Planet of the Humans

Planet of the Humans 

My brother told me about this documentary "Planet of the Humans" about a month ago. I hate-watched it for about 30 minutes before trying to fall asleep then came back to finish it the next day. After having time to reflect on it and think more deeply about the points the filmmaker, Jeff Gibbs, brings up I think it is a good thing this is out there. My fear is that it will be used by fossil fuel apologists to rationalize a same-old-same-old approach to everyday life. I think the subtleties of the "deep ecologist" may be lost in an "I told you so" frenzy.

Watching this brings me back several years to my friend Nancy's house in Fort Collins, CO when I sat with her and other Green Party members to discuss the 2008 election. It was warm cozy and very grassroots. We discussed local ecological issues and bonded over shared concerns for the environment and the rising carbon dioxide levels on planet earth. In that living room, there were many similar perspectives to the activists presented in Planet of the Humans. People concerned with a gimickification of environmental causes to make a buck, aka green-washing. Some had made names for themselves calling out the hypocrisy of local "Green" businesses (like "Wind-Powered and Employee-Owned" New Belgium Brewing) for espousing one set of beliefs and only sticking to them enough to maintain a verdant veneer while engaging in mostly fossil fuel-driven business.

Through all of this, I think coming back to the first and hardest "R" of the three R's. REDUCE. REUSE. RECYCLE. The thing to keep in mind is that billions of dollars flow into attempting to steer the narrative around these issues. NPR recently pointed out that the plastics industry essentially lied to the public for years singing praises to "Recycling" only to improve their bottom line. Doing the "right" thing when it comes to climate action will continue to be a difficult thing. I argue and have argued that those individual actions are vanishingly significant without state-sponsored incentives that make them more widespread. Just look at what recycling is in the USA. We pour huge amounts of fossil fuel energy into melting down and reforming new products from old rather than just reusing them as is. When I traveled to Germany in fall 2011 I was so impressed that the local breweries actually reused their emptied bottles rather than manufacturing new bottles each time. Yes, we do sometimes use growlers here in the US but single-use bottles and cans rule supreme.

Like many things, I think it will take a generational turn-over to change things in a substantial way. But if we all just start doing things the way the previous generation did things then we are missing an opportunity to flip the script.

 

Don't Panic Starman

Elon Musk's brainchild is now live-streaming from outer space! The dashboorad is displaying a Hitchhiker's Guide to teh galaxy reference - "DON'T PANIC!)

According to TechCrunch the Tesla Roadster will be blasting Space Oddity by David Bowie throughout its Journey to Mars! Too bad sound can't travel in space. But it sure can here on earth so crank up your speakers!

Tesla Museum!

Nikola Tesla is one of the most unsung heroes in history. But this week Tesla is finally getting the vindication he deserves through an outpouring of public support. An internet Über-site called The Oatmeal run by a young man named Matthew Inman has raised over $1 million to buy the land where the Tesla's old laboratory once stood. Inman partnered with the non-profit organization Indiegogo, and the State of New York to raise the funds to buy the land in just nine days. The plan is to build a kick-ass museum on the site commemorating Tesla's contributions to science and technology.

But who is Nikola Tesla you may ask? 

Born a subject of the Austrian Empire in 1856 Tesla came to the United States from present-day Croatia in 1884 to work for Thomas Edison. A slender man with a well-kept mustache Tesla brought with him his wild eyes and sharp mind filled with ideas that would change the world. Michael Faraday had only recently formalized the concepts of electromagnetism while Tesla used these ideas to build motors that could generate alternating electric current from any kind of turbine. 

Though it was his early investigations into wireless energy transfer that began his career-long mission to bring free electricity to every household on the planet. 

Tesla tried to usher in the age of alternating current, radio, and television with fanfare. However his showmanship as a scientist often made skeptics of his colleagues. When presenting his new concepts he insisted one of his coils be spouting off the visual manifestations of electricity, popping and fizzling so loudly as to make his words inaudible. If his contemporaries could have heard his voice they would see he had an infectious obsession with progress and the idea that the hidden powers of electricity and magnetism could be unlocked to allow humanity to live more easily. 

 

His efforts to realize this vision were thwarted by J. P. Morgan and other financial backers who caught wind of Tesla's scheme to deliver free electricity wirelessly to the public through Tesla's giant telecommunications tower at Wardenclyffe. There was no profit to be made by giving people what the needed freely.

Tesla spent the last years of his life spiraling into madness and obscurity. He did not marry or have any long-term companionship save for the pigeons he fed from his hotel window. He became so obsessed with the number three that all aspects of his life somehow revolved around that number including his chosen place of residence.

Between January 5th and January 8th 1943 Nikola Tesla, like an electron popping out of an uncertain orbital, passed out of earthly existence in room 3327 on the 33rd floor in the Hotel New Yorker.  

The story of this man's life is more magical because of its truth than the most fantastic fiction ever written. I imagine his life as a heavenly existence spent in reality passing time with some of history's brightest stars - Mark Twain, John Muir, Teddy Roosevelt, and Thomas Edison. His vision for free and equitable POWER (in all philosophical and practical definitions of the word) for every man woman and child on earth has still not been fully realized. But as the internet gains depth and gravity this vision is pieced together slowly and perhaps one day will be complete.

I would like to thanks Matthew Inman for his efforts in raising funds for the Tesla Museum. I hope to bring my grandchildren there one day and I will think back to this particular entry on Tom Paine's Ghost.

California Raises the Bar on Renewable Energy

The State of California passed a law today requiring one third of the power supplied to the state come from renewable energy by the year 2020. All it needs is Gov. Jerry Brown's signature to be law.  I can't see him NOT signing it.

This might mark the beginning of what I have been predicting since Obama took office. A convergence of democrats and republicans on an energy bill in late 2011. Of course that lame energy bill brought to you by the three amigos - Kerry, Graham , and Lieberman didn't get passed last year.  It was too oily, and glowing red.  We now have the BP oil disaster and Fukushima fresh in the collective neo-cortex and are poised for RADICAL change in energy policy.  If we can pass a national energy bill that comes close to this Californina mandate we might actually wash off some of that stain left on our face by Mr Bush, and Mr Obama might just get a second term. What am I talking about, of course he will. No contender has even had the "equipment" to step out and say they are running against him.  The election is NEXT YEAR.   Come on Rush, come on Newt, come on Romney, Palin?  - What... what.

Alright, if we go into a double dip recession then they might try it. But all this public union busting has got them looking more evil than the most egregious of the teatards.

Keep your eye on the renewable sector tomorrow morning.  Top picks from me, Abound Solar, First Solar, Ascent Solar, Nano Solar, Advanced Energy, Vestas Wind, Iberdrola, and (even though they have received much negative attention lately) - General Electric.
 
Btw, what happened to being pissed off at AIG? GE may have received some back scratching from their well plumped congress people but I didn't see them getting the kind of unthinkably large bailouts some of those other giants got.  AIG is  old news I suppose, on to hating the next one. If we are going to talk about something over coffee tomorrow please let it be California and Jerry Brown's pending pen strokes!

PSA - Hey, if you like this website and want me to keep doing it support me by following TPG on facebook, sharing this or any post on your wall or, if you have some extra cash drop it in the tip jar (above the bearded bicycle gear man in the sidebar ----->).  Consider this as bad as my annual public-radio-like fund drive will ever get. I used to call them "the talkers" on PBS - "Mom make the talkers go away!" - Now I'm a talker : / but worse because you won't even get a DVD of Celine Dion fist pounding her chest for 2 hours with your donation. 

Henry Red Cloud - "We are all related"