A Case of Tubeless Tire Complete Self-Destruction

Prior to the past week or so the Panaracer Gravelking SS+ 700C x 43 had been rock solid.  Compared with my prior two sets of WTB tubeless tires, one set of Ventures and one set of Byways, the Gravelking SS+ had held air like a champ and shown none of the problems of microholes that seemed to bedevil the WTB tires.

Notice that I said prior to the past week.  I kind of want to take back all of the good words that I lavished on the Gravelking SS+.

First, the rear tire on my Breezer started weeping sealant through the tread area like crazy:

This is just a taste of what it looked like every morning.  I would have blamed the sealant, Orange Endurance in this case, but the front tire did not have any leakage.  I would have blamed something on the trail poking holes in the tire, but again there was nothing damaged on the front tire.

Like a fool I poured some additional sealant, Orange Endurance again, and continued my early season riding.  Everything seemed normal.  The tire continued to have spots of sealant weeping.  However, it was holding pressure on long rides (30+ miles) and overnight, so I chalked things up to the strange swings in temperature/humidity we have been having this spring.  One day it is 65 degrees and the next it is 90 degrees with similar swings in the humidity.

Like I fool I went out for a ride this morning when less than three miles from my house the rear tire on my Breezer self-immolated.  There was a sound like a balloon popping followed by a complete flat.  I walked the half-mile or so to the trailside air pump hoping that a little air pressure might allow things to reseal since I saw no obvious major damage.

With a pump or two of air sealant was leaking out of the valve stem and spoke nipples:

Maybe I should have cut bait on these tires when the rear tire started weeping sealant.  Maybe I should have rotated the tires and rebuilt the tubeless setup at the beginning of the season.  Maybe I should have switched brands or type of sealant.

Thankfully I was close enough to home to call a ride to get my ruined bicycle back to the shop and in for some much-needed repairs. It’s enough to make a guy go back to using tubes.

Friday Linkage 2/25/2022

I can say this about the Republican Party in 2022, these guys are not even bothered by saying the quiet parts out loud anymore.

Republicans Aren’t Even Pretending They’ll Make Your Life Better Anymore

Poor?  Fuck off.

Female?  Fuck off.

Basically, if you are not wealthy and white or a corporate owned by people who are wealthy and white you might as well just…well…fuck off.

Of course, these are the same people who are praising a Russian autocrat who just invaded a sovereign nation on the doorstep of our NATO allies.

On to the links…

Learning from the Pandemic: Lessons for Unnecessary Travel and Overconsumption—Will we actually learn anything?

Colorado Lawmakers Want to Spell it Out: It’s Perfectly Legal for Kids to Play Outside or Walk to School Alone—And we wonder why kids are not moving out and starting their own households.  Could it be we have never allowed them to develop the skills for being on their own?

Facebook Failed to Spot Climate Misinformation from Some of its Worst Denialist Offenders—Facebook is a bad actor.

U.S. Freezes New Oil And Gas Projects Amid GOP Suit Over Social Cost Of Emissions—Remember, for modern day Republicans the only acceptable answer to any request made by the oil and gas industry is “drill, baby drill.”

Dakota Access Pipeline Operator Loses Legal Battle—Even when you win you might lose because the powers that be want to keep the oil flowing no matter the cost.

The Mystery of Methane Gone Missing—We do not even know where the methane is leaking from let alone have a plan to stop the leaks.

Soaring Gas Prices Could Have Been Mitigated If Energy Sector Plugged Huge Methane Leaks, IEA Says—There is gold in them there leaks.

Illinois to Shut All Fossil Fuel Plants by 2045 and Invest $580M a Year in Renewables—Does 2045 seem a little late to the party?

Corn Ethanol No Better—and Probably Worse—than Burning Gasoline, Study Says—Is corn based ethanol the worst environmental policy decision that we have made as a country in recent history?

The Cost of Algae-Based Biofuel is Still too High—Or, is the price of oil too low?  With the world getting crazy in the past week it might create a situation where the cost disadvantage is narrowed considerably.

22% EV Market Share In Germany!—It seems like every month every country is reporting bigger and bigger market shares for EVs.  Remember, this is in an environment where cars to buy are fairly scarce due to global shortages of critical components.

Redwood Materials Starts Recycling Batteries From Ford, Volvo EVs—The repurposing and recycling of EV batteries at their end of life is going to be the next frontier in the future marketplace for electrification.  Instead of mining for new materials we can get the raw materials from already existing batteries.

Gas-Powered Lawn Equipment Sales Would be Banned in Parts of Colorado under Democrats’ Latest Climate Bill—These small engines are like little air pollution machines.  It’s not just the carbon emissions, but the particulate emissions and noise pollution.

Brains Do Not Slow Down Until After Age of 60, Study Finds—So, can we stop with the fetishization of “young geniuses” that seems to enrapture our media?

Why Eating Fermented Food Helps Your Gut Stay Healthy—Pile on the kimchi and sauerkraut.

The Toxic Tide of Ship Breaking—In the quest for ever larger and, thus, more efficient container ships to haul our crap halfway around the globe there is an entire nasty industry dedicated to breaking down the no longer economically viable ships of yesteryear.

Ikea’s Race for the Last of Europe’s Old-Growth Forest—This is happening so that we can buy cheap wooden furniture that is essentially disposable.

Urban Green Spaces Can’t Beat Climate Change on their Own—It’s a nice thing to green up an urban space, but it is no replacement for comprehensive policies to mitigate the impacts of climate change.

Friday Linkage 1/14/2022

This is your modern day Republican Party.  Republican Senate President Jake Chapman is really leaning heavily into the Orwellian recasting of the opposition’s intentions.  This man literally believes that anyone disagreeing with him or his party has a “sinister agenda.”

How can anything constructive be achieved in an environment when one side believes the other to be evil?

On to the links…

Making the Transition Happen—We have a pretty damn good idea of what it will take to decarbonize the economy.  It is not complex and it does not require radical leaps in technology like fusion power.  Granted, fusion power would make things a lot easier.

Tiniest Pollution Particles Pack Major Risk: Childhood Asthma, Poor-Air Deaths Ignored for too Long, studies say—The air is making us sick because we refuse to hold the people responsible accountable.  Oh wait, the people responsible is us.

US Greenhouse Emissions Increased by 6.2 Percent Last Year—After an artificial decline there was bound to be an artificial increase.

Coal was Dying. Then 2021 Happened.—Damn it.

Coal Will Equal 85% Of U.S. Electric Generating Capacity Retirements In 2022—Put another way, 6% of the coal generating capacity in operation at the end of 2021 will be retired.  This is a death spiral.

Solar to Make Up Half of New Generating Capacity in 2022—Are we reaching the tipping point on solar where it becomes so inexpensive that the only impediment to deployment is the rapidity of installation?

The US Government Spent $1.1 billion on Carbon Capture Projects that Mostly Failed—Carbon capture is the hydrogen of the next decade.  It is an attempt by old line fossil fuel companies to continue their business as usual policies propped up by a veneer of environmental friendliness.  Imagine putting more than $1 billion dollars to work reforesting wildfire ravaged lands?  That is carbon capture you can believe in.

Kentucky Coal Mine Will Become Giant “Water Battery” Energy Storage Project—The future is now.  This is happening in Kentucky, which is no friend of renewable energy or anything that does not at least tangentially support the coal industry.

The Western Megadrought is Revealing America’s ‘Lost National Park’—Other civilizations have come before us in the desert Southwest and, like those that came before, we will leave relics of our hubris behind.  Lake Powell and the Glen Canyon Dam will be a fitting monument to our colossal stupidity.

Texas Natural Gas Production Dropped During Recent Cold Front, Reviving Concerns about Electric Grid—I wonder who Greg Abbot and Texas Republicans will blame when the grid runs into a crisis again.  Probably no bigger advertisement for EVs with bi-directional charging than Texas going dark again.

USPS Says All-Electric Mail Trucks Will Cost An Extra $3 Billion—That is it?  Congress will fart and add that much money to the defense budget.

Electric Cars Aren’t Just Vehicles. They’re Big Batteries.—Electric vehicles may remake the way we interact with electricity and utilities in general.  I know that I am looking forward to a time in the near future when I have a battery pack in my garage that can help me disconnect from the grid.

UK’s Auto Market Hits One-Third Plugins In December—Including PHEVs you get over one-third, but more surprising to me is that BEVs account for one-quarter of the market already.

Can Lab-Grown Palm Oil Save the World’s Tropical Forests?—My hopes are low, but it cannot hurt trying.

Friday Linkage 9/10/2021

You have to love Republicans.  Now they are threatening U.S. corporations with political retribution should they comply with requests for documentation related to the attempted coup on January 6^th.

What does Kevin McCarthy fear will be shown?

On to the links…

How Much Energy Do We Need to Achieve a Decent Life for All?—When can we just step back and say that we have enough?  I believe we are well past that point in the United States.

Small Strategic Dietary Changes Yield Surprisingly Large Health and Environmental Returns—This does not surprise anyone who pays attention to the environmental cost of beef, but it underscores how much can be achieved with little sacrifice.

Biden Administration Outlines How Solar Could be Nearly Half of Electricity Supply by 2050—It does not require any special new technology.  It is all about deployment.

How To Raise Revenue Quickly: End Fossil Fuel Handouts—We give billions, if not hundreds of billions, every year in what amount to handouts to the most profitable companies in the history of the planet.  Why?

We’re Spending Peanuts on a Problem More Deadly Than Malaria—We literally spend money to make our health considerably worse.

Why Does Biden Ignore Low-Hanging Energy Fruit?—Easy, he does not want to be seen putting on a sweater like Jimmy Carter even if it is the right thing to do.  The “eat your peas” kind of approach does not sell well in the current political climate for either side of the debate.

Despite Pandemic, U.S. Solar PV Shipments Reached a Record High in 2020—So, the economy was in the shitter and people were in a bad place yet solar shipments reached a record level.  Now imagine what could happen in a better year.

We’ve Been Radically Underestimating the True Cost of Our Carbon Footprint—The accounting is important if we want to develop good policy.

African Rainforests are Stronger Carbon Sinks than the Amazon—Instead of arguing about who is doing a better job at storing carbon, why don’t we just preserve and regenerate as much as possible?

Are We Stuck With Cement?—Not at all, but it takes a change in attitude to stop pouring so much cement all over the place.

Tesla Model Y Bestseller In Norway — Plugin EV Share Hits Record High 88%–Norway sure does love it some plug in vehicles.

Impossible Chicken Nuggets are Headed to Stores with Remarkable Chicken Taste and No Dinosaur Shapes—Baby Yoda likes:

How Your Favorite Jeans Might be Fueling a Human Rights Crisis—The human rights crisis in Xinjiang is bad.  Real bad.  Somehow China has essentially conducted a state sponsored ethnic cleansing under the eyes of the international community.

More National Parks Won’t Solve Overcrowding—Given the National Park system’s popularity you would think funding increases would be a no brainer.

The Pandemic Caused a Baby Bust, Not a Boom—No shit.  Having a child is hard, especially in the United States, and during a pandemic it has to be just about the most fraught thing a person could willingly do.

Friday Linkage 9/3/2021

James Akers is my new hero.  Ander Christensen used to be my hero—boneless wings are not a thing—but Mr. Akers has taken his place.

Why?

This little tirade at the Dripping Springs Independent School District board meeting is perfection:

I’m here to say that I do not like government or any other entity — just ask my wife — telling me what to do, but sometimes I got to push the envelope a little bit. And I just decided that I’m going to not just talk about it but I’m going to walk the walk.

At work, they made me wear this jacket. I hate it. They make me wear this shirt and tie. I hate it.

On the way over here, I ran three stop signs and four red lights, almost killed somebody out there, but by God it’s my roads too so I have every right to drive as fast as I want to, to make the turn that I want to.

I got over here to the school today and the parking lot’s full and I decided I was going to park wherever the hell I want to, which in this case happened to be a handicap.

It’s simple protocol people. We follow certain rules for a very good reason.

Thank you, sir.

On to the links…

Britain’s Economy is Already Seeing a Rapid Shift Due to Climate Change—The future is here and it is not necessarily pretty.

54 Members Of Congress (All Democrats) Push For End To Fossil Fuel Subsidies—That is $121 BILLION that could be used for so many other things. 

What a Year for Wind—It’s getting cheaper and cheaper to harvest the energy blowing in the wind.

U.S.’s Largest Offshore Wind Project Takes Another Step Forward—It always feels like the U.S. offshore wind industry is a couple years away and it has been that way for decades.

Renewable Energy Needs Storage. These 3 Solutions can Help.—It is not just about storing the supply of energy, but shifting the demand for energy to times when it is available.

Using Hot Sand To Store Energy—I had heard of molten salt and gravity batteries, but hot sand was a new one.

Renewables Could Meet 100% Demand in Australia at Certain Times of Day by 2025—It is not all the time, but even getting to 100% for a moment is amazing.  The upside is that the periods of time when the grid is 100% renewable will only get longer and longer.

Keep Fuel Dollars Local By Switching To EVs—This is one of the things I have never understood about people when they defend coal power plants.  Unless you are from a state that mines coal each kWh just represents money leaving your state.

Is Hydrogen A Climate Silver Bullet, Or Fossil Fuel Industry Spin?—As long as the primary feedstock for hydrogen is natural gas this is just more fossil fuel industry spin.

A Dutch Approach To Cutting Carbon Emissions From Buildings Is Coming To America—Spending money to use less energy is the “eat your vegetables” of the climate change fight.  It is not sexy and you have to really work to convince people it is the best course of action, but in terms of cost efficiency and payback it is a killer deal.

A New Conservation Corps for the Climate—This.

Mapped: Where ‘Afforestation’ is Taking Place Around the World—It is not all bad news.  I just wish that we were planting even more trees.

The Government is Raising an Army of Parasitic Wasps to Fight Invasive Beetles—What could possible go wrong?

How One Town Put Politics Aside to Save Itself from Fire—Things may seem broken—socially, politically, economically—but that does not mean we cannot repair the connections within our communities and work on real change.

Friday Linkage 8/27/2021

It really seems like the world is on fire.  However, I wonder if it only feels that way because we have access to all the news from all over the world.

Before, like pre-World War II, chaos might ensue in southeast Asia and most people in America would not know about it.  The same could be said for an outbreak of illness in Africa or an earthquake in South America.

Now it seems like we know all of the bad news from all of the places.

On to the links…

Renewables Made up 92% of New Generating Capacity in the U.S. in the First Half of 2021—2021 is looking like a good year for renewables in the U.S.

Solar Power in Australia Outstrips Coal-Fired Electricity for First Time—It may not have been for a long time, but getting 50% of your power from solar is pretty damn impressive.

Oil Firms Made ‘False Claims’ on Blue Hydrogen Costs, says ex-Lobby Boss—Now we can get to the fraud part of the hydrogen economy brought to you by the oil and gas industry.

Nearly Half of Colorado’s 52,000 Wells Produce Little or No Oil. Who’ll Pay to Plug Them?—I can almost guarantee that it will not be the oil and gas companies that drilled the wells.

The Perverse Reason It’s Easier to Build New Highways Than New Subways—Perverse is right.  We need to spend months and even years to determine that making driving a personal automobile more difficult and more expensive will result in fewer miles driven.  Wow!

The Evidence That the World has Passed ‘Peak Car’—A lot of our planning regime will need to change if this holds true.

‘Ten years ago this was science fiction’: the Rise of Weedkilling Robots—I do not know if this is really cool or really frightening.  It could either turn into utopian sci-fi or dystopian sci-fi.

From 1m Trees to a Tree Graveyard: How Dubai’s Conservation Plans Went Awry—One million trees or a freaking shopping mall?  Guess which one won?

Why Are Farmers in Senegal Creating Gardens That Look Like Crop Circles?—A little local knowledge goes a long way toward regenerating our natural landscape.

4 Reasons to Let Your Lawn Grow Wild—I will add a fifth reason: you will end up mowing less.  For two months this summer I will have mowed my lawn twice.  There were drought conditions, so the lawn naturally went dormant, and I did not mind it being shaggy.

Bottled Water Numbers Don’t Add Up—Their Environmental Impact is 3500 Times that of Tap Water—Is there anyone out there defending bottled water for non-emergency use?

Meat Wars: Why Biden Wants to Break up the Powerful US Beef Industry—Big meat is bad for everyone except the companies making a profit.

Friday Linkage 8/20/2021

This has just been one of those bad news kind of weeks.

Afghanistan…a mess of epic proportions.

COVID-19 in the United States…red states doing the best they can to kill their own constituents.

School year starting…kids scared of getting sick and dying.

Wasn’t 2021 supposed to be better than 2020?  I am beginning to wonder if we are living through a dumpster fire of a decade.

On to the links…

July 2021 Hottest Month Ever Recorded, Says NOAA—Well, that sucks.

In Long-Awaited Victory, EPA Bans Pesticide Toxic to Kids and Farmworkers—No one denies that chlorpyrifos is bad stuff, but when a big company needs to make money the health of people is a secondary concern.  Too bad that the Trump administration was incompetent and could not be bothered to follow the law on developing policy.

Judge Throws Out Trump-era Approvals for Alaska Oil Project—Those guys were so good at being incompetent that it just boggles the mind.

Did Trump Give China Afghanistan So It Could Secure Oil & Rare Earth Supplies?—Trump rolled over for every authoritarian across the globe.

GOP Governors Embrace Covid Cocktails over Masks as Cases Surge—What in the ever living fuck are Republican governors doing?  Let’s see, free vaccines and cheap masks are effective.  Naturally, Republican governors have decided to cry “Muh freedom!” and insist on deploying expensive treatments that work on the margins.  Good plan guys.  See you in hell.

During Campaign, Lauren Boebert Didn’t Disclose Husband’s Income from Energy Firm—What do you think Lauren Boebert’s husband did to earn almost $500K as an “energy consultant?”  My guess is that it was close to nothing.  Corruption thy name is Republican.

The Bill That Could Truly, Actually Bring Back U.S. Manufacturing—This seems like an idea that would have bipartisan support in Washington D.C.  Therefore, it is unlikely to ever be passed.

Getting To 40% Solar Energy In The US By 2035 Is A Piece Of Cake, Kind Of—Just keep deploying solar.  Just keep deploying…

U.S. Coal Consumption Falls To 60-Year Low—It’s not all bad new out there.

China Cranks Up Carbon-Intensive Projects as Climate Crisis Grows, Research Shows—Whatever we do may not matter is China just decides to go ahead and blow up the carbon budget.

The World Won’t Buy Alberta’s Second-Rate Coal—Even China does not want your coal.

S&P: Why Florida Will Become the Southeast’s Solar Leader—Given Florida’s ability to, well, be Florida I doubt that it will end up being a leader in solar energy.

Electric Trucks with ‘Zero Tailpipe Emissions’ are Delivering Beer in NYC—It’s not a big change, but it is a start.  Imagine every diesel heavy truck you see on a daily basis being replaced by an EV.

Government Reveals Plans for £4bn Hydrogen Investment by 2030—The shift to a cleaner and greener economy can be a jobs bonanza if we approach things correctly.

The Big Drop in American Poverty During the Pandemic, Explained—Poverty in the United States is a policy choice.  Our elected leaders, in general, have created an economic system that pushes people into poverty rather than providing a systematic way out of poverty.

Pesticides can Amplify Each Other. Bees have Become the Victims.—Maybe we should just stop pouring these chemicals on everything.

Want People to Eat Less Meat? Fake Burgers Probably Won’t Cut It.—Nobody ever said it was the silver bullet, but replacing the ubiquitous hamburger has to be a good thing.  Right?

Panda Express’ Meatless Orange Chicken Already Sold Out in California—I have always doubted how much actual meat is in a fast food chicken blob, so going all meatless is a fairly easy step.  Plus, once the deep-fried nugget is doused in sauce does anyone actually care about the protein inside?  You could sell deep fried batter nuggets with that orange sauce.

Here’s What the Right gets Wrong About Culture: It’s Not a Monument, but a Living Thing—But you cannot gin up the anger of certain voters with stories about culture being an evolving thing.  You get them angry by talking about the “other” and how the “other” is to blame for whatever problem is ailing them at the moment.

Friday Linkage 8/13/2021

Nothing says sensitive like the modern day right wing.  You cannot swing a yard sign without “offending” some member of the right wing nut job crew. 

Apparently, these same people are also offended by someone making a personal choice to wear a mask in public.

Nothing says the party of personal responsibility like getting offended about people making personal choices.  Oh wait, these no talent ass clowns were never about principle.  They were only about power and if “owning the libs” allowed them to do this, so be it.

On to the links…

EIA: Renewables will Make Up 23% of U.S. Electric Power Generation Next Year—Look at the curve for non-hydro renewables:

How do we keep that up so that renewables keep eating into fossil fuels’ share of the pie?

Lifestyle Changes — The Hippies Were Right—Pretty much.

Follow the Money: US Subsidizes Oil and Gas so Investors Never Lose—The mantra is to privatize the gains and socialize the losses.

Welcome to the ‘Plastisphere’: The Synthetic Ecosystem Evolving at Sea—Welcome to our reality.

The Hydrogen Economy is About to Get Weird—The so-called hydrogen economy has always been weird.  It is the ultimate canard for the climate “wizards” who believe that all solutions to climate change will come from technology.

UK’s Green Economy Four Times Larger than Manufacturing Sector—The future of our economies may already be here, but we need to realize it is happening.

Abandoned Pits of Former Mining Town Fuel Green Revolution—There are creative solutions everywhere.

Could Colorado Cities Save Enough Water to Stop Building Dams?—Start with the golf courses.

Days of Wine and Olives: How the Old Farming Ways are Paying Off in Spain—Our future is in doing things differently, but that does not mean we have to try all new things.  Sometimes the old ways were really better.

Power Above, Berries Below: Farmers Reap Double Benefits With Solar Power in Fields—There are also solutions that are new.

The Logic of Corporate Accounting Took Over Our Language, and We Hardly Noticed—We are not line items on a balance sheet, so why do we talk like this?  We are irrational sacks of meat driven by emotions.  The sooner we embrace that reality the better off everyone will be.

‘They Rake in Profits – Everyone Else Suffers’: US Workers Lose Out as Big Chicken gets Bigger—The only people who “win” are the ones who make money from Tyson.  Communities lose out.  Farmers lose out.  Workers lose out.  Tell me why we allow this to happen when only a small handful of people actually benefit?  Oh right, politicians who line their reelection campaign war chests with Tyson money.

Friday Linkage 8/6/2021

Republicans are against cards that confirm one’s vaccination status, but they will willingly fork over money for a Trump card? 

Who wants to carry a card that looks like it was designed to be used in a cheap Hunger Games parody?  Oh wait, I answered my own question.  It’s the people who think we are living in a version of the Hunger Games.

Put on your Hawaiian shirt and plate carrier, but do not forget to slide the Trump card into your wallet because it is the key to making America…oh, man I cannot even write this stuff anymore.

On to the links…

One Policy that Could Challenge a Century of Fossil-Fuel Dominance—Somewhere Tucker Carlson is crying into his Sean Hannity pillow, “But…communism…”

Iowa Ranks First in Renewable Energy Use, According to New Report—Nearly 60% renewable energy!  Maybe Iowa is the blueprint.  Probably not, but I am going to applaud success.  Let’s get to 100%!

The Biden Administration Won’t Explain Its Handout To Big Coal—Unacceptable.

Will This Court Case End the Mining Industry’s 150-Year Dominance of the West?—Things feel different when it comes to extractive industries.  Maybe it was the brazenness of the Trump years that made everyone realize these companies would literally side with Satan for an extra point of EPS.

Climate Crisis has Cost Colorado Billions – Now it Wants Oil Firms to Pick Up the Bill—At this rate oil and gas companies may spend the next several decades in court begging, like the tobacco industry before them, for the very right to continue to exist.

Norway At 84.7% Plugin EV Share In July – Mustang Mach-E Bestseller—On the march to 100%.

Italy’s EV Market More Than Quadrupled In The First Half Of 2021!—La dolce vita is now electrified.

The Lost History of the Electric Car – and What it Tells Us About the Future of Transport—Past is not necessarily prologue.

New ‘Microgrid’ At Pittsburgh International Airport Is A Big, Green Infrastructure Success—Bit by bit and piece by piece we are realizing the future.

From Diapers To Sticky Notes – A Revolution In Recycling—Given that recycling is essentially broken…yeah, anything would be an improvement.

This Company Claims to Help the World’s Biggest Corporations Recycle. Activists say it’s Greenwashing.—Is anyone surprised that a company that got other big companies to join recycling campaigns for hard to recycle items might not be living up to its promises?  Not me.

Reforestation Hopes Threaten Global Food Security, Oxfam Warns—It is not an either or proposition.  If we just focus on reforesting lands that have been burned over that would be a great start and it would not change food production one bit.

There Has Been Blood—The palm oil industry is just a bad actor.  At this point it may be irredeemable.

Ron Finley Reveals You Can Compost More Than Just Dinner Scraps—I love this quote: “I hadn’t realized there are certain things you don’t know as a kid—you don’t know you’re not getting the education that you need.”

Friday Linkage 7/30/2021

Is it a Republican thing to declare victory before the battle is over?  The ultimate example of this is still George W. Bush making a speech on an aircraft carrier in front of a huge Mission Accomplished banner:

A person would not believe this happened except that it was promoted heavily by the right wing at the time.  I think it was just this month that an end to combat operations in Iraq was announced.  It only took seventeen years after the speech referenced above was made.

It also looks like everyone’s favorite Republican of the moment—Ron DeSantis—is staring down his own “mission accomplished” moment as COVID-19 surges in the state he leads.  Who needs to worry when you can jet off to Utah to speak at a conference sponsored by ALEC.

These people have no shame.

On to the links…

Rich Countries are Deluded About the Climate Threat—Pretty much.  Every Republican thought that money would insulate them from climate change and they have been pretty much kicked in the nuts repeatedly. 

Three Americans Create Enough Carbon Emissions to Kill One Person, Study Finds—It’s no wonder so much of the world hates America.

What’s the True Cost of Shipping All Your Junk Across the Ocean?—The “greenest” option is almost always to defer the purchase of an item.  Just stop buying stuff.

Monks Wood Wilderness: 60 Years Ago, Scientists Let a Farm Field Rewild – Here’s What Happened—This is an instructive case for those looking to advocate for rewilding.

Biodiversity Bonanza! Why it is Time to Let Weeds go Wild in Our Gardens—Just let nature do its thing.

These Companies are Sucking Carbon Out of the Atmosphere — and Investors are Piling In—Carbon capture is the Holy Grail for technologists looking to “solve” global warming.  As the “smart money” piles in, I wonder if it is just smoke and mirrors.

China Plans to Build the First ‘Clean’ Commercial Nuclear Reactor—Next generation nuclear power always seems like it is just a few years away from prime time.  Kind of like cold fusion.  It’s just ten years away and has been that way for fifty years.

This California Company Wants to Make Modern AC Obsolete—It will probably not eliminate traditional air conditioning, but anything that can help reduce the power needs of air conditioning is a good thing.

Tesla Powerwall Owners Can Sign Up to Help Balance California’s Energy Grid—Now imagine hundreds of thousands of battery packs—stationary installations like a Powerwall and V2G capable vehicles like the forthcoming F-150 Lightning—and pretty soon the problem of renewable variability gets a lot easier to solve.

Report: Toyota Working Against EV Shift—I should not be surprised, but really?

Americans are Really Digging Electrified Vehicles as Gas Prices Jump—I love “no shit, Sherlock” headlines.

For Every $1 We Spend on Food, We Rack Up $2 in Public-Health and Environmental Damage—Our food system is literally killing us and it is costing us money to boot.

A Florida City Wanted to Move Away from Fossil Fuels. The State Just Made Sure it Couldn’t.—Florida’s approach to climate change is to plug its ears and scream, “I can’t hear you!”  The three year old child routine is not going to work out so well when the flood waters come.

In Namibia, Rhino and Elephant Poaching Continues to Decline—It’s not all bad news out there.