Wednesday, March 14th, 2018
Stephan: Wherever he can Trump is doing his best to sabotage the alternative energy industries. Here is the latest.
The result is going to be that instead of leading the world into the non-carbon era, the United States is going to be one of the catch up countries, and our world leadership will be greatly diminished.
Solar panels at a Pacific Gas and Electric solar plant in Dixon, California.
Credit: Rich Pedroncelli / AP
President Donald Trump’s foray into trade protectionism heartened a handful of manufacturers in a deeply challenged industry but upset a much larger group of thriving downstream businesses that say they will lose sales and shed employees during what should be a boom time.
The steel and aluminum business? No, that’s the response to Trump’s first major tariff — the one he imposed in late Januaryon solar cells and panels made overseas. Companies that have been thriving installing rooftop solar panels say the 30 percent levy on imports has dealt their businesses a heavy blow.
The tariff may help a handful of surviving U.S. companies that make photovoltaic cells and the panels made of the cells, allowing them to compete with much cheaper imports from China and elsewhere. In one twist on the Trump policy, though, the American subsidiary of a Chinese solar giant may be one of the first clear beneficiaries of the policy.
Companies that […]
No Comments
Wednesday, March 14th, 2018
Damian Carrington, - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: Scientists have been warning humanity for years about plastic pollution. It has had no measurable effect, and so we have gotten to this. I doubt it will make much difference either. The fact is human greed just trumps everything.
Plastic pollution is known to harm marine life and can enter the human food chain via our food and water. Credit: Will Rose/Greenpeace
The number of tiny plastic pieces polluting the world’s oceans is vastly greater than thought, new research indicates.
The work reveals the highest microplastic pollution yet discovered anywhere in the world in a river near Manchester in the UK. It also shows that the major floods in the area in 2015-16 flushed more than 40bn pieces of microplastic into the sea.
The surge of such a vast amount of microplastic from one small river catchment in a single event led the scientists to conclude that the current estimate for the number of particles in the ocean – five trillion – is a major underestimate.
Microplastics include broken-down plastic waste, synthetic fibres and beads found in personal hygiene products. They are known to harm marine life, which mistake them for food, and can be consumed by humans too via seafood, tap water or other food. […]
2 Comments
Tuesday, March 13th, 2018
Mark Sumner , - Daily Kos
Stephan: From talking with people and reading websites and emails it is obvious to me that a very large percentage of Americans live and think in a toxic bubble of propaganda and misinformation. In my view it is the price we have paid as a society for the internet and social media, and it is eating our democracy alive. What is worse is that it has enflamed partisanship and made actual facts dangerous to distribute.
It is to counter this trend that I keep doing SR, even though it is becoming more expensive and complicated to do so month by month. SR is about facts and I do it in hopes that it will help people who care about facts to have the ammunition they need to defend wellbeing.
To give you an example of what I mean: As of 7:45 p.m. PDT, SR has sustained 3,839 blocked malicious login attempts since 1 January. Were it not for the expertise of my wonderful diligent webmaster Beth Alexander, and the various security programs to which she subscribes SR, I have no doubt that it would have been crushed by the assaults. A lot of people don't like facts and they don't want people to know them.
This article is based on a research paper in science:
The Spread of True and False News Online.
Credit: AFP
There’s a story this week about fusion energy. Without getting into details, it suggests that high temperature superconductors have made sustained, greater-than-break-even fusion something that’s much more readily achievable at a smaller scale and lower price, meaning that fusion power might at last move off the drawing board and onto the grid. And it might do so at a reduced price point and greater pace when compared to previous predictions. That’s all true, and it sounds fantastic—if a little overly optimistic for those who have been watching the fusion dream maintain its twenty-years-away estimate for the last fifty years.
But here’s another story. These new fusion plants are going to be so small, and so cheap, that they’ll not only power your home, they’ll run your car. In a decade, the hydrogen in a few drops of water could power your electrical needs for weeks at a time. Think about that “arc reactor” on Iron Man’s chest, then think about something similar powering everything in your home. And […]
1 Comment
Tuesday, March 13th, 2018
Stephan: Several readers wrote to ask me which are the worst quality of life states and which party dominates the politics of those states. The 10 worst states to live in are:
10. Kentucky - Republican dominance
9 (tie). New Mexico - Democratic dominance
9 (tie). Tennessee - Republican dominance
7. Mississippi - Republican dominance
6. Indiana - Republican dominance
5. Missouri - Republican dominance
4. Arkansas - Republican dominance
3. Oklahoma - Republican dominance
2. Louisiana - Republican dominance
1. Alabama - Republican dominance
Here's the report.
Credit: Jonathan Bachman | Reuters
Far be it from us to throw shade on your home sweet home, but the data does not lie. The Quality of Life category in our annual America’s Top States for Business study ranks all 50 states on overall livability based on metrics, including crime rate, attractions, air quality, health and health care and legal protections against discrimination. Quality of Life is worth a possible 300 out of 2,500 total points in the study, based on the Top States methodology and sources. Journey with us now through this year’s Top States hall of shame — the 10 bottom states for quality of life.
10. KENTUCKY
The Bluegrass State is in the heart of tobacco country, and residents here would do well to lay off the local product a bit. More than a quarter of adults are regular smokers in Kentucky, the highest rate in the country. The state also has the nation’s highest rate of cancer deaths and one of the highest rates of cardiovascular […]
3 Comments
Tuesday, March 13th, 2018
Sam Perkins, - Catawba RiverKeeper
Stephan: The EPA, which is now controlled by the corporations it is supposed to regulate is no where to be seen as a report is issued on Duke Energy radioactive contamination at 11 of its 18 plants. If you live in proximity to any of these Duke Energy plants it might be worth your health to have a nuclear test done.
duke-energy-logo
Data show high levels of radioactivity at 11 of 18 Duke plants
Today is the deadline for coal-fired power plants to post the results of their groundwater monitoring under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2015 rule regulating the storage and disposal of coal ash. EPA required such monitoring to determine the extent to which coal ash impoundments and landfills were contaminating groundwater. The results confirm the widespread groundwater contamination caused by coal ash around the country. In particular, Duke Energy’s results reveal startlingly high levels of radioactivity at 11 out of 18 plants.
Contrary to industry practices, Duke Energy did not summarize its groundwater monitoring results in a table, instead burying results in more than 20,000 pages of lab results. Earthjustice Senior Attorney Lisa Evans took a closer look at the data, and found what Duke Energy might have been trying to hide: high levels of radioactivity at a majority of its plants.
“The way Duke Energy presented its data showed a clear intent to obscure the findings,” said Lisa Evans. […]
1 Comment
