Transforming our future quality of life requires the best combination of innovation, luck, and determination. The story of how a battery start-up named Envia went from nothing to the biggest stage in the automobile world and back to nothing not only provides some valuable insight into the process, but it also highlights some great challenges to realizing a new energy economy.
The mysterious story of the battery startup that promised GM a 200-mile electric car
"Envia’s collapse extinguishes what had been arguably better news for electric cars, which was a singular advance in the battery itself. Its described refinement of Argonne’s NMC was superior to the incremental improvements marked by every other known cathode-anode coupling on the planet. Kumar and Kapadia persuaded GM, along with Arpa-E and many, many others, that Chevy, propelled by Envia batteries, would assume the early lead in the global electric car race. GM was perhaps not snookered, but it was credulous when it should have understood the chart in the Crane appraisal, which one must presume it demanded and was provided."
There exists a great, and unpredictable, battle between those who think we should emulate and work within nature as much as possible, and those who think that innovation can improve upon nature. What interests me more is that those on the innovation side in terms of business fall often on the conservative side when speaking of social issues. Whatever side of the spectrum you inhabit, stories like this should alarm you. Whether it is the decline of bee populations, the prevention of natural processes within the sweet potato, or the resistance of bacteria to antibiotics, we have yet to see a long-term, human-made strategy that betters nature significantly.
A little girl's project shows why we need to choose organic produce
"What initially started as a simple science experiment quickly evolved into a potential and unintentional piece of evidence in support of the purchase of organic rather than conventional produce. As Elise so adorably mentioned as a part of her explanation, the conventional sweet potato was sprayed with bud nip, alternatively known as Chlorpropham. Bud nip is just one of the many chemicals widely used in non-organic farming and agriculture."
When one considers the importance of branding and imaging to the American consumer, outright lies like this need to get squashed immediately. The scientific debate over the safety of GMO crops still needs to play out, but in no way, shape, or form can a rational person consider them natural.
Big food companies want to call GMO foods "natural"
"'Genetic engineering, by its very definition, is not a natural process. It is an artificial and novel process, which often involves inserting foreign (often bacterial) genetic material into a food plant, crop or animal. The U.S. Patent Office has granted numerous patents on genetically engineered plants, finding that they and novel elements in them are not naturally occurring.'"
I often fall on the side of "educating the next generation should take a back seat to fixing the problems we have caused", but given how drastically our society has changed over the last 150 years from agrarian to urban, projects like this have tremendous value. I would like to see similar work around energy and water.
These kits teach kids that food has a history beyond the grocery store
"At the end of each lesson, kids get a card with a photo on one side from the Alliance’s archives, and a person’s story on the back. 'They learn about someone who sells their freshly baked bread at the farmers market, or who are championship oyster shuckers,' she explains. 'We give kids an important opportunity to see that food in very personal terms in the sense that there are a lot of people who are working very hard to make food happen.'"
It is coming. We could be 100% solar in the next 10 years if we wanted it, but we can certainly get there in the next 20....and save huge sums of money in the economy. I highlighted some work previously that posited what a "free energy" economy might look like. We will need to prepare for it sooner than we think.
Jeremy Leggett: It's flattering when people dismiss solar
"The cost of solar is decreasing and the price of using fossil fuels is rocketing both for pockets and the planet. Solar will have to become normal. The price of a solar module has fallen 80 per cent since 2008, and the US Energy Department projects a further 75 per cent further price reduction by 2020. Solar is set to become the biggest single energy source in the world. Do not take my word for this. This is Shell's opinion, even as they try to transform themselves into a gas company, having given up on solar, like BP."
Happy Friday!
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