Wednesday, July 22nd, 2015
Tam Hunt, - greentechmedia
Stephan: Here is follow on data to augment the report I did the other day on Chinese electric buses, as well as an earlier one about a new electric long-haul truck.
Some, on the basis of a recent University of North Carolina study, have argued that electric vehicles actually have a larger environmental footprint than gasoline vehicles. I read that study and found it deeply flawed.
Than came across this assessment of the UNC study which, I think gives the truth of the matter: ev vehicles are already more environmentally sound, and the trend will only gather momentum, as noncarbon (not nuclear) prices drop and efficiencies increase. Carbon energy is on the way out, just as whale oil and kerosene lamps were rendered irrelevant and archaic.
A recent study from a team led by Mark Holland from North Carolina University makes a remarkable statement, that “electric vehicles, on average, generate greater environmental externalities than gasoline vehicles.” The study compares electric vehicles (EVs) with gasoline vehicles and finds EVs wanting.
The key problem with the paper is that it uses already-outdated data and doesn’t in its main analysis consider the ongoing transformation of our grid, which changes the chief results quite remarkably. The culprit behind the Holland study’s findings is good old coal. But King Coal is dying in the U.S.
The grid is changing rapidly around the country. In fact, we are in the middle of a massive transformation of our electricity grid, as illustrated in Figure 1. The most obvious trends are a major reduction in coal power generation and a concomitant increase in natural gas generation. A less obvious trend, but more important for the long term, is a doubling of non-hydro renewables from 3.1 percent to 6.9 percent.
Figure 1: U.S. Electric Grid Mix, 2008 and 2014
Source: […]
No Comments
Wednesday, July 22nd, 2015
Stephan: Here is a very sad truth about obesity. This is a condition best dealt with in the preventive phase. But, for the poor who are preyed on and financially milked by the food industry, and who have few alternatives to processed crap, it can be very difficult to prevent what follows from such a corporate diet. It's hard to get fresh greens when the only food store in the neighborhood is a convenience liquor store.
Apart from experiencing the vicious cycle of improper eating habits, people who are extremely obese have a very slim chance of returning to a normal weight. (emphasis added)
This is according to a research team from King’s College London, whose recent study looked into health data of close to 280,000 people in the U.K. diagnosed with obesity. Results of the study, which was published in the American Journal of Public Health and reported in a news release, revealed that people who have a body mass index (BMI) of 40 or above have difficulty getting their target weights — that is, only one in every 1,290 males and 1 in 477 females can achieve this monumental feat.
Study first author Dr. Alison Fildes emphasized how important it is for people to lose weight. “Losing 5-10% of your body weight has been shown to have meaningful health benefits and is often recommended as a weight loss target,” (emphasis added) Fildes said. However, the study confirmed the challenge that extremely obese people have to go through. “These findings highlight how […]
No Comments
Mark Hertsgaard, - The Daily Beast
Stephan: James Hansen a quarter of a century ago was the first person to alert the world to climate change, and his forecasts ever since have proven to be amongst the most accurate of anyone in climate science. I agree with every word of this interview with Hansen; he spells out what is coming very clearly. For a regular SR reader it will all be very familiar. The unanswered question is knowing this does the political will exist to save our civilization? What do you think?
James Hansen
Credit: Columbia University
James Hansen, the former NASA scientist whose congressional testimony put global warming on the world’s agenda a quarter-century ago, is now warning that humanity could confront “sea level rise of several meters” before the end of the century unless greenhouse gas emissions are slashed much faster than currently contemplated.
This roughly 10 feet of sea level rise—well beyond previous estimates—would render coastal cities such as New York, London, and Shanghai uninhabitable. “Parts of [our coastal cities] would still be sticking above the water,” Hansen says, “but you couldn’t live there.”
This apocalyptic scenario illustrates why the goal of limiting temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius is not the safe “guardrail” most politicians and media coverage imply it is, argue Hansen and 16 colleagues in a blockbuster study they are publishing this week in the peer-reviewed journal Atmospheric Physics and Chemistry. On the contrary, a 2 C future would be “highly dangerous.”
If Hansen is right—and he has been right, sooner, about the big issues in […]
No Comments
Peter Montgomery, Senior Fellow at People For the American Way Foundation - Alternet (U.S.)
Stephan: This is the clearest exegetic essay on the political views and goals of the Theocratic Right that I have read. It is well sourced, and should be the focus of major public debate. However, the corporate media won't touch it in any meaningful way.
The psychoses of the Right wouldn't matter so much if civilization altering climate change were not underway and our response to it being filtered through the distortions of this Biblical prism.
Credit: Shutterstock
In February, the culture warriors at Iowa’s “pro-family” group The Family Leader distributed personalized copies of The Founders’ Bible to every member of the state legislature as part of their lobby day—or as they put it in an invitation letter, the “war with Satan, who has taken many captive in Des Moines.”(1)Greg Baker, Director of Ambassador Church Network, told pastors that the goal of “The Iowa Capitol Project” is to help legislators “do what God has asked them to do,” and The Founders’ Bible should help given its “compelling content pertaining to their job at the Capitol.” (2)
Most of that “compelling content” —the non-biblical part anyway—comes courtesy of David Barton, the Republican Party activist and self-styled historian whose “Christian nation” revisionism informs the rhetoric of conservative pundits and politicians.(3) But Barton’s essays go beyond his claims about the biblical origins of the U.S. Constitution; The Founders’ Bible, a New American Standard Bible translation, is also filled with Barton’s arguments that right-wing economic policies are divinely mandated.
Though Barton’s work […]
No Comments
John B. Alexander, Ph.D., - The Huffington Post
Stephan: SR reader, geopolitical military specialist, and former Special Forces officer and combat leader John Alexander has demonstrated an acute eye for assessing the excesses and myopias of the military-intelligence world. He presents a discouraging portrait of that world, particularly when one realizes how vast are the sums being commandeered from the public treasury by the war industry. Money desperately needed elsewhere.
The fall of Mosel to ISIS in June, 2014 was not anticipated by the established intelligence experts in the Department of Defense. As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey, stated on PBS Frontline, “There were several things that surprised us about [the Islamic State], the degree to which they were able to form their own coalition both inside of Syria and inside of northwestern Iraq, the military capability they exhibited, the collapse of the Iraqi security forces. Yeah, in those initial days, there were a few surprises.”
While this seems like an amazing admission to many analysts, it really shouldn’t be. It is symptomatic of a broader problem, one that is harder to admit and has been endemic for decades, if not centuries. That problem is establishing self-reporting systems that only encourage and reward reports that indicate progress is being made and fit the established politically correct scenario. It is the proverbial “Light at the end of the tunnel” that keeps drawing in those who willfully disregard facts that are not deemed good news.
During the early phases of the Vietnam conflict it was a consummate manager, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, who emphasized the quantification of war. […]
No Comments
A recent study from a team led by Mark Holland from North Carolina University makes a remarkable statement, that “electric vehicles, on average, generate greater environmental externalities than gasoline vehicles.” The study compares electric vehicles (EVs) with gasoline vehicles and finds EVs wanting.
