Articles by Andy Brett
All Articles
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Perfection at WorldChanging
There are times when you read a post and simply have nothing to add but want to hold it up to the world and say, "Ecce!"
While that might have received some attention in ancient Rome, I find that linking to it works much better these days.
So here it is, courtesy of Alan AtKisson at WorldChanging. It's the kind of post I mean to write when I write things like this or this, but trust me, this one is much better.
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WTC as a case study in urban development
What has to be the most famous urban development project in the world right now got yet another face-lift today. The Freedom Tower was redesigned yet again.
Unfortunately, the new design no longer includes the wind turbines that were featured in some of the previous iterations.
However, if there was ever a case study in urban development, this would be it. A glamorous, stately, and artistic case study, but there are more general points at work here as well.
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Samuelson takes a swing at global warming
Robert J. Samuelson writes in the Washington Post today on what he calls "Greenhouse Hypocracy." All the talking and wringing of hands and pledging, he says, is "mainly exhibitionism."
He looks to Europe for a case in point, citing International Energy Agency statistics showing that most European countries have increased carbon emissions since 1990. Samuelson notes two exceptions, Germany and Britain, but claims their cuts had "nothing to do with Kyoto;" Germany because of reunification (fair enough), and Britain because ... they had already decided to make cuts. Hey, they still cut their emissions.
But even though this is all just empty talk, none of it matters anyway, says Samuelson, since emissions from developing countries will ensure that greenhouse gases will still rise, and not by any small amount. This leads to his later conclusion that "[w]ithout technology gains, adapting to global warming makes more sense than trying to prevent it."
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L.A. aims for Urban Environmental Accord Action #4
Although ideally any city trying to meet Action #4 of the Urban Environmental Accords wouldn't be sending any waste to landfills or to incinerators, a councilman in Los Angeles figures that one out of two ain't bad for now. Councilman Greig Smith would like to view "trash as a resource, not as a problem" and use it to create electricity.
One incinerator already in use is the City of Commerce incinerator. The plant charges $35 per ton of trash, burning 400 tons of it per day with a capacity of 10 megawatts.
A concern, of course, is the pollution from these stacks (exhaust gases and water vapor). However, the exhaust has to meet air quality standards, and 60 percent of the plant is devoted (whatever that means) to air quality while only 40 percent is built for electricity.
