Category Archives: rationality

On the simple pleasures of Solar

(To see a larger figure, click on image. To return to blog, use your browser’s Back Button.) RevoluSun installed our SunPower solar panels late last year, and they came online on 31st December 2015. We have made a number of … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to somewhere, clean disruption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, disruption, distributed generation, efficiency, electricity, electricity markets, energy utilities, engineering, fossil fuel divestment, grid defection, Hermann Scheer, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy, ISO-NE, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, local generation, Massachusetts, microgrids, New England, optimization, public utility commissions, PUCs, rate of return regulation, rationality, reasonableness, RevoluSun, Sankey diagram, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, SolarPV.tv, Spaceship Earth, SunPower, sustainability, the energy of the people, the green century, the value of financial assets, Tony Seba, zero carbon | Leave a comment

synopsis of NY-REV

What New York State is doing, and Massachusetts, apparently not. Cheap supplies of domestic natural gas have driven the New England power plant market toward that fuel and away from the more expensive coal, oil and nuclear material. Limited capacity … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to somewhere, Buckminster Fuller, business, causal diagrams, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate justice, coastal communities, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, disruption, distributed generation, ecology, economics, efficiency, electricity markets, energy, energy storage, energy utilities, engineering, environment, extended supply chains, feed-in tariff, fossil fuel divestment, global warming, greenhouse gases, grid defection, Hyper Anthropocene, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, Joseph Schumpeter, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, marginal energy sources, meteorology, microgrids, rate of return regulation, rationality, reasonableness, regime shifts, regulatory capture, risk, Sankey diagram, solar domination, solar energy, Solar Freakin' Roadways, solar power, SolarPV.tv, Spaceship Earth, stranded assets, sustainability, temporal myopia, the energy of the people, the green century, the right to know, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets, Tony Seba, utility company death spiral, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | 1 Comment

George Monbiot: On leaving fossil fuels in the ground

Posted in Anthropocene, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, causal diagrams, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, conservation, consumption, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, denial, destructive economic development, disruption, distributed generation, ecology, economics, energy, environment, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, geophysics, George Monbiot, global warming, greenhouse gases, grid defection, Hermann Scheer, Hyper Anthropocene, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, perceptions, philosophy, rate of return regulation, rationality, reasonableness, Sankey diagram, supply chains, the problem of evil, the right to be and act stupid, the right to know, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets, zero carbon | Leave a comment

10+ kilowatts (!) from a PV with 29 SunPower panels designed and installed by RevoluSun

(Click on image to see larger figure. Use your browser Back Button to return to blog.)

Posted in Anthropocene, bridge to somewhere, clean disruption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, destructive economic development, distributed generation, electricity, electricity markets, fossil fuel divestment, grid defection, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy, local generation, microgrids, rate of return regulation, rationality, reasonableness, RevoluSun, Sankey diagram, solar energy, solar power, SolarPV.tv, Spaceship Earth, SunPower, sustainability, the energy of the people, the green century, the value of financial assets, time series, Tony Seba, zero carbon | 1 Comment

Facebook, Alphabet, Walmart, General Motors, and others create corporate Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance

Major United States corporations form a renewable energy buyers alliance. Facebook, Alphabet (Google’s new name), Walmart, and General Motors, while the environmental groups include the Rocky Mountain Institute, the World Resources Institute and the World Wildlife Fund. Fed up with … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, Bloomberg, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, bridge to somewhere, Buckminster Fuller, causal diagrams, citizenship, clean disruption, climate change, climate disruption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, destructive economic development, disruption, distributed generation, Ecology Action, efficiency, energy, energy reduction, energy storage, energy utilities, engineering, environment, fossil fuel divestment, global warming, greenhouse gases, grid defection, Hermann Scheer, Hyper Anthropocene, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, local generation, Massachusetts, meteorology, microgrids, moral leadership, rate of return regulation, rationality, reasonableness, Sankey diagram, solar domination, solar energy, Solar Freakin' Roadways, solar power, SolarPV.tv, Spaceship Earth, Tony Seba, utility company death spiral, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | Leave a comment

“Once a change is inevitable, it’s not whether I get on board, it’s when do I get on board?”

… When I was a young engineer, and if somebody asked us, ‘Is it possible to integrate more than 5% of solar and wind power into the system?’ all experienced engineers said ‘No way. We will face serious problems and … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, Buckminster Fuller, Carbon Worshipers, citizenship, clean disruption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, destructive economic development, disruption, electricity markets, energy utilities, engineering, fear uncertainty and doubt, fossil fuel divestment, games of chance, grid defection, investment in wind and solar energy, ISO-NE, local generation, Mark Jacobson, Massachusetts, New England, rationality, reasonableness, resiliency, Sankey diagram, solar domination, solar energy, Solar Freakin' Roadways, solar power, SolarPV.tv, the energy of the people, the green century, Tony Seba, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | 2 Comments

Akamai’s Network to Be Powered by the Sun and the Wind – The Akamai Blog

Source: Akamai’s Network to Be Powered by the Sun and the Wind – The Akamai Blog Excerpts: Beyond sustainability stewardship, the business case is not so much about locking in fixed energy pricing. It’s about anticipating the market trend. Clean-powered, … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Akamai Technologies, Anthropocene, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to somewhere, clean disruption, climate disruption, data centers, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, destructive economic development, distributed generation, ecology, economics, efficiency, electricity markets, energy, energy reduction, engineering, environment, evidence, Faster Forward, fossil fuel divestment, global warming, greenhouse gases, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy, long-term contract for differences, mitigation, rationality, reasonableness, solar domination, solar energy, Solar Freakin' Roadways, solar power, SolarPV.tv, Spaceship Earth, supply chains, the energy of the people, the green century, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets, utility company death spiral, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | Leave a comment

Mayor Robert Hedlund demonstrates awesome moral leadership

Mayor Robert Hedlund demonstrates awesome moral leadership Here’s Mayor Hedlund’s statement from his Facebook page: As State Senator, I fought and opposed Spectra’s proposed compressor station in North Weymouth. As Mayor, I took a hard and proactive stance in opposition … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to nowhere, Carbon Worshipers, citizenship, clean disruption, consumption, corruption, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, electricity, electricity markets, energy, energy utilities, extended supply chains, FERC, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, gas pipeline leaks, greenhouse gases, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy, local generation, methane, moral leadership, natural gas, pipelines, rate of return regulation, rationality, reasonableness, regulatory capture, temporal myopia, the problem of evil, the right to be and act stupid, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets | Leave a comment

videos of the week, the blocking pattern edition

(This is another new, weekly feature, like the 8:00 a.m. mashup recently introduced, intending to collect a group of videos together for your enjoyment.) Don’t know how many realize it or not, but New England weather is blocked. That’s why … Continue reading

Posted in American Petroleum Institute, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, Buckminster Fuller, Cape Wind, Carbon Worshipers, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, conservation, consumption, Debbie Dooley, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, destructive economic development, disruption, distributed generation, economics, electricity, electricity markets, energy, energy reduction, energy storage, energy utilities, engineering, feed-in tariff, fossil fuel divestment, grid defection, investment in wind and solar energy, local generation, mesh models, microgrids, public utility commissions, PUCs, rate of return regulation, rationality, reasonableness, regulatory capture, Sankey diagram, solar energy, Solar Freakin' Roadways, solar power, SolarPV.tv, Spaceship Earth, Tony Seba, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | Leave a comment

Cory Lesmeister’s treatment of Simson’s Paradox (at “Fear and Loathing in Data Science”)

(Updated 2016-05-08, to provide reference for plateaus of ML functions in vicinity of MLE.) Simpson’s Paradox is one of those phenomena of data which really give Statistics a substance and a role, beyond the roles it inherits from, say, theoretical … Continue reading

Posted in Akaike Information Criterion, approximate Bayesian computation, Bayes, Bayesian, evidence, Frequentist, games of chance, information theoretic statistics, Kalman filter, likelihood-free, mathematics, maths, maximum likelihood, Monte Carlo Statistical Methods, probabilistic programming, rationality, Rauch-Tung-Striebel, Simpson's Paradox, state-space models, statistical dependence, statistics, stochastics | Leave a comment

The Patch blows O’Donnell’s “alert on solar panels” out of proportion, botches it, and deletes my comment correcting them

The Foxborough Patch, one of a network of cheap-looking online news outlets, carried an edited version of Norfolk County Registrar of Deeds “alert” regarding solar panels. One can ask if Registrar William O’Donnell might have had other motivations for issuing … Continue reading

Posted in Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, Buckminster Fuller, clean disruption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, distributed generation, economics, efficiency, electricity, electricity markets, energy, energy reduction, energy utilities, fossil fuel divestment, grid defection, Hermann Scheer, investment in wind and solar energy, ISO-NE, local generation, Massachusetts, microgrids, rate of return regulation, rationality, reasonableness, regulatory capture, RevoluSun, risk, Sankey diagram, solar domination, solar energy, Solar Freakin' Roadways, solar power, SolarPV.tv, Spaceship Earth, the energy of the people, the green century, the value of financial assets, Tony Seba, utility company death spiral, zero carbon | Leave a comment

REV-NY

So, Massachusetts, why can’t you do this instead of proposing to build new explosive pipelines?

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, Arnold Schwarzennegger, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to somewhere, civilization, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, coastal communities, conservation, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, disruption, distributed generation, economics, efficiency, electricity, electricity markets, energy reduction, energy storage, energy utilities, engineering, environment, feed-in tariff, fossil fuel divestment, global warming, greenhouse gases, grid defection, Hyper Anthropocene, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, ISO-NE, Life Cycle Assessment, local generation, Mark Jacobson, mesh models, meteorology, methane, natural gas, networks, Our Children's Trust, pipelines, public utility commissions, PUCs, rate of return regulation, rationality, reasonableness, regulatory capture, resiliency, Sankey diagram, solar domination, solar energy, Solar Freakin' Roadways, solar power, SolarPV.tv, Spaceship Earth, sustainability, the energy of the people, the green century, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets, utility company death spiral, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | 1 Comment

“Oil’s Big Dive” (by Peter Sinclair)

From Peter Sinclair’s Climate Denial Crock of the Week.

Posted in American Petroleum Institute, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to nowhere, Carbon Worshipers, Chevron, citizenship, clean disruption, conservation, consumption, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, corporate supply chains, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, disruption, distributed generation, economics, energy, energy reduction, energy utilities, engineering, extended supply chains, Exxon, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, fracking, Gulf Oil, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, local generation, methane, natural gas, petroleum, pipelines, public utility commissions, PUCs, rate of return regulation, rationality, reasonableness, regime shifts, regulatory capture, resiliency, risk, Sankey diagram, solar domination, supply chains, Texaco, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets, utility company death spiral | Leave a comment

Karl Rabago at the Rhode Island state legislature

(There was a glitch in the original link of this video, leaving it about 11 minutes long. The full hour and 10 minutes is now available.) Karl Rabago is an expert on the value of renewable energy. This talk examines … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, conservation, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, disruption, distributed generation, electricity, electricity markets, energy, energy reduction, energy utilities, engineering, environment, fossil fuel divestment, grid defection, investment in wind and solar energy, ISO-NE, local generation, marginal energy sources, microgrids, New England, planning, politics, public utility commissions, PUCs, rate of return regulation, rationality, reasonableness, resiliency, Sankey diagram, solar domination, solar energy, Solar Freakin' Roadways, solar power, SolarPV.tv, sustainability, temporal myopia, the energy of the people, the green century, Tony Seba, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | 3 Comments

Germany’s Energiewende aims to make baseload power obsolete

In a December 2015 article in Forbes, William Pentland seeks to answer the question “What is so revolutionary about Germany’s Energiewende?” Mr Pentland begins: Germany’s energy revolution has become the perennial punching bag of American energy policy. In particular, American … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, Arnold Schwarzennegger, bifurcations, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to somewhere, Buckminster Fuller, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, disruption, distributed generation, Ecology Action, efficiency, EIA, electricity, electricity markets, energy, energy reduction, energy storage, energy utilities, engineering, Epcot, feed-in tariff, FERC, fossil fuel divestment, grid defection, Hermann Scheer, Hyper Anthropocene, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, ISO-NE, Joseph Schumpeter, liberal climate deniers, local generation, marginal energy sources, mesh models, microgrids, optimization, planning, politics, public utility commissions, PUCs, rate of return regulation, rationality, reasonableness, regime shifts, regulatory capture, Sankey diagram, solar domination, solar energy, Solar Freakin' Roadways, solar power, SolarPV.tv, Spaceship Earth, sustainability, the energy of the people, the green century, the value of financial assets, Tony Seba, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | 1 Comment

Our Children’s Trust

Washington State Climate Lawsuit has a second win for the plantiffs. Detailed complaint here. The details are available at Our Children’s Trust. In granting the youth a remedy, Judge Hill noted the extraordinary circumstances of the climate crisis, saying, “this … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, bridge to somewhere, carbon dioxide, case law, citizenship, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate justice, corruption, Ecology Action, environment, environmental law, ethics, fossil fuel divestment, geophysics, global warming, greenhouse gases, Hyper Anthropocene, James Hansen, MA, Massachusetts, organizational failures, Our Children's Trust, politics, public utility commissions, PUCs, rate of return regulation, rationality, reasonableness, regulatory capture, science, Spaceship Earth, sustainability, the energy of the people, the right to be and act stupid, the tragedy of our present civilization, zero carbon | 1 Comment

Mr Buffett bets the farm

From Dr James Hansen’s blog, of today. So, Mr. Buffett, I am heartened by the words in your last annual report, where you conclude that continued inaction on climate change “is foolhardy.” You wrote: “Call this Noah’s Law: If an … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, climate change, climate disruption, climate justice, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, environment, extended supply chains, games of chance, geophysics, global warming, greenhouse gases, hurricanes, Hyper Anthropocene, insurance, investing, James Hansen, liberal climate deniers, meteorology, oceanography, physics, rate of return regulation, rationality, reasonableness, science, statistical dependence, statistics, sustainability, the right to be and act stupid, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets, Wally Broecker, Warren Buffett, zero carbon | Leave a comment

This is what the future looks like, for towns and villages — and utilities

Welcome to Minster, Ohio. (Hat tip to Clean Technica.) Check One: A 4.3 MW solar array. Check Two: A history of being supportive to local residents, and a plan for making them more efficient and reducing their electrical energy needs. … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to somewhere, Buckminster Fuller, business, clean disruption, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, distributed generation, economics, electricity markets, energy, energy reduction, energy storage, energy utilities, engineering, grid defection, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy, local generation, microgrids, politics, public utility commissions, PUCs, rate of return regulation, rationality, reasonableness, regime shifts, regulatory capture, risk, Sankey diagram, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, SolarPV.tv, Spaceship Earth, sustainability, the energy of the people, the green century, the value of financial assets, Tony Seba, wind energy, zero carbon | 8 Comments

Kevin Anderson’s latest

Also note Oxfam’s “World’s richest 10% produce half of carbon emissions while poorest 3.5 billion account for just a tenth“. Update, 2016-04-28: And what, exactly, does the Paris agreement (COP21) mean? See this story.

Posted in adaptation, agriculture, Anthropocene, biofuels, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, bridge to nowhere, bridge to somewhere, carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide capture, Carbon Worshipers, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate change, climate data, climate disruption, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, denial, destructive economic development, disruption, distributed generation, ecology, efficiency, electricity, electricity markets, energy, energy reduction, energy storage, energy utilities, environment, ethics, evidence, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, fracking, global warming, greenhouse gases, grid defection, Hyper Anthropocene, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, Kevin Anderson, liberal climate deniers, local generation, microgrids, natural gas, rationality, reasonableness, science, sustainability, the right to be and act stupid, the right to know, the tragedy of our present civilization, zero carbon | 1 Comment

Boston, are you ready?

Yeah, how about warming up the seas a bit more by building pipelines, buying into more explosive methane (*), and encouraging fracked gas people to export? What could it hurt? There are many alternatives, most sketched here on this blog. … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, AMETSOC, Anthropocene, bollocks, Boston, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, climate change, climate disruption, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, corruption, disingenuity, ecology, evidence, false advertising, floods, Florida, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, fracking, geophysics, global warming, greenwashing, Hyper Anthropocene, MA, Massachusetts, methane, mitigation, natural gas, NOAA, nor'easters, physics, pipelines, prediction, rate of return regulation, rationality, reasonableness, regulatory capture, science, sea level rise, sustainability, the right to be and act stupid, the right to know, the tragedy of our present civilization, utility company death spiral | 1 Comment

This Earth Day: The Data

(Amendments on 25the April 2016.) Sorry, folks, it’s It’s not just El Niño. El Niño’s have gotten bigger over the years. (Click on image for a larger picture. Use your browser Back Button to return to blog.) (Click on image … Continue reading

Posted in American Petroleum Institute, Antarctica, Anthropocene, Arctic, Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project, BEST, Bill Nye, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, Chevron, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate education, climate justice, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, corruption, Dan Satterfield, ecology, El Nina, El Nino, ENSO, environment, evidence, Exxon, false advertising, fear uncertainty and doubt, fossil fuels, fracking, geophysics, glaciers, glaciology, global warming, greenhouse gases, Gulf Oil, Hyper Anthropocene, ice sheet dynamics, icesheets, ignorance, James Hansen, John Cook, La Nina, meteorology, NASA, NCAR, NOAA, oceanography, open data, organizational failures, physics, rationality, reasonableness, regulatory capture, science, science education, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, sea level rise, selfishness, Spaceship Earth, statistics, sustainability, Texaco, the problem of evil, the right to know, the tragedy of our present civilization, UU Humanists, WAIS, WHOI, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, zero carbon | Leave a comment

Bye, bye Kinder-Morgan! Spectra, hey, listen up: Why don’t you do the same?

(Click on image to see larger picture, and use browser Back Button to return to blog.) Energy giant Kinder Morgan Inc. has pulled the plug on its controversial natural gas pipeline proposed through parts of Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire, … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to nowhere, Carbon Worshipers, citizenship, clean disruption, climate, climate disruption, climate justice, consumption, corruption, destructive economic development, FERC, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, fracking, global warming, greenhouse gases, grid defection, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, lobbying, local generation, Massachusetts, methane, pipelines, public utility commissions, PUCs, rate of return regulation, rationality, reasonableness, regime shifts, regulatory capture, Sankey diagram, supply chains, the energy of the people, the green century, the right to know, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets, zero carbon | Leave a comment

“Preserving the climate can also save you money.”

“Can you power a business on 100% renewable energy? Ikea wants to try.” From Guardian sustainable business The new bottom line. I also monitor Bloomberg New Energy Finance. (Update: 2016-04-20) And not preserving the climate will be very, very expensive, … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, Arnold Schwarzennegger, Bloomberg, bridge to somewhere, Buckminster Fuller, carbon dioxide, citizenship, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, corporate supply chains, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, destructive economic development, disruption, distributed generation, economics, efficiency, electricity, electricity markets, energy, energy reduction, energy storage, energy utilities, environment, extended supply chains, fossil fuel divestment, global warming, greenhouse gases, grid defection, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, investment in wind and solar energy, local generation, meteorology, microgrids, mitigation, public utility commissions, PUCs, rate of return regulation, rationality, reasonableness, regime shifts, regulatory capture, Sankey diagram, solar domination, solar energy, Solar Freakin' Roadways, solar power, SolarPV.tv, supply chains, temporal myopia, the energy of the people, the green century, the right to know, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets, Tony Seba, utility company death spiral, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | Leave a comment

Ray Kurzweil predicts dominance of energy industry by Solar in 12 years

Read it and weep, Carbon Worshippers. Facts are, with so much cheap solar electricity around, even if its supply is uneven in any particular locale, (a) the energy storage business will have big incentives to roll out, and roll out … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, Bill Nye, Bloomberg, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to somewhere, Carbon Worshipers, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, distributed generation, economics, efficiency, electricity, energy, engineering, environment, exponential growth, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, grid defection, Hermann Scheer, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy, liberal climate deniers, local generation, planning, politics, population dynamics, public utility commissions, PUCs, quantitative ecology, rate of return regulation, rationality, Ray Kurzweil, reasonableness, regime shifts, regulatory capture, Sankey diagram, solar domination, solar energy, Solar Freakin' Roadways, solar power, SolarPV.tv, Stanford University, sustainability, the energy of the people, the green century, the value of financial assets, Tony Seba, utility company death spiral, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | Leave a comment

Remember 2012?

“Welcome to the rest of our lives …” Peter Sinclair speculates 2016 will be as bad and possibly worse than 2012.

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project, Carbon Worshipers, climate, climate change, climate data, climate disruption, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, denial, environment, Exxon, FEMA, forecasting, forest fires, fossil fuels, fracking, games of chance, geophysics, George Sughihara, global warming, greenhouse gases, Hermann Scheer, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, liberal climate deniers, Mathematics and Climate Research Network, meteorology, physics, rationality, reasonableness, regime shifts, science, the right to be and act stupid, the right to know, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets | Leave a comment

Clear of all trees

One drawback of solar panels at our home site is a significant stand of conifers to our southwest. (Click image for a larger picture. Use browser Back Button to return to blog.) It’s clear when the trees are casting shadows … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to somewhere, clean disruption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, distributed generation, electricity, energy, energy reduction, fossil fuel divestment, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy, rationality, reasonableness, Sankey diagram, scattering, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, SolarPV.tv, the energy of the people, the green century, time series, utility company death spiral, zero carbon | Leave a comment

“Things going fast”: Summary of a class on climate disruption taught by Professor Ricky Rood

Dr Ricky Rood is a professor at the University of Michigan, both a meteorologist and climate scientist, and a regular contributor to the climate and weather blogs at Weather Underground. In a post from April 6th (titled “No Way to … Continue reading

Posted in AMETSOC, Antarctica, Arctic, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate justice, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, environment, evidence, fossil fuels, geophysics, glaciers, glaciology, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, James Hansen, liberal climate deniers, MA, marine biology, Massachusetts, meteorology, methane, MIchael Mann, natural gas, New England, physics, quantitative biology, quantitative ecology, rationality, reasonableness, Ricky Rood, science, sea level rise, sustainability, the right to be and act stupid, the right to know, the tragedy of our present civilization, zero carbon | 1 Comment

A Sankey diagram showing influence of big oil on climate policy

I’ve written about Sankey diagrams before. Here’s a novel use: InfluenceMap has used a Sankey diagram to demonstrate “How much big oil spends on obstructive climate lobbying”. The figure that’s available for media is shown below. (Click on image to … Continue reading

Posted in American Petroleum Institute, Anthropocene, Bloomberg, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, Chevron, citizenship, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate education, climate justice, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, data science, destructive economic development, disingenuity, economics, education, energy, Exxon, false advertising, fear uncertainty and doubt, fossil fuels, global warming, greenhouse gases, Gulf Oil, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, lobbying, methane, natural gas, pipelines, politics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, Sankey diagram, Standard Oil of California, Texaco, the value of financial assets | 1 Comment

Gavin Simpson updates his temperature analysis

See the very interesting discussion at his blog, From the bottom of the heap. It would be nice to see some information theoretic measures on these results, though.

Posted in AMETSOC, Anthropocene, astrophysics, Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project, carbon dioxide, changepoint detection, climate, climate change, climate data, climate disruption, climate models, ecology, environment, evidence, Gavin Simpson, Generalize Additive Models, geophysics, global warming, HadCRUT4, hiatus, Hyper Anthropocene, information theoretic statistics, Kalman filter, maths, meteorology, numerical analysis, R, rationality, reasonableness, splines, time series | Leave a comment

ComEd: Enabling a smarter (utility) platform

Commonwealth Edison is reinventing itself as a smart energy platform, amidst New York State’s reforming the energy vision (“REV”) initiative.

Posted in Anthropocene, bridge to somewhere, causal diagrams, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, distributed generation, economics, efficiency, electricity, electricity markets, energy, energy utilities, engineering, extended supply chains, fossil fuel divestment, grid defection, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, local generation, microgrids, planning, public utility commissions, PUCs, rate of return regulation, rationality, reasonableness, regime shifts, regulatory capture, Sankey diagram, solar domination, solar energy, Solar Freakin' Roadways, solar power, SolarPV.tv, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | Leave a comment