I've been skeptical of Pickens' plans to use Natural Gas to get us off foreign oil up till now. But now that I know he sees this as a bridge strategy until we can move off of fossil fuels all together, I'm more encouraged by it. Although a little hyper-sensitive about relying on foreign countries for energy, he offers a solid short-term plan for a cleaner liquid fuel for heavy-duty vehicles.
Tim talks about working on stuff that matters, and how we need to tackle big challenges if we wish to improve ourselves, rather than racking up small, inconsequential victories.
A recent piece by Thomas Friedman in the New York Times reminded me of this more thoughtful and linkful piece that Tim O'Reilly wrote back in January. The thesis is essentially that the accepted norm of 'growth is good' for economies is coming to an end.
Robert Newman, with humor and energy, brings to life a timeline of oil's impact on world politics, and where the world is headed past peak oil
Tim and Shai talk about the economics and feasability of electric cars as compared to the status quo.
Terry Gross interviews Michael Pollan on the future of farming in America, spurred by his open letter to the next president of the united states. Among other things, they talk about the infeasability of continued use of so much oil in our food production, reintegration of plants and animals on farms, and the bizarre disincentives current federal farm policy causes among farmers which curb food diversity on farms.
Annie Leonard has created an entertaining video all about the life-cycle of all the stuff that we buy, use and discard in our lifetimes.
Saul tackles the challenge of climate change from an engineering point of view, and
shared how he calculated his own fair share of the planet's energy resources.
Paul Hawken tells us about the history of the environmental "movement," and the new, decentralized, less well defined consciousness developing around the world he identifies as the largest movement in history.
What if we eliminated the concept of waste? Geared our industries to produce only materials that could either return to nature safely, or return back to industry as valuable, infinitely recyclable material? McDonough gives this talk to the Stanford Center for Social Innovation and challenges us to think long-term.
A positive look at the feasability of solving many of our large problems, national and international.
I didn't even know Athens had a smog issue. As mentioned, requiring emissions tests for older vehicles is a good first step (why not all vehicles?), but it would be better to find ways for citizens and visitors to drive less overall (compact communities, improved public transit).
