Greed of the fossil fuel industry in 2022 will drive conversion to alternatives faster than anyone imagined was possible…
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THE FIFTH COLUMN: SocialCoin – The Socially Responsible Alternative to Bitcoin
I am placing this concept in the public domain for anyone with the necessary technical skills to create the structures and necessary algorithms to implement it. Wikipedia provides an extensive section on Bitcoin and in particular Bitcoin mining. Essentially Bitcoin is created by an energy wasting computer process they call
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Hydrogen – clean or dirty energy
Hydrogen made from electrolysis of water powered by solar or wind could help humans survive beyond the 21st century. The elemental gas could store surplus renewables power and help decarbonize sectors such as long-distance air and road transport and manufacturing processes for steel, concrete and other carbon-intensive products. Hydrogen should
Continue readingThings Are Good: Make Big Oil Care by Cutting Profits
We’ve heard lots of big claims from oil companies about their commitment to sustainable energy production, but those are all words. Their actions are still to extract fossil fuels which undercut all their efforts to produce renewable energy. The simple reason oil companies are still killing the environment is profit.
Continue readingThings Are Good: Pump Up The Heat Pumps
Too many homes use dead dino juice for heat, and we need to get every home to stop burning the remains of extinct species if we’re going avert catastrophic climate change. The good news is that we can easily do this by getting rid of gas burning furnaces and replacing
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Status quo bias and climate destruction
Tenacious adherence to old methods of energy creation ensures substantial economic and environmental damage and a path to human extinction.
Continue readingThings Are Good: The Steps to Take to Save the World from Catastrophic Climate Change
By now you’ve heard that the most recent IPCC report shows that humanity is in a dire situation and we need to act now to avoid making the planet uninhabitable to humanity. That is, if we keep doing what we’re currently doing with too much consumption and the use of
Continue readingThings Are Good: Oil Companies are Useless
Looking at the actions of oil companies it’s clear they only care about one thing: profit. Everything else, like the planet and human life, is a tertiary concern that is easily ignored. With the release of the most recent IPCC report why are governments and thinkers listening to these planet
Continue readingThings Are Good: Winds of Change in Power Generation
Wars fought over oil and wars funded by oil sales are both problems we’ve seen in the 21st century. Fighting over a depleting planet-destroying energy source may soon be a thing of the past as we increase the use of renewable energy the world over. Expect the use of wind
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: BC Hydro: privatize and regulate strictly
As managed since 2001 under Premiers Campbell, Clark and Horgan, BC Hydro has been an unqualified disaster. The company has used falsehoods to justify capital spending of about $40 billion during a decade and a half of flat demand. Instead of managing BC Hydro for the benefit of citizens, political
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Energy innovation
Hindered by the political power exercised by fossil fuel companies and financial institutions supporting those industries, Canada’s federal government has been little involved in development of non-destructive renewable energy sources. For the same reason, western provincial governments have been even less engaged. Values worth hundreds of billions of dollars flow
Continue readingThings Are Good: Unlike Other Power Sources, Wind Turbines Still Useful When They Stop Working
Wind turbines produce renewable energy from air with a small footprint on the ground. This means they can get placed in various locations and offshore they can be massive (and therefore more efficient), but when the wind turbines reach the end of service their blades take up a lot space
Continue readingThings Are Good: Insulation is Better Than Oil
Insulation is a boring solution to the deadly consumption of oil inside your home. If you have a gas furnace or other fossil fuel heater then you can start reducing your consumption of the dead dino juice by better insulating your home. You can also go a step further and
Continue readingThings Are Good: This Book Can Give You Power
Oil prices are rising again and oil is yet again at the centre of international conflict, it’s time to get off of oil. Sustainable energy is peaceful energy. Solar power is one such renewable energy source that can work anywhere the sun shines. Setting up a solar rig can be
Continue readingThings Are Good: Dutch Climate Lawyer Wins Dresden Peace Prize
Yes, a lawyer won a peace prize. Roger Cox, a Dutch climate lawyer who took on Shell, has been awarded the 2022 Dresden Peace Prize for winning a case that inspired similar cases around the world. On behalf of Friends of the Earth, Cox won a ruling in a Dutch
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: EVs will not disrupt the grid
electricity. That assumption is encouraged by utilities and vested interests enriched by massive spending to build unneeded capacity. Of course, the global oil industry has its own reasons for promoting the idea that electrification of transportation will be disruptive
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: An untapped energy source
Humans need stable energy supplies that do not harm the Earth and an underutilized source lies beneath our feet. Geothermal is clean, limitless, predictable, and almost carbon free. But geothermal has no multi-trillion-dollar industry promoting it, nor support from Canadian politicians conditioned to follow established paths. Mostly that means subsidizing
Continue readingThings Are Good: Beer Cans for Passive Heating
They aren’t just for transporting a yummy beverage, beer cans can be used to create passive heating too. A simple contraption that you can make in your spare time can save you heating costs and help reduce your carbon footprint. A beer can heating system, like the one in the
Continue readingThings Are Good: One Way Maritimers can Drastically Reduce their Energy Consumption
Canada’s Maritime provinces are blustery, cold, and powered by coal. The weather is fine for most people (and lovely in the summer), but they know they need to transition to renewable energy quickly or risk losing more land to the seas and worsening storms due to climate change. The work
Continue readingThings Are Good: See Through Solar Panels
The future is powered by renewables, and the more sources of electricity we have the more resilient our power grid will be. Researches at Michigan State University have created a solar film that can be applied to existing windows to generate electricity from the sun. The system is not as
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