Appalachian Institute for Renewable Energy
Pioneering community-owned renewable energy
I shared a short bit of serenity in the previous post on Earth Day. If ever we needed to calm our synapses, it’s now, in the turbulence of a pandemic and a certain (ir)response. So much is going on it almost seems like something else is breaking or being deliberately broken by the minute. That’s
You’re probably seeing reports (e.g. here and here) of how the air around Los Angeles and other places is suddenly clean with the economy turned off now. I even had a dream last night that I could see a lake in the distance that I’d never seen from a mountaintop I’ve frequented many times. I
I’ve been thinking about all the interrelated crises[1] that seem to be coming to a head now with the deadly coronavirus shutting down large swaths of social and economic activity. My mind tends to go there, especially with a little time to expand my imagination and questions amidst a real-life global calamity. There’s nothing theoretical
Dahr Jamail’s excellent piece on Truthout, Could COVID-19 Spell the End of the Fracking Industry as we Know It? connects a couple important dots. Of course coronavirus is one of them. Rightfully so, it seems for anyone capable of thinking in systems, this tragic and deadly pandemic continues to reveal so many fatal flaws within
This coronavirus public health emergency is a time-compressed capsule view of a lot of our big crises– climate emergency, bad energy policies, privatization and enclosures of the commons, unthinkable levels of inequality and human suffering, shock doctrine [1] economics that doesn’t work for 99% of the people, and all the rest. These are things we
Exponential growth can be good or bad, in other words, something can grow in either direction. I’ll get to that in a minute. Coronavirus is absolutely an example we’re all trying to wrap our minds around now, so we better understand EXPONENTIAL GROWTH!!!! But this also applies to other relevant topics in our renewable energy
“I can only take one apocalypse at a time.” That’s what the bank teller said to me during a recent trip to the bank when his computer couldn’t manage a simple deposit. As we stood there waiting for this machine to do its work, he alluded, probably only half jokingly, to the possibilities of artificial
Lately, I’ve heard people say that “Bloomberg is at least good on climate” in rationalizing their lesser-of-the evils hail mary impulses. That may be a fear-based reaction for supporting a plutocrat, but regardless of explanation, the claim is simply false. Joshua Frank’s piece on counterpunch, Bloomberg is a Climate Change Con Man, is a must
All 21 days of our new decade 2020 have been even more surreal than what has been the ever-metastasizing malignant normalcy of the past three years. My mind went careening into a maze of “dots” when President Trump assassinated the Iranian general earlier this month (remember way back then?), trying to connect them to make