How to feed the world

 

stop having so many kids

sorry to be callous but the planet is already way above capacity, if we were a restaurant the fire department would shut us down.

Better use and conservation of water, less petrol-fertilizers, genetic engineering, etc. are all good ideas but can come nowhere near solving the problem of global hunger.

Historically overpopulation has always seen a reaction from the forces of natural selection; Plagues

In fact, most of us carry genes that render us immune to the plagues our ancestors survived.

A long term stategy is important and it will be necessary to tell people they do not have the right to procreate if they can’t provide for the offspring.

If we don’t address the problem, mother nature may have to do it for us and I don’t think anyone would like a serious pandemic to solve the problem.

 

Supermodels for a good cause, 350.org

350.org

A friend of mine made this video and I think it is a good way to get people’s attention…clearly we need a new approach to get people to take climate change seriously.

The production was done very well and  Bill O’Reilly doesn’t like it so that’s a good sign.

General Electric doesn’t have a very high opinion of the consumer

GE,

I’m disappointed.

I work in a hardware store and we have three basic types of lightbulbs for general use,

Incandescent:  The original Thomas Edison invention, they use 3% of the electricity to produce light and the rest of the electricity produces heat.  Essentially it is a very small fire.

Compact Flourescent (the spiral bulbs) :   A smaller version of the long straight flourescent lights most frequently used in supermarkets, they use about half the electricity to produce the same amount of light as an incandescent. Unfortunately they contain mercury and in a perfect world would be thrown out at a hazardous waste dump.

L.E.D (Light emitting Diode):  An old technology redone is our modern age, they can use 4 watts of electricity to produce the same amount of light as an incandescent 60 watt.  They also last five times as long as anything else.  They cost way too much right now.

So to come up with an “energy efficient” bulb, GE reduced Edison’s 60 watt bulbs to 57  to respond to California’s demand that they waste less electricity.

bravo

For Sale and Help Wanted Boston 1885

The financial news Boston October 22 1885

Pollution in the Charles River

pollution

I just read a book called Zodiac by Neal Stephanson and I liked it very much mostly because it takes place in Boston, the rivers and harbor which I know quite well.

It made me realize how different things are now in terms of pollution. In the eighties even the Charles and the Inner harbor were totally toxic, and I remember seeing the remnants.

44 Pleasant street in Watertown and behind all buildings to the west of there was poison. The small waterfall directly to the east had shopping cart, plastic bags, and all sorts of unidentifiable trash. I saw a large transistor and battery once.

Me and my friends played in the extensive muck  surrounding the beginning of the smooth Charles, past the tiny waterfall in Watertown.

Creepy trees growing out of slime

All still water a magic petroleum of rainbow colors

sink to the knees take many showers

But now like many places in Boston, IE Southie and the Combat Zone, the river has been gentrified.

Rich folks lead to clean rivers and corners and I suppose it’s not a bad thing, the Charles River in Watertown smells good and in the former combat zone there is nary a hooker or coke dealer to be seen.

The point is that at least in North America (excluding Mexico) the populous seems to have a proper outrage at being poisoned and so at least on the surface, plants can grow again.

I liked Ted Kennedy

even though he caused a great many traffic jams that I got stuck in…

“Bostonians like the feeling of being steeped in history,” Ted Kennedy wrote. “They give special deference to the old — the ancient building, the small shops, the restaurants with the large overhead fans where their grandfathers ate, …the old characters who stand around the Court House.”

Calpine

The best  and most plentiful source of power on this planet is geological activity.  I have mentioned this belief before particularly when talking about what exactly the oil companies will do when the oil runs out.

I have recently become a resident of the State of California so instead of trying to cover national companies, I will focus on companies in the Southwest in addition to ones in New England.

This corporation has a longish history of natural gas plants in Wisconsin and the Southwest and has a truly sustainable geothermal plant in Northern California. It is estimated that the development meets 60 percent of the power demand for the coastal region between the Golden Gate Bridge and the Oregon state line.^[1]

The Geysers, a geothermal power field located 72 miles (116 km) north of San Francisco, California, is the largest geothermal development in the world. . The Geysers consists of 22 separate power plants that utilize steam from more than 350 producing wells. The Calpine Corporation operates and owns 19 of the 22 facilities. The other three facilities are operated by the Northern California Power Agency and the Western GeoPower Corporation.

It is currently outputting over 750 MW

And I have a great history of the company from someone who knows them well, both from a financial and personal perspective:

Calpine had a hard time of it
because of the nature of the energy business and its proximity to National
Security.  When Enron was overbought and tried to characterize loan
payments to various off-the-books entities such as Chewco and Raptor
(Raptor was also the name of a state of the art jet program at the Defense
Department) as revenue, their competitive entities, the oil companies,
banks, insurers and the U.S. Government, did it in with the Enron Task
Force (ETF is also the acronym for Electronically Traded Funds)–because,
as the saying goes–the public must diversify!).  Anyway, the spill-off
from Enron, 911 and the NYSE shut down by Grasso et al., didn’t help
Calpine to say the least.  Their funding was cut off and Buffett (yes
Warren) demanded pipeline companies carry more insurance coverage due to
the terrorist threat.   It took six years to bankrupt Calpine and in late
2007 they filed Chapter 11.  They emerged from bankruptcy with a five
billion dollar loan in 2008.  They have various properties generating
geo-thermal power and build gas-fired power plants internationally.
Calpine has several “bases” headquarter loci, among them San Jose
California and Houston Texas and have a large Canadian real estate
portfolio including natural gas related interests.

-John

Conflicting results

I got some harsh feedback from the last post, particularly because of the idea that sea levels are not rising. The UN hired some scientists to research levels rising and when they found no positive results they were fired and replaced with scientists who found results more in line with the rest of the report.

don’t overestimate our knowledge of the global climate, particularly it’s influences and reactions, very little about the climate is intuitive

the earth is on a much larger time scale, we have existed for the smallest fraction of time and may not be as powerful as we think…I hope not.  Take a look at scenarios showing t what would happen if humans disappeared instantly.

The tides are mysterious, oddly enough in the 19th century we had the tides down to the minute but that’s a secret lost in the modern age.  Perhaps this is because it isn’t necessary  to sail on the tides anymore, I’ve had to do that when a motor broke and it’s quite a pain in the ass.

-we know more about the moon than the ocean

–this is not a reason to think emissions and pollution are not dangerous

at this point all sides of the political debate are throwing out a lot of BS…lots of spin on both sides.

find the studies by Dr. Nils-Axel Mörner, he’s an expert in the field despite the slander of fools.

“It offends the human ego that nature is indifferent to our dreams”

This post is somewhat dated, I’ve been moving and haven’t had internet.

I forget where I heard that quote but if you haven’t guessed it relates to the G8’s “decision” not to allow an increase in global temp of more than 2C

This is dumb because it implies that we have a lot more control over global climate than we do.

Yes reducing carbon emissions would help the planet get back to an equilibrium but whether we can actually stop the current trends initiated more than two hundred years ago is a different question.

It is arrogant to state we have this much control over nature and stupid to assume that we know what will happen as temperatures rise.

Take sea level rise for example, IT IS NOT HAPPENING.  This is not to say we shouldn’t reduce emissions and be clean for the future, just that symbolic goals without any reason to believe we can accomplish them doesn’t seem like the most effective way to change things.

…Particularly not when developing countries (ie the majority of the world) refuse to abide by this “decision”