Where do we go from here?
If you are a Trumplican, it is time to reopen everything. Consequences be damned! The economy is worth more than any single life.
Isn’t it ironic that the political party that supposedly defends the sanctity of the life of innocents—at least until these lives are out of the womb and require any sort of assistance—is the same party telling people that there is an acceptable level of death in order to make sure the stock market rebounds. If you thought the money changers were a bad sort these people are historically awful.
The election is just six months away and I cannot fathom how people could vote for Donald Trump or Mitch McConnell or Joni Ernst or any other member of the Republican death cult. However, no matter what these people do there is a core of the American population that will not abandon them regardless of how bad things get.
Stay safe out there.
On to the links…
‘There’s a sense that celebrities are irrelevant’: Has Coronavirus Shattered Our Fame Obsession?—We can hope that people stop caring about Kardashians or, gasp, Trumps when this is all over. Our obsession with celebrity is one of the things that got us into this mess. When you elect a failed reality television star to lead your country expect the result to be like a failed reality television show.
Local: A Glimmer of Hope for a Post-Pandemic World—I think there is a blueprint here in hyper local craft beer. These are brewers who sell almost exclusively through their taprooms to their immediate communities eschewing the rate race of commercial accounts and package beer. Now apply that to a restaurant or a salon. Imagine the city of the future is really just a series of mashed up little villages.
Need More Outdoor Public Space? Maybe Cities Already Have It.—Golf courses. Never has so much land been allocated to such a small sliver of the population. God help you if you consider closing a golf course as visor clad retirees will fill a meeting and yell about access. As if they were toddling over on foot to play a round.
The Oil Execs on Trump’s “Opening the Country” Council Are Major GOP Donors—He really is the best president that money can buy because he does not care about anything else. Except for Kentucky Fried Chicken. The man loves fried chicken.
How Working From Home Will Impact Oil Demand Forever—Even if we do not stay at massive levels of working from home in the future, I have to believe that something structural has changed in our work culture that will allow us to break the daily commute cycle that drives so much demand for energy.
False Solutions to Climate Change: Transportation—If the current crisis has shown us anything it is that maybe there is a way forward where we just drive and fly less. Fewer miles driven means fewer miles of roads are needed. And the virtuous cycle continues.
London Looking to Increase Cycling Tenfold after the Coronavirus—The humble bicycle will be our salvation.
The US Wind Industry Installed over 1,800 Megawatts in First Quarter, but the Coronavirus Remains a Risk—Every clean, green megawatt is a good thing. If we can keep our demand lower these wind megawatts will replace dirty coal megawatts.
Looming Coal and Nuclear Plant Closures Put ‘Just Transition’ Concept to the Test—We are getting to the point in the energy transition from fossil fuels to renewables where we are forced to reckon with the economic/social impact of plant closures and the ripple effects through an energy economy. This is a good problem to have to solve.
City of Houston Surprises: 100% Renewable Electricity — $65 Million in Savings in 7 Years—Houston, the beating heart of the American fossil fuel industry, is a surprisingly progressive place. Of course, saving millions of dollars will turn even the crustiest wildcatter into a greenie.
Microplastics Found in Greater Quantities than Ever before on Seabed—We will be known as the plastic age when generations of the future dig up the layers of garbage we have left behind.
Bioplastics Developer Raises $133 Million in New Funding in Quest to Replace Single-Use Plastics—I have learned not to get my hopes up when it comes to bioplastic. Most bioplastic innovations are just ways for the plastic industry to push more plastic into the waste stream at the expense of doing something truly beneficial.
Cutting U.S. Meat Consumption by Half would Reduce Dietary Emissions by 35% within Decade—As the public learns just how brutal the meat packing industry is in America in 2020 maybe we can stop blindly buying cellophane wrapped packages of steaks for the grill. Each purchase perpetuates a system that debases humans, tortures animals, and is bad for the planet.
Your Perfect Green Lawn Is a Buzz Kill—As I sit here typing I can see a lawn care company applying chemicals to a neighbors lawn in a hopeless attempt to turn a crappy lawn into a green carpet. The problem is that the underlying soil is junk, but my neighbor has no desire to put in the hard work to rejuvenate the soil. He just wants to spray some chemicals and hope for the best. The lawn care industry is only too happy to take his money.
Pakistan Turns Unemployed Workers into Tree Planters—Why can’t we do this in the United States? Hire people in rural communities to plant trees in burnt over areas. It’s jobs and climate change mitigation all in one.
