Mar 28, 2012

5 Tweets Worth Your 5 Minutes

I've been digesting my blogs every week for the last month or so in hopes of connecting to people in the AustinEco & AustinPost blogspheres. The process of shrink-raying things down to 2 sentence teasers has started to make me think "anything more... who has time to read anything more?..."

In that light here's a digest of yesterday's tweets, which struck me as particularly important:


GW Bush Admin's final report on climate change http://t.co/SSs1CdoK - Most people don't know it but the George W. Bush Administration was concerned enough about climate change to publish things like: "Climate changes are underway in the United States and are projected to grow; Crop and livestock production will be increasingly challenged" (2009). Click to learn more. 
    

What's happening to our climate -- Reader's Digest version http://t.co/8T8yqi2L - The amazing thing about climate change is scientists project it will destroy 50% of all biology this century. No kidding. No one really talks about that. This website hopes you'll put one and one together.


Climate Scientists to WSJ, "Check with Us First" for Views on Climate http://t.co/n6sR6ArJ Whether or not you think climate science is important, these folks have a point about influential news organizations misrepresenting their work.

    
Amory Lovins, "We must cease engaging the nation’s energy challenges one by one" http://t.co/9i75OVmB He's right. But the frustrating thing about Amory's genius is his brilliant ideas exist in a bubble. Everything's perfect in there. There's no thinking about how to convert the values of today's wealth-hungry market. (1)


International Energy Assoc., "The world is locking itself into an unsustainable energy future" http://t.co/rdibolpe The root of this blog (and this string of tweets) -- when you have institutions as reputable as the IEA saying, "change now!" and "here's why" and journalists not covering it, it's time to start blogging!





(1) Re: Amory's current big push, "Reinventing Fire" -- I'm jaded. I saw the presentation this Fall and was hopelessly blown away by its fanciful premise. Lovins's brilliant visions are founded on the assumption that people everywhere will soon care more about environmental values than property rights, personal gain, and job security -- in time to save the planet. I'm probably naive, but seems to me we live in a world dominated by people pursuing wealth. Perhaps we need "Reinventing Jobs." The wealthy folks care about things that drive big profit, not people, the earth or energy. Rhetorically speaking, how many organizations have adopted RMI's recipe for energy self-reliance (which saves the consumer beaucoups over the long run and creates immeasurable living benefits, but is not profit per se)? How many HyperCars are on the road today? The plans for which have been in public domain since the mid 1990s. Car companies aren't looking to make great cars. Welathy people and corporations aren't looking to emulate the RMI in the ways they get energy. IMHO Mr. Lovins should change these pieces to full-fledged public education campaigns and really try to reach the masses, or design them to be applicable to people who live in the world of business. Does anyone think major players like Exxon or Ford or Congress will "Reinvent Fire" -- ?

No comments: