Boston lost its Lion King in March with the passing of Melvin H. King at the age of 94. It is impossible to summarize the impact that Mel’s life had on the city, and on the people who endeavor to do justice to his life and vision. State Senator Lydia Edwards put it this way: …
Continue reading Mel King, Rest in Peace / Rest in Power / Rest in Love.
In light of the failures of our political, economic, and social institutions to rise to the challenge of a national public health and economic crisis, it seems more important than ever to get clear on possible pathways to new political, economic, and social paradigms.
Continue reading 8 Principles of a Regenerative Economy
We are reposting this important announcement from the New Economy Coalition, in its entirety. COVID-19 Solidarity Response: We are at a fork in the road. Like many of you, we are reeling. In these uncertain times, our first priority has been to make sure our team is safe and cared for. We are adjusting internal …
Continue reading This is a fork in the road moment.
Another world is not only possible, she’s on the way and, on a quiet day, if you listen very carefully you can hear her breathe.” — Arundhati Roy
In 2008, Green Party Vice Presidential candidate Rosa Clemente said the Green Party is no longer the alternative, the Green Party is the imperative. Just under 162,000 Americans voted for her and the party’s Presidential candidate, former U.S. Representative Cynthia McKinney that November. While diehard Greens were moved by the slogan, it is safe to say that neither the campaign nor the party convinced the American voter that this was the case.
Eight years earlier, the Green Party had been reborn, of sorts, when its Presidential ticket of Ralph Nader and Winona LaDuke received 2.8 million votes or 2.7% after polling as high as 7% nationally. Indeed, much like Bernie Sanders did in 2016, he filled arenas — even New York’s Madison Square Garden — with enthusiastic supporters willing to pay for seats at a political rally. But Nader’s politics — both his critique and his agenda — were more progressive than they were Green. And the volunteers and supporters flooding the Green grassroots base were largely ignorant of the party’s history, philosophy, and even relevance. I can say this endearingly because I was in this camp.
Continue reading The Green Party is the imperative for 2016 and beyondIn April of 2015 at a forum on the British Columbia carbon tax at MIT, I heard Merran Smith of Clean Energy Canada (http://cleanenergycanada.org) say if you add up the GDP of all the individual countries which have some kind of price on carbon, either an emission trading scheme (ETS) or a direct tax, it adds up to 42% of global GDP now and, by the end of 2016 when another five provinces in China come on board, it will be over 50%. (You can hear and see Merran Smith say this at 28:20 into this video of the MIT event at https://www.youtube.com/watch?… ).
Having heard expert after expert say, “We need a price on carbon” in order to address climate change, this struck me. Was Merran Smith correct? Have we already begun to put a price on carbon? Looking a little further, I found a variety of carbon pricing structures – carbon taxes, emissions trading schemes, and even internal prices on carbon from individual businesses.
The World Bank 2015 carbon report advance brief ( http://documents.worldbank.org… ) puts it a little differently than Clean Energy Canada:
“In 2015, about 40 national and over 20 subnational jurisdictions, representing almost a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), are putting a price on carbon…
“The total value of the emissions trading schemes (ETSs) reported in the State and Trends of Carbon Pricing 2014 report was about US$30 billion (US$32 billion to be precise). Despite the repeal of Australia’s Carbon Pricing Mechanism in July 2014, and mainly due to the launch of the Korean ETS and the expansion of GHG emissions coverage in the California and Quebec ETSs, the value of global ETSs as of April 1, 2015 increased slightly to about US$34 billion. In addition, carbon taxes around the world, valued for the first time in this report, are about US$14 billion. Combined, the value of the carbon pricing mechanisms globally in 2015 is estimated to be just under US$50 billion…
“In addition, the adoption of an internal carbon price in business strategies is spreading, even in regions where carbon pricing has not been legislated. Currently, at least 150 companies are using an internal price on carbon. These companies represent diverse sectors, including consumer goods, energy, finance, industry, manufacturing, and utilities.”
Continue reading The Current Cost of CarbonCosta Rica has provided all of its electricity from renewables, usually a mix of 68 percent hydro, 15 percent geothermal, and 17% mostly diesel and gas, for the first 100 days of 2015. The Tico Times reports (http://www.ticotimes.net/2015/04/22/costa-ricas-renewable-energy-streak-is-still-going-but-what-does-that-really-mean)
“The clean energy streak is likely to continue. Last Friday [April 17, 2015] ICE (Costa Rica Electricity Institute) released a report estimating that 97 percent of the country’s electricity will be produced from renewables this year. This is good news for Costa Rican residents, who will see their electricity prices drop up to 15 percent starting this month.”
In 2016, Costa Rica is a launching a satellite to monitor CO2 across the world tropical belt
(http://www.ticotimes.net/2014/04/22/costa-ricas-first-satellite-to-be-launched-into-space-in-2016)
“…the first Central American satellite, built in Costa Rica, will be launched into space in 2016. The satellite will collect and relay daily data on carbon dioxide to evaluate the effects of climate change.”
Costa Rica announced in 2009 that it plans to be a carbon neutral country by 2021 and they are following through on that planning.
Continue reading Costa Rica: 100% Renewable Electricity for 100 Days, Carbon Neutral by 2021Tuesday, March 31 I saw Andreas Kraemer, International Institute for Advanced Sustainability in Pottsdam, founder of the Ecological Institute of Berlin, and currently associated with Duke University, speak at both Harvard and MIT. His subject was the German Energiewende, energy turnaround, energy tack (as in sailing), or energy transition, and also the title of a book published in 1980 (Energiewende by Von F. Krause, H. Bossel and K. F. Müller-Reissmann) 1980 which described how to power Germany without fossil fuels or nuclear, partially a response to the oil shocks of the 1970s, and probably the beginning of the nuclear phase-out. Chernobyl in 1986 gave another shove in that direction and continues to do so as Chernobyl is still happening in Germany with radioactive contamination of soils, plants, animals, and Baltic Sea fish.
In 1990 the feedin tariff began but it was not started for solar. It was originally intended to give displaced hydroelectric capacity in conservative Bavaria a market and a bill was passed in Parliament very quickly, supported by the Conservatives (Blacks) in consensus with the Greens and Reds as they all agreed on incentizing renewable, local energy production through a feedin tariff on utility bills. Cross party consensus on this issue remains today. This is not a subsidy but an incentive with the costs paid by the customers. The feedin tariff has a period of 20 years and some have been retired.
Solar began with the 1000 roofs project in 1991-1994. There are 1.7 million solar roofs now although, currently, Spain and Portugal have faster solar growth rates than Germany. Renewables provide 27% of electricity, have created 80,000-100,000 new jobs directly in the industry, up to 300,000 if indirect jobs are added, and is contributing 40 billion euros per year to the German economy. By producing energy domestically Germany has built a local industry, increased tax revenue and Social Security payments, and maintained a better balance of trade through import substitution. During the recession that began in 2008, Germany had more economic stability and was even able to expand the renewable sector because steel for wind turbine towers was available at lower prices and financing was forthcoming.
Continue reading Energiewende: Germany’s Energy TransitionOn Friday 11/14/14, Ranganayakulu Bodavula Ph D, Chairman and Managing Director of Thrive® Solar Energy Pvt Ltd (http://www.thriveenergy.co.in), spoke at Harvard’s Center for Population Studies (http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/population-development/). On Monday 11/17/14, he spoke to the MIT student group, e4Dev [Energy for Development] (http://e4dev.tumblr.com).
Thrive Solar Energy Pvt Ltd is a leading solar powered LED lighting solutions provider from India, offering
“14 types of solar powered LED lights that cater to the lighting needs of children, women, households and villages. Its lights are used by tea estate workers, farmers, weavers, vendors, dairy and any other village level vocation that is in need of a clean, safe and reliable light. Thrive Solar partners with NGOs, women Self Help Groups (SHGs), Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs), funding agencies, banks, donors, educational institutions and businesses to promote and distribute its lighting products to bottom of the pyramid (BOP) communities, located in off-grid and intermittently grid connected geographies.”
Thrive is making 2 million lights per year at a price as low as $2 per lamp and are projecting 4 million per year production soon. They do not sell directly to consumers but through the different agencies with which they work. Nearly half of India still uses 12 lumen candles and 40 lumen kerosene lamps which can be replaced with 60 lumen solar lights. Currently, the Indian government subsidizes kerosene and paraffin prices by $6 billion per year. Thrive says it can provide solar lights to every Indian family now for about $1 billion.
Continue reading Thrive Solar®http://techpresident.com/news/…
A group of people from the Occupy Wall Street movement is collaborating with the climate change advocacy group 350.org and a new online toolkit for disaster recovery, recovers.org, to organize a grassroots relief effort in New York City.
Occupy Sandy: http://occupywallst.org/articl…
Boston TEDX talk by Recovers.org http://www.ted.com/talks/caitr…
The combination of the jobs and economic focus of Occupy with the climate change and energy transition ideas of 350.org along with the disaster recovery systems of Recovers.org is a model that can build resilience and preparedness quickly if continued. Add Solar IS Civil Defense, set the Maker Culture loose, and it just might shade over into Solar Swadeshi, Gandhian economics, a non-violent and restorative open source peer-to-peer economic system where we plan for 100% success for all humanity, to paraphrase R Buckminster Fuller.
Continue reading Occupy SandySolar water disinfection
http://www.sodis.ch/index_EN
A two liter plastic bottle can be made into a water treatment system simply by filling it with contaminated water and exposing it to the sun. Sodis is an organization that promotes this technology around the world.
The disinfection process can be speeded by turning aluminized mylar snack food bags inside out and making them into reflectors as two young students in Belo Horizonte, Brazil discovered: http://calais.phase2technology…
Solar bottle bulbs for daylighting
http://www.elliottlemenager.co…
Continue reading Trash Technology and Recycled Solar: Plastic BottlesIn 2002, during a long electrical shortage, at Uberaba, São Paulo, Brasil, Mr Alfredo Moser discovered a way to gather sun light in the house through plastic bottles hanging from the roof. First shown at the Globo Reporter in the 25th May 2007.
Alfredo Moser was pressed by a scarce electricity substitution and found out that he could light his house with a bottle of water filled with water and a protection cap made of camera film.The bottle is just refracting sunlight very effectively and produces an equivalent light power compared to a 50/60W lamp. In a rainy day, even without much light and direct sun, one still have some light. Scientist have now visited Moser and are looking into ways to take this concept to maximize its potential.