Whoo boy. Environmentalists face an uphill battle in the wilds of the Internet. Environmentalism is no longer regarded as a dominant plank for both political parties in improving American quality of life. Has environmental protection been too successful? Has it worked its way out of a job?
If you think or write about alternative energy now, there is no doubt that you’ve got some Amory Lovins in your DNA. He’s like the Genghis Khan of the alt energy tribe; almost every one of us is sort of a descendent. Hell, he even got made into a comic book character (above) in the [...]
Green technology is changing so rapidly, one can hardly keep up with all the new solar and wind projects planned across the world. So, what can history bring to the study of such a fast-moving, innovative field?
The skyscraper is a monument to power and the money-makes-right moral triumph of the people who built it. And in an ascendant America, though the richest might have financed the construction, all who were living in the country could share in the pleasure of knowing that it was Americans who were able to spend the most money. Our rich could beat up their rich. In the salad days of Dubai, the same financial force was on display.
Out there, where lots of things are happening at the scale of the global economy, it's just not that weird to have a 250 acres of mirrors making steam to turn a turbine. Or at least not much weirder than the Zappo's warehouse run by quasi-autonomous robots near Vegas.
"Viewed from the standpoint of the Smoke Inspector, the 1,600,000 people of Chicago are divided into two classes—First, those who create a smoke nuisance; Second, those who are compelled to tolerate a smoke nuisance. One class has radical champions who maintain that smoke is an irrepressible necessity; a concomitant of the commercial and manufacturing supremacy of Chicago; that smoke not only is not unhealthy, but that it is an actual disinfectant."