By Tom Savage •
August 26, 2009
Who would have predicted the world of science fiction films would prove so prophetic? Our planet is being over-run by machines and we need people like Arnold Schwarzenegger to save us
In the world of the film The Matrix, robots, machines and other perennially nasty automatons have taken over the world – another normal day in Hollywood. However, it’s a pleasant surprise to find out that the film’s creators have gone so far as to think about the energy crisis that must ensue from such a power hungry group of captors. In order to sustain themselves, the machines grow humans in cozy little pods and use the energy our bodies generate to power their world.
Ingenious really, aside from the fact that our bodies are way more efficient than any machine yet invented – so the energy output would hardly allow them to make a cup of tea (or warm oil), let alone enable them to achieve their (presumably unconscious) goal of world domination. We mere mortals only need a meal or two a day to power something capable of building the pyramids, reconstituting itself, and designing the combustion engine. Of course, we do all this with a handy little bit of consciousness and, sometimes, ethics along the way.
“We all remember this time last year,” said Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., at a hearing on Capitol Hill on Monday. “We were in the midst of an energy crisis, paying $4 for a gallon of gasoline, and Americans were seeing their utility bills skyrocketing.” Since then, he went on to say, the energy problems haven’t disappeared and no changes in policy have been made.
By Jerry James Stone •
February 27, 2009
On March 2, Bill McKibben and Wendell Berry are asking for large civil disobedience at the Capitol Power Plant in Washington D.C. Why, cuz Clean Coal sucks!
Over 2,000 people are expected to risk arrest. And the protest comes on the heels of the upcoming grassroots action — Powershift 2009 — which will bring 10,000 young people to the capitol for two days of training and lobbying.
By Jerry James Stone •
November 21, 2008
The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras) are shacking up in hopes to better develop and commercialize biofuels
By Jerry James Stone •
November 19, 2008
Five leading companies joined Ceres today to announce a business coalition demanding stronger U.S. climate and energy legislation as early as 2009.
By Jerry James Stone •
October 21, 2008
FedEx’s New Solar System Is Enough To Power 370 homes
FedEx Express, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp, broke ground on its first - and largest - international solar energy facility on Monday. The facility near the Cologne, Germany airport will house over 16,000 square meters of solar panels.
The new solar panel installation is slated for completion by 2010; a 1.4-megawatt (MW) solar power system that will generate 1.3 GWhs of electricity/year. That is equivalent to the annual consumption of 370 homes!
By Timothy B. Hurst •
August 27, 2008
Thousands of Democratic delegates and members of the press may have had one of those “ah-ha” moments at the Pepsi Center in Denver on Tuesday night when former mayor, Secretary of Transportation and Secretary of Energy during the Clinton administration, Federico Peña took to the podium at the Democratic National Convention.
By Jerry James Stone •
August 23, 2008
Biden comes with mad experience. As a sixth term Senator - that’s 34 in people years - he can assuage a lot of those concerns. Also as Chair of the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, that’s just one more thorn he pulls from the Obama camp’s side.
By Jennifer Lance •
August 13, 2008
The recent naval deployment in the Gulf comes on the heels of both House and Senate resolutions calling on the President to take action against Iran, which could only be accomplished through a naval blockade, an act of war under international law. Such a blockade in the Strait of Hormuz would cause oil prices to skyrocket and cause an energy crisis greater than we are experiencing currently.
Biofuels have been widely touted as a solution to redressing the world’s overdependence on oil and a significant part to resolving the climatic crisis particularly in the developed world. But according to new report by Oxfam, the fascination with biofuels may not be a solution to either the climatic or oil crisis and is instead fueling a third crisis: food.
According to the report, interest in biofuels has intoxicated rich country governments to the extent that they are foregoing difficult but urgent decisions about how to reduce consumption of oil.
Sadly, the cumulative effect of the over-dependence on biofuels as a solution to the energy crisis is being felt in developing countries.
