Friday, June 27, 2014

Friday Five: June 27, 2014

It's not that we do dumb things that screw things up...it's that we do smart, well-intentioned things...
That screw things up.
Everything we know about neonic pesticides is awful
"The pesticides don’t just affect pest species. Most prominently, they affect bees and butterflies, which are poisoned when they gather pollen and nectar. But neonics’ negative impacts go far beyond pollinators. They kill all manner of animals and affect all kinds of ecosystems. They’re giving rise to Silent Spring 2.0."

And then we push it to scale and screw it up even more.
The brutal cost of cheap chicken
"American meat eaters live, for the most part, in happy ignorance of the system that grows animals for slaughter. When that ignorance is interrupted with a bit of information about the meat industry, we typically respond with outrage."

And then we build culture around it so that we hold onto it far longer than is practical.
The death of the American mall
"Dying shopping malls are speckled across the United States, often in middle-class suburbs wrestling with socioeconomic shifts. Some, like Rolling Acres, have already succumbed. Estimates on the share that might close or be repurposed in coming decades range from 15 to 50%. Americans are returning downtown; online shopping is taking a 6% bite out of brick-and-mortar sales; and to many iPhone-clutching, city-dwelling and frequently jobless young people, the culture that spawned satire like Mallrats seems increasingly dated, even cartoonish."

Finally, we do everything we can to try to hold onto it, even when it has never made economic sense. (Although, I will say that two of the points of the article: that there might be a way to produce energy without the damaging waste component, and that nuclear energy has to handle almost all of its waste products...they both have merit.  **Most, because they do not have to restore mined areas to pre-mining condition, and they do not have to account for the impact of the waste heat.**)
Is nuclear power ever coming back?
"According to those in the business of generating nuclear energy, other power producers should have to pay full price for the risks associated with their waste products. The way they see it, they’ve made their plants safer by prohibiting the release of critical, planet-damaging byproducts, and others should too."

I find it heartening when simple, time-tested mechanisms provide a path to a healthier future.  We need more electricity cooperatives and clean energy "building and loan" models to expedite the move to clean, community-based energy systems.  We have the knowledge, the technology, and now the economic incentive.  The only obstacle now are well-funded, obsolete industries.
Buying into solar power, no roof required
"The shared approach has its roots in rural electric cooperatives, said Elaine Ulrich of the Department of Energy’s SunShot program, but has only begun to take off in recent years, and still accounts for a tiny fraction of solar production. There are at least 52 projects in at least 17 states, and at least 10 states are encouraging their development through policy and programs, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, the main trade group."

Happy Friday!

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