing the public, I anticipate testifying against relevant CEOs in future public trials. Conviction of ExxonMobil and Peabody Coal CEOs will be no consolation, if we pass on a runaway climate to our children. Humanity would be impoverished by ravages of continually shifting shorelines and intensification of regional climate extremes. Loss of countless species would leave a more desolate planet. If politicians remain at loggerheads, citizens must lead. We must demand a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants. We must block fossil fuel interests who aim to squeeze every last drop of oil from public lands, off-shore, and wilderness areas. Those last drops are no solution. They provide continued exorbitant profits for a short-sighted self-serving industry, but no alleviation of our addiction or long-term energy solution. Moving from fossil fuels to clean energy is challenging, yet transformative in ways that will be welcomed. Cheap, subsidized fossil fuels engendered bad habits. We import food from halfway around the world, for example, even with healthier products available from nearby fields. Local produce would be competitive if not for fossil fuel subsidies and the fact that climate change damages and costs, due to fossil fuels, are also borne by the public. A price on emissions that cause harm is essential. Yes, a carbon tax. Carbon tax with 100 percent dividend is needed to wean us off fossil fuel addiction. Tax and dividend allows the marketplace, not politicians, to make investment decisions. Carbon tax on coal, oil and gas is simple, applied at the first point of sale or port of entry. The entire tax must be returned to the public, an equal amount to each adult, a half-share for children. This dividend can be deposited monthly in an individual's bank account. Carbon tax with 100 percent dividend is non-regressive. On the contrary, you can bet that low and middle income people will find ways to limit their carbon tax and come out ahead. Profligate energy users will have to pay for their excesses. Demand for low-carbon high-efficiency products will spur innovation, making our products more competitive on international markets. Carbon emissions will plummet as energy efficiency and renewable energies grow rapidly. Black soot, mercury and other fossil fuel emissions will decline. A brighter, cleaner future, with energy independence, is possible."

The Top Five Micro Wind Turbines : CleanTechnica

Jun 22, 1:41pm    (4 reviews)  alternative-energy, sailing, sustainable-energy, ecofriendly  http://cleantechnica.com/2008/03/21/the-...

3. AeroVironment Architectural Wind Architectural Wind is a small, modular wind turbine system designed for installation on buildings in urban and suburban areas. This is done by eliminating the support tower, reducing noise and vibration, and creating a modular housing that installs quickly and easily onto buildings, without penetrating the roof. The turbine design has received critical praise for a while now, receiving the Red Dot International Design award and a 2007 Annual Design Review award. With a sleek, aeroventure, architectural-wind, modular-wind, urban windcolor-matched series of specially designed, highly efficient and low profile wind turbines, property owners can integrate Architectural Wind systems easily into new and existing buildings. As Preston at Jetson Green pointed out, the AeroVironment turbines have been installed at the new Kettle Chip facility in Beloit, WI that can produce roughly 28,000 kilowatt hours of power per year under normal wind conditions. Architectural Wind is scalable and works very well in urban environments. The price and output of the machines will vary because of the drastically different requirements of individual installations. If you need more information on cost and specs, you can contact AeroVironment through their website.

Vertical-Axis Wind Turbines: The Future of Micro Wind? | ecopolitology

Jun 22, 1:36pm    (1 review)  alternative-energy, vertical-axis-windpower  http://ecopolitology.org/2008/06/21/veti...

new developments in small scale wind-power with vertical axis wind generation technologies

"How to make a solar power generator"

Jun 1, 3:44pm    (160 reviews)  alternative-energy  http://www.rain.org/~philfear/how2solar....

Are We Enron? Plea for a New Economy

May 23, 8:23am    (1 review)  environment, alternative-energy, eco-friendly, enron  http://www.planetthoughts.org/?pg=pt/Who...

From the page: "I would like to advance the concept that a new economy needs to be created, one that is based on true economic analysis, one that supports a healthy planet by being in harmony with nature - not just as a buzz-word, but as a reality. Enron, a company that stands for deceptive economics and accounting, is a flagship example of what happens when image is not connected to reality. Unless you have been under a proverbial rock, you know what the disastrous results of that dishonest corporation were. I would make the claim that our so-called first-world economy is an Enron economy, but the environmental consequences have not quite yet hit the fan. The problem is, when the consequences do hit the fan, large numbers of people may be thrown into abject poverty or far worse. Analyses indicate that as oil and natural gas become less and less available, the earth will only be able to sustain one or two billion people, not the nearly seven billion we have currently. Where will the other five billion people go? Perhaps we can avod or at least reduce this result if we find significant replacements for the energy sources currently in use around the world. As a counter to an economy built on the deceptive promise of eternal, low-cost, abundant oil, a mindset and era that will soon draw to a close, we need an economy based on nature itself, the real world, with sustainable management and utilization practices that respect the inherent nature of our planet. An example of a new economic service that came to my attention yesterday can be found at DiscoverPerfectEnergy.com. A sample statement from their site follows: "We simplify alternative energy learning and match you with compatible contractors and Associations to meet your individual alternative energy needs, no matter what size or complexity." This is an example of capitalism that provides a simple service that is in harmony with the long-term health of the planet and of local communities. We need more entrepreneurial efforts of this type, along with wise government to support those aspects of new development that require government support, and along with a wise and informed public that guides and corrects the direction of society based on correct understanding of what society needs. "

Bee Conclave on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

May 16, 5:42pm    (1 review)  alternative-energy, art, graphic-art  http://www.flickr.com/photos/old_smartyp...

bee coclave by connie fp

Basic Composite Fabrication

May 8, 1:34pm    (1 review)  mechanical-eng, alternative-energy, self-propelled  http://microship.com/resources/composite...

http://www.nomadness.com/blog/ href="http://microship.com/resources/composite-fabrication.html">

Microship Projects - Invitation for Proposals

May 8, 1:24pm    (1 review)  boating, alternative-energy, trimaran, solar-powered  http://microship.com/resources/microship...

This sweet little vessel is light on her feet and swift under sail, cruises 3 knots under pedal power and an expected 4-5 knots in solar mode, feels agile and sleek like something out of Star Trek, maneuvers beautifully in tight quarters, glides over thin water like a kayak, rolls down the road with wings retracted and landing gear deployed, turns heads wherever she goes, and pushes my geek buttons like nothing else I've ever known. Every moment on the water with her is an adventure, and we have many miles yet to travel together. What sounds like a contradiction, however, is anything but... for there is a new component in the adventure. I haven't chosen the specific vessel yet, but I have made the decision to move aboard a boat of proper world-voyaging scale (and am even selling the house and lab on Camano Island in order to make the transition both economically and logistically feasible). It is not yet certain that she will be able to accommodate the stowage of Wordplay while underway, provide floating "dockage" while moored, and allow reasonably painless launching and retrieval. But that's our hope... The net effect of this new scheme is that all of a sudden my little boatlet moves back into the foreground as a defining component of my next technomadic system. She will support mini-expeditions, launched from the mothership, infinitely more interesting than the typical rigid inflatable "dink" with its smelly outboard and tubby hydrodynamic form (though we'll need one of those too, of course, for purely utilitarian reasons). The implications of this are rather profound, at least from the perspective of the Microship project: it is flickering back to life! And that leads us to the reason for this page.

Steve Roberts

May 8, 1:06pm    (1 review)  mobile-computing, alternative-energy, solar-power, energy-self-reliance  http://microship.com/flotilla/skr.html

From the page: "I have a long history of technomadic adventure; in 1983 I took off from Ohio aboard the Winnebiko and covered 10,000 miles around the US, leading to the book, Computing Across America. In 1986, I took on a traveling partner, conjured the imaginatively-named Winnebiko II, and covered another 6,000 miles. Intent on taking the concept to its logical extreme, I then spent 3.5 years building the 580-pound BEHEMOTH, which trundled ponderously out of Silicon Valley in 1991 (here are photos from Wisconsin and Joshua Tree). This machine is now retired and on display in the Computer History Museum. The Microship project began in 1993 with a kayak, and was supposed to be quick... but it turns out that the average completion time of a homebuilt boat is 137 years. In the past decade, I've been through four completely different substrates, three labs, a succession of relationships, over 130 corporate sponsors, and uncountable variations in on-board system designs. Wordplay is the resultant of all this, and is an amphibian pedal/solar/sail micro-trimaran built around a canoe... some fresh photos may be seen here. The Microships underwent their first real test in the fall of 2001, in a 132-mile loop through Puget Sound (the map of that adventure is here, and various local kayak trips are documented in a collection of maplets). There are a number of detailed Microship articles in the resources section of this site, and I post updates and photos on a blog and live page. My home is on Camano Island, Washington, where I have a solar house in the forest as well as a 3,000 square-foot development facility (at 3X the size of the house, it's an indicator of my priorities). In addition to these projects, I'm working on a backpack-scale technomadic system called Shacktopus as well as a new boat of world-voyaging scale named Nomadness. Photos of the fleet are below... "

SunEarth House Plan

Apr 26, 10:24pm    (1 review)  construction, alternative-energy, sustainable, ecodesign  http://www.dreamgreenhomes.com/plans/sun...

simple. silent, self-reliant solar comfort living