Green Energy

We often forget about our roofs, allowing them to become wasted space.  But roofs are good for many things.  Here’s a look at what Egypt is doing…

Earlier I wrote about wave power, in its various forms, as a source of renewable energy.  Here is another article on this topic, about the Oceanlinx project in Australia.

Wave energy is a type of renewable energy that, while not new, is just starting to gain popularity.  It harnesses the power of the ocean to create electricity.  Many different systems exist.

Word from the White House is that President Obama plans to sign the stimulus package into law, based on its latest compromise version.  I’m not very impressed with it.  However, the package still contains many provisions for creating green-collar jobs and for promoting renewable energy.  The President does generally support the idea of shifting America away from nonrenewable resources, updating old infrastructure and building new establishments for a wide range of clean renewable power.  His choice of a signing location underscores this.

This article discusses the issue of lithium as a rare and vital material for making electric car batteries, and how this might affect the future of Bolivia.  It actually raises more questions than it answers, but I’ve got a few more to add.

The following article discusses hybrid cars with plug-in batteries. Because the auto manufacturers are lagging years behind market demand, factory hybrids of this type aren’t available yet — so consumers are buying conversion kits for existing cars, typically using a Prius base. California may wipe out this trend by demanding tests so expensive as to crush it, possibly another example of the government hassling to death things it dislikes.

The Internet is a massive conglomeration of data containing an extensive array of human knowledge — and human ignorance.  The trick is telling which is which.  This is especially needful when you’re attempting complicated things such as analyzing controversial issues, agitating for specific actions about those issues, studying human interactions, or trying to save the world.  Among the skills I advocate and teach for this purpose are critical thinking and analytical reading, applicable both to nonfiction and fiction.