Distributed Solar: The Democratizaton of Energy
Category Archives: UU Humanists
Winter composting: How to make friends with microbes and defy weather (podcast, too)
(Slightly updated 2019-04-08, although the podcast has not been updated to be consistent.) (This blog post is accompanied by an explanatory podcast. See below.) Many people compost. It can be easy or hard, depending upon your tolerance for turning and … Continue reading
Posted in agroecology, argoecology, Botany, Carbon Cycle, composting, ecological services, Ecological Society of America, ecology, engineering, environment, fermentation, First Parish Needham, karma, local self reliance, Nature, science, solid waste management, sustainability, sustainable landscaping, Unitarian Universalism, UU, UU Humanists, UU Needham, water as a resource
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Today, now, and what of the future?
From Aldo Leopold in his A Sand County Almanac: One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen. An … Continue reading
Posted in adaptation, agroecology, Aldo Leopold, American Association for the Advancement of Science, argoecology, being carbon dioxide, biology, Boston Ethical Society, Botany, Buckminster Fuller, Charles Darwin, climate, climate change, David Suzuki, Earle Wilson, Ecological Society of America, Ecology Action, ethics, George Sughihara, Glen Peters, global warming, Grant Foster, Humans have a lot to answer for, Hyper Anthropocene, population biology, quantitative biology, quantitative ecology, Spaceship Earth, sustainability, The Demon Haunted World, the right to be and act stupid, the right to know, the tragedy of our present civilization, tragedy of the horizon, unreason, UU Humanists
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Leaders (say they) Don’t Know About Lags
Maybe they don’t. Most people don’t. On the other hand, there’s little more to them than understanding skeet, realizing aiming where the clay pigeon is now is a useless tactic for hitting it. Aim where the pigeon will be is … Continue reading
Posted in adaptation, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Meteorological Association, AMETSOC, anti-intellectualism, anti-science, atmosphere, attribution, Boston Ethical Society, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, climate education, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Cult of Carbon, dynamical systems, environment, ethics, evidence, forecasting, geophysics, global warming, Massachusetts Interfaith Coalition for Climate Action, moral leadership, Our Children's Trust, Principles of Planetary Climate, rights of the inhabitants of the Commonwealth, the right to be and act stupid, the tragedy of our present civilization, tragedy of the horizon, unreason, UU, UU Humanists
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CO2 efficiency as a policy concept
I listened to the following talk, featuring Professor Kevin Anderson, who I have mentioned many times here before: While I continue to be hugely supportive of distributed PV as an energetic and democratic solution, as inspired by John Farrell at … Continue reading
These are ethical “AI Principles” from Google, but they might as well be `technological principles’
This is entirely adapted from this link, courtesy of Google and Alphabet. Objectives Be socially beneficial. Avoid creating or reinforcing unfair bias. Be built and tested for safety. Be accountable to people. Incorporate privacy design principles. Uphold high standards of … Continue reading
Posted in American Statistical Association, artificial intelligence, basic research, Bayesian, Boston Ethical Society, complex systems, computation, corporate citizenship, corporate responsibility, deep recurrent neural networks, emergent organization, ethical ideals, ethics, extended producer responsibility, friends and colleagues, Google, Google Pixel 2, humanism, investments, machine learning, mathematics, moral leadership, natural philosophy, politics, risk, science, secularism, technology, The Demon Haunted World, the right to know, Unitarian Universalism, UU, UU Humanists
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Remember. But remember, too, we are no longer in the 19th century. Our risks today are much bigger.
Hat tip to Tamino. Thoreau’s “Slavery in Massachusetts”. But, recall, the stakes we gamble upon today are much bigger than those, as big as they were. See here for further details. But watch the episode if you really want to … Continue reading
On trying to fix Earth without technology and engineering
(Updated 2017-11-30, 00:12 EST) I had my first serious encounter with the stuff of Joanna Macy tonight, via a certain YouTube video. I must say, it was anything but a pleasant experience, filled with claims which were not justified historically, … Continue reading
`Message from Sally Yates to Justice Department lawyers before she was fired’
The story. On January 27, 2017, the President signed an Executive Order regarding immigrants and refugees from certain Muslim-majority countries. The order has now been challenged in a number of jurisdictions. As the Acting Attorney General, it is my ultimate … Continue reading
Posted in atheism, Donald Trump, dump Trump, ethical ideals, justice, secularism, UU, UU Humanists
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Prescience and Response
I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers … Continue reading
Carbon Sinks in Crisis — It Looks Like the World’s Largest Rainforest is Starting to Bleed Greenhouse Gasses
Originally posted on robertscribbler:
Back in 2005, and again in 2010, the vast Amazon rainforest, which has been aptly described as the world’s lungs, briefly lost its ability to take in atmospheric carbon dioxide. Its drought-stressed trees were not growing…
Posted in bifurcations, carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide sequestration, changepoint detection, climate, climate change, climate disruption, disruption, dynamical systems, environment, exponential growth, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, IPCC, Lévy flights, Lorenz, Minsky moment, model-free forecasting, physics, population biology, population dynamics, Principles of Planetary Climate, quantitative biology, quantitative ecology, random walk processes, Ray Pierrehumbert, reason, reasonableness, regime shifts, risk, Stefan Rahmstorf, the right to be and act stupid, the tragedy of our present civilization, UU Humanists
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“Holy crap – an actual book!”
Originally posted on mathbabe:
Yo, everyone! The final version of my book now exists, and I have exactly one copy! Here’s my editor, Amanda Cook, holding it yesterday when we met for beers: Here’s my son holding it: He’s offered…
Posted in American Association for the Advancement of Science, Buckminster Fuller, business, citizen science, citizenship, civilization, complex systems, confirmation bias, data science, data streams, deep recurrent neural networks, denial, economics, education, engineering, ethics, evidence, Internet, investing, life purpose, machine learning, mathematical publishing, mathematics, mathematics education, maths, moral leadership, multivariate statistics, numerical software, numerics, obfuscating data, organizational failures, politics, population biology, prediction, prediction markets, privacy, quantitative biology, quantitative ecology, rationality, reason, reasonableness, rhetoric, risk, Schnabel census, smart data, sociology, statistical dependence, statistics, the right to be and act stupid, the right to know, the value of financial assets, transparency, UU Humanists
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“The climate talks [in Paris] were a fraud”
Dr James Hansen on The Open Mind. “Signatures won’t save the climate”, writes Danielle Ola at PVTech. And, despite the good news below, Bloomberg New Energy Finance warns: The 2⁰C scenario would require much more money. On top of the … Continue reading
Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, Carbon Worshipers, citizenship, climate change, climate disruption, Daniel Kahneman, Eaarth, ecology, Ecology Action, environment, environmental law, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, greenhouse gases, Hyper Anthropocene, James Hansen, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, liberal climate deniers, meteorology, mitigation, natural gas, Neill deGrasse Tyson, oceanography, Our Children's Trust, petroleum, pipelines, rationality, reasonableness, science, Spaceship Earth, sustainability, the energy of the people, the green century, the right to be and act stupid, UU Humanists, Warren Buffett, zero carbon
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“I need to wake up”
Now, more than ever. (The above was published in September 2015.)
Posted in adaptation, Antarctica, Anthropocene, Arctic, carbon dioxide, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate change, climate disruption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, denial, destructive economic development, disruption, distributed generation, ecology, Ecology Action, economics, environment, evidence, feed-in tariff, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, gas pipeline leaks, geophysics, global warming, greenhouse gases, grid defection, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy, James Hansen, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, meteorology, oceanography, physics, pipelines, politics, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, reasonableness, science, sea level rise, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, SolarPV.tv, Spaceship Earth, Stefan Rahmstorf, Tamino, temporal myopia, the energy of the people, the green century, the problem of evil, the right to be and act stupid, the right to know, the stack of lies, the tragedy of our present civilization, Unitarian Universalism, utility company death spiral, UU Humanists, WAIS, Wally Broecker, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon
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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
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Acting on climate change is fundamentally a moral question; it’s about what’s right; it’s about our values
http://climatecrocks.com/2015/11/27/pope-urges-real-deal-in-paris/ If acting to mitigate climate disruption is, indeed, a moral issue, where are the world’s religions on it? Sure, there are voices, there are movements, but I do not see pulpits sounding the alarm once per month or two … Continue reading
Posted in Anthropocene, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, civilization, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate justice, compassion, decentralized electric power generation, demand-side solutions, denial, environment, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, James Hansen, meteorology, physical materialism, rationality, religion, science, sustainability, UU Humanists
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What the future of energy everywhere looks like
What will the energy landscape look like after utility companies are either dead, dying, or revert to a tiny portion of their territory? Silicon Valley CCE Partnership gives us all a clue. It’s been described in the San Francisco Chronicle, … Continue reading
Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, capricious gods, chance, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, dynamical systems, economics, efficiency, energy, energy reduction, energy utilities, engineering, environment, ethics, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, geophysics, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy, living shorelines, mesh models, meteorology, microgrids, mitigation, obfuscating data, oceanography, physical materialism, physics, pipelines, planning, politics, prediction, probabilistic programming, public utility commissions, PUCs, quantum, reasonableness, reproducible research, risk, Sankey diagram, science, sea level rise, selfishness, solar energy, solar power, SolarPV.tv, Spaceship Earth, statistics, stochastic algorithms, stochastics, Svante Arrhenius, taxes, temporal myopia, the right to know, the value of financial assets, transparency, UU Humanists, WHOI, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon
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Exxon-Mobil digging its own grave
Climate Denial Crock of the Week features the latest revelation from Inside Climate News. It features former federal chief scientist for global warming research, Michael MacCracken, and physicist and climate scientist Gilbert Plass. Also featured is an open 2002 letter … Continue reading
Posted in Anthropocene, bridge to nowhere, capricious gods, Carbon Cycle, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, citizenship, civilization, climate change, climate disruption, denial, ecology, energy, energy utilities, environment, Exxon, forecasting, fossil fuels, games of chance, geophysics, global warming, humanism, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, meteorology, methane, natural gas, obfuscating data, rationality, reasonableness, science, sustainability, UU Humanists
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“… [A] fair, legally binding and truly transformational climate agreement …”
Bishops from around the world have appealed to the COP 21 meeting in Paris to create a “fair, legally binding, and truly transformational” climate agreement. That’s from Vatican Radio which has the full statement. There is more coverage from the … Continue reading
Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, Bill Nye, bridge to nowhere, Cape Wind, carbon dioxide, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate change, climate disruption, climate justice, compassion, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, ecology, education, efficiency, energy, energy reduction, energy utilities, environment, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy, microgrids, natural gas, pipelines, politics, public utility commissions, PUCs, rationality, reasonableness, religion, solar energy, solar power, SolarPV.tv, sustainability, Unitarian Universalism, UU Humanists, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon
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“Ultimately the public will understand that they were being lied to, betrayed”
Professor Michael Mann: … [W]e will look back with revulsion at those who did the bidding of the fossil fuel industry to try to confuse the public about the reality of this problem. The problem is we don’t have that … Continue reading
Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, citizenship, climate, climate change, climate disruption, denial, disingenuity, dynamical systems, ecology, environment, geophysics, global warming, ignorance, meteorology, physics, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, selfishness, statistics, Tamino, temporal myopia, the right to know, UU Humanists, zero carbon
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Carbon Worshipers and Worship
There’s agitation and angst in some circles regarding the proper term to dub individuals who, however technical their training, reject the conclusions of climate science, physics, and even Exxon from the 1970s. (Graphs are from Greg Laden’s blog.) There’s denial, … Continue reading
Posted in Anthropocene, atheism, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, chemistry, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate change, climate data, climate models, Cult of Carbon, denial, energy, environment, Exxon, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, IPCC, meteorology, oceanography, physical materialism, physics, rationality, reasonableness, science, UNFCCC, UU Humanists, zero carbon
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Ahmed: arrested for having electronics in his possession simpler than a smart phone
I have made my comments at The Times news article on the subject. If I, as a youngster, brought my Newtonian telescope lens-in-progress into school, and because it looked like it was wrapped in putty, would I, in this day, … Continue reading
Posted in astronomy, astrophysics, atheism, Bill Nye, Boston Ethical Society, Carl Sagan, citizenship, civilization, Dan Satterfield, disingenuity, education, engineering, ethics, humanism, ignorance, physical materialism, physics, politics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, science education, Susan Jacoby, the right to know, Unitarian Universalism, UU Humanists
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Bob Inglis: “Energy optimists. Climate realists.”
Kudos. http://climateeye.republicen.org/ http://blog.republicen.org/ http://republicen.org/areyouen/ http://republicen.org/the-solution-element/ http://republicen.org/the-solution-element/realist-guide/ I’m not, by their definition anyway, a conservative. In fact, I’m pretty apolitical these days although I will do things like demonstrate. But it’s completely clear to me this problem isn’t going to get … Continue reading
Posted in Anthropocene, atheism, bifurcations, Bill Nye, bridge to nowhere, capricious gods, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate change, climate disruption, compassion, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, ecology, economics, education, energy reduction, energy utilities, environment, ethics, finance, fossil fuel divestment, global warming, humanism, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, meteorology, new forms of scientific peer review, NOAA, oceanography, physical materialism, physics, politics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, sociology, statistics, sustainability, Tea Party, UU Humanists
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“Does Local Climate Information Stimulate Action?” | Tyndall°Centre for Climate Change Research ®
Does Local Climate Information Stimulate Action? | Tyndall°Centre for Climate Change Research ®. In an experiment, we asked people, who live in the U.S. state of Vermont, to what extent they care about other communities/people (self-transcendent values), or their own … Continue reading
Posted in Anthropocene, Boston Ethical Society, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, compassion, demand-side solutions, economics, environment, ethics, games of chance, geophysics, global warming, humanism, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, meteorology, sociology, temporal myopia, UU Humanists
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“Allocating a 2° C cumulative carbon budget to countries”: Gignac and Matthews
Abstract Recent estimates of the global carbon budget, or allowable cumulative CO2 emissions consistent with a given level of climate warming, have the potential to inform climate mitigation policy discussions aimed at maintaining global temperatures below 2° C. This raises … Continue reading
Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, Boston Ethical Society, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, chance, chemistry, citizen science, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate education, climate justice, compassion, conservation, consumption, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, ecology, education, energy, energy reduction, environment, ethics, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, humanism, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, investment in wind and solar energy, IPCC, meteorology, mitigation, open source scientific software, physical materialism, physics, population biology, prediction, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, science education, scientific publishing, sociology, solar power, sustainability, temporal myopia, the right to know, time series, UNFCCC, UU Humanists, wind power
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The United States Clean Power Plan … It’s time.
“There is such a thing as being too late.”
Posted in Anthropocene, astrophysics, bifurcations, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate education, climate justice, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, ecology, economics, energy, engineering, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, investment in wind and solar energy, IPCC, meteorology, oceanography, physics, politics, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, Ray Pierrehumbert, reasonableness, risk, science, science education, sea level rise, statistics, sustainability, Tamino, temporal myopia, the right to know, time series, UNFCCC, UU Humanists, Westwood, wind power, zero carbon
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Mad Unscience (humorous, if it wasn’t so pathetic)
(Hat tip to Tamino‘s posting of this.) This is priceless.
Posted in capricious gods, carbon dioxide, citizenship, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate zombies, denial, global warming, history, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, obfuscating data, politics, rationality, reasonableness, science, science education, Tamino, UU Humanists
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Purity in Disney: Tangled’s Take on Premarital Sex
Originally posted on Outgrowing and Out-learning Religion:
Image taken from Tangled’s Wikipedia page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangled I may be in my twenties, but I absolutely love Disney. You may be wondering where that fits into a blog about religion and politics,…
Excellent. With musings on religion and mass extinctions.
And sometimes, just sometimes, I can feel the same way about some religions. Now, it’s not that many aren’t doing good, and many aren’t getting people to realize that we have painted ourselves deeply into a climate corner, but it … Continue reading
Posted in art, atheism, Bill Nye, Boston Ethical Society, bridge to nowhere, Carl Sagan, citizenship, climate, climate change, climate education, climate justice, climate zombies, Darwin Day, denial, ecology, environment, ethics, fossil fuels, games of chance, geophysics, global warming, history, humanism, mass extinctions, Neill deGrasse Tyson, physical materialism, politics, population biology, rationality, reasonableness, science, science education, sociology, temporal myopia, the right to know, UU Humanists
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