In the end, who pays? The taxpayers. Who profits? Not the taxpayer.

Look, we may be able to identify the complex chemicals involved in the digestive process’ of a termite. Then another industry must use energy and resources to mass produce these chemicals. More money and resources would be required to design a facility to mass produce these gases and “biofuels”. Then more still to transport and distribute them.

In the end will we, the taxpayer, ever get our money back converting one form of energy from one fuel to another to another?

My conclusion always comes back to one simple concept. Every form of energy starts with the Sun. Why continually waste energy converting it from one form to another? Take hydrogen. It’s conversion trail is from solar, to plants, to coal, to pollution, to electricity, to hydrogen and then back to electricity or combustion to move a car. Bio-Fuels convert from Sun, to crops (water, fuel and food), to conversion to liquids (energy and chemicals), to transport, to combustion (pollution) to move a car.

In the end there are only a few processes that we can harness right now with little energy, little pollution and the least amount of conversion. Solar, Wind and Water. K.I.S.S. Wind and Solar, to electricity, to locomotion.

We don’t need every vehicle to run off of electricity. Let’s just convert passenger vehicles to clean battery/capacitor plug-ins. Homeowners by a portion of clean electricity from the their utilities to offset pollution.

Let’s upgrade our National Electrical Grid to bring clean power from all across the country. Let’s turn every household’s rooftop into a decentralized contributor to the electric grid. (My favorites: Thin Film Solar Laminate metal roofing, could be cheap and easy to install. CIGS or printable ink solar films)

We don’t need more research. We need subsidies to start stamping out the technologies we already have. Let’s talk.

When a bottle comes my way I wash it and re-use it, filling it with tap water — and I’m even starting to feel guily about that!

Like many things, once I’m made aware of the consequences of my actions as a consumer it’s a big Gee, duh — but since I don’t figure things out for myself, I appreciate the alert.

Thanks for the heads-up.

I have a great video interview with folks at Monadnock talking about their paper and the environment. I made the video while at the HOW Design Conference in Atlanta earlier this year. Here’s the link, http://www.thepapermillstore.com/video/flash_vid11.html .

I hope you enjoy it. We have other similar vids on the site as well.

Thanks,
Brian

My biggest disappointment in Second Life is with the graphics quality. You get what you pay for, and most folks connect for free and don’t invest in the infrastructure.

I’ve been thinking about online environments ever since I read Neal Stephenson’s “Snow Crash” many years ago, but overall, have been disappointed. I evolved along with the technology from IRC and MUDs to Second Life and MMORPGs but find that graphics almost get in the way instead of enhancing interaction. Maybe it’s connected to that argument of what is better — the book or the movie. When you don’t have to concentrate on words and use your own imagination to build an environment, your mind is not as active. That, coupled with mostly mediocre graphics, has left me wanting more.

Oh, well! Maybe in another 10 or 20 years…