Ed Ring

How far will the government go in controlling our lives?  In California’s state house, left-wing and right-wing political opportunists are joining forces to enact sweeping green legislation that is often of questionable value - raising the ante.  Now some have called for a statewide ban on incandescent lightbulbs.  This latest prospect of flawed and over-reaching law takes the cake in many ways, almost surpassing California’s pending prohibition on parents spanking their own young children. Endangered Incandescents First of all, incandescent lights don’t pollute, dirty energy production is what pollutes.  Why don’t California’s legislators fund...

In the name of stopping "urban sprawl," environmentalists have promoted the concept of "infill," where new construction is largely confined to within the borders of existing cities.  In some cases, especially in the urban core of cities, infill makes good sense.  But in outlying suburbs, infill is an abomination, taking beautiful low density neighborhoods and destroying them. Here's what your $500K will buy, thanks to open space fanatics. In the name of stopping urban sprawl, our cities have been cordoned off with "green belts" that prevent development from spreading naturally outwards.  Clearly some attempts to preserve agricultural land and wildlife habitat are...

How many ways can we describe the "new environmentalism" we are attempting to promote?  "Contrarian" is a word that doesn't always have positive connotations.  But to question the conventional wisdom of mainstream environmentalists is necessary.  It is impossible to adhere to the adage "question authority" - a phrase typically trumpeted by liberals - if you are too selective in what you question. The way we see it, environmentalism, properly applied, must be willing to expose its own excess.  Environmentalists need to be willing to see where they have gone too far, where they have done more harm than good, indeed, where they may have become puppets for powerful special interests with a hidden...

Today's BBC ran a story entitled "Shifting Sands," which describes towns in the Nigerian Sahel that are being swallowed up by the Sahara desert which is marching southwards. The presumption is this:  Global warming is causing desertification, and the villages of northern Nigeria are among the victims.  But this is almost certainly false.  Desertification is being caused by two factors stronger than global warming - it is being caused by deforestation, and it is being caused by drought. There is a clear link between deforestation and drought, particularly in West Africa, as cited in the MIT study "Desertification, Deforestation and Drought," where they demonstrate that deforestation along the southern coast of West Africa (e.g., in Nigeria, Ghana and Ivory Coast) may result in complete collapse of monsoon circulation, and a significant reduction of regional rainfall.  Connections between deforestation and drought are well...

Green homes can use recycled steel for their beams, and also for a reflective metal rooftop that is lightweight and durable.  Green homes can use bales of straw for the walls, a building material that is perfectly natural, abundant and cheap. House with straw bale walls and a metal roof Photo: BuildingGreenTV.com Green homes can rest on a single finished concrete slab, efficently combining floor and foundation into one pour.  The slab can be interlaced with tubes that channel solar heated water into the slab, warming it in winter. In addition to providing solar-heated hot water and photovoltaic electricity, the entire roof can collect water from rain, filtering the runoff and...

We have searched the internet under the terms "aerosol cooling" and "benign aerosols" and the like, and have scant results to report.  But after all, since aerosols may refer to any particulate, why can't non-toxic aerosols be used to cool the planet? Aerosol-spewing spaceplanes save the icecap. Photo: NASA Every reputable report out there, dating back to the 1970's, claims that aerosol forcing could trigger another ice age.  The bottom line, apparently, is this:  Pound for pound, aerosols - a term generally used these days to refer to all atmospheric particulates - have a much more dramatic immediate cooling effect than CO2, but the impact of aerosols diminishes much...

California, along with a handful of nations (mostly in Europe), has led the way in embracing clean energy and clean technology.  This political will has emanated from Sacramento, California's capitol, beginning nearly forty years ago and continuing to this day. The progressive environmental legislation set forth in Sacramento has made the city a magnet for representatives of clean energy manufacturers from around the world, but until recently there hasn't been clean energy entrepreneurship centered in Sacramento to match its pioneering political resolve.  This is changing, however. Our friends at CleanStart.org, who are working to accelerate the development of clean energy technology ventures within the Greater Sacramento Region, have provided us a list of clean energy companies headquartered in the Sacramento area, to which we have added companies and deleted...

To follow up on GM's announcement on January 7th of a series hybrid car, the "Volt," today I spoke with Jon Lauckner, GM's vice president of Global Program Management. Since the series hybrid, which has at most a two-speed transmission, with only the electric motor connected to the drive train, is simpler to engineer compared to the parallel hybrid, we wanted to know what took so long.  Lauckner explained that GM is waiting for a lithium ion battery. The Chevy "Volt" Flexfuel Electric Car Photo: General Motors Apparently, in order to have a car that can run exclusively on batteries for a reasonable duty cycle - 40 miles - GM was reluctant to go with the nickel metal hydride...

We are always on the lookout for like-minded pundits and experts who share our vision - as expressed in the 9-18-06 post "Redefining Environmentalism" - of a green revolution that legitimately appeals to a wider, mainstream constituency, and challenges many assumptions of traditional environmentalism.  Last month, on "VCMike's Blog," we read a very astute commentary on what we may as well call "new environmentalism."  The post was written by Bob Metcalfe, the founder of 3Com Corporation and currently a general partner for Polaris Ventures.  Here are some particularly memorable excerpts from that post: On the public vs. private sector:  "I am from what politicians and professors often call, a little too dismissively, the “private sector.” I think nobody else but the private sector will meet the world’s energy needs... And then there are politicians — the public sector. The big danger in what they call “policy making” is that large companies have...

E-Flex, according to General Motor's Chairman, Rick Wagoner, is a car that has a 100% electric drivetrain, and gets its electricity from a variety of sources - including an on-board internal combustion driven electric generator.  Today, January 7th, 2007, General Motors unveiled the serial hybrid car, or the electric car that uses diverse sources for its electricity. The Lithium Ion Battery is almost ready Photo: NASA The launch of an affordable flexfuel electric car will be a watershed moment in the history of the world.  This car will transform two of the largest industries on earth - transportation and energy.  It is one of the biggest steps yet in the dawning green...