An epic breakthrough for enhanced geothermal, the rise of reforestation drones, a one-year report card for the Inflation Reduction Act, giraffe reintroduction in Angola, and more!
You guys are going to hate me!! I'm a member of the Oregon Natural Desert Association and I think there's some concern over here about drilling impacts on our desert especially the McDermott lithium exploration and the geothermal exploration to the west. Renewables are great! Wind, solar, hydro, geothermal. All are positive! But they come at costs. Rewilding us stymied. Even the tire tracks of exploration vehicles last for hundreds of years. Drilling through shallow pressurised aquifers can lead to loss of springs and small ponds that support endangered wildlife. Ash Meadows Wildlife refuge in Nevada is in danger of that from nearby drilling. It's all part of the industrialization of the wild landscape. Wind power is wonderful until you see what happened to the Columbia River gorge east of the protected area. All to support a bunch of large cities and urbanites with their lattes!
I really respect what you're saying and where you're coming from, Michael-not hating on you at all! It must be hard to come to know and love a landscape, and then see tire tracks, wind farms, and other signs of human civilization changing the face of it.
But the thing is, we're in a climate crisis with the potential for really scary long-term impacts (as your science fiction recently highlighted!), and we really, really need all the lithium mining, geothermal, and other low-carbon energy we can get to hold warming down to as little as possible! All forms of energy have tradeoffs-renewables are the safest, cleanest, and cheapest sources of energy we can get right now. (See https://ourworldindata.org/safest-sources-of-energy).
As Bill McKibben said in my recent interview with him, "It’s clear that people are going to object sometimes to [renewable energy]. I think that they should first think about questions like, “If it’s not in my backyard, whose backyard is going to get wrecked by climate change?”
Thanks Sam! What I'm hoping for is room temperature sustained fusion power. Once we have that our power problems will be gone forever! But we'll still be consuming resources, some of which can be met by the innovations like the lignite reduced CRISPER trees, but some requiring traditional extractive tech. What I would put top on my wish list is for us to voluntarily reduce our numbers down to a more sustainable billion or so. So I'm in favor of negative population growth, the sooner the better!
Can you elaborate so I can better understand? I'm elderly- so old I'm on my fourth bottle of Tabasco! So old that though I'm a member of the Secret Six, I forgot who the other Five were!
Love your humour Michael. I went to school with the other five, I think one was called Enid. Anyway it seems to me that Big Oil & co are attempting to reduce the population way down to a lot less than Zero, and that we should all resist, by refusing to buy their products. Ergo - reverse climate change. Hope this helps. Peace, Maurice
You guys are going to hate me!! I'm a member of the Oregon Natural Desert Association and I think there's some concern over here about drilling impacts on our desert especially the McDermott lithium exploration and the geothermal exploration to the west. Renewables are great! Wind, solar, hydro, geothermal. All are positive! But they come at costs. Rewilding us stymied. Even the tire tracks of exploration vehicles last for hundreds of years. Drilling through shallow pressurised aquifers can lead to loss of springs and small ponds that support endangered wildlife. Ash Meadows Wildlife refuge in Nevada is in danger of that from nearby drilling. It's all part of the industrialization of the wild landscape. Wind power is wonderful until you see what happened to the Columbia River gorge east of the protected area. All to support a bunch of large cities and urbanites with their lattes!
Don't hate on me too much..
--desert rat Michael
I really respect what you're saying and where you're coming from, Michael-not hating on you at all! It must be hard to come to know and love a landscape, and then see tire tracks, wind farms, and other signs of human civilization changing the face of it.
But the thing is, we're in a climate crisis with the potential for really scary long-term impacts (as your science fiction recently highlighted!), and we really, really need all the lithium mining, geothermal, and other low-carbon energy we can get to hold warming down to as little as possible! All forms of energy have tradeoffs-renewables are the safest, cleanest, and cheapest sources of energy we can get right now. (See https://ourworldindata.org/safest-sources-of-energy).
As Bill McKibben said in my recent interview with him, "It’s clear that people are going to object sometimes to [renewable energy]. I think that they should first think about questions like, “If it’s not in my backyard, whose backyard is going to get wrecked by climate change?”
Thanks Sam! What I'm hoping for is room temperature sustained fusion power. Once we have that our power problems will be gone forever! But we'll still be consuming resources, some of which can be met by the innovations like the lignite reduced CRISPER trees, but some requiring traditional extractive tech. What I would put top on my wish list is for us to voluntarily reduce our numbers down to a more sustainable billion or so. So I'm in favor of negative population growth, the sooner the better!
Absolutely Michael, but going beyond VOLUNTARY human breeding would too serious to attempt. Far better to force the oil pollution remedies......
Can you elaborate so I can better understand? I'm elderly- so old I'm on my fourth bottle of Tabasco! So old that though I'm a member of the Secret Six, I forgot who the other Five were!
Love your humour Michael. I went to school with the other five, I think one was called Enid. Anyway it seems to me that Big Oil & co are attempting to reduce the population way down to a lot less than Zero, and that we should all resist, by refusing to buy their products. Ergo - reverse climate change. Hope this helps. Peace, Maurice
Go geothermal!
Go, go!