The Economics of Fracking

Here is a great video primer on the economic truth about fracking. The Economics of Fracking

Here is a great new technology to help promote bicycling:

The Copenhagen Wheel

Former Mobil VP Warns of Fracking and Climate Change

Here is an interview with a knowledgeable and concerned former Mobil Oil executive who discusses the long-term danger of methane leaks.

Fracking and Climate Change

The retired executive, Louis W. Allstadt, pleads with the public to educate themselves about the damage fracking is causing and will continue to cause long after the wells are capped. Fracking is just another in a long string of irresponsible and highly polluting ways the oil industry is plundering our planet in the name of short term profits, and our countrysides are becoming littered with working and non-working wells. The public and landowners are being seduced as usual with the lure of big money and "good" jobs, but mark my words they will find out later they have been left to suffer the bitter consequences of ruined aquifers and blighted landscapes with insufficient money for restoration and cleanup. And as soon as the fracking boom has run its course—which according to reports I have read will be much sooner than the frackers are letting on—many if not most of these "good" jobs will dry up.

You may aware of Bill McKibben's recently completed "Do the Math" tour, but if you haven't listened to his message or actually read the Rolling Stone article from last August that explains the new data I can assure you that doing so will instill a new sense of urgency for addressing the looming, ever-accelerating climate change catastrophe.

Global Warming's Terrifying New Math

The financial assessment regarding how much money is at stake for fossil fuel extraction companies and their investors is staggering, and it explains in great measure why they are opposed to any GHG regulations. However, the raw materials that oil and gas companies provide can continue to be valuable and profitable chemical feedstocks for industry, materials that can be used to create a variety of recyclable, cradle-to-cradle designed products. Burning fossil resources is a travesty—a form of generational theft and a tragic misuse of our natural capital. By conserving the way these materials are used and incentivising industry to recycle them, these materials could be used over and over instead of contributing to the destruction of civilization as we know it and polluting the Commons we rely on for survival.

Here is a great interview with Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont conducted by one of the best interviewers around—Bill Moyers.

Here's a TED talk that explains in plain, easy to understand language the future we are facing. We can continue to bury our collective heads in the sand and blindly walk off a cliff, or we can face it square on and work on major solutions collectively. It's well worth 15 minutes of your time.

Sonoma Biochar Initiative

It's been a LONG time since I have blogged here, but I will start posting updates more regularly this year.  In 2011 I finished graduate school, earning a Masters degree in Sustainable Enterprise (a Green MBA) from Dominican University of California.  This is why I stopped blogging. From January through May I was totally focused on my Capstone project—co-writing a business and financial plan for a proposed renewable energy/biochar project in Sonoma County called Sonoma Green Energy—and every other activity ground to a halt. After the big presentation and graduation my photography work picked up again and I was able to enjoy a few weeks off before starting up the High School Senior shooting season in June, which brought me out of the heavily cerebral space I was in and put me right back into the visual space I've loved for all these years.



During this time I also ramped up my involvement with the Sonoma Biochar Initiative, a non-profit whose mission is to educate people about and promote the local use of this potentially game-changing organic material. I currently serve as Director. In October we submitted a proposal to plan and host the 2012 USBI National Conference and we won the bid—a huge undertaking for our small group.  I have been heavily involved in the coordination of this project ever since and will be reporting on our progress as we go.  The Conference will be attracting 300 + of the top biochar scientists, academics, technologists, entrepreneurs, and media from all around North America and the world to Sonoma County, and you can find out more about it here: USBI Conference.