Stephan: I have just returned being the keynote at a conference held at Lyndon State College in Vermont. Flying to Burlington from where I start is not easy. I flew on United, in normal unaugmented coach. When I got on the plane I walked through first class, which offered little individual alcoves where one could lie down. Then into Business, smaller two abreast, but offering leg room to put one's legs straight out. And finally steerage. Imagine a shaft 30" x 30" In that space you sit three abreast, then on the same row 4 seats, then another aisle and three seats. Flying economy is an ugly experience.
In order to increase profits the industry business model depends on making people miserable. The class differences on that plane were so blatant it reminded me of the movie Titanic. This article is the most intelligent thing I have read on this subject.
United Airlines First Class accommodation. Credit: tuvie.com
This fall, JetBlue airline finally threw in the towel. For years, the company was among the last holdouts in the face of an industry trend toward smaller seats, higher fees, and other forms of unpleasantness. JetBlue distinguished itself by providing decent, fee-free service for everyone, an approach that seemed to be working: passengers liked the airline, and it made a consistent profit. Wall Street analysts, however, accused JetBlue of being “overly brand-conscious and customer-focussed.” In November, the airline, under new management, announced that it would follow United, Delta, and the other major carriers by cramming more seats into economy, shrinking leg room, and charging a range of new fees for things like bags and WiFi.
It seems that the money was just too good to resist. In 2013, the major airlines combined made about $31.5 billion in income from fees, as well as other ancillaries, such as redeeming credit-card points. United pulled in more than $5.7 billion in fees and other ancillary income in […]
Stephan: Here is the latest on the Vortex Bladeless wind technology. I think this is where wind is going. This technology eliminates several objections people have to wind power bladed turbines. And they are going to be much cheaper. This is very good news.
I think the next step we are going to see is wind, solar, storage battery mixed individual house systems that take people off the grid. I think people will line up to buy them, and significant fortunes will be made by increasing wellness. Energy is going decentralize no matter what the carbon industries do to block the transition.
That said there is about a 65% chance that monopolistic carbon era energy corporations will be too dumb and greedy to see the inevitability of the trend, and will defend carbon energy until it simply withers and dies like the gas lamp industry. By the time their executives wake up it will be too late. And I calculate this will happen by 2045.
Vortex Bladeless wind generator field.
A 1940 clip of the Tacoma Narrows suspension bridge in the United States stretching like chewing gum in a gale captured the imagination of a Spanish engineering student who became obsessed with how he could turn that chaos into power.
Twelve years later, David Yanez is part of a team inspired by the motion that collapsed the bridge to create a bladeless wind turbine – an inverted-cone-shaped structure half the cost of a conventional machine.
“You could see a structure with no gears or bearings capable of absorbing large quantities of wind energy,” David Yanez recalls of the footage of the bridge. He was standing on a hill in central Spain in front of a slim, gently oscillating prototype, the size of a small tree.
His company, Vortex Bladeless, is a rare bright spot in a Spanish renewable energy industry badly damaged by loss of investor faith after Spain rowed back on subsidy promises at the height of the eurozone debt crisis.
After the company invested around 1 million euros ($1.1 million) in public and private […]
Stephan: This is an example of the degradation of the American food system. It is also a powerful example of the great geopolitical trend of the age: the transfer of power from nation states to corporate states. You can't find a word in the media about this, but it is as profound a change as the rise of nation states in the 19th century.
WASHINGTON — Under threat of trade retaliation from Canada and Mexico, the House has voted to to repeal a law requiring country-of-origin labels on packages of beef, pork and poultry.
The World Trade Organization rejected a U.S. appeal last month, ruling the labels that say where animals were born, raised and slaughtered are discriminatory against the two U.S. border countries. Both have said they plan to ask the WTO for permission to impose billions of dollars in tariffs on American goods.
The House voted 300-131 to repeal labels that tell consumers what countries the meat is from — for example, “born in Canada, raised and slaughtered in the United States” or “born, raised and slaughtered in the United States.”
The WTO ruled against the labels last year. The Obama administration has already revised the labels once to try to comply with previous WTO rulings. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has said it’s up to Congress to change the law to avoid retaliation from the two countries.
The law was initially written at the behest of northern U.S. ranchers who compete with the Canadian cattle industry. It also was backed by consumer advocates who say it helps shoppers know where their food comes from. Supporters have […]
Stephan: Although people like the Koch brothers are doing all they can to keep us mired in the carbon age, the future is non-carbon, and here is some very good news as to how that is happening.
Hawaii enacted a law this week that mandates that all of the state’s electricity comes from renewable sources no later than 2045. The bill makes Hawaii the first U.S. state to adopt such a standard. This renewable energy standard is being hailed as “the most aggressive clean energy goal in the country.”
“Hawaii is making history, not only for the islands, but for the planet,” said Jeff Mikulina, executive director of the Blue Planet Foundation. “We are making a promise to future generations that their lives will be powered not by climate-changing fossil fuel, but by clean, local and sustainable sources of energy.”
Hawaii adopts nation’s first 100% renewable energy requirement after a Blue Planet Foundation-led campaign. Photo credit: Blue Planet Foundation
Hazel Sheffield , Reporter - The Independent (U.K.)
Stephan: To me it is glaringly notable that American media does not do significant coverage about what is going on in Iceland.
Here's what they should be talking about: All of the world's nations except Iceland bought into Austerity Economics. Most, including the U.S. did little or nothing about holding the people responsible for crashing the world's economy and diminishing the quality of life and economic security. These policies have led to growing inequity of wealth, and impoverishment of people once solidly in the middle class.
Iceland took a different course, and now we have actual data, as this reports describes, as to how that is working out: "This year, Iceland will become the first European country that hit crisis in 2008 to beat its pre-crisis peak of economic output."
We know what works. The relevant question then is: Why aren't we doing it?
Iceland’s finance minister has announced a 39 per cent tax on investors looking to take their money overseas.
The country has imposed the tax to prevent it hemorrhaging money as it loosens bank laws imposed six years ago, when Iceland made the shocking decision to let its banks go bust.
Iceland also allowed bankers to be prosecuted as criminals – in contrast to the US and Europe, where banks were fined, but chief executives escaped punishment.
The chief executive, chairman, Luxembourg ceo and second largest shareholder of Kaupthing, an Icelandic bank that collapsed, were sentenced in February to between four and five years in prison for market manipulation.
“Why should we have a part of our society that is not being policed or without responsibility?” said special prosecutor Olafur Hauksson at the time. “It is dangerous that someone is too big to investigate – it gives a sense there is a safe haven.”
