One of the biggest things the world can do to slow climate change is to cut greenhouse gas emissions from burning oil, coal and natural gas. As of 2013, the energy sector accounted for 72% of global greenhouse gas emissions. So, you can stop cutting down all the trees in the Amazon or Indonesia, and replant trees across the Sahel, but it won't be anywhere near enough to slow … [Read more...]
Trumped and Stumped: A Cure for Political Polarization?
A book called I'm Right and You're an Idiot: The Toxic State of Public Discourse and How to Clean It Up sounds like it was written just for the 2016 US presidential race. The book is not about the race per se. It doesn't say anything about Donald Trump and the only Clinton it mentions is Bill. But the book does say a lot about the polarization in American politics that has … [Read more...]
2014 biggest year ever for solar, but oil price threat looms
In 2014, record low prices for solar panels fueled a solar boom. The U.S. alone installed 30% more solar photovoltaic capacity than in 2013, making last year the biggest ever for solar PV, according to the 2014 Year-in-Review Solar Market Insight report from GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association. Industry analyst Tam Hunt argues that in a few years, … [Read more...]
If solar has gotten so cheap, why isn’t there more of it?
Some people who worry about peak oil like to point out that renewable energy won't save us. That is, given the amount of fossil fuels that the world uses today, it would take an unrealistically large increase in the amount of renewables available now to make up the difference as oil, natural gas and coal start to deplete. So we might as well resign ourselves now to a future … [Read more...]
Shameless birthday fundraising plug
Today is Transition Voice publisher Erik Curren's birthday. I thought that was reason enough to make one of our occasional plugs for donations to help support the work at Transition Voice. Talk about one of the hardest working guys in the news business. In spite of the fact that Erik has already entered the new economy, holding down five different jobs simultaneously — he's … [Read more...]