05 Energy – Page 71 – Public Intelligence Blog

2009/11/032009/11/03

Journal: Airplane Wings from Soy…Soon

03 Economy, 03 Environmental Degradation, 05 Energy, 12 Water, Commercial Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, Technologies

Not New, But Improved

Allison Arieff

Meet Stella.

At first glance, this little yellow giraffe looks like a lot of other kids’ bath toys. But Stella is made from Renuva, a little-known material that could change for the better the way hundreds of things, from upholstery to airplane wings, are made.

The story of how Stella came to be made from this material, a soy-based alternative to polyurethane (which is typically petroleum-based), provides a model for how stuff can be better designed in the future.

Phi Beta Iota: While folks focus on the Al Gore show and the important but isolated challenge of reducing our carbon footprint, the avant guarde is way down the road with sustainable design, green chemistry, zero waste, and so on. It's all connected, we need to get truth on the table, and we need to do the right things righter. Stella is a poster child for a new paradigm of ecological economics, natural capitalism, and conscious evolution. Learn more about Renuva from Dow below.

Learn More

2009/10/28

Journal: True Cost of Coal

05 Energy, True Cost

Coal Costs the US $62 Billion in External Costs –

NRC Report

October 28th, 2009

Last week the National Research Council (part of the National Academy of Science) released a report that the US Government commissioned back in 2005 to find the true cost of our energy titled, “Hidden Costs of Energy: Unpriced Consequences of Energy Production and Use.”

The quick and dirty: Our energy production and use in 2005 cost us $120 billion in externalities, over half of which, $62 billion, come from coal.

2009/10/012012/08/17

Carol Dumaine: New Security Challenges

05 Energy, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, Government, IO Sense-Making

Dumaine New Security Challenges 1 Oct 2009

2009/08/312009/08/31

Journal: True Cost of Hybrids, Dumb Government

03 Economy, 05 Energy, Commerce, Earth Intelligence, Government, True Cost Meme

Steve Gorman

Sun Aug 30, 2009

As hybrid cars gobble rare metals, shortage looms

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The Prius hybrid automobile is popular for its fuel efficiency, but its electric motor and battery guzzle rare earth metals, a little-known class of elements found in a wide range of gadgets and consumer goods. . . . . . . .Worldwide demand for rare earths, covering 15 entries on the periodic table of elements, is expected to exceed supply by some 40,000 tonnes annually in several years unless major new production sources are developed.

Phi Beta Iota: The peresistent refusal of the White House and Congress in particular, all governments in general, to create strategic centers that can provide unclassified decision-support in the context of a strategic analytic model that embraces “true cost” accounting and “cross-policy cost harmonization” means that the USA in particular, and all governments generally, are “dumb” and are therefore in automatic betrayal of the public trust. Current references: Intelligence for Everyone; Fixing the White House; Human Intelligence; The Ultimate Hack.

2009/08/272009/08/27

Journal: Chuck Spinney Flags Public Illiteracy & Political Lies About Energy

05 Energy

August 26, 2009

Four Years After Katrina

Bamboozled About Energy

By ROBERT BRYCE

Two years ago, I interviewed Vaclav Smil, the prolific author and energy thinker. I asked Smil, a distinguished professor at the University of Manitoba, why Americans are so easily swayed by politicians and others when it comes to energy matters. His response: scientific illiteracy and innumeracy. “Without any physical, chemical, and biological fundamentals, and with equally poor understanding of basic economic forces, it is no wonder that people will believe anything,” he told me.

2009/08/172009/08/17

Journal: One Good Idea, One Bad National Policy Process

05 Energy

With a tip of the hat to Jock Gill, former Communications specialist for President Bill Clinton, we point to a short ably illustrated post entitled

A Path Towards Carbon Negative Heating

Continue reading “Journal: One Good Idea, One Bad National Policy Process”

2009/08/042009/08/06

Journal: USNI/AFCEA Feature Stephen Carmel of Mersck Line Limited on Global Connectivity, Risk, Trade, and Security

02 China, 05 Energy, 10 Security, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence

Stephen Carmel is a world-class speaker with a truly compelling story to tell, and after learning about him from his appearance at the USNI/AFCEA Joint War Fighting Conference, we were deeply impressed.

Below we summarize the highlights from his speech, which we have put into a proper document with emphasis added throughout. This is one of the most useful intelligent commercial presentations to government we have every seen.

Highlights of his “prime” or most recent speech are below–although delivered in May, it did not hit critical mass in our circles until just now. Whatever “challenging tone” might be detected below is from Phi Beta Ioto–the speaker is a diplomat.

1) Complexity is the prime challenge. US Government is not trained, equipped, or organized to deal with complexity.

2) Global trade web has zero slack capacity and both the maritime and air webs depend in internal train and truck webs to keep going. US is $20 billion behind in the latter infrastructure.

3) Global trade web runs on computers and with the dependence on just in time inventory handling, has zero slack in the event of disruption, and the easiest as well as the most damaging disruptioin lies with computers and data that can be contaminated, manipulated, or simply destroyed.

4) USG completely missed China's deal with Russia to lock up the Siberian oil supply that is now bonded at the hip with the Chinese refining capacity that was part of the deal–this is a supply not subject to maritime interdiction.

Continue reading “Journal: USNI/AFCEA Feature Stephen Carmel of Mersck Line Limited on Global Connectivity, Risk, Trade, and Security”