Green Skeptic Friday LinkFest - 04/22/11

CREDIT: NASA via Ron Garan/Astro_Ron

Earth Day edition of the Green Skeptic LinkFest.

When I worked for The Nature Conservancy every day was Earth Day.  So this day was just like any other. Now it is Earth Day and it seems a tad precious, a bit outdated.

Not to my daughter, who reminded me this morning that it was Earth Day and that it's a good thing we recycle. (I didn't have the heart to tell her what I learned from the folks at Glass Recycling Technologies: that of the 12 million tons of glass in the US waste stream annually, over 9 million tons end up in landfills.)

Here are my links for this week:

GreenBiz.com asked 13 corporate executives to answer the question: What's your company doing for Earth Day? 

Stephanie Pappas on "Why You Won’t Read This Earth Day Article (And Why That Doesn’t Matter)". 

Cortney Fielding of GigaOm suggests that "As Cleantech Matures, So Does Approach to Funding."

David Chen of Equilibrium Capital posits "Invest in B Corps; Invest in Our Future."

One year after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, The Economist offers a reading list for those interested in the catastrophe. 

Not on The Economist list (but it should be) is my pal Wes Leckrone, who writes The American Partnership blog, on  "Federalism and the Gulf Oil Spill."

A spill of a different sort happened on the anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon: Pennsylvania Natural Gas Blowout Spills Thousands of Gallons of Toxic Wastewater into Local Community. 

Meanwhile, the US gives green light to Cape Wind project. 

D.R. Tucker of Notes from D.R. and The Urban Right has a compelling post in FrumForum: Confessions of a Climate Change Convert.

Another conservative voice, Jim DiPeso, (The Green Conservative) writes about The Erosion of Conservation as a Conservative Value.

  

Have a great weekend everyone. (And try not to trash Mother Earth this Earth Day; she may just give you a dope slap.)

Review: Powering the Dream: The History and Promise of Green Technology

The road to the green technology future is paved with good intentions -- and littered with quite a few failures from the past.

In Powering the Dream: The History and Promise of Green Technology, Alexis Madrigal, a senior editor with The Atlantic, has written a comprehensive history of green technology that also a cautionary tale. 

The "Promise" in the book's subtitle has largely been unfulfilled and Madrigal shows how and why.

The book traces green technology back to before the start of the 20th century, to the late 1800s, when the first oil discoveries were made in Pennsylvania, water-pumping windmills dotted the landscape of the Midwest, wave energy schemes were floating off the California coast, and electric taxicabs transported Manhattanites across town.

Powering the Dream is a history of failure and optimism, which is to say, a book about entrepreneurism in America.  Green technology breeds a distinctive American brand of entrepreneur -- messianic, full of hubris, and, well, sometimes just plain crazy.

Madrigal is a good storyteller and this book is full of compelling characters, including John Etlzer who wrote the book on harnessing nature's powers for human purpose in the 1830s; Arnold Goodman, the visionary behind Luz (now BrightSource), the solar thermal company that has its origins in the 1970s; George Keck, who popularized the "solar home" of the 1950s; and G.P. "Put" Putnam, scion of the publishing family and developer of the first megawatt wind turbine erected in Vermont in the 1940s. (Yes, the 1940s.)

Writing about solar hot water heaters, which had its American heyday in the 1930s, Madrigal notes that by the 2000s, "A technology invented and improved in the United States is a dim memory here and a thriving industry elsewhere."  Sadly, this sentence could have ended many of the chapters about technologies in Madrigal's book.

Madrigal understands that two things that have prevented green technology from powering America: lack of money and short-term thinking that predates our contemporary politics and economy.

Ultimately, however, Powering the Dream is a hopeful book.  Madrigal surmises that in learning about the many miscues of our past, we may be able to avoid repeating them in the future.  And perhaps, at last, green technology will live up to its promise.

Green Skeptic Friday LinkFest - 04/15/11

Image via CrunchBaseTax Day edition of the Green Skeptic LinkFest...

The Zipcar IPO Is A Smash Hit -- Up 60% On First Day, reports Business Insider. Social critic Richard Florida says that shows how the American dream is evolving away from an ownership society With Zipcar's IPO, Stock Market Endorses Rentership Society.

Q1 Venture money in cleantech hit $2.6B, but are the numbers all they are cracked up to be? Neil Dikeman isn't buying it: Brightsource, Fisker and Solyndra – Soul Crushingly Bad Numbers Make up 17% of Near Record 1Q11 Venture Investment

Is natural gas fracking worse than coal? A new Cornell study concludes that it may be, while theWorldwatch Institute reserves judgment, and still sees benefits of natural gas.

Grameen Bank update: The Ouster of Muhammad Yunus: Can Politics Destroy Grameen Bank? 

And Greentech Media reports on a new study claiming that 1 percent of US electricity is used to grow marijuana indoor: Marijuana, Top US Crop, Has a $5B Power Bill.

Have a great weekend everybody.

Wind Speeds Increasing On World’s Oceans, Study Says

Ukiyo-e coloured woodcut by Hokusai

Yale Environment 360 reports on a new study in the journal Science,Global Trends in Wind Speed and Wave Height," suggests that wind speeds and wave heights have been rising. What does this mean for storms?

"Average wind speeds and wave heights have been rising on the world’s oceans over the last quarter century, a trend that could portend more intense storms, hurricanes, and cyclones, according to a new study. Using satellite altimeter data from 1985 to 2008, Australian researchers calculated that wind speeds increased 0.25 to 0.5 percent per year, and overall had increased 5 to 10 percent during that time.

"The most pronounced increases were observed during extreme wind events — in comparison with mean conditions — which increased about 0.75 percent annually, according to the study, published in the journal Science. Ian Young, a professor at the Australian National University at Canberra and lead author of the study, said it is unclear whether it is a temporary phenomenon or the result of global climate change, although he added, 'If we have oceans that are warming, that energy could feed storms, which increase wind speeds and wave heights.'" 

Read the study here (subscription or purchase required): Wind & Waves.

Related articles

• World's Winds Getting Stronger, Creating Taller Ocean Waves (livescience.com)
• Australia study finds wind speeds steadily increasing (lookatvietnam.com)
• Global gale warning (sciencenews.org)
• How is a tropical storm different from a hurricane (wiki.answers.com)

Should the EPA Have the Right to Regulate CO2 Emissions? Green Skeptic on FOX Business

I sat down last week with Stuart Varney & Company of Fox Business News to talk about the Senate decision to reject the measure preventing the EPA from regulating CO2 emissions.

Here's the video:




And if your browser doesn't support the player, here is a link: Green Skeptic on FOX Business.

Green Skeptic Friday LinkFest - 04/08/11

One of the benefits of the work I do is going to or hosting investment forums and conferences where some amazing companies get to present.  It's also one of the drawbacks, as it impacts my blogging and writing about the events in a timely manner. 

I'm working on updates from the Mid-Atlantic Cleantech Investment Forum we held a week ago, New Ventures Global Investment Forum from this past Wednesday, and highlights from PV America.  Watch for that and a "state of cleantech investing" post next week.

Meanwhile, here are links for this week:

In the rush to EVs and Hybrids, don't count ICEs out: New Car Engine Sends Shock Waves Through Auto Industry: 3.5x more fuel efficient!

In other innovation news, a toxic byproduct from coal plants has been used by researchers to make metal foams that are just as strong as aluminum, but lighter, according to an article on GreenBiz.com. A team at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University used fly ash as an additive in metal foams designed to replace solid aluminum and magnesium in certain vehicle parts: Toxic Coal Byproduct Made Into Lighter, Stronger Metal Foams 

Geothermal energy production could triple over the next few years, expanding its reach from nine to 15 states, according to a report released this week by the Geothermal Energy Association (GEA). Renewable Energy World explains: US Geothermal Industry Expands with New Capital, Government Support

That could mean good news for companies like Ormat Technolobies ($ORA), which is also expanding operations overseas: Ormat Expands Geothermal Generating Capacity In Kenya

Nicholas Donofrio, a fellow emeritus with IBM and senior fellow with the Kauffman Foundation, talks about "Turning Energy Challenges Into Opportunities" [video]

Waste Management is trying to turn garbage into gold, according to an article in CNET by Martin Lamonica, by investing "in technology start-ups in an effort to get electricity, chemicals, or liquid fuels from municipal solid waste. Already, the company generates two to three times more energy than the entire solar industry." Waste Management CEO Places Energy Bets

 

Om Malik's surprise at his increasing energy bill and he turned to OPower to figure out why and what to do about it.  For OPower, Cloud, Big Data & Digital Energy Equal Magic 

Have a great weekend everyone.



(Disclosure: I hold a long position in ORA. This post is for informational purposes only and is neither intended to be investment advice nor an offer, or the solicitation of any offer, to buy or sell any securities.)