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The Instability of Coal Exports
When the Port of Vancouver, Washington rejected a recent coal export proposal the Port’s operations manager, Mike Schiller, explained that the economic fundamentals of coal are bad. “Coal is the most risky bulk mineral market,” is how Schiller put it. To find out what he meant, I did a little digging into the US Department of Energy’s quarterly coal export figures, which are kept online for each customs district in the country...Read more » -
Weekend Reading 10/7/11
Eric
I pounded my fist on the table in vigorous agreement with Dave Roberts on the problem with climate wonks in politics:Here are the outlines of a theory of politics I think many wonks share. It envisions a vast "American middle," obscured by the din of partisans on both sides, filled with undecided, uncommitted, but fundamentally reasonable people who are just waiting to be spoken to in a "grown-up" way…
The problem is that this theory of politics is mistaken. It is not even really a theory of politics so much as a desire to remove politics from politics.
In fact, as Dave ably points out, there is abundant evidence that people simply do not form opinions (or political blocs) in anything like the way that scientists and researchers imagine them to.Eric I pounded my fist on the table in vigorous agreement with Dave Roberts on the problem with climate wonks in politics: Here are the outlines of a theory of politics I think many wonks share. It envisions a vast “American middle,” obscured by the din of partisans on both sides, filled with undecided, uncommitted, but fundamentally reasonable people who are just waiting to be spoken to in a “grown-up”...Read more » -
Video: Breaching Elwha Dams
My hobby this week has been watching the demolition of the two dams on the Elwha River via webcams. The long awaited dam removal is opening the pristine waters of the Elwha inside Olympic National Park to wild salmon for the first time in a century. I cobbled together video of breaching the Glines Canyon Dam in four places, from October 3 to 6, using the slightly clunky webcam stream.Read more » -
How Real Is the Threat of Coal Dust?
Here's a coal terminal that wants to be a good neighbor:
...a new process the company is implementing to help homeowners deal with coal dust on their property. Residents affected by the dust can now fill out a form and drop it off at the district office to be relayed to RTI. RTI will then send out a contractor to power wash the coal dust off a homeowner's property.
Get that? If you're lucky enough to live near the Prince Rupert coal export facility in northern BC, now you can fill out a form to request that a contractor power wash the coal dust off your house. For free! Thanks, coal company! Thanks for agreeing to have someone wash off the toxic dirt that you coated my home with!Here’s a coal terminal that wants to be a good neighbor: …a new process the company is implementing to help homeowners deal with coal dust on their property. Residents affected by the dust can now fill out a form and drop it off at the district office to be relayed to RTI. RTI will then send out a contractor to power wash the coal dust off a homeowner’s property. Get...Read more » -
Decriminalizing Graywater
“In most places there is a legal requirement to intentionally pollute drinking water with human excrement.” That’s how the Cascadia Green Building Council frames the problem with recycling water. By law and by practice, the region has historically made it illegal, or at least highly impractical, to reuse water, even for uses that obviously don’t require clean drinking water such as flushing the toilet or washing the car. There’s no...Read more » -
Weekend Reading, 9/30/11
Clark Over the last few months, I’ve been exchanging emails with a friend about a nerdy but important question: does individual action inspire or substitute for systemic change? That is, if we all get our friends to make small, daily decisions to make their own habits more sustainable, will that ultimately lead to the political changes that are needed to make the economy as a whole more sustainable? It’s a question...Read more » -
The Economy: Operating Instructions for Communicators
To understand any big, messy concept, the human brain turns unconsciously to mental shortcuts—what we call conceptual metaphors or frames. Take the economy: We talk about it accelerating or sputtering; on track, going into the ditch, or crashing, like the whole thing is some kind of object in motion. Or we hear it’s thriving, flat on its back, needing resuscitation—as if the economy were a living body. Sometimes, the dollar...Read more » -
Weekend Reading 9/23/11
Clark
Are you a Puget Sound Energy customer? Thanks to a new incentive program, you can get a super-efficient heat pump water heater for next to nothing! Really!! Yeah, I know I'm an energy geek. But man I love me some heat pumps. GAAAAH!!!!! of the day: staggering growth in US student loans. GAAAAH!!!!! Neutrinos traveling faster than light? You're making Einstein very, very angry, CERN. From the "people are just plain weird" files: lying to athletes about their performance makes them capable of achieving more.Clark Are you a Puget Sound Energy customer? Thanks to a new incentive program, you can get a super-efficient heat pump water heater for next to nothing! Really!! Yeah, I know I’m an energy geek. But man I love me some heat pumps. GAAAAH!!!!! of the day: staggering growth in US student loans. GAAAAH!!!!! Neutrinos traveling faster than light? You’re making Einstein very, very angry, CERN. From the “people are just plain weird”...Read more » -
Who’ll Catch the Rain?
You hooked up a 55-gallon rain barrel to one of your roof downspouts. You were glad — maybe even a little smug — about tapping that free water to keep some of your plants happy this summer. Are you ready to kick it up a notch? There’s increasing interest around the Northwest in rainwater harvest on a bigger, bolder scale. Stretch that little rain barrel into a 550-gallon cistern installed...Read more » -
Talking to The Tea Party About Climate?
Striking up a conversation about climate change with somebody who denies the science? Usually I’d say ‘don’t bother.’ But if I’m right and there’s actually a little Tea Partier in all of us, maybe there’s a thing or two hard-core science deniers can teach us about climate communications more generally.Read more »