House of the rising Moonglum » Chicken Little

Water Scarcity

Moonglum — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 13:40:41 +0000

My usual warning bell to ring is Peak Oil, but there are plenty of other issues out there as well. It really just comes down to scarcity, Energy, Food, Water. Energy, and therefore oil, is of course heavily used in manufacturing and distribution of goods. I think that this is pretty well understood. But another commodity that is used in many industrial processes is water. I’ve been running across that more because of the extensive use of water in shale oil extraction. But it is also true in all other forms of manufacturing (and agriculture) too. The BBC News has a neat info graphic and article that shows how much fresh water goes into each item you buy. None of those were too shocking to me, but I bet I would be amazed on things like cars and houses. Need to try to find that chart on the internet.

(IIRC, My wife showed me a site that shows different amounts of water going into different foods a while back. Clearly the higher up the food chain you eat the more water you are going to need, but there were some outliers as well. I’ll post a link to that chart too if I can find it again.)

iFixit Manuals Now Open Source

Moonglum — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 03:55:02 +0000

This is awesome. iFixit just released all their (awesome IMO) manuals as open source. Now we all have free access to this incredible resource. I have used them for years, and only last year got rid of my Pismo, thanks to their manuals. That thing have every single items except for the case replaced or repaired, up to and including the display and inverter. Given that I work in the industry I probably hold on to my tech too long, but it does make me feel like I am at least doing a small part for the planet, not junking it up with more rapid upgrade cycles.

Spain Provides 53% Of Power With Wind

Moonglum — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:41:55 +0000

I’m a big proponent of non carbon emitting electricity generation, and a firm believer in using nuke power for base-load. One of the main reasons for that is that I don’t think that any reasonably grid could handle the ups and downs of going to a full grid of more traditional green power. Spain is working hard to change my mind. It looks like the windy weekend allowed them to provide 53% of their power from wind, pushing excess into reverse hydro and selling to their neighbors. Those numbers are impressive for a grid that wasn’t really designed for that kind of behavior. I still don’t believe in base-load wind, but this certainly makes it look like it can be a bigger chunk of the pie than I have been thinking before.

US Chamber of Commerce

Moonglum — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:09:44 +0000

Major companies left and right are fleeing the US Chamber of Commerce because of it’s regressive views on climate change. They have called for the “Scopes Monkey Trial” of climate change. Seriously? I thought that led to evolution being taught in school.

When Exelon leaves because of your regressive views on climate change, you have done something very wrong.

Interior Dept. Streamlines Solar Permitting

Moonglum — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:26:52 +0000

In a shockingly well thought out move, the Department of the Interior is consolidating all its efforts to permit solar power in the US southwest. The plan is to identify the best sites (lowest regulatory risk, highest energy return) for solar power on federal land, and do a bulk analysis of the environmental impact on those sites. This will smooth the process of permitting for any companies looking to build on federal land. Currently there is under 1GW of solar production US wide on federal land, this plan looks to increase that to between 75 and 100GW. By comparison, total us consumption is about 1TW. This is real progress.

Earth 2100

Moonglum — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 13:00:40 +0000

And I thought I was a doomer. ABC News is running a special on the end of the world. I don’t know when I’ll get a chance to see this, but it is nice to see the mainstream media throwing their hats into the ring. If enough people get concerned enough early enough, we might actually be able to see our way to a new economy and energy reality without losing our standard of living. A decade ago I would have not believed it, but it really does seem like people are starting to understand the depth of the problem. On the other hand, maybe we are just in the midst of a recession and when the economy picks up again this will all fall to the wayside.

More EPA News

Moonglum — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 23:51:16 +0000

Yet another article showing the progress the EPA is making. I can’t say what a breath of fresh air this is. I don’t know how much of this will actually pan out into policies that are good for our national viability and the environment, but it is nice to see it being talked about at the very least.

The Difference

Moonglum — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 12:49:33 +0000

A friend on another blog recently suggested that there was little difference between what Obama is doing now and what McCain would have done as president. I highly disagree, in tone and tenor much more than anything else. I like having a president that tries to let off the steam of mad populism and stamp it out. Having just read a biography of Washington, and seeing how much he worried about the US revolution turning into the French one, it really drove home the point to me that generating fear to uphold your rule is really only going to produce backlash.

But that is a subtle difference that we can’t really know would have been different, given the other choice. A tangible verifiable difference: The EPA has its teeth back. Three items, first an immediate hold on mountaintop removal coal mining. Second, no more unregulated pollutants in streams. Finally and most importantly: greenhouse gasses have been declared harmful to human life. This means that the new administration is now required by law to regulate the release. I simply don’t see any of those things having happened under McCain.

Tracking Bear Markets

Moonglum — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 12:26:41 +0000

Here’s an interesting chart that makes it look like the current down market matches the great depression. The problem with this comparison is that if you go back just 6 months in the chart it perfectly matches the other two major bear markets of the past century. “past performance is no prediction of future gains.” That is for sure.

Just Saying

Moonglum — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 03:33:43 +0000

From now on I want my stock charts from 0. Lets see some absolute numbers. I want to know when we are 90% down from the peak so I can buy me some stocks.

Just saying.