Bob Thompson’s The Sound of Speed (check out the audio samples!)

Via Boing Boing: “an album entirely based on the noises of modern transportation.”

“This “concept” LP rhapsodizes the technology of human transport, from Vespa scooters to Le Mans racers, from tricycles to rocket ships. Each of the dozen vehicular vignettes is book-ended by authentic sound effects, with vivid stereo motion. The music was composed and arranged by Thompson, and the album was recorded in Italy by the Orchestra dei Concerti de Roma, conducted by Paul Baron.”

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We are running out of planet and there are too many people.  Or, maybe there aren’t.

Americans are only 5% of the world’s population, but use almost 25% of the world’s resources.  People cannot agree on whether climate change is affected by human population.  Maybe the question should be — is climate change affected by the American population and should that be reduced.  Some environmentalists and scientists feel governments could limit the amount of children people should have due to resources being finite on Planet Earth.  Humans now number close to 7 billion.   We may reach 9 billion people  by 2050, and it could happen sooner.  Can the planet handle all these resource-gobbling, atmosphere-changing masses of humanity? I think it could, if we didn’t rely on consumption for our world economies.

Climate and Capitalism feels population is not the problem either; it’s how many resources that population uses.  There is a huge disparity in the amount of resources used and pollution generated by various populations of different countries.  (See stats below and this video: Betsy Hartmann on Climate Change Politics and Overpopulation Propaganda, here for more). I think it’s obvious that people are causing global warming so aiming for fewer people might certainly help — in the wealthier, more polluting countries like the U.S.  especially.   One way to limit the amount of people on earth that would be more natural than others would be to deny couples fertility treatments if they already have one child.  That makes sense to me.  Another is to spread intelligent family planning in countries where this is not available.  (I do not agree with some of what Hartmann says, by the way.  There will be millions of climate refugees some day and there will be border and resource issues).

Unfortunately many Americans don’t know the meaning of the phrase “use less resources”.   We have been brainwashed by various right-wing politicians who have told us and the world that the American lifestyle will not be changed, it’s not negotiable, under any circumstances.  This leads to a feeling of entitlement and a license to consume more.  Other country’s populations may share that mindset too. Have our leaders told us about the dangers of over consumption yet?  Of course not. Consumption is what keeps the economy going in capitalistic countries . More is more! This idea spills over into having children, for some people.

Making Babies . . .

A recent issue of  People magazine showcased an American family called the “Duggars” who have 19 children. They are not ruling out Baby #20. It strikes me that 19 children is beyond the pale, so to speak. Frannie Armstrong, the filmmaker who wrote and directed The Age of Stupid, shares this information: ” The Guardian has brought up the environmental issue which dare not speak its name in a big feature article. . . . . I was interviewed for the piece during the Copenhagen Stupid Show madness and then spent the next few [...]

Photo: Omar Sobhani

Afghans arrive to search for bodies in the snow after avalanches killed at least 157 people in Salang tunnel in Parwan province, February 10, 2010. Afghan rescue workers searched for survivors for the third day on Wednesday in the avalanche-stricken mountain pass, fearing that dozens of people were still buried under snow.-World Environment News

Most of the world is fed up with winter, despite the fact that the Winter Olympics just started.  The Olympics are even being put in jeopardy by lack of snow and events are being pushed up due to rain.  However, winter weather here and there does not in any way disprove climate change, despite what the denialists would have you believe.  Check out the latest Climate Files podcast for more on that.  More news:

Antarctic Ice Shelf Collapse Possibly Triggered by Ocean Waves

(Feb. 12, 2010) — Depicting a cause-and-effect scenario that spans thousands of miles, a scientist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego and his collaborators discovered that ocean waves originating along the Pacific coasts of North and South America impact Antarctic ice shelves and could play a role in their catastrophic collapse.

Meteorologists See Future of Increasingly Extreme Weather Events

February 1, 2006 — Harder Rain, More Snow–While raising average global temperatures, climate change could also bring more snow, harder rain, or heat waves, meteorologists say. Computer models based on climate data from nine countries indicate every place on the planet will be hit with extreme weather events, including coastal storms and floods.

The Right’s Inability to Grasp Climate Change May Be Funny, But It’s Also Very Dangerous

The so-called Snowpocalypse has brought out the funny bone in the right-wing media, but their inability to correctly draw causal connections is very dangerous.  Climate change conspiracies are hardly new, but the so-called Snowpocalypse in Washington D.C. has returned them front-and-center to every single right-wing media outlet.  A Fox News anchor smugly claimed that the record snow had not only buried people’s cars — it was also “burying” global warming theories.

What Does Winter Weather Reveal about Global Warming?

Sadly, climate change won’t save you from bundling up, or shoveling. Even in a much warmer world, there will still be colder than average winters. What’s worse, U.S. government scientists predicted last year that global warming will actually increase snowstorms, thanks to the potent combination of more moisture in the atmosphere from warmer average temperatures paired with the usual cold of winter. The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted the same in 2007. In short, winter storms are likely to become stronger and more frequent, with stronger winds.

The endangered climate act of 2010

by Nancy Sutley

The Endangered Species Act, as written and as restored by the Obama administration shortly after coming in to office, effectively requires federal agencies to study the effects of proposed projects on endangered species. The administration is now poised to expand the National Environmental Policy Act to require government [...]

How clean is the electricity you use?

The US EPA has a web site, Energy and You,  to help you find out. For the basic information and statistics, you simply need to know your zip code. This will show a break down of how much SO2, Nox and CO2 is produced per mWh (1,000 kWh) for electricity used in your area.  If you would like specific information about a home or business, then the annual electric usage in kWh for that structure is needed.

The breakdown of fuel types also gives a good idea of waste products.  Coal is the dirtiest fuel, not only in terms of emissions but in terms of byproducts after combustion.  Fly ash from coal burning power plants is ever present and represents a real disposal issue for the power plant operator.  Of course, nuclear, in it’s current configuration, generates hazardous materials that need to be stored for 10,000 years.  This, by the way, can be changed with a different type of reactor. h/t to Sunvolt

Here is the environmental impact of my electricity:

The type of power most used to generate electricity in my area is coal. This is also true nation-wide.  Coal plants should be shut down as soon as possible all across the country, and replaced with renewable and clean energy, and here is just a snippet of why from the EPA site:

(COAL) Air Emissions

When coal is burned, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and mercury compounds are released. For that reason, coal-fired boilers are required to have control devices to reduce the amount of emissions that are released.

The average emission rates in the United States from coal-fired generation are: 2,249 lbs/MWh of carbon dioxide, 13 lbs/MWh of sulfur dioxide, and 6 lbs/MWh of nitrogen oxides.1

Mining, cleaning, and transporting coal to the power plant generate additional emissions. For example, methane, a potent greenhouse gas that is trapped in the coal, is often vented during these processes to increase safety.

(COAL) Water Resource Use

Large quantities of water are frequently needed to remove impurities from coal at the mine. In addition, coal-fired power plants use large quantities of water for producing steam and for cooling. When coal-fired power plants remove water from a lake or river, fish and other aquatic life can be affected, as well as animals and people who depend on these aquatic resources.

This makes me want to turn off the lights and the computer right now.  But no, we don’t have to live without electricity! We have to pressure our power companies to use clean renewable energy instead of dirty coal.  This is very doable — they just aren’t doing it.  I’ve been thinking about how to change the minds of those in our power companies,  and it seems that trying to reason with them is not working.  I have written emails and they are quite arrogant in their certainty that they are being responsible, no matter how much coal they burn.  They give [...]

Mapping Futurism

February 15-16, 2010
Florence, Italy
Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut

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PRESS RELEASE

Mapping Futurism

15-16 February 2010, Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut

At the end of the centenary celebrations marking the publication of the first Futurist Manifesto in 1909, the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz is holding an interdisciplinary Study Day with the aim of examining the role of Italian Futurism within the international avant-garde movements.

The Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut is furnished with an extensive art-historical library which includes among its holdings on modern and contemporary art in Italy an outstanding special collection of some 500 original publications from the period of Futurism. At the same time the Institute is situated in a historically important centre of Futurism, given that Florentine Futurism firmly opposed the political line represented by the founding father of Futurism, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, in Milan. So Florence is an ideal place in which to examine the question how far the Futurists really could claim to be precursors of the international avant-gardes, as “primitives of a wholly renewed sensibility”, as they called themselves.

Artistic movements such as Futurism, Cubism, Dadaism and Surrealism radically opposed the traditional concept of art at the start of the twentieth century. Common to them all was the cultural context of a period of revolution and of groundbreaking discoveries in science, technology, psychology and medicine. They were also united by the ambition to create a new kind of art that would correspond to an image of the modern world. Yet at the same time these movements were national developments, each with its own intellectual background. They sprang from the different political situations in the individual countries.

The aim of the Study Day is critically to examine, from an international perspective, the claim of Futurism to have played a leading role in these movements. That claim was proudly enunciated by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in 1932, when he said that “the artistic revolution begun by the Futurist movement [.] has created or influenced numerous avant-gardes”. The main focal point is the effect Futurist positions – their reception and influence – had on other art forms. The attempts of Futurism to distance itself from other avant-garde movements will also be analysed.

The evening lecture by Linda Dalrymple Henderson on “Boccioni, Futurism and the Energies of Modernism” will conclude the Study Day with a look at common fields of interest of the artistic avant-gardes at the start of the twentieth century. Apart from new scientific discoveries, her lecture will focus, among other things, on late Victorian ether theory and occult phenomena as sources of energy and inspiration for Futurist artists.

The proceedings of the Study Day will be published in the Florentine journal Semicerchio. Rivista di poesia comaprata in its next issue, which will be dedicated to the impact of the Italian avant-garde in Holland, Poland, France and the USA.

Pro Firenze Futurista – Digital Archive on Futurism in Florence

The Study Day will open with a presentation of the website Pro Firenze Futurista, a project of the Library of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz in cooperation with the Biblioteca Marucelliana. The foundation of a Digital Archive on Futurism in Florence will thus be laid and the public provided for the first time with free online access to research materials hitherto difficult to access.

The core of the database will consist of a digitalized text of the complete run of the Florentine journal L’Italia Futurista, which was published in 51 issues between 1916 and 1918 as organ of the so-called ‘Second Florentine Futurism’. This will be supplemented with further documents, such as letters, books, photographs, films and audio-visual materials on individual artists, poets and intellectuals who contributed to the journal and helped to generate the avant-garde development in Florence.

In addition, the website will offer thematic portals in which documents on selected themes will be ready-assembled and made available in bundled form, as for instance on the English poet and artist Mina Loy, who frequented the group of young Florentine Futurists round the journal Lacerba (1913-1915). After her stay in Florence she was acclaimed as an ambassadress of Futurism in the USA, but remains largely unknown in Italy.

With its joint project Pro Firenze Futurista, the Library of the Kunsthistorisches Institut is reinforcing cooperation between Florentine research institutions – the Biblioteca Marucelliana, the Fondazione Primo Conti and the Gabinetto Scientifico Letterario G.P. Vieussieux are already partners. In addition the Fondazione Longhi and the pianist and composer Daniele Lombardi have promised their support. Further partners, who would like to contribute to the building up of the Digital Archive, are welcome.

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Tim DeChristopher

Tim DeChristopher is a national hero. Now he’s in legal trouble for fake bidding on federal land and his trial is coming up.

Join the Climate Trial

On March 15-18, concerned citizens and activists will converge around Tim’s trial in Utah.  His crime was saving land that belongs to all of us from falling into the greedy hands of fossil fuel developers and profiteers.

The following article was co-written by Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine, Terry Tempest Williams, world renowned wildlife author, Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org and author of The End Of Nature, and Dr. James Hansen, author of Storms of my Grandchildren, website at  http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/, and who is regarded as the country’s leading climate scientist.

All recognize the trial of Tim DeChristopher to be a turning point in the climate movement. If there are to be more necessary acts of civil disobedience on environmental issues in the coming years, this is a very important trial.    See climatetrial.com for more information.

Dear Friends,

The epic fight to ward off global warming and transform the energy system that is at the core of our planet’s economy takes many forms: huge global days of action, giant international conferences like the one that just failed in Copenhagen, small gestures in the homes of countless people.

But there are a few signal moments, and one comes next month, when the federal government puts Tim DeChristopher on trial in Salt Lake City. Tim–”Bidder 70″–pulled off one of the most creative protests against our runaway energy policy in years: he bid for the oil and gas leases on several parcels of federal land even though he had no money to pay for them, thus upending the auction. The government calls that “violating the Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act” and thinks he should spend ten years in jail for the crime; we call it a noble act, a profound gesture made on behalf of all of us and of the future.

Tim’s action drew national attention to the fact that the Bush Administration spent its dying days in office handing out a last round of favors to the oil and gas industry. After investigating irregularities in the auction, the Obama Administration took many of the leases off the table, with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar criticizing the process as “a headlong rush.” And yet that same Administration is choosing to prosecute the young man who blew the whistle on this corrupt process.

We cannot let this stand. When Tim disrupted the auction, he did so in the fine tradition of non-violent civil disobedience that changed so many unjust laws in this country’s past. Tim’s upcoming trial is an occasion to raise the alarm once more about the peril our planet faces. The situation is still fluid–the trial date has just been set, and local supporters are making plans for how to mark the three-day proceedings. But they are asking people around the country to flood into [...]

Brendan Smialowski / Getty

Climate change means there will be bigger and more intense storms all over the world. That’s why the big snowstorm of 2010, “Snowpocalypse” which only affected a  very tiny portion of the planet, does not disprove global warming. In fact, it does more to show it’s progressing.  The additional moisture in the air, combined with the increase power caused by increased heat in the oceans, will lead to stronger storms, including snowstorms.

As the meteorologist Jeff Masters points out in his excellent blog at Weather Underground, the two major storms that hit Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., this winter — in December and during the first weekend of February — are already among the 10 heaviest snowfalls those cities have ever recorded. The chance of that happening in the same winter is incredibly unlikely.

But there have been hints that it was coming. The 2009 U.S. Climate Impacts Report found that large-scale cold-weather storm systems have gradually tracked to the north in the U.S. over the past 50 years. While the frequency of storms in the middle latitudes has decreased as the climate has warmed, the intensity of those storms has increased.

From Time. For a more scientific source, see this:

“In a warmer future climate…Models project increased summer dryness and winter wetness in most parts of the northern middle and high latitudes. Summer dryness indicates a greater risk of drought. Along with the risk of drying, there is an increased chance of intense precipitation and flooding due to the greater water-holding capacity of a warmer atmosphere. This has already been observed and is projected to continue because in a warmer world, precipitation tends to be concentrated into more intense events, with longer periods of little precipitation in between. Therefore, intense and heavy downpours would be interspersed with longer relatively dry periods.
Source: IPCC AR4 WGI FAQ 10.1

From The Skeptic:

The 30 major droughts of the 20th century were likely natural in all respects; and, hence, they are “indicative of what could also happen in the future,” as Narisma et al. state in their concluding paragraph. And happen they will. Consequently, the next time a serious drought takes hold of some part of the world and the likes of Al Gore blame it on the “carbon footprints” of you and your family, ask them why just the opposite of what their hypothesis suggests actually occurred over the course of the 20th century, i.e., why, when the earth warmed – and at a rate and to a degree that they claim was unprecedented over thousands of years – the rate-of-occurrence of severe regional droughts actually declined. (source: CO2 Science)

There is growing empirical evidence that warming temperatures cause more intense hurricanes, heavier rainfalls and flooding, increased conditions for wildfires and dangerous heat waves.

And finally, written by James Hansen in his latest book, Storms of my Grandchildren:

“But an increase in maximum storm strength and an expansion of [...]

Wikipedia

Interventionist Demonstration

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Mario Monesterio, Westwood Renewables, tours the solar modules at St. John’s University in Minnesota. The project is complete and is producing electricity for the campus. Photo by Jason Wachter

There’s a brand new operational solar array in the upper midwest, and it’s performing at expected rates even in the dead of winter. This array is in Minnesota, and the largest in the upper midwest.  If this is successful here, it can be successful anywhere the sun shines.

From the local newspaper:

The (St. John’s) university’s experiment in capturing energy from the sun began operation Dec. 10. The 1,820 black-paneled modules were installed in a 14-acre farm field just northwest of campus.The project is a joint effort of the university, the Order of St. Benedict and Westwood Renewables. The Eden Prairie-based company received a $2 million grant from Xcel Energy to build the largest solar farm in the Upper Midwest.

This is exactly what we need more of in the United States.  Too many people still consider solar power some type of oddity, but it can and will produce a lot of power.  This array is currently producing only 4% of the university’s power needs, but on a series of cloudless, sunny days it can supply up to 20%.   Read more here.

Solar power is getting to be very popular in Minnesota and across the United Sates.  There is also money to be made with real green energy.  From a letter to the editor that appeared in the Star Tribune last week, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Timothy Geithner, one of the most disliked people in the Obama administration, visited Minnesota last week and injected some hope into the local economy.    He visited the Honeywell corporation and announced the Obama administration’s support for an additional $5 billion in funds to be used for “clean energy manufacturing”.  This is welcome news and will create jobs.

Secondly, the letter went on to point out, green energy companies have received stimulus money for advanced energy manufacturing projects.  One of two companies to received some of this money, which amounted to $154 million for this company, was REC Silicon, and the 2nd largest amount ($84.2 million) went to SolarWorld.  SolarWorld is based in Germany, but manufactures solar panels in the United States in Washington, Oregon and California.   The polysilicon used to make solar panels is made by REC Silicon.  Honeywell manufactures materials for solar panels also.  All these companies will make solar power more affordable, more efficient, and will help create more clean energy jobs.   This is the stimulus money doing good things and it deserves our support.

We hear how many jobs coal miners would lose if the coal mines were shut (only 63,000) but what if they were all employed in producing, installing and maintaining solar panels and wind turbines?  Then there would be no need for all of that dirty, toxic coal.

If you’re in the neighborhood, email me to RSVP!

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Smog in Mexico City. Even this smog isn't as murky as our government's reasons for inaction on climate change.

The U.S. government has a lovely new climate website to act as a portal for the latest climate change information and media.  It’s obviously for the general public, because it looks nice, it’s moderately useful (for the public), it explains things simply, and people can find out the basics of what global warming is.   It contains pictures and videos and charts and graphs and supposedly, the latest climate change news.  The old government climate change websites are still there:  Climatescience.gov, which for some reason directs you to http://www.globalchange.gov, and where we are told:

Continue to the new USGCRP website at http://www.globalchange.gov
Visit the old USCCSP website at http://www.climatescience.gov/default.php

Confused?  There is also the EPA climate science site, NOAA and NASA’s climate change data center.  There is also the Energy Information Administration, part of the U.S. government too.  So many government agencies and websites on climate change!   You would think that the government would be drowning in global warming information to act upon — yet even with all this glaringly obvious information, the Congress and the president can’t seem to get anything done on climate change legislation.  In fact, Congress might drop climate legislation this year and go with energy-only  legislation.  This will not be adequate to fight climate change at all, and instead will give a big boost to dirty coal.  The energy-only bill also got a failing score from the CBO.

The recently much touted alternative “energy only” bill would not cost fossil industries, but instead would cost taxpayers $13.9 billion a year, according to this scoring by the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office – that has been gathering dust since September. This failing grade from the CBO has received no publicity at all. I can’t imagine why, can you?  The bill would authorize a total of $48.6 billion over the first three years. It would add $13.5 billion each year to the deficit.

. . . .  The “energy-only” bill is co-sponsored by Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski (R) who led the attempt to overturn the recent EPA ruling on greenhouse gases, and it has strong Republican  and Chamber of Commerce support.

This is a terrible idea!  We need climate change legislation now more than ever.  Yet media and public interest seems to be dimming.  Even our government’s interest seems to be dimming, despite their own growing number of websites about it.

The  newest government climate site was announced via a memorandum to only mild fanfare.  In fact, it’s really just a redundant site.   Maybe they are trying to deflect our attention away from the fact that Congress (or Obama) won’t act decisively on all these mountains of data and information on climate change.   e360 from Yale put it more charitably:

The Obama administration is creating an office to coordinate and report the latest climate change data, a unit analogous to the National Weather Service that [...]

Omaggio al Futurismo

February 15 -  28, 2010
*Verniassage February 15th at 6pm
Circolo della Stampa di Avellino

link

*yay Avellino!

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Giacomo Balla pittura dinamica=simultaneità delle forze

February 11 – March 6, 2010
Galleria Russo – Roma
Catalog

Watch the video

Il tema della mostra è il “Manifesto del Colore” pubblicato da Balla nel 1918, nel catalogo della sua mostra alla galleria Bragaglia a Roma (4 ottobre 1918) dove analizza il ruolo del colore nella pittura d’avanguardia. In mostra oltre 20 opere dell’artista realizzate fra il 1910 ed il 1930.

more info

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There is no such thing as clean coal

President Obama is the country’s biggest champion of the myth of “clean coal”.   Carbon capture and storage is not yet operational and it’s unsure if it will ever be.  Unfortunately, sinking all this money into CCS to use for coal is a big waste.  CCS is not going to solve the problems with coal, such as toxic waste and mercury leaking into our air and water.   It’s probably necessary to have carbon capture and sequestration on hand in case climate change enters the runaway phase, but it should not be used on coal plants.  Coal plants should be shut down and if CCS is used for anything it should be to remove CO2 from the air in case of an emergency.  But the question remains:  and put it where?

The problem of where to “sequester” or store carbon emissions is still a huge issue. We cannot put it on the ocean bed or into rock formations unless we know for sure it will stay there, and no one yet knows whether it will.  Yet on February 3rd President Obama issued a memorandum declaring our use of coal as necessary, as a job creator and as a cheap form of energy.   It’s none of the above.  There’s also a catch:  as soon as the CCS is implemented, due to its huge cost, the cost of using coal will skyrocket.  That makes ‘clean coal’ not only a myth, but a very expensive one and the costs will be passed on to consumers.  (Yet Republicans are for this . . . why?)

The use of coal is  environmentally devastating.  Scientists at the journal Science recently recommended that mountaintop removal to get at coal should stop immediately.  And carbon capture and storage won’t stop the pervasive emissions of mercury that get into our land and water, poisoning fish and the people who eat it.  CCS would do nothing to prevent acid rain and mercury poisoning of our lakes and streams.  From the White House, Feb. 3, 2010:

“SUBJECT:  A Comprehensive Federal Strategy on Carbon Capture and Storage

For decades, the coal industry has supported quality high-paying jobs for American workers, and coal has provided an important domestic source of reliable, affordable energy.  At the same time, coal-fired power plants are the largest contributor to U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and coal accounts for 40 percent of global emissions.  Charting a path toward clean coal is essential to achieving my Administration’s goals of providing clean energy, supporting American jobs, and reducing emissions of carbon pollution.  Rapid commercial development and deployment of clean coal technologies, particularly carbon capture and storage (CCS), will help position the United States as a leader in the global clean energy race.

My Administration is already pursuing a set of concrete initiatives to speed the commercial development of safe, affordable, and broadly deployable CCS technologies.  We have made the largest Government investment in carbon capture and storage of any nation in [...]

This video is short and sweet.  Do you want to install solar panels but can’t afford it or wonder who should install it?  A solar cooperative might be able to help.  And there is probably one in your area.  It’s a new project called 1BOG, or One Block Off the Grid.   CleanTechnica writes:

There’s never been a better time to go solar, and in a growing number of cities across the US, it’s an economic no-brainer. You can see if solar is right for you by signing up here or on the form to your right. . . . . 1BOG gathers homeowners interested in solar and gets large discounts from top installers.

One Block Off the Grid is grassroots organizing meets consumer power, and together we’re helping drive the adoption of residential solar energy. You can learn more about 1BOG here: Everything you ever wanted to know about solar group purchasing.

This sounds like a great idea and a good way to get started with solar. I’m going to check them out personally for what’s available in my area.

You can also check out local hardware stores. I noticed my local super-hardware supplier has a solar panel package on sale this week and it’s really affordable. I wonder, though, what to do with with snow-covered solar panels. . . .

And for inspiration — my favorite Jackson song, Earth Song,  paid tribute to at the Grammys last week.

The week Jackson died I did a podcast and put a segment of this song at the end of it — not ever having heard it before, and finding it totally by accident.  Jackson was at least an environmentalist sympathizer, and wrote the song because of his love for the planet, or so goes the story.

“…a performance of the star’s “Earth Song” by Carrie Underwood, Celine Dion, Usher, Jennifer Hudson, and Smokey Robinson followed a recorded interview with Michael himself, where he talked about his passion for saving the planet. “That’s why I write these kind of songs, to give some kind of awareness and awakening and hope to people. I love the planet.  I love trees. . . . . . “

A year ago the Obama administration enacted the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).  Last week, President Obama linked economic recovery to investments in clean energy and green job creation in his State of the Union address.  Meanwhile, unemployment is still very high (9.7% last month officially) and 20,000 jobs were also lost last month. Where is the green jobs revolution?  We need it now  more than ever.  The U.S. should be churning out solar panels and creating hundreds of jobs with their installation on American homes and businesses. This is exactly what a few smart Congressmen want.

Congress has waited so long to pass a meaningful climate change and green jobs bill that China is way ahead of the U.S. in building solar panels and wind turbines.  The stimulus was never meant to be the only spending on green energy that we did in the near future. It was only the start.  This is responsible spending because it will create jobs.

More than $200 billion of the stimulus package was earmarked for projects that would either directly or indirectly create green jobs.  (The second reporting by ARRA recipients was made public on recovery.gov last Saturday.)

Last  Thursday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced a bill aimed at getting 10 million new solar rooftop systems and 200,000 new solar hot water heating systems installed in the U.S. in the next 10 years.  This is exactly what the U.S. needs right now! This is from Grist.

Titled the “10 Million Solar Roofs & 10 Million Gallons of Solar Hot Water Act” (PDF), it would provide rebates that cover up to half the cost of new systems, along the lines of incentive programs in California and New Jersey (not coincidentally, Nos. 1 and 2 in installed solar in the U.S.). It also includes measures to insure that those who receive assistance get information on how to make their buildings more energy efficient.

Sanders currently has nine co-sponsors: Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.),  Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), and Arlen Specter (D-Pa.).

The bill would accelerate what is already a fairly rapid pace of growth for distributed solar power. Distributed energy has a number of advantages over its central-plant competitors (both clean and dirty): it’s faster to build, avoids the need for expensive transmission lines, can use already developed land, and enhances community resilience and self-reliance. It’s also labor-intensive, creating more jobs per dollar of investment than its competitors—a feature that may make it more attractive during a recession, when Democrats are turning their attention to unemployment.  In part he said,

Sanders: The fact is that every state in this country can produce at least 10 percent of its electricity from solar. [Sanders’ press release cites ISLR’s report on Energy Self-Reliant States.] In Vermont, we’re moving on solar. New Jersey is one of the leading producers [...]

Suntech Exec Sees Excess Solar Supply Coming to U.S. –  more evidence that other countries are way ahead of the U.S. in developing renewable power. Now we’re going to get their “left-overs”.  We should be making these panels in the U.S.

Photo: Sergio Moraes--A Brazilian man is seen during sunset on Arpoador Beach in Rio de Janeiro February 3, 2010.

WASHINGTON Feb. 5 2010 — Planned cuts to Germany’s solar power incentives will probably prompt solar companies to ship excess panels to the United States, pressuring equipment prices here, a top U.S. executive for China’s Suntech Power Holdings said on Thursday.

Germany is the top market for photovoltaic solar systems, with about 50 percent of the global market, but the government there is planning to cut prices paid for solar power from roof-mounted systems by 15 percent from April 1.

“Anything that happens in Germany has a ripple effect,” Roger Efird, Suntech’s managing director for business development in the United States, told the RETECH energy conference.

Solar modules that companies had planned to sell in the German market will probably come to the United States, which could become the biggest solar market by 2013.

Solar companies have struggled in the past year as a glut of supplies pressured module prices by about 40 percent, squeezing profit margins in the nascent industry, and the additional supplies that had been destined for Germany will push U.S. prices even lower.

“I’d say at least another 10 percent drop in pricing, maybe as much as 15 percent,” Efird said.

Still, the U.S. solar market could show strong growth this year, he said, potentially doubling from an estimated 500 megawatts that were installed in 2009.

“There is an opportunity that we could hit 1 gigawatt in the United States this year,” he said, but that would likely require about 300 MW of large, utility-scale projects.

One megawatt is enough to power about 800 homes.

Suntech, one of the largest solar companies in the world, announced last year it planned to build a new plant in Arizona to expand its business in the United States.

Progetto Futurismo

Auditorium del “Pergolesi”, Fermo

6 meetings, the first of which will be held on Thursday, Feb. 11, 2010 at 6pm
Programs will run until May 6, 2010.

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Good question, bad answer on Feb. 1st

The latest EPA headline is distressing to anyone who knows there is no such thing as “clean coal”. Today the news from the EPA declared: “Obama Announces Steps to Boost Biofuels, Clean Coal“.

“President Barack Obama today announced a series of steps his Administration is taking as part of its comprehensive strategy to enhance American energy independence while building a foundation for a new clean energy economy, and its promise of new industries and millions of jobs. At a meeting with a bipartisan group of governors from around the country, the President laid out three measures that will work in concert to boost biofuels production and reduce our dangerous dependence on foreign oil. “

What Obama doesn’t want to admit is that the danger is not from foreign oil, it’s from carbon emissions, which come more from coal than from anything else.  Coal, according to scientist James Hansen, will kill us all if it’s not removed from our energy porfolio.  Obama has not gotten the memo on coal.

The video question came from a young woman who asked why he’s focusing on nuclear power and coal when more good safe jobs, in her opinion, would come from renewable energy.  (Coal is the real culprit, not nuclear, which is carbon emissions free).  Obama’s answer was probably political reality, but it wasn’t climate change reality. He responded:

“With respect to clean coal technology, it is not possible at this point to completely eliminate coal from the menu of our energy options.  And if we are ever going to deal with climate change in a serious way, where we know China and India are going to be greatly reliant on coal, we’ve got to start developing clean coal technologies that can sequester the harmful emissions, because otherwise — countries like China and India are not going to stop using coal — we’ll still have those same problems but we won’t have the technology to make sure that it doesn’t harm the environment over the long term.

Did he just say, “It is not possible???”

“So I know that there’s some skepticism about whether there is such a thing as clean coal technology.  What is true is right now that we don’t have all the technology to prevent greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants, but the technology is close and it makes sense for us to make that investment now, not only because it will be good for America but it will also ultimately be good internationally.  We can license and export that technology in ways that help other countries use a better form of energy that’s going to be helpful to the climate change issue.”

Of course it’s possible to stop using coal; he just doesn’t want to steer us in that direction because it would be hard for him to do that politically, and it would mean the loss of even more jobs.  He seems resigned to [...]

Windmills Frozen with Inaction — Literally.  Cold weather blamed for failure of windmills to work properly.  Uh-oh.  Windmills in Minnesota that were recently ordered from California refuse to spin on some of the windiest days here.

The turbines were to be fully operational by Nov. 7. To date, the number is zero. One reason offered this week at a North St. Paul City Council meeting: hydraulic fluid and lubricating oil in the turbines’ gear boxes. In cold weather, the fluid turns gel-like and doesn’t flow, said Derick Dahlen, president of Avant Energy, which manages the MMPA. That can be particularly problematic if the turbines are already at a standstill.

To fix the problem, a contractor installed heating elements this week in the turbines. In addition, heat tracing is likely to be added to the hydraulic lines and lubrication oil system.

This is a real problem, because we have a lot of coal burning plants in the north and midwest and they should be replaced by renewable energy as soon as possible. This winter is not unusually cold either. In fact, it’s been warmer than last winter, according to my Xcel Energy power bill.  However, Dahlen thinks the problem is not the weather, but the contractor.  “I think they should absolutely have known about the cold weather issue, but I think the problems go deeper with that.”  He also says that when the weather is warm they don’t run either. What is so difficult about building a wind turbine that works?  Can’t the U.S. do anything right when it comes to renewable energy?  We need funding for this now, not for more weapons systems and war funding.

Shiho Fukada for The New York Times-- As China takes the lead on wind turbines, above, and solar panels, President Obama is calling for American industry to step up.

China is leading the renewable energy race. China is now far ahead of the United States in wind turbine production. The danger of this is that the United States might go from being dependent on other countries for oil and gas and switch to being dependent on them for solar panels and wind turbines.

China has also leapfrogged the West in the last two years to emerge as the world’s largest manufacturer of solar panels. And the country is pushing equally hard to build nuclear reactors and the most efficient types of coal power plants. . . . . Multinational corporations are responding to the rapid growth of China’s market by building big, state-of-the-art factories in China. Vestas of Denmark has just erected the world’s biggest wind turbine manufacturing complex here in northeastern China, and transferred the technology to build the latest electronic controls and generators.

The U.S. is losing the potential to become a leader in anything, but especially renewable energy technology, because of the inertia of Congress and the ultra-partisanship of our right-wing politicians.  It has led to a lack of cooperation on anything, including jobs and renewable energy support, in [...]