Comments Spence has made

  • Well man, just off the top of my head, there is solar thermal, hydro, wave generation, power cells attached to off-the-grid sources, and of course the fact that when the wind isn't blowing in Iowa, it might be blowing in New Mexico, or California, or North Dakota. There are a ton of engineering solutions to renewable lags, just like there have been engineering solutions for the last hundred years or so to deal with fluctuating energy demand. Even, say, a backup natural gas generator in case of total renewable drop off is a much better solution, and none of these possibilities actually require new technology. All of them are already proven.On Lester Brown speaks sense on the food/climate crisis posted 2 months ago 12 Responses

  • Oh Jesus, not the "We enlighten Westerners are better for the environment then the dirty savages" argument again. What is the environmental footprint of the average Chinese compared to the average American? We're the five percent of the population that eats of 25% of the resources, so tell us again how that is sustainable? A world where everyone lives and uses resources like the Western middle class is a horrific idea, and you can't justify it with cherry picked examples (hum, I wonder if a cleaner London was accomplished by simply outsourcing dirty industrial production to poorer places? Ya think?).

    We lived for generations in a harmonious loop with nature, but you are claiming that all that knowledge is worthless in the face of our modern brilliance. We are the pinnacle, and we will innovate our way out of species overshoot without sacrificing nary an SUV. If only the rest of the world would live like us. We'll never run out of anything, right? The market will solve all our issues, and of course, that improvement you claim over the last fifty years had nothing to do with tightened regulation...

    Same old song.

     

    On The fallacy of climate activism posted 3 months, 1 week ago 100 Responses

  • Excellent beat-down Tom, and I'm not at all surprised that someone writing for the "free market" AEI would of course be getting huge checks cut from the government. The neo-con con has always been about fat corporate corruption sheathed as principle.

    But what really bothered me about Hurst's argument, and what really made me wonder if he ever even read Pollan's writing, is that most of all, Michael Pollan writes about health. He writes about the effect of modern agricultural practices on our bodies. After all, the subtitle of The Ominvore's Dilemma is A Natural History of Four Meals. The book is about meals and about eating and about what food does to you. The entire point of farming is to produce healthy food, but CAFOs and pesticide-soaked industrial farms are ruining the health of Americans, no doubt including Blake Hurst. Yet he doesn't even bother to address the issue. Maybe because he has nothing to say.

    On An 'agri-intellectual' talks back posted 3 months, 2 weeks ago 49 Responses

  • Dude, do you have a mouse in your pocket, or is that the royal we? Before you push uranium, come on out here to New Mexico, and we can go on a lovely tour of area uranium mines. BTW, uranium is not a renewable resource. It is, however, in its enriched form, deadly, polluting, and very, very dangerous for a very, very long time. I know I've said it before, but there is a reason no nuclear powerplant can buy insurance on the free market. The market considers it too risky. So should we.

     

     

     

    On The limits of today's electric car technology posted 3 months, 2 weeks ago 18 Responses

  • Glad to see our very own hydrogen hackjob back in the comments. At least after a solid spanking recently, he's dropped the lie that electric cars run off a coal-powered grid produce more pollution then those burning gasoline from crude, but he's still trotting out the old "solar is useless at night" chestnut, despite a generous recent schooling. Oh, and what's this, a brand new fantastic piece of fiction?

    As you say, the technology, which is barely useful for portable laptops, has not changed in decades.

    Funny, since I'm typing this on a portable laptop, as, I guess, are the majority of Grist writers and commenters. And guess what? The practical battery life of laptops is leaps and bounds ahead of where it used to be. indeed, laptops are a great example of how incremental change, in both battery technology and in energy-saving hardware, constantly improves and makes more usable a technology, and a silver bullet, or "black swan", are still nothing more then a pipe dream.

    Ya know, I don't have any objection to hydrogen as a technology. It's just that the shrill shills who dish lame talking points for it have pretty much convinced me that it's a non starter. After all, it's always the adulterous pastor who preaches the loudest sermon.

    On The limits of today's electric car technology posted 3 months, 3 weeks ago 18 Responses

  • Just one more followup Delay. Since you thought you were being all witty with your whole "at night" comment, it's obvious that you don't know that solar power can be used to produce nighttime electricity, which means you know nothing about renewables. Like that's a surprise. Well, for your edification, here's a little taste of what I found in thirty seconds on that super-secret site Wikipedia:

     

     

    Heat storage allows a solar thermal plant to produce electricity at night and on overcast days. This allows the use of solar power for baseload generation as well as peak power generation, with the potential of displacing both coal and natural gas fired power plants. Additionally, the utilization of the generator is higher which reduces cost.

    Heat is transferred to a thermal storage medium in an insulated reservoir during the day, and withdrawn for power generation at night. Thermal storage media include pressurized steam, concrete, a variety of phase change materials, and molten salts such as sodium and potassium nitrate.[54][55]

    [edit]Steam accumulator

    The PS10 solar power tower stores heat in tanks as pressurized steam at 50 bar and 285°C. The steam condenses and flashes back to steam, when pressure is lowered. Storage is for one hour. It is suggested that longer storage is possible, but that has not been proven yet in an existing power plant.[56]

    [edit]Molten salt storage

    A variety of fluids have been tested to transport the sun's heat, including water, air, oil, and sodium, but molten salt was selected as best. Molten salt is used in solar power tower systems because it is liquid at atmosphere pressure, it provides an efficient, low-cost medium in which to store thermal energy, its operating temperatures are compatible with today's high-pressure and high-temperature steam turbines, and it is non-flammable and nontoxic. In addition, molten salt is used in the chemical and metals industries as a heat-transport fluid, so experience with molten-salt systems exists in non-solar settings.

    The molten salt is a mixture of 60 percent sodium nitrate and 40 percent potassium nitrate, commonly called saltpeter. The salt melts at 430 °F (220 °C) and is kept liquid at 550 °F (290 °C) in an insulated cold storage tank. The uniqueness of this solar system is in de-coupling the collection of solar energy from producing power, electricity can be generated in periods of inclement weather or even at night using the stored thermal energy in the hot salt tank. Normally tanks are well insulated and can store energy for up to a week. As an example of their size, tanks that provide enough thermal storage to power a 100-megawatt turbine for four hours would be about 30 feet tall and 80 feet in diameter.

    The Solar Tres power plant in Spain is expected to be the first commercial solar thermal power plant to utilize molten salt for heat storage and nighttime generation.[57]

    [edit]Graphite heat storage

    Direct
    The proposed     power plant in Cloncurry Australia will store heat in purified graphite. The plant has a power tower design. The graphite is located on top of the tower. Heat from the heliostats goes directly to the storage. Heat for energy production is drawn from the graphite. This simplifies the design.[58]

    Indirect
    Molten salts coolants are used to transfer heat from the reflectors to heat storage vaults. The heat from the salts are transferred to a secondary heat transfer fluid via a heat exchanger and then to the storage media, or alternatively, the salts can be used to directly heat graphite. Graphite is used as it has relatively low costs and compatibility with liquid fluoride salts. The high mass and volumetric heat capacity of graphite provide an efficient storage medium.    [59]

    [edit]Phase-change materials for storage

    Phase-change materials (PCMs) offer an alternate solution in energy storage. Using a similar heat transfer infrastructure, PCMs have the potential of providing a more efficient means of storage. PCMs can be either organic or inorganic materials. Advantages of organic PCMs include no corrosives, low or no undercooling, and chemical and thermal stability. Disadvantages include low phase-change enthalpy, low thermal conductivity, and inflammability. Inorganics are advantageous with greater phase-change enthalpy, but exhibit disadvantages with undercooling, corrosion, phase separation, and lack of thermal stability. The greater phase-change enthalpy in inorganic PCMs make hydrates salts a strong candidate in the solar energy storage field.[60]


     

    On Nissan unveils 'Leaf' electric car posted 3 months, 4 weeks ago 21 Responses

  • The nuclear shill is at it again.

    Actually Delay, California, as one example, gets only a very small percentage of its electricity from coal, and is ramping up renewables as fast as possible. The rest of the nation can follow suit, and it's much easier to control emissions at one smokestack then a million tailpipes. But even without that transition to renewables,electric is still better.

    Oh, and quantification? Try teh google:

    Americans have 250 million cars. Supposing each of these cars could be fitted to a 25 kWh battery (the Tesla Roadster holds 53 kWh, the Chevy Volt will use a 16 kWh pack) and that we can drive 2 or 3 miles per kWh. Assuming that all these cars are used at current average levels..., this translates into 100 charge cycles per year. Total electricity bill: 600 billion kWh per year, and that's just 15 percent of current production (about 4 trillion kWh). 

    Now, onto the carbon figures: Every kWh from a coal plant produces two pounds of CO    2, so we're talking 1.2 trillion pounds of CO2. The U.S. burned 3.3 billion barrels of gasoline in 2008, and a single gallon becomes 20 pounds of CO2 at the exhaust pipe, which turns out to be which about 3 trillion pounds of CO2. Ergo, coal emits 60 percent less.

    Link here, if you care to start actually looking into some of the real science:

    http://www.autobloggreen.com/2009/07/24/study-even-with-electricity-from-coal-electric-vehilces-beat-g/

    On Nissan unveils 'Leaf' electric car posted 3 months, 4 weeks ago 21 Responses

  • An entire article about destructive coal mining practices and your response is to shill for nuclear? Come on out here to New Mexico, and I'll take you to places just as devestated as Appalachia, destroyed by uranium mining to feed the powerplants of America's unsustainable, uninsurable, unprofitable, unsafe, government-propped-up nuclear power industry. This in New Mexico, a place that could provide enough solar and wind power to light up the entire Western United States. Shilling for nuclear power in an article about coal mining practices is like telling a town they can get rid of their plague-infested rat problem by importing poisonous snakes. It just replaces one lousy problem with another.

    On Foreign disbelief of topless America posted 3 months, 4 weeks ago 3 Responses

  • IT turns out that Doug Tompkins was right when he started criticizing the Chilean salmon industry in the 90s. It's a fricking disaster.

    On Chilean salmon industry plunges into an abyss of pesticides and antibiotics posted 4 months, 1 week ago 4 Responses

  • It warms the cockles of my heart to see both my Senators on the support list. Go New Mexico!

    On Counting Senate votes on a climate bill posted 4 months, 4 weeks ago 4 Responses

  • Make 'em squirm, Kate!

    On House GOP circulating anti–climate bill document created by coal lobby posted 5 months, 1 week ago 12 Responses

  • Unfortunately, Gary Herbert is now the governor of Utah, thanks to John Huntsman agreeing to be ambassador to China. Here's my first suggestion, Governor. Stop getting your information only from talk radio and Fox. Try calling up some of those fantastic state-employed scientists up at the University of Utah, and hear what they have to say.

    On The Climate Post: Gimme your wallet–or else the forest here gets it posted 5 months, 2 weeks ago 2 Responses

  • And yet, people still vote for them to prevent gun-owning fetuses from being forced to gay-marry. 

    They've just become comically evil at this point. Eventually the entire Republican caucus will descend into monocle-wearing, goatee-sporting, cat-stroking, maniacal-cackling supervillains. 

    On House GOP circulating anti–climate bill document created by coal lobby posted 5 months, 2 weeks ago 12 Responses

  • "Climate change" seems to work fine for me. I don't use "global warming" because most people relate that to local temperature, when it has nothing to do with local temperature. Two feet of snow in London might be the result of global warming, after all. Climate Change is more neutral, though maybe "climate deterioration" might be a better turn of phrase. "Deteriorating atmosphere" invokes the ozone layer in my mind.

    Agreed that "clean energy cash back" is total weasel language. Maybe the best argument for the whole carbon tax camp is that it's easy for people to understand.

    On Ditch ‘warming’ and start talking ‘deteriorating atmosphere,’ PR firm says posted 5 months, 2 weeks ago 14 Responses

  • How about the TTXGP, the electric motorcycle race running this weekend on the Isle of Man? My guess is that electric race cars are going to be the next big thing. Electric motors are ideal for racing, with their fully available torque and instant responsiveness. Think of how fast a remote control car moves when you consider the scale. Racing will undoubtedly contribute a lot of valuable research to electric car development in the future. If you've ever been to a NASCAR or open-wheel race, you know how polluting they are, and I think racing fans will imbrace fume-free racing.

    On 13 badass greens posted 5 months, 3 weeks ago 17 Responses
  • Is there anything that this company does that just isn't comically evil?On KBR, Halliburton sued over war-zone's toxic burn pits posted 5 months, 3 weeks ago 2 Responses

  • Because it's not funny, and will probably be off the air by the 4th of July.

    On George Will hates greens, cartoons ... and shopping posted 5 months, 4 weeks ago 4 Responses

  • I saw Mike Judge's new show. In 1994. Which, coincidentally, was the last time George Will said anything relevant.

    On George Will hates greens, cartoons ... and shopping posted 5 months, 4 weeks ago 4 Responses

  • That, ladies and gents, is what a grip of lobbyist favors looks like. There are more holes in this legislation then in the mens room stall at a seedy truck stop. Before this is over, I fear we'll be sending the stacks of cash to oil companies and coal-powered energy behemoths on pallets in the back of pickup trucks.

    On Everything you always wanted to know about the Waxman-Markey energy/climate bill -- in bullet points posted 5 months, 4 weeks ago 12 Responses

  • I think they were looking to invest in Hummer for a back door into the US market. This way, they don't have to start from scratch building the "Sichuan Tengzhong" brand (talk about your marketing challenges!). 

    My guess, and this is entirely from my posterior, is that these new owners will try to bring a Chinese-built product to the US market under the Hummer name. This could be potentially interesting. Imagine if Hummer actually built the kinds of vehicles that its advertising implied, such as an indestructible workhorse pick-up with excellent ground clearance, no luxury options, and a small, torquey diesel engine designed for actual job sites? Something in the vein of the original H1, but not so massive. 

    Think of the marketing genius of actually delivering the kind of product you've spent years advertising but not making!

    Either way, I'm glad to see we're getting a little cash at our garage sale...

    On GM sells Hummer to China — the second mistake by those clueless new owners? posted 5 months, 4 weeks ago 2 Responses

  • Chinese cars are coming, no doubt, and China has a lot of incentives to leapfrog existing technology and bring electric cars to market (they have next to no domestic oil production). But if I were a betting man, I'd place my money on BYD being the first company to crack the U.S. with a Chinese plug-in fully street legal four wheeler. They are promising a vehicle that would be significantly cheaper as well.

    I hope these dudes have some deep pockets either way, cuz it's gonna take a lot of investment to break into the U.S. It took Hyundai a solid decade of sales and marketing before people started really considering Korean cars, and they were one of the biggest auto manufacturers in the world at the time. No one wants to take a chance on a car company that might not be around in a decade.

    On Our peak oil future? Electric vehicle startup unveils Chinese-made, $45K 'economy' car posted 5 months, 4 weeks ago 9 Responses

  • Watching the GOP these days is like watching someone you don't really like becoming more and more drunk at a party. At first, you're just amused, but eventually, you just have to shake your head at the sadness of it all.

    On Former Republican Sen. George 'Macaca' Allen shills for dirty energy posted 5 months, 4 weeks ago 7 Responses

  • Our moral imperative is not to give the Chinese the same chance to screw up the planet as we had, out of some sense of fairness. Our moral imperative is to protect the planet, even if it means tariffs or embargoes on goods made in China. By all means put our house in order first, but we have to hold everyone to our new crisis-generated standard, no matter the historical injustice of it.

    On the other hand, there should be a system that benefits nations with lower carbon footprints. Poor nations that produce much less greenhouse gas should benefit and nations that pump out a lot should be punished. But that's another matter entirely.

    On We've got no choice but nukes and carbon-capture tech, says Jeffrey Sachs posted 6 months ago 35 Responses

  • He has a point, in that as long as China's primary goal is for its people to reach the same "standard of living" as we have in the West, yeah, they will need that power.

    If, on the other hand, the West buys a hell of a lot less Chinese goods and economic growth takes a back seat to improving the quality of life on a model other then the Western consumerist one, then maybe not so much. China will need new energy, but if the Chinese think to consume energy in the same wasteful way we Westerners do, then we are all well fucked. 

    It's not fair that the West was able to benefit from the cheap coal and oil energy that came before the crisis, indeed to create the crisis China is now stuck with, but history ain't fair. The Chinese need to leapfrog the West and go right to a post-consumerist way of life, with sustainability as the ethic, not growth.

    On We've got no choice but nukes and carbon-capture tech, says Jeffrey Sachs posted 6 months ago 35 Responses

  • White guys can't rap.

    On Caption needed! UPDATE: Caption found posted 6 months, 1 week ago 22 Responses

  • Come on, the Republicans stopped being a serious political party sometime during the Bush second term, and turned into a bad reality show, hosted by Rush Limbaugh, with color commentary by Fox News. It's moved well beyond tragedy and right into farce.

    On The week in fruitloopery: jaw-dropping things Republicans are saying about climate and energy posted 6 months, 1 week ago 4 Responses

  • God, if the Democrats manage to muck this one up, I'm voting green next time, at least at the Congressional level.

    On Climate protesters arrested at sit-in outside Rick Boucher's office posted 6 months, 1 week ago 3 Responses

  • Obama pulls another perfect rope-a-dope on an otherwise natural enemy. I love it. For years the automakers have complained about having to engineer their vehicles to meet both federal regulations and California's tighter regs. So Obama gave them what they asked for, one regulation. California's. 

    Be careful what you wish for around our President.

    On Obama's new mileage rules will be first real step to curb planet-warming emissions posted 6 months, 2 weeks ago 18 Responses

  • The threshold should be a sliding scale starting at 30mpg for cars, 25 for trucks. We need to use this as a way to incentivize the manufacturers to ramp up production of their fuel efficient vehicles, not clear out in-efficient deadwood.

    On ‘Clunkers’ debunkers attack Democrats' auto trade-in plan posted 6 months, 3 weeks ago 7 Responses

  • I suggest that Congresswoman Bachmann demonstrate for her constituents how natural and clean carbon dioxide is by locking herself in an airtight box for a very long time.

    On Rep. Michele Bachmann says CO2 is 'a natural byproduct of nature' posted 7 months ago 5 Responses

  • Cars are never totally rational.

    What GM is selling with the Volt is the idea of using gas only in emergencies. They are selling the idea of a car that uses electricity 99% of the time. So they are selling range "peace of mind".We're starting to see the electric car equivalent of the "horsepower wars", with manufacturers competing to increase the electric-driven range of their vehicles. It's human nature to consider the worst case scenarios when making a major investment of time and effort like this, an old evolutionary trait that calls for an abundance of caution. People will look at these new electric vehicles and say "what if...". Longer and longer range will be the response.On CMU study suggests GM has wildly oversized the batteries in the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid posted 8 months, 3 weeks ago 37 Responses

  • Let God Sort Them Out!

    Thank God that no American cities are at sea level and that we never have hurricanes over here in the good ole' U.S. of A.! It's not like there'd ever be any consequences of global warming to America! I mean, other then a dust bowl in California, but it's nothing but hippies and fruits out there anyway...

    Besides, we all know that the real most important biggest everest threat to Americans are Islamic radicals. With box cutters. In Bangladesh.On Why cap-and-trade requires that Bangladesh evict radical Islamists posted 9 months ago 11 Responses

  • In other news...

    Next, the McCain/Palin campaign releases new ads touting their support for pesticides, acid rain, mercury in the groundwater, antibiotics in the drinking supply, large-scale slaughterhouses, clear cutting of old growth forests, mountaintop removal strip mining, rolled-back health and safety regulations, and what the hell, smog.
    If elected John McCain will personally come to your house and blow cigarette smoke in your face while you eat dinner.On McCain campaign releases contrived ads promoting coal posted 1 year, 2 months ago 2 Responses

  • Domestic Oil.

    Good article Joseph, but I think it is still important to note that since oil is sold on the world market, new oil drilled in Alaska or offshore might very well end up being bought by foreign markets, especially if the dollar continues to stall out. Most of these "drill baby drill" neanderthals fail to grasp that say, ripping up Utah for shale oil might not produce more domestic oil at all, short of an export ban. Of course, an export ban would be met with retaliatory tariffs, and drive the price of oil up, probably more then new drilling would lower it. The U.S. cannot become an Import Substitution state when it comes to oil, unless we are ready to drastically reduce our use.
    In other words, oil drilling is a box canyon, economically. We need to back the hell out with renewables and conservation.On McCain's veep candidate lacks breadth and depth on energy issues posted 1 year, 2 months ago 1 Response

  • Please don't post press releases

    Vakibs, you have now passed solidly into sockpuppet territory. What do you do for a living, please?On Via satellite, Obama talks to CGI about climate change and energy concerns posted 1 year, 2 months ago 11 Responses

  • Meh.

    I don't love coal at all. Not one bit. My hope level just declined three base points.On McCain and Obama campaigns trade jabs over who's a bigger coal supporter posted 1 year, 2 months ago 7 Responses

  • But he's very busy!

    So busy he had time this morning to meet with Lady Lynn de Rothschild, former Hillary backer who is endorsing him, because Barack Obama is an elitist.

    I kid you not.

    http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0908/A_nonemergenc ...
    On Debate debate posted 1 year, 2 months ago 5 Responses

  • Boo fricking hoo.

    He'd never vote for a Democrat why?
    I'm always amazed when I see how stupid rich people can be. How do they acquire so much money when they can't even wrap their minds around anything but the most dull, cliched, spoon-fed politics?On Oilman learns a drill-only GOP hates alternative energy posted 1 year, 2 months ago 3 Responses

  • Hell yes Chip.

    Growing up a straight-laced Mormon boy in Utah, I saw exactly the religion-fueled contempt of which you speak. The mindset is one of dominion, not stewardship, over nature. This contempt, fanned my the toxic media environment of talk radio that hates anything smacking of science, will only grow more and more strong as the evidence of global climate change, ocean system collapse, species extinction, and the other various disruptions of natural feedback loops grows stronger. Having made an emotional decision to treat nature like a disposable consumer good, these folks will deal with the guilt and shame of their mounting culpability by becoming even more vocal and extreme. In the West, this contempt will especially take the form of a yahoo "frontier" mentality that puts the supposedly "masculine" arts like hunting and four wheeling on a pedestal (like it takes real skill or bravery to shoot a wolf from a helicopter of rev up an overpowered SUV). Never mind the impact, these people have an emotional investment in the fantasy that they are rugged individualists, in their stick built McMansion "ranches" and rigged expeditions into the outback.
    The only way to counter this spiral of extremism is with shame and legislation. Shame those who would waste the sacred inheritance of our natural resources. Legislate against those who would play out their solipsistic passion plays of macho posturing on a stage of crushed species and broken ecosystems. The only way to deal with the Palins of the world is to beat them, and then mock them. They will never give up their willed ignorance, never achieve a deep view of the complex miracle of evolution and the world it has wrought.
    It's their loss. Let's make sure it is never ours.On Why he picked Sarah Palin, carbon queen posted 1 year, 2 months ago 7 Responses

  • Heh.

    The next time a bill collector calls, I'm informing him that my debt is "only a paradigm" and that I am challenging the philosophical validity of owing money.On GM flack misuses Thomas Kuhn's philosophy of science (!) to defend Lutz climate skepticism posted 1 year, 2 months ago 12 Responses

  • Plus a link!

    Here's PZ Myers going off on a lack of critical thinking on the left about autism. http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/09/critical_think ...On Palin's climate skepticism is irrelevant posted 1 year, 2 months ago 39 Responses

  • You're gonna be waiting...

    David,
    There are examples of progressives experiencing a bit of pushback on science. But the entire ethic or progressivism is based on evidentiary claims, so you just won't find as many examples. And the examples you find will be examples of failures of the progressive ethos, rather then enactments of it. On the other hand, those with an ethic based on, say, an unquestioned interpretation of a book, will have no such dissonance. They are living up to a lower standard.On Palin's climate skepticism is irrelevant posted 1 year, 2 months ago 39 Responses

  • Bell Curve Part II

    Bob-
    I thought as well that that was the missing number in the Gallup info, the large numbers leaving the party. I would speculate that some of those defectors are being driven out by the increasingly militant and emotional response the party leadership has to global warming, driven, as so much is these days, by the toxic anti-science culture of talk radio. Thus the Gallup number is a reflection of the ossification of the conservative movement from a broad-based intellectual undertaking to a narrow identity movement. "Every great cause," Eric Hoffer wrote, "begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket." Goldwater to Reagan to Bush, there ya go!

    As for The Bell Curve much of the criticism was entirely valid. Some of it was knee-jerk and hysterical. The furor itself was evidence that "liberals" can have a lynch mob mentality, even when their cause is just, as it was in debunking the bad science in that book. Your personal insight is fascinating. Objective-driven science is, of course, bad science. And you are right that we must tread gently in areas with a history of bad faith fake science, like race.On Palin's climate skepticism is irrelevant posted 1 year, 2 months ago 39 Responses

  • One possible example...

    would be the furor that greeted The Bell Curve. Now from what I've read it was a scientifically shoddy work. But there does tend to be a bit of "liberal" hysteria anytime that sociological fieldwork points to innate or genetic differences between different races, or genders, or other ethnic/identity groups. Witness Larry Summer's being drummed out of Harvard. His comment, btw, could have been disproved by some of the real scientific research on the matter. But it often doesn't get to that point, because the old tribal alliances and prejudices crop up, even amongst people who should know better.
    That said, post progressives have a deep commitment to science and are much, much more likely to question conventional opinion when science goes against. The most resistant to scientific evidence will always be "traditional" communities who base their ethical worldview on an explicitly untestable creed. Witness Sarah Palin's church.On Palin's climate skepticism is irrelevant posted 1 year, 2 months ago 39 Responses

  • Gallup Data

    The real eye-opener was when you posted the Gallup data a few days ago, showing that less Republicans now believe in human-caused global warming then did ten years ago. The more the evidence mounts, the more they will resist, like an addict who has to excuse more and more outrageous behavior even as the consequences of their bad behavior mount. It's a cycle of emotional pain avoidance. Palin is not a climate scientist, of course (heh, now there's a thought...) so it does not matter if the is a "sceptic". But she is part and parcel of a population that is now emotionally invested in denying the science of climate change. This is the great challenge of setting scientifically-based policy in a democracy where most people have little if any scientific knowledge. The cold weight of the evidence never happens. If Palin sat down and studied the issue she would have to call into question the entire bundle of tribal alliances and prejudices that make up her entire sense of self. Who wants to do that? It's easier to think you are a macho frontierswoman by shooting wolves from helicopters.On Palin's climate skepticism is irrelevant posted 1 year, 2 months ago 39 Responses

  • The benefits of a slowdown?

    Are you calculating that there could also be benefits to the environment in an economic slowdown? An entire generation of Americans learned thrift and self sufficiency in the Depression. Yeah, it was hard, but when you look back on that period in American history, it was also a kind of great age. WPA built our national parks system and much of our roads and infrastructure. The U.S. had a humble foreign policy. Unions grew stronger, and legislation for once reflected the interests of the large swath of Americans, not just the plugged in and corrupt elite.

    Maybe a crash will wake us up to the unsustainable nature of our lifestyles. Maybe it will make us re-think globalization and the 700 billion dollars we send overseas every year to buy oil. Maybe we will have to tighten our belts, start saving again, downsize, and learn to make things last.

    And maybe that will be a good thing.

    This meltdown may be the chemotherapy our cancer-ridden economic system needs. I don't delight in the downfall of others, but I also don't see the economy as a race, as a linear growth curve that must forever move forward. It doesn't make us happier, it doesn't make us healthier. We need a sound economy. We don't need a greed-driven casino, a spring of inequity, a perpetual motion machine of junk. Which is exactly what we have had for the last quarter century.On The financial sector and the 'real economy' aren't that far removed posted 1 year, 2 months ago 21 Responses

  • Preach it Brother.

    Price of the Wall Street bailout: 700 Billion.
    Price of the foreign oil America buys annually from various terror-coddling despots and vulgar plutocrats: 700 Billion.
    Price of the damage that oil does to the environment: Priceless. Literally.On Ramblings on the financial crisis posted 1 year, 2 months ago 14 Responses

  • Feedback Loops! Feedback Loops! Feedback Loops!

    This is the concept the public must grasp. Feedback loops in nature are how evolution plays out, as different species of eons found balance with each other. When you radically alter this environment, these loops break down. This is a textbook case of a parasite killing its host because what kept it in check (cold winters) has changed. Let's pound this into the public consciousness. It's the feedback loops, stupid!On Oldest Utah newspaper: Bark-beetle driven wildfires comprise a vicious climate cycle posted 1 year, 2 months ago 3 Responses

  • Not just a concept.

    Russ, automotive technology is almost always trickle-down. New innovations start in sports and luxury performance cars, and make their way into less expensive models as the costs are ameliorated. You used to only be able to by air bags and anti-lock brakes in a Mercedes S-class, and now the cheapest car has them. The Tesla is an automotive showcase to test new technology and get car nuts excited about it. Yes, electric cars are perceived as low performance, and this car will change that perception. But it will also stimulate the imagination of car nuts, push new tech advances, and create an alternative to I.C.E. performance cars.
    What's not to like? Being green may mean conservation, but it isn't a vow of poverty.On Tesla profile in New Scientist posted 1 year, 2 months ago 4 Responses

  • A Monkey Wrench Gang Nightmare

    The thought of ripping up the Green River watershed in a desperate  junkie's attempt to scratch the last bit of oil from the land is hideous. This is potentially way, way worse then offshore drilling. To turn one of the most beautiful places on the planet into the new Alberta tar sands would be a crime of epic proportions. A junkie will destroy anything to get his drug. We need rehab, now.On House energy bill includes oil-shale provisions that alarm conservation groups posted 1 year, 2 months ago 4 Responses

  • Opt out?

    The only way this will really be effective is if it is universal. The heaviest drivers will never sign up for it, thus forcing the insurance companies to bear the cost, that they will pass onto everyone. Make it mandatory across all vehicles, and you'll really have an incentive to get people to drive less.On California to offer pay-as-you-drive insurance plan posted 1 year, 3 months ago 3 Responses

  • Basic Science

    These deniers don't understand the basic nature of feedback loops in the environment. They think that a rise of several degrees is easily adaptable for human beings, but they don't understand or acknowledge the courses of action such a rise will create in the ecosystem. Sure, we can handle it if the temp goes up a few degrees. But can the delicate natural interactions on which we rely continue to survive as well?
    The key is to be very, very conservative when it comes to changing nature. We must think through all of the potential consequences of our actions, and act with an abundance of caution. The free market temple priests simply don't seem to be able to grasp just what irrevocable damage even minor environmental changes can bring.On Must-have slide No. 1: The narrow temperature window that gave us modern human civilization posted 1 year, 3 months ago 4 Responses

  • Biden? No Way.

    Come on Gristmill, we know that John McCain will be much better for the environment. As he travels the world on the Budweiser Fun Jet, he never has to stay in hotels due to his many, many, many homes.
    Plus, John McCain already did "sustainable architecture". In Hanoi. For five and a half years.On Why Biden is such an important pick for those who care about the climate posted 1 year, 3 months ago 7 Responses