tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37209834931491605022024-03-17T20:03:30.026-07:00BIODIVERSIVISTCombine the neologism diversivist (similar to progressivist but defined as one who promotes diversity) with the Greek root bio to make yet another neologism and portmanteau, biodiversivist--one who promotes biodiversity.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger225125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720983493149160502.post-60247061605390889072021-09-18T11:03:00.017-07:002023-12-24T13:21:24.025-08:00Book Review: The Rational Optimist--How Prosperity Evolves Photo courtesy of s.red via FlickrArticle originally published in 2011.Just how rational are we? Had the optimists not prevailed would the Titanic have sailed? I've read most of Ridley's books and have recently read my favorite, The Red Queen-Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature for the second time.
I was looking forward to this book, which started out good. He spends an inordinate amountUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720983493149160502.post-46105997140611343202018-04-14T15:25:00.007-07:002022-10-27T09:19:27.907-07:00Breaking the Cycle of Anti-nuclear Indoctrination--TribalismIn a nutshell, indoctrination is all about creating an "us verses them" mindset ...to create imaginary ingroups and outgroups. Facts are irrelevant. The following podcast made it clear to me how and why indoctrination works.
Go here for the transcript of a podcast titled Tribal Psychology on the You are Not so Smart (a celebration of self-delusion) website. I suspect that the grammatical Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720983493149160502.post-80806546160406005692018-03-10T13:21:00.003-08:002018-04-15T05:51:28.376-07:00Breaking the Cycle of Anti-nuclear Indoctrination--the "Electric vehicles will store excess electricity from wind and solar" argument
My old Leaf, my new Bolt, and a Tesla Model S
From a comment field under a GTM article:
Me:
I just bought my second generation electric car because my old car battery has finally reached the point that I can't reliably do my commute without hitting a fast charger. That would have happened sooner had the utility been sharing it.
Anonymous anti-nuclear indoctrination victim:
Actually, no:
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720983493149160502.post-91051520092688421132018-02-23T16:41:00.003-08:002018-03-11T06:29:14.981-07:00I've decided on the Chevy Bolt
Tesla Model 3
I wrote an article last year titled Which Electric Car Would you buy, Bolt, 2018 Leaf, Model 3, Model S, or Model X? and received some really excellent advice in the comment field. It's decision time because I'll soon be commuting to a location just out of round-trip range of my 2011 Leaf and I don't want to hit a fast charger as part of that commute.
The Tesla Model 3 Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720983493149160502.post-16002173616320454652018-02-16T10:24:00.000-08:002018-04-15T06:06:23.184-07:00Breaking the Cycle of Anti-nuclear Indoctrination--the "Nuclear is a mature industry" argument
Back in the day, Senator Bernie Sanders was using Grist Magazine to lobby against government assistance for nuclear energy on the grounds that it's a mature industry. I might agree with him if it really were a mature industry and if renewables really could carry the day without it. But it isn't, and renewables can't. Always irritates me to watch ignorant politicians screw with my children's Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720983493149160502.post-7686265734768428842018-02-15T13:34:00.003-08:002018-04-22T15:59:25.975-07:00Breaking the Cycle of Anti-nuclear Indoctrination--The "Nuclear power stations will be disabled by a lack of water, warming water, rising sea levels, storms, and on and on" argumentsIn their zeal to attack nuclear energy, the anti-nuclear crowd reached argument overkill (or one of its many synonyms) long ago. As is the case with climate skeptics, for every anti-nuclear argument put to rest, like in a game of whack-a-mole, another springs forth to replace it. Use of nuclear power is untenable because of:
High water
Low water
NRC water temperature limits
EPA water Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720983493149160502.post-84193797532248777722018-02-13T08:30:00.000-08:002018-04-14T16:13:17.870-07:00Breaking the Cycle of Anti-nuclear Indoctrination
From a comment under one of my articles:
"It's pretty obvious that tons of people have gotten duped on nuclear energy. Do you (or anyone else) have an idea why that is?"
My reply:
Start by listing all of your favorite nuclear war apocalypse science-fiction novels and movies.
Conflate nuclear weapons with nuclear power stations.
Terrorize the public with false claims like "Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720983493149160502.post-54795383473187374512018-02-11T08:04:00.001-08:002018-02-13T09:12:47.652-08:00Breaking the Cycle of Anti-nuclear Indoctrination--The "80% renewables" argumentI highly recommend this excellent presentation by Jesse Jenkins explaining why (assuming it's possible) an 80% wind and solar grid is not likely a good idea. From a Tweet by Joris van Dorp:
I first encountered this argument in an article last year by the anti-nuclear David Roberts writing for Vox. My response:
Above, Dave puts a pair of sentences back-to-back to give you the impression that Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720983493149160502.post-3318445498060067632018-01-24T19:33:00.000-08:002018-04-15T06:02:19.681-07:00Breaking The Cycle of Anti-nuclear Indoctrination -- Uranium Mine Tailings Argument
Above is a photo I took of a Toucan while I was in the Brazilian Cerrado. Not a birder, have no idea which species it is. I'm including because it brings me pleasure and as a reminder of why I blog about the environment.
Below is a collection of quotes from comments under a pro-nuclear article at Grist:
The "waste" problem from nuclear power isn't the "spent" fuel, it's the tailings piles Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720983493149160502.post-46494942421892605862017-11-24T20:44:00.000-08:002018-01-24T19:37:14.012-08:00Peer Review of Wendover Production's "The Nuclear Waste Problem" Youtube Video
Above images from Nuclear Energy Waste--Making Mountains Out of Mole Hills
The YouTube video, The Nuclear Waste Problem was published on November 21, and went viral with about half a million hits in a few days. I learned of its existence when it was presented to me as irrefutable evidence for why nuclear can't be part of the climate change solution.
Technically, it's quite well done. The Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720983493149160502.post-44482378683700147232017-11-15T13:44:00.000-08:002018-01-24T19:41:03.893-08:00Simon Holmes à Court thinks 100% Renewable Energy has been Demonstrated to be Possible in AustraliaMore Twitter activity from Simon.
He starts by asking:
nuclear twitter: does anyone have a simple LCoE for a nuclear power station? i'd love to better understand the economics.
If he's an energy expert, I have to wonder why he's asking for data from strangers on Twitter. You wouldn't see the likes of James Hansen doing that for one of his many papers published in Science and elsewhere. And as Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720983493149160502.post-16587365250689412852017-11-08T14:10:00.003-08:002018-02-11T07:08:22.978-08:00Environmental Progress--The Power to Decarbonize
Figure 1
Environmental Progress has a new study out that I found very compelling. It's just raw data arranged in a manner that paints a global picture. Critics can't punch holes in it by attacking assumptions chosen because it doesn't have any. In a nutshell, it shows a strong global correlation between nuclear energy use and lower carbon intensity, but no such correlation between wind Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720983493149160502.post-74898581898724043352017-10-28T13:10:00.001-07:002017-11-11T12:41:55.542-08:00Simon Holmes à Court would support fast, cheap, safe, small, flexible nuclearThis post is motivated by a Tweet by Simon who very much thinks he has an open mind about nuclear energy ...like all antinuclearists, but like all antinuclearists, he really doesn't. He's like the creationist who would love to believe the theory of evolution ...if the data would only support it. Classic case of self-delusion combined with a little cognitive dissonance.
His Twitter homepage introUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720983493149160502.post-45912362244832082642017-10-24T17:09:00.002-07:002017-10-28T10:56:15.846-07:00Now for the bad news: 75% decline in insect biomass over 27 years
More than 75 percent decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas
Warning of 'ecological Armageddon' after dramatic plunge in insect numbers
Insectageddon: farming is more catastrophic than climate breakdown
In a nutshell, no insects = no ecosystem.
I recently took a trip to the Brazilian Cerrado and Pantanal. Click on this link to see photos and videos of someUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720983493149160502.post-54058643827271917422017-10-20T09:03:00.000-07:002017-10-28T10:55:23.680-07:00First the good news; South Korea’s nuclear will stay online thanks, I strongly suspect, in large part to the efforts of Michael Shellenberger and Environmental Progress
Update 10/25/2017: Moon announced that he still plans to phase out nuclear even though they will finish the two under construction, which makes no sense. Build two brand new power stations only to close them down? Call me a cynic, but he probably thought the citizen group would vote against finishing the reactors, taking the all the heat (used as scapegoats). Plan backfired, so, time will tellUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720983493149160502.post-18580432875611777982017-09-20T13:47:00.001-07:002017-09-20T13:47:11.735-07:00Twitter debate, a new oxymoron
As a kid, did you ever play a game where you try to talk with someone while under water? That's what it's like to debate someone on Twitter.
This page serves as a place holder for Disqus comments about Twitter comments.
Twitter is great for disseminating links but was not designed for discussion or debate.
Go to the comments section under this page to join in ...or just lurk.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720983493149160502.post-5206786775954126422017-09-17T09:39:00.000-07:002017-10-18T20:25:30.905-07:00Trip to the Brazilian Cerrado and Pantanal
I’ll be blogging this week about my trip to the Brazilian Cerrado and Pantanal, where there is still a great deal of biodiversity left, although, how much longer it will be there, I can’t say. There’s an assortment of insects crawling across my computer screen as I type. I’ll be sticking random photos that I’ve taken while here into the posts.Click on any image to initiate a Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720983493149160502.post-27027720631546343242017-08-17T15:50:00.000-07:002017-10-18T20:27:36.757-07:00More thoughts on the robustness of Mark Jacobson’s 100% renewable energy plan
Figure 1: Trickle-down solar collector test rig
When I first saw the paper critiquing Jacobson's 100% renewables plan (see here, here, here, and here) I thought to myself, “If he denies there are any mistakes but then makes changes, I'll know that the critiques had at least some measure of validity.” Lo and behold, after denying that there were any mistakes, he immediately made revisions to Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720983493149160502.post-37833048865152305472017-08-03T11:00:00.000-07:002017-10-18T20:28:48.055-07:00Greenpeace isn't the only one, the UCS, Sierra Club, FOE, and even the WWF, to name just a few, all share the blame.
Michael Shellenberger is going after Greenpeace in a series of articles exposing their disingenuous anti-nuclear energy activities. More power to him.
Climate change isn't a global conspiracy by scientists to solicit research funding.
Climate change is the result of mass global deforestation and the combustion of billions of tons of hydrocarbons that have been stored underground for Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720983493149160502.post-7418890711086479042017-07-23T11:05:00.003-07:002017-10-18T20:29:18.945-07:00Has anti-nuclear fear mongering nullified all progress made by wind and solar since 2000?
Figure 1 Emissions increase resulting from nuclear closures
"Twitter debate" is an oxymoron but once in a while I go down the rabbit hole, and when others get involved, it quickly devolves into a confused muddle not too unlike Alice in Wonderland.
It started when I responded to a tweet by Jonathan Gilligan:
At this point, I mentioned that fear, not economic competition had Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720983493149160502.post-26289353889424492052017-07-09T10:15:00.001-07:002018-02-14T09:02:07.214-08:00David Roberts--Solar saving lives while intense battles rage across the country as batteries neuter attempts by utilities to attack it!
Figure 1 NREL Study Results
David Roberts has recently published two new somewhat obtuse energy articles:
Solar power is already saving lives in the US. Here's how
Utilities fighting against rooftop solar are only hastening their own doom
The first is a rehash of a joint 2016 Berkeley Labs and National Renewable Energy Lab study touting the benefits of solar titled The Environmental and Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720983493149160502.post-21708458751675399802017-07-04T13:31:00.001-07:002017-07-24T19:47:06.326-07:00The 44% Nuclear, 35% Renewables, 21% Natural Gas Low Carbon Grid
Typical Rube Goldberg machine with its many attendant assumptions and potential failure nodes
Proposed coast-to-coast HVDC super-grid with its many attendant assumptions and potential failure nodes
Would a continent-sized super HVDC grid be a Rube Goldberg machine writ large?
Back in the day, you would have been hard-pressed to find an article on the internet critical of biofuels. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720983493149160502.post-61687508626580761372017-06-13T08:43:00.002-07:002017-07-03T11:51:59.960-07:00Bounding the Renewables-Nuclear Debate
Figure 1: From NREL Renewable Electricity Futures Study
Very few people out there are arguing for a 100% nuclear future, and most are not arguing for a 100% renewable future. When we toss the extreme views out, the debate is over how much of what.
If you bound your debate to electricity generation in 2017 in a given geographical area, say, Seattle, you get:
Hydro 87.3%
Nuclear 4.7%
Wind 3.1Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720983493149160502.post-59204132128579314312017-05-30T11:44:00.002-07:002017-06-12T12:04:07.921-07:00Do We Have the Tools to End the Fossil Fuel Age?<!--[if gte mso 9]>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720983493149160502.post-25113834442350296252017-05-24T09:28:00.001-07:002017-05-25T19:08:48.542-07:00Amory Lovins's Comments on a Fred Pearce PostI recently stumbled on a comment by Amory Lovins under an article by Fred Pearce at Yale 360 called Industry Meltdown: Is the Era of Nuclear Power Coming to an End?
360 holds every comment for moderation, which tends to thwart any meaningful dialog but that's a little better than no comment field at all (VOX), and much better than CleanTechnica's method of systematically censoring comments and Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0