Relative to my post, There Oughta Be a Law, on energy recovery, see this terrific article from Worldwatch, A Bridge to the Renewable Energy Future, fleshing out this “…largely overlooked but potent way to minimize fossil fuel use and the damage it causes.” On the same subject, see also this from earlier in the summer at RenewableEnergyWorld.com.
I mentioned an article recently on the paradox of China’s surge toward renewables and its massive pollution problems. Here is an article on the latter: Lead Sickens 1,300 Children in China. I would have less tolerance for what the Chinese are subjecting their people to if the West hadn’t already done this for more than a century – and then finally wised up. I have but one word for our Chinese brothers and sisters: leapfrog!
Further to my recent notes on biochar here, and the article I did for Grist, see Turning charcoal into Carbon Gold at The Guardian. The piece profiles the good folks at a company in Britain that sees a ₤1 billion industry there. I have been telling friends who are gardeners that you won’t be able to walk into a garden store in five years and not see 100 pound bags of biochar for sale.
Finally, here are a couple of views of what we saw yesterday driving by Sanlucar la Mayor outside of Seville. (See my last post below.) It’s a pretty compelling site on a blindingly sunny day in Andalusia – which is, of course, the norm – to see these ghostly shafts of sunlight mounting to the tower collecting all that power to generate electricity. (For more, see this from Agengoa.)
We are going to see much more of this in the future. If Seville, Phoenix, Tucson, Mexico City, Los Angeles, San Diego – and an awful lot of other major cities in the world – aren’t 100% powered by solar in ten years, it’ll be a huge missed opportunity.
