Tag Archives: Power

Electricity Generation

This week, I’m looking at the role of electricity in the ongoing global energy transition. Dieter Helm argued (see the February 13, 2018 blog about his book, Burn Out) that our increased usage of electricity is an indicator of our … Continue reading

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Primary Energy

As promised, this blog and the next (barring unforeseen circumstances) will focus on some key indicators of the global energy transition – specifically with regard to climate change and the IPAT identity. I am continuing my study of the same … Continue reading

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Markers for the Global Energy Transition

Last week I talked about Dieter Helm’s book, where he portrayed a future in which oil companies are going broke and fossil fuel prices are collapsing due to their practically infinite supply (via fracking and horizontal drilling). Growing awareness of … Continue reading

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Back to the Global Energy Transition

A short while back, I got an email from a Dutch friend’s brother, who had just finished reading my book on climate change. I have taken out any personal comments but am including his thoughts on renewable energy as well … Continue reading

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“Natural” or “Anthropogenic”? – Climate Change

Last week’s blog looked at various methods of distinguishing “natural” vs. “artificial” vanilla. I used this as a jumping off point to facilitate answering the much more important question of how we distinguish anthropogenic climate change from “natural” climate change … Continue reading

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“Natural” or “Anthropogenic”? – Vanilla Extract and Climate Change

Figure 1 – My Christmas present Happy New Year!!! I got a yummy Christmas present from a family member that doubled as a hint to try to improve my cooking: homemade vanilla extract. They got the vanilla beans from Honduras … Continue reading

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Saving the World through the Pursuit of Self Interest: Students Input

I have been teaching my Climate Change course using the TBL (Team Based Learning) system. I have 6 groups in my class, each composed of roughly 7 students that have been studying together throughout the semester. I have challenged the … Continue reading

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Long-term Mitigation: Fusion

A month ago, I was working on a series of blogs about the long-term impacts of and solutions for climate change. I got sidetracked and decided to follow two dramatic events as they unraveled: first was the tax legislation that … Continue reading

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Long-term Solutions: Energy

The last two blogs focused on the Netherlands’ leading role in showing the rest of the world strategies for living on an increasingly inhospitable planet, where the terrain is becoming uninhabitable for both humans and agricultural crops and the oceans … Continue reading

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Long-Term Adaptations

Figure 1 – Scene from “The Martian” I was considering using a more descriptive title for the coming series of blogs, inspired by a recent article in the New York Times (NYT) called, “How to Survive the Apocalypse?” The article … Continue reading

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