Robert Ferry

Green energy is the hot new export.

The Outrageous Life and Death of Francis Rattenbury A scandalous Vancouver tale.

At 25 years old Rattenbury moved to BC and placed an ad in The Vancouver Daily World announcing his arrival along with the credentials of having been trained by the influential English architect Henry Francis Lockwood (1811–1878), although Lockwood had died when Rattenbury was just 11 years old.

Solar-powered farming is digging Pakistan into a water catastrophe Karamat Ali's cows and buffalos once provided his multi-generational family with milk. But earlier this year, the 61-year-old sold about a dozen bovine - and spent the proceeds on a set of solar panels.

The solar power boom in Pakistan is great and truly awe inspiring. Still, when one part of a system changes rapidly, there are bound to be downsides.

"Farmers are choosing to grow more thirsty rice crops, with the size of rice fields in Pakistan increasing 30% between 2023 and 2025."

Planetary boundaries The planetary boundaries framework highlights the rising risks from human pressure on nine critical global processes that regulate the stability and resilience of the Earth

New rule: You can deploy data centers in space as soon as all nine planetary boundaries are back within safe operating space here on Earth.

I think I'm seeing some sophisticated LLM bots on @bsky.app. They respond with platitudes and uninteresting questions. Scrolling through one of their walls I see they are successfully engaging with real people. Maybe they are just dull humans? I'm not entirely sure, which is exactly the problem.

Data centres in space? Jeff Bezos says it's possible Amazon founder Jeff Bezos predicted on Friday gigawatt-scale data centres will be built in space within the next 10 to 20 years and that continuously available solar energy meant they would eventually outperform those based on Earth.

I'm sorry, but we have enough things in space already. As many as 5 Starlink satellites fall back to earth every day. Data centers and solar fields up there will require sophisticated repair robots. Meanwhile, we are having a hard time getting back to the moon, something we did 56 years ago.

Our information ecosystem has evolved continuously throughout recorded horse, from owl tradition, writing, printing, telecommunications, and social media and apps. Is it a coincidence that the more recent technologies tend towards less in person communication?

A positive feedback loop amplifies a process. A negative feedback loop works counteracts it bringing the system back to equilibrium. Could we collectively and unconsciously be enacting a negative feedback loop to population growth through the internet—a new social system of isolation and loneliness?

He could simple go to Portland and see for himself, but since he does not we have to assume he prefers the pretext.

Do these numbers take into account the emissions associated with the production of the vehicles (which in most cases take place outside of Norway) or only after sale?

I went to a conference called “Petrocultures” in St John’s Newfoundland where there were all you can eat raw oysters at the fancy welcome dinner.

This was a delightful and vulnerable conversation and a welcome breath of fresh air. Now I’d like to recommend that you interview Jamaal Bowman. 😛

They don’t call it wind punk because solar energy makes the wind. 😛

I threw DAC fuels in there to note their presence but the energy that makes them is ultimately one of the other clean categories.

I have no idea what the final numbers will be but we absolutely need a diversified mix. Still, solar (PV, thermal, and its use to make fuels) will likely be the majority tech in a post carbon world. Especially with long distance HVDC connections, solar and wind are perfect variable compliments.

Is solar also part of “other clean” because solar thermal is going to be a big part of the mix and the yellow label is PV specific.

What Happens When Socialists Are in Charge? Portland Offers a Glimpse.

Not only does this story get a number of basic facts wrong, it doesn’t take time to actually explore why Portlanders elected these folks. Coming in with a pre-baked PDX story to fit a NYT narrative about NYC is harmful, especially at this moment.

The most famous usage during the modern era of the “mistakes were made” past exonerative tense was by Reagan during the Iran-Contra scandal (for which no one including Oliver North or Reagan was ever held accountable because pardons and passive tense!), but it goes back at least to Ulysses S. Grant.

I love how he perfectly (and accidentally) defines structural racism writ large when talking about how some conservative academics may get passed over unintentionally by unconscious liberal bias. I wish Remnick had called him out on that.

Based on this number it’s actually impressive how much we drink as alcohol (>1/3 what we burn as fuel).

Of course we are burning it as fuel too in our cells in order to make our conversations at the bar loud enough to compete with the music.

It bothers me how many young people I know are meat eaters. It is very cultural in some places like Austin and Pittsburgh, and 5-star foodie-type restaurants are often very meat-centric.

Is this wrong though?

Yes. I believe it shows what is possible and scalable.

Until people in the climate movement very publicly stop eating meat and flying, we're not going to seem trustworthy.

I will die on this hill.

That is an excellent point. Here’s hoping we really can draw down fossil fuels by mid-century instead of just piling on. I suppose it’s all of our jobs to prove Fressoz wrong.

Good catch about wind for transportation on the high seas and water wheels for grain milling, textile production, and irrigation probably not being counted in this data. Would be a significant percentage in 18th c. @cutlercleveland.bsky.social

That is a good point. All the older generation solar panels I've seen being studied are in colder latitudes. I'd love to see what the power curve looks like on a 30-year old module that's been working on a Phoenix rooftop.

By 2050 we need to see something like the following global energy mix (all forms). It will vary by region and will require a variety of energy storage solutions. We have the technology today to do this by the way.

☀️ 60% all forms solar + green h2
💧 15%
💨 15%
☢️ 5%
🌋 2%
🌊 1.5%
🌳 1%
🔵 0.5% DAC fuels

Chart showing United States energy transitions over 200+ years per energy source.

It is interesting to see how horse fodder and food was as much a part of our energy mix (20%) in 1820 as coal is today. In 1920 coal was up at 70%. Note these are percentages not quantities.
visualizingenergy.org/americas-ene...

💯 With the added complexity that the stagecoach industry never had a global market capitalization of $7.2 trillion that required deflating.