Appalachian Institute for Renewable Energy
Pioneering community-owned renewable energy
Our friend and colleague, Adam Thada up in Indiana, passed this report along to us recently dealing with the intersection of two very important things– bees and solar power. Colony collapse and the climate emergency make them important. We’re rightfully proud of his leadership on ecological relationships at the Center at Donaldson that has resulted
As has been a running thread in these coronavirus days here on AIRE’s blog, the novel virus for all its misery, grief, and social upheaval is exposing some myths. All one has to do is pay attention and use their critical lenses. Whether it’s food supply, medical treatment, or energy supply, there’s growing evidence that
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
New cars these days don’t come with a spare tire. What little that may reduce the price of the car, if any, just doesn’t seem worth it when a flat strands you on the side of the road. That’s the analogy Nobel Prize economist Joseph Stiglitz [1] uses to critique the old economic and political
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
Coronavirus is revealing an important truth about culture, media, politics and mental models here in the United States. Cooperative behavior at all levels is completely overwhelmed by the forces of obfuscation, misinformation, and incompetent leadership, paving the way for uncontrolled viral spread. That cat may already be out of the bag and the pandemic on,