Photon International Magazine reported on a conference of solar cell companies held in April 2007 according to the second quarter report of the New Alternatives Fund, one of my vast and extremely lucrative investments (or so I hope).

The conclusions of the report were that silicon supply growth is coming on faster than anticipated, costs are coming down faster than expected, and global demand is more robust than expected.

I finally took the opportunity to visit the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York this week to see their exhibit of affordable technology, what we used to call appropriate technology or intermediate technology back in the day.  The exhibit is titled Design for the Other 90% and includes, my favorite, the pot-in-pot sand and clay evaporative cooler.  

A friend from the climate change trenches, wrote me about his experience with window reflectors and summer cooling after reading Old Solar:  Venetian Vernacular.  He adapted the idea of car windshield reflectors to some of his sunniest windows using foamboard, cardboard, and aluminized mylar.

Witold Rybczynski, who has been part of the history of green architecture for the last thirty or so years, has a good slide show on the subject at:
http://www.slate.com/...

I found it very troubling listening to Bush's inept inadequate, anemic energy proposals and then listen to the idiot say how superior they are to Democratic proposals. As I say often, I am sick of him touting obviously inadequate proposals and then bragging about it and getting away with it.

Barry Commoner is almost certainly the first Presidential candidate to orient his campaign around the intersection of Environmental, Economic, and Energy policy. Commoner’s philosophy (“The first law of ecology is that everything is related to everything else") was considered so radical at the time of his candidacy that he was ostracized to the lunatic fringe, as it were, which is why the vast majority of readers today do not recall his 1980 candidacy.

Looking toward mankind's relationship with and use of natural resources (whether fossil fuels, water, air, or otherwise), one serious question we all must ask is whether humanity has overshot. Whether

Mankind has exceeded the carrying capacity of its habitat and will have to face some sort of adjustment to go back into balance with it.

Was Malthus right? Are there, simply, limits beyond which we can't go beyond in a sustainable fashion? And, if we've exceeded those limits -- if we've facing Overshoot -- what can we do about it?

-- Cross-posted from mnblue.com, home of the Norm Coleman Weasel Meter --

Next Tuesday, Bob Olson will be officially joining the DFL US Senate race (MN-SEN) to send Norm Coleman back to the private sector. He joins Al Franken and Mike Ciresi who have also officially announced. I may have slightly 'misspoken' in my previous post ... Peter Agre is still only mulling joining the race.

DESIGN FOR THE OTHER 90% is on view at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, corner of 91st Street and Fifth Avenue, New York City, through September 23, 2007.

On energy policy, we need to change fast, or sink slowly

Governor Richardson, at a speech last Thursday at a New America Foundation Energy Efficiency conference, laid out an energy concept worth paying attention to.

Energy will be one of our number one issues in coming years. The conflicting pull of increased demand overwhelming our grid and the need to cut carbon emissions to battle global warming before our 10-year window has passed. Both of these conflicting needs are critical needs and we have to find a way to address both.

Crossposted from Town Called Dobson & My Left Wing


click to enlarge

Crossposted at Dkos

Ok, like I did with Kucinich earlier I am going to lay out all the candidates plans via there website information and or speeches pertaining to such