Temperature hikes driven by global warming have helped make this summer’s wildfire season in North America one for the history books. Now experts are beginning to wonder if Western forests, which evolved over aeons in a cooler, wetter world to coexist with seasonal fire, may be fundamentally changed as a result.
Sunday, August 30th, 2015
David H. Bailey and Jonathan M. Borwein , Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (retired) and University of California, Davis (Bailey) and Laureate Professor of Mathematics, University of Newcastle, Australia (Borwein) - The Huffington Post
Stephan: Everyone who reads SR regularly knows I have been following the saga of "cold fusion," now known as Low Energy Nuclear Reaction (LENR) since Fleischmann and Pons of the University of Utah first reported the phenomenon. Lots of twists and turns, frequent general craziness, but slow forward motion as well. Here is the latest, and I still think we are headed for game changing good news.
Rossi LENR apparatus Credit: www.extremetech.com
Introduction
The world faces a grim future if we do not immediately rein in consumption of fossil fuels. Risks include rising sea levels, more frequent extreme temperatures, flooding, drought and conflicts among human societies. An eventual sea level rise of 6 meters now seems pretty much assured. Additionally, July 2015 is now officially the hottest single month in recorded history.
In spite of these truly sobering developments, some are seeing rays of hope. Prices of solar photovoltaic panels have dropped considerably. Observers predicted in 2000 that wind-generated power worldwide would reach 30 GWatts by 2010; it exceeded 200 GWatts, and by 2014 it was 370 GWatts. These developments have led some, such as former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, to be cautiously optimistic.
Nonetheless, there is still an enormous gap between current carbon consumption and where we need to be (some argue that we must zero out carbon emissions altogether, and soon). While solar photovoltaic and wind systems are a great boon for green energy, […]
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Sunday, August 30th, 2015
Steven B. Krivit, - New Energy Times
Stephan: It takes 72 critical raw materials to sustain a modern advanced nation, and Japan is deficient in whole or part in 69 of them -- including petroleum. As a result it is a country particularly attuned to advances that free them from dependency. LENR is one such technology, and this is the latest from Japan. As Mr. Holmes said: "The game is afoot..."
For the first time in two decades, the Japanese government has issued a request for proposals for low-energy nuclear reaction (LENR) research, according to information recently obtained by New Energy Times.
The request for proposals was published by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), a national research and development agency.
The request for proposals, “Energy and the Environment New Leading Technology Program,” was released in July. The line item for the LENR research is on PDF Page 16, item D4. The item translates to “Metal which becomes new energy source and analysis and control of the technology of heat reactions between metals and hydrogen.”
New Energy Times spoke with Aya Iwasuji, at the Silicon Valley office of NEDO, and exchanged several e-mails with her about the program, which is also funding 10 other areas of new-energy research.
“The budget for this program this year is ¥3,410,000,000 [$27 million],” Iwasuji wrote.
In response to a request for more details about item D4, Iwasuji referred New Energy Times to NEDO’s Japan headquarters. A NEDO representative responded on Aug. 13.
“Unfortunately,” the representative wrote, “we can’t give you any information about item D4 other than […]
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Saturday, August 29th, 2015
Maxine Perella, - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: Here some excellent and optimistic news about university education. Not just another program for greed sponges. Most of it is happening outside of the U.S. but at least it is happening and it offers promise for innovation and new solutions.
The circular economy presents a chance for young people to take charge of their lives by being creative, innovative and resourceful.
Credit: Photofusion/REX
“So many of my classmates and other friends say ‘I want to change the world’. The amazing thing is that most of us believe we can.” Max Hornick, a 26-year-old student at Western Michigan University, is reflecting on how the circular economy is inspiring young people to work for the social good.
Together with a team of four other students at WMU, Hornick recently won the 2015 Wege Prize for sustainable thinking with Local Loop Farms, an aquaponics food production concept that has since evolved into a community agricultural start-up.
“One of the biggest struggles we are facing as the global population grows is finding a way to feed […]
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Saturday, August 29th, 2015
Nicholas Guyatt, - The Raw Story/Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: Nobody in corporate media will touch this story, and the trend it describes. But I think this neo-medievalism is one of the most powerful political forces in American society today, one that shapes our geopolitical policies particularly in the middle east.
Would you take advice on politics from a man who believes the end of the world is nigh? The answer for millions of people in the US is yes
Last year the Texas pastor John Hagee presided over the ninth annual summit of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), which describes itself as “the largest pro-Israel organisation in the United States”. Five thousand evangelicals gathered in Washington to hear a distinguished roster of speakers including six US senators, a former director of the CIA and the Israeli ambassador to the US. Binyamin Netanyahu sent a recorded message; he couldn’t be there because Israel was at war in the Gaza Strip. Nearly a thousand civilians had already been killed, and even Israel’s staunchest allies were calling for restraint. But Hagee demanded that Netanyahu be allowed to “finish the job” in Gaza. When he had finished, the pastor led other delegates up Capitol Hill to lobby those lawmakers who hadn’t shown up.
Hagee’s journey from a San Antonio megachurch to the halls of Congress has not been without setbacks. In 2008, after he endorsed the […]
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Would you take advice on politics from a man who believes the end of the world is nigh? The answer for millions of people in the US is yes
