Climate Change

Climate Change – A Place to Start

If we are going to address the topic of climate change, then we need to start somewhere. A good place to start is with Sir David Attenborough’s documentary on Netflix: ”A Life on Our Planet.”  Attenborough is a world-renowned English broadcaster best known for writing and presenting on the wonders of the natural world. This documentary starts with his view of his world as a young explorer and naturalist enthralled by the wonders of the planet. Now, at age 94, he tells how we have changed the planet in his lifetime.

New technology could make carbon capture practical

Science Magazine on March 24, 2021, reported on new carbon dioxide capturing technology that could make that strategy more feasible and complement growth of solar and wind technologies to produce clean energy. Current carbon capture technology is too expensive to widely use, but a new generation of chemical CO2 traps could reduce the cost by 20% and, with tax credits, could make them commercially viable.

Can you really capture energy out of the air?

We don’t know if it will help with climate change, but a new 3D-printed, rectifying antenna the size of a playing card can “harvest electromagnetic energy from 5G signals and use it to power devices. According to a March 28, 2021, story in New Atlas, the 5G frequencies were “allowed unprecedented high radiated power densities by the FCC,” which means the architects of 5G “unknowingly created a wireless power grid capable of powering devices at ranges far exceeding the capabilities of any existing technologies.” The technology has the potential to “get rid of batteries” for wireless sensors used for smart city and smart agriculture applications.

Lithium battery prices fall, helping reduce electric vehicle cost

A March 31, 2021, article in The Economist reports that lithium battery costs have fallen by 98% in three decades and that “in a few years electric vehicles may cost the same as their combustion-engine counterparts.” If true, then its good news for the climate since “such technological progress is crucial for decarbonizing the global economy.”

Political Divisiveness
 

“Democracy is never a thing done. Democracy is always something that a nation must be doing.” - Archibald MacLeish, American poet and writer

Views vary on capitalism as an economic system

One of the drivers of political divisiveness in the U.S. are differences in opinion about how well capitalism works as an economic system. A Fortune Analytics survey of 2,000 U.S. adults found the following:

• 65% - have a positive view of capitalism
• 32% - have a negative view of capitalism.
• 42% - have a positive view of socialism.
• 55% - have a negative view of socialism. 
• 49% - prefer capitalism as an economic system.
• 21% - prefer socialism.
• 29% - say they don't know enough to choose. 

More on capitalism from MasterCard executive chairman

Here’s what MasterCard executive chairman Ajay Banga told Fortune Connect on March 26, 2021, when asked about capitalism: “I dislike words like stakeholder capitalism…. It feels like attaching a good word in front of capitalism makes the bad word become better. My problem with that is you are positioning capitalism as a bad word…I argue capitalism has done really well in the last 40-50 years in terms of growth in the world economy, reduction of poverty …. (But) capitalism unfettered, left only to capitalists, run by people who are the biggest beneficiaries, is not the right way to go. You need checks and balances. The checks and balances went missing for a while.”

Think the system is broken? You’re not alone

A grievance is “a real or imagined wrong or other cause for complaint or protest, especially unfair treatment.” Grievance was a major element that “rationalized the Confederacy in the American South, continuing to this day for many. It had a corollary in post-World War II Germany as the occupying Allies tried, briefly, to pursue re-education programs. A fallen empire still haunts the United Kingdom. And few know how to throw a revolution better than the French.” A recent Time Politics D.C. Brief reported that a survey by the Pew Research Center suggest grievance is still alive and well in those countries. “Two-thirds of adults in the U.S. and France believe the political system needs to be overhauled, if not overthrown. Half of those in the U.K. think the same. Germany is less unstable, but calls for reform still ring true with roughly four in 10.” Two-thirds of U.S. adults think “most politicians are corrupt.” Half of French and U.K. respondents agree. In addition, voters think politicians don’t care about the opinions about half the time of “ordinary people” in the U.S., U.K. and France.

John Boehner in The Atlantic on Republican Politics

Maybe this will stir a little controversy with our readers, but former Republican Speaker of the House writes in Politico on April 2, 2021, about “how America’s center-right party started to lose its mind, as told by the man who tried to keep it sane.” Titled “Panic Rooms, Birth Certificates and the Birth of GOP Paranoia,” Boehner recounts that he tried to counsel incoming Republican representatives on “how to get things done.” They didn’t want incrementalism or compromise he says. “That wasn’t their thing. A lot of them wanted to blow up Washington. That’s why they thought they were elected. Some of them, well, you could tell they weren’t paying attention because they were just thinking of how to fundraise off of outrage or how they could get on Hannity that night. Ronald Reagan used to say something to the effect that if I get 80 or 90 percent of what I want, that’s a win. These guys wanted 100 percent every time. In fact, I don’t think that would satisfy them, because they didn’t really want legislative victories. They wanted wedge issues and conspiracies and crusades.”