Solving Climate Change Now: The Clean Energy “Moonshot” Approach

 

Picking climate change as the problem I’d like to fix is the easy part — who wouldn’t pick it? The hard part is to envision a solution that isn’t either blue sky or far away in the future. That’s where a unique program called the California Clean Energy “Moonshot” offers a real-time, present moment answer.

The “Moonshot” is a community effort that can be expanded globally. It aims at 100 percent renewable energy production with 0 percent carbon emissions. How? Several premises are at work:

  • The technologies for renewable clean energy already exist in the form of solar and wind power, hydrogen fuel cells, and advanced storage techniques for electricity.
  • Large power grids lose massive amounts of energy during transmission. They are inefficient, inflexible, and no one wants them built in their backyard.
  • By turning to microgrids at the community level, the liabilities of massive power grids are eliminated.
  • Microgrids can be made profitable enough to attract business investment, with vast pools of private capital waiting in the wings to fund them.

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War Against the Earth: Sages and Scientists – Vandana Shiva – Part 1-3

Description –  In this installment of SAGES AND SCIENTISTS, Vandana Shiva discusses agriculture, biodiversity, sustainability, and the importance of making peace with the Earth. Shiva, a philosopher, activist, author, and eco feminist, is trained as a physicist, and is particularly interested in quantum mechanics and biotechnology. In Part 1 of her presentation, Shiva discusses her entry into the sciences, which eventually put her on a path of environmental activism. She emphasizes that we must not fall prey to a monocultural, mechanistic framework of thinking, which leads to the degradation of the planet.

 

Description  –  In this installment of SAGES AND SCIENTISTS, Vandana Shiva discusses agriculture, biodiversity, sustainability, and the importance of making peace with the Earth. Shiva, a philosopher, activist, author, and eco feminist, is trained as a physicist, and is particularly interested in quantum mechanics and biotechnology. In Part 2, Shiva discusses the environmental costs of industrial farming. She decries the violence affected by an agricultural system that declares war on the Earth through use of pesticides and genetic modification.

 

Description  – In this installment of SAGES AND SCIENTISTS, Vandana Shiva discusses agriculture, biodiversity, sustainability, and the importance of making peace with the Earth. Shiva, a philosopher, activist, author, and eco feminist, is trained as a physicist, and is particularly interested in quantum mechanics and biotechnology. In Part 3, Shiva discusses the effect industrial agriculture has had on small farmers, who are increasingly committing suicides in rural areas. Industrial farming leads to increased use of