Get Energy Smart! NOW!

Understanding how feedback impacts people and institutions (whether in sports, school, militaryoperations, or …) in learning and change (hopefully, improvement) is a complex and fascinatingworld.  Data collection and feedback systems, as a tool for providing building/system operators the ability to make more informed decisions about energy use, are a critical pathway toward more effective (generally, […]

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This guest post comes from Magnifico. Shell Oil is on its way right now to a location less than 15 miles from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. “Shell has proposed drilling up to four shallow water exploration wells in Alaska’s Beaufort Sea this summer, beginning on July 1,” Subsea World News reported last month. […]

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There are a number of true wedge issues — items that clearly differentiate between the parties. These include 99%/1% & equity, belief in the value of government, women’s right to make choices about their bodies, … One of the starkest: attitudes toward science and most notably to climate science. The Obama Administration — including President […]

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Putting aside any and all other issues, deregulation can offer several real advantages: disruptive options can enter markets; and, consumers can have choices.  Of course, while anyone comparing U.S. cellphone rates to European prices has legitimate reason to wonder about this uncertain benefit, at times real opportunities for positive change can emerge. This summer, consumers in […]

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Mitt Romney celebrated “Fock the Earth Day” with a major speech about the importance of regulations on fossil fuel production … that is, the importance of eviscerating them so as to please his fossil foolish contributors. “Holding off on drilling in the Gulf, holding off on drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf, holding off on […]

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My blog posts are rarely about sartorial splendor but it seems sadly appropriate to share with you what I am wearing today: the t-shirt to the right.  If you have difficulty reading or seeing it: the graphic is of a heating planet with melting ice caps, the Keeling Curve behind the globe, a smiley face […]

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This is a full reposting, at request, of a post by insightful science writer Shawn Lawrence Otto.   The problems of questionable publishing on science issues is far (sadly) from limited to the mediocre post re the Denialist 49’s letter to NASA. There was, for example, Harold Ambler’s post re Vice President Gore which led Arianna […]

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This guest post from James Wells provides thinking about islanding and sustainability sparked by a trip to ‘the’ Islands. On the way to catch up with my family on the island, I met Kai, who was the last of the siblings gathering for the imminent end of their father’s voyage.  Although for the most difficult […]

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While the Cherry Blossoms peaked in Washington, DC, well before the Cherry Blossom festival peaked (and maple syrup production plummeted) while Texas experienced four-foot high ‘drifts’ of hail, while Alaska had near record snowfall while the lower 48 states broke 15,000 temperature records in March, 2015, with temperatures over 8 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than normal, […]

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As President Obama seems determined to avoid utterly the words “climate change”, even as more than 15,000 high temperature records were broken in the United States last month with temperatures more than 8 degrees fahrenheit above average, the traditional media is becoming more willing to discuss (seriously) climate change amid its reporting. From The Weather […]

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