Articles by JMG

Always keep the bait dangling just out of reach

The July/August 2007 issue of World Watch magazine (produced by the Worldwatch Institute) includes a concise demolition of carbon geosequestration in the form of a letter to the editor by one Luc Gagnon, "a senior advisor on climate change for Hydro-Quebec."

I'd quote the letter but the Worldwatch site doesn't have it online yet. So I went searching for more by Gagnon and found this short, powerful PDF making essentially the same point (in almost the same language). An interesting table indeed, of "energy payback ratio of electricity generation options based on life-cycle assessments":

Short summary: No matter how much they dangle the subsidy-bait of carbon geosequestration back and forth like a gold watch in front of our eyes, trying to hypnotize us into the belief that the chimera called "clean coal" actually exists, there are a few key points to remember:

1. coal is the enemy of the human race, and
2. coal isn't all that hot as an energy source to start with, once you factor in all the other energy costs.

Even if we were to stipulate that perfect geological storage of CO2 (from a leakage perspective) was attainable, the cost in energy makes it a killer for coal.

And the punch line is quoted below:

And not just for S&M types either

Finally, someone figures out that tax policy is actually sexy!

There oughta be a law: Off means off

Here's why you need to put all your electronics on power strips/surge protectors; so you can actually turn them off and save the massive amounts of energy these vampires suck out of the system (and your wallet).

We need a law that says by 2009 no new electronic devices can be sold without a hard off setting that actually turns the device entirely off (i.e., no current drain whatsoever). It's not hard -- it's how everything used to work.

Some guy and a camera

A homecooked argument for aggressive response to global heating.