Get Energy Smart! NOW!

With Clean Break, a recommended 99 cent ‘Kindle Single’ purchase/read, Osha Gray Davidson has provided English speakers an enjoyable and illuminating look at Germany’s Energiewende — that wholesale societal shift commonly translated as “energy shift” and “energy transition”.   Despite its booming economy — in the powerhouse position of Europe — and the mounting role that solar [...]

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Elton Sherwin’s Addicted to Energy is an eminently readable and accessible letter to the nation’s governor. This 300+ page “letter” lays out a set of key issues and check lists that provide any (sane) state government (Governor) a sensible starting point for transforming their state from inefficient fossil fuel status quo to a more prosperous climate-friendly [...]

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No serious student of energy can deny the inanity — the senselessness – of our energy system in the face of increasingly serious resource challenges (Peak Oil, climate change, etc). Beyond the necessity for confronting these challenges to stave off catastrophic implications, a simple (yet incredibly complex) truth: options exist to foster sanity out of the [...]

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On reading the opening paragraphs of Robert Bryce’s author’s note, I felt a kindred soul:
.. just how lucky I am. There is no more complex or fascinating topic than energy. … the scale of energy use and the complexity and the importance of the energy business are unmatched by any industry. The study of energy [...]

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Efficiency is the ugly stepchild of the energy and climate world.
Recently, I put solar on my roof. Many neighbors and friends are excited about trying to do the same. When I hear this from them, the advice: make sure that your home is energy efficient before putting a penny into something like solar [...]

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Just published, Joe Romm’s Straight Up excerpts from Romm’s fiery and highly-informed posts at Climate Progress, which has developed into one of, if not the, top climate / energy blog on the web. As someone who often reads Romm’s blogging and has read his previous books, I was uncertain whether I would welcome having this [...]

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At a recent conference, a scientist made a comment about how we need to understand trade-offs in investments, advocating action on climate change but noting that we need to understand opportunity costs. In doing this, he referenced Bjorn Lomborg  (with a somewhat condescending tone). In my bag, as he spoke, Howard Friel’s devastating dissection [...]

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The questions of our individual and societal water footprint and virtual water are of ever increasing importance as we approach peak freshwater in regions around the globe.  With all my attention to energy and environmental issues, including more than a little to water issues (including Energy COOL ways to cut one’s own water consumption), I’d [...]

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We ever so casually talk of Arctic ice retreats, the potential for Greenland ice meltage, and the implications of Antarctic ice mass falling due to global warming. Centimeters or inches, those 2100 implications seem so remote and, well, insignificant to most.  Henry Pollack’s A World Without Ice provides a strong window on the essential nature [...]

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We should acknowledge benefits to Sarah Palin’s continued prominence in American society and political discussion. If nothing else, Palin opening her mouth is a jobs program to keep fact checkers busy at work. Her truthiness-laden Going Rogue should have us all going rouge (red) faced with frustration at the her page-after-page liberties with truth [...]

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