Ed Ring

Earlier this month we posted a feature article entitled "35 Inconvenient Truths" by Christopher Monckton.  The story attracted a number of emails, but none that actually challenged the content.  The reason we continue to post this side of the debate is because in our research, talking with climate scientists and doing our own fact checking, we find the skeptics are making valid points. Whether or not someone is a AGW alarmist should have no bearing on the strength or purity of their environmentalist convictions.       The idea that there is a "denial industry" doesn't hold up to logic.  Here's how policies that adhere to conventional theories about global warming benefit most...

Earlier this month, in our post "Biofuel's Potential," we compared the best case biofuel yields today - about 10,000 barrels per square mile per year - to the best case biofuel yields in the future according to many biofuel experts - about 50,000 barrels per square mile per year.  To summarize, the difference between 10,000 barrels per square mile per year and 50,000 barrels per square mile per year is the difference between a supplemental fuel of some economic value, and a scaleable, viable fuel alternative that could literally replace petroleum. For some time we've been looking for a way to present quantitative cases using interactive spreadsheets, and a new company in Sweden, SpreadsheetConverter, has finally delivered something that we can work with.  Unfortunately, their software won't function in the WordPress environment, at least not yet.  But if you click on "LAND FOR BIOFUEL CALCULATOR" you can do your own math.  The cells...

Back in October 2007, in our post "Ze-Gen's Waste to Energy" we reported on a Massachusetts-based company, Ze-Gen, who appeared to be "possibly the furthest along in the race to develop technology to turn waste into fuel - eliminating the need for landfills in the bargain."  That was then.  There are other contenders in this race... Plasco's Ottawa Waste-to-Energy Plant. (Photo: Plasco Energy Group Just one day after we posted this report, Plasco Energy Group, based in Ottawa, Canada, announced in a press release "Plasco Energy delivers power to Ottawa grid," that they have completed a waste-to-energy plant and are beginning the commissioning process.  Plasco's technology, as described in the "how it works" page on their website, begins with municipal solid waste (presumably...

Can California get "all electric utilities to produce 50 percent of their electricity from clean energy sources" by 2025? That should be easy if government mandates the transition and funds the right new infrastructure, and gets out of the way everywhere else.  California's economy already has a fantastic import/export balance.  Imagine if California cut her dependance on energy imports in half?  A compelling case, though easily assailed.  Will this initiative, the "California Solar and Clean Energy Act of 2008" be approved by voters and passed into law? The magnificant California Condor, resurrected by environmentalists. No honest critique of environmentalism can deny their contributions. At least they're...

This past October, in our report "Ausra's Solar Thermal Power," we reported on this newcomer in the rapidly growing solar thermal power industry, with at least two innovations that could make them a major participant in this sector which is finally taking off.  One of Ausra's innovations is the design of their solar field - they have taken the single axis parabolic trough design, and revised it so that instead of one linear heat exchanger being positioned at the focal point of each mirrored parabolic trough, ten mirrors focus on one shared linear heat exchanger.  In terms of mirrors vs. heat exchangers, going from one-to-one to ten-to-one saves a lot of money in plumbing costs, and makes an awful lot of...

If the present is problematic, that doesn't mean the future has no potential.  We have railed against the catastrophe in progress throughout the tropics, as the last rainforests are razed to grow sugar cane and oil palms.  Over and over, we've reminded readers to beware of carbon taxes and carbon trading schemes, because European carbon offset payments are funding the destruction of Asian rainforests to grow biofuel.  And considering the epic scale of the destruction occurring, right now, global environmental groups are virtually silent.  But what about the future of biofuel?  Tropical corn doesn't grow ears in the long days of temperate latitudes, and has high sugars in...

Our post yesterday, "Taking on Smart Growth" prompted a lengthy exchange between the author and a very well informed critic. Despite our best efforts to communicate our point of view, ultimately the critic described our criticisms of new urbanism as coming from "Wingnuttia." Rather than continue to argue the point on yesterday's post, where these eight points of criticism are buried within one of the last of many comments, here they are: The private yard - an endangered species, thanks to "New Urbanist" social engineers. Eight Criticisms of New Urbanism: 1 - It supports “urban service boundaries” that makes land outside the boundary very hard to develop, which artificially (and some...

When green technology delivers decentralized solutions to water and energy - from hi-tech and low maintenance, ultra-effective septic systems to affordable rooftop photovoltaics and electrical storage systems, there are a lot of public works contractors who will be looking for something to do. A green mega-project: High rise agriculture for food & biofuel. (Photo: www.verticalfarm.com) Fortunately, we have the answer:  Mega-Projects.  Before leveling off in the next couple of generations at approximately 8.0 billion, we will add nearly 2.0 billion more people to the world's population.  This increase, combined with the well established trend of migration from rural areas to...

Definition: “New Urbanism - the revival of our lost art of place-making, and promotes the creation and restoration of compact, walkable, mixed-use cities.” It is completely impractical to make everything "walking distance" from everything else. People like cars. The car is the most liberating personal appliance ever invented. The new urbanist war on the car is based on a communalist ideology that completely fails in the real world. From an environmentalist perspective, the war on the car is already obsolete given the car is on the verge of becoming cradle to cradle green. The utopian notions of the "smart growth" lobby are the reason homes are way too expensive for the average person. The massive expenditures in public amenities necessary to facilitate "smart growth" have created building fees that are now as high as $100K per home. This, combined with the complete (and...

Definition:  "New Urbanism - the revival of our lost art of place-making, and promotes the creation and restoration of compact, walkable, mixed-use cities." On one of www.TreeLink.org's posts, I noticed the tag "urban forestry is America's frontline defense against climate change."  I couldn't agree more. So how is this statement reconciled with "new urbanism" and "smart growth" that packs people into cluster homes and super high density suburbs where there isn't room for trees on any private parcels? (read "California's Land Use Choices") As someone active in urban forestry most of my life, I think "smart growth," "infill," and the "urban service boundary" is utterly destroying the urban canopy.  Has anyone seen trees in these new communities, where "low density" is now defined as eight homes per acre, and cluster housing now goes as high as 20 homes per acre?  These are heat island dead zones, not leafy suburbs. ...