”Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children . . . This is not a way of life at all in any sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.” Eisenhover – 1953
Author Archives: mogens
Hurricane Dorian and Bahamas
The category-5 Hurricane Dorian just left the Bahamas devastated with 1000’s of homes in ruins and the airport runway under water. My heart goes out to the folks in distress, and so does my check to the Red Cross. At the same time I hope they realize the pattern of things to come. Do not rebuild. It’s time to pack up and get out! The same goes for other folks living near coastlines in flood zones. What are you waiting for? GET OUT NOW!
Dear Congresswoman Eshoo
Dear Congresswoman Eshoo,
Having read your Mountain View town hall summary, it came as a surprise to me that Climate Change was not discussed, and I decided to attend your Redwood City TH meeting. Again I was most disappointed by the absence of CC. Regrettably, I was not given an opportunity to speak.
I will not waste much time about the urgency of this matter other than to say that the outlook to recover from CC is most distressing.
CC is by no means a new concept. It was well understood at the international level through the 1990 IPCC report. Yet, we have decided to ignore the issue. As a generation, we have utterly failed to take action. Even when we had a presidential candidate like Hillary Clinton who suggested that we can address the issue by installing millions of solar panels, I cringe. She failed to understand the issue. In fact, it was not until I recently heard the new EU president, Ursula von der Leyen, speak in Brussels, that I finally heard a top politician that ranked and addressed the issue as it should – the number one priority issue!
You may feel at loss as to how to address the topic. That is understandable. But it simply cannot be swept under the rug for another day. It must be brought out at every opportunity, and people must be reminded.
Yours sincerely, Mogens Lauritzen, 1725 Pilgrim Ave, Mountain View
Maps
This is a pretty cool link to visual data analysis
Just because we can?
Does “just because we can” imply that we should? Take a look at this? This is a pile of bison skulls. All gathered from carcasses brought down by holiday bison hunters, facilitated by the new railroad lines post US civil war. Yes, the bison was hunted to extinction, and the Indians brought to starvation.
One can draw many parallels. How about a kid in a candy store with a $100 bill? Buying a tin of (near extinct) Romanov caviar? A weekend trip to New York? What is outrageous and what is reasonable. Obviously, for the outrageous folks, nothing is outrageous. It is their right. Or, is it? Take a look at what President Carter had to say about this years ago:
Solar Powered Boats
Some years ago, while visiting Clearlake in California and watching various crafts cruising the waters, I wondered if solar power could propel a boat. Back-of-the-envelope-calculations indicated it could. Since then the earth has been circumnavigated by solar power – both in flight and by sea. Recently I had the opportunity to return to Clearlake and had access to an old 14 ft Capri sailboat. Using two left over 170W solar panels from a prior project, an off-the-shelf charge controller, Costco RV battery, and 55 lbs trolling motor, I decided to go for a simple proof-of-concept project. Here’s a clip from this last weekend;
There are too many ideas for improvements from this weekend, and I’m sure as we’ll look back at this as old-stuff in ten years, just as we now view an early model Ford. Sailing in a Sunboat is a lot of fun. No exhaust fumes, no noise, and no worries about paying for gas. Just pure silence. Did somebody say silence is golden? This has got to be it!
Cheers – Mogens
US Presidential Election 2016
Nov-9-2016, Mountain View, California
In memory of Professor Filson Glanz, UNH.
First; I apologize to the world for the election outcome. It stands in contrast to our California values and vision.
Contrary to popular campaign rhetoric, this election was not about health care, student loans, women’s rights, equal rights, trade, immigration or jobs. All those issues can comfortably be dealt with over time and as we mature as a society. No, the current situation is dark, and the future very sinister because Climate Change has been ridiculed and all our work stands to be steamrolled. The atmospheric greenhouse gas load has achieved a level where it is likely a self-feeding run-away phenomena. Certainly, the quickly accellerating melting of Greenlands icesheet, and beginning methane release of melting tundra organic matter, indicates so.
What can we do? With persistent low fossil fuel prices, there’s little incentive to switch. A carbon tax is now out of the question. The Obama EPA rules will undoubtedly be rewritten. Automotive electrification efforts will surely suffer a serious setback. The same goes with all other fuel efficiency efforts.
California, with our Air Resource Board, will continue to be a bright source in setting new standards. Yet, our local efforts amount to nothing but a trickle in the efforts needed to curtail global warming. George W. Bush cost us a trillion++ dollars and untold lives. I see no reason why D. Trump wont cost us additional trillions, and who knows – perhaps we just lost our last chance to curtail Climate Change.
Congratulations America, you picked a real winner!
Cheers – Mogens Lauritzen