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Green Jobs, Good Jobs On The Way?
Van Jones, Tom Paine
..On May 22, the Select Committee held a special hearing, entitled: “Economic Impacts of Global Warming: Green Collar Jobs.” ..
A green collar job is a vocational job in an ecologically responsible trade, such as installing solar panels, weatherizing buildings, constructing and maintaining wind farms, materials re-use and recycling and doing organic agriculture.
During a speech on the House floor before the hearing, Solis spoke of the need to respond to the global warming crisis by investing not only in new infrastructure, but also in people.
The shift from dirty energy sources (like oil and coal) to cleaner energy sources (like solar, wind, and plant-based fuel) will produce hundreds of thousands of new jobs. The work of retrofitting millions of buildings so that they conserve energy will produce still more jobs. And all of these jobs will be, by definition, impossible to outsource to other countries. ..
(25 May 2007)
Small is Beautiful
Living in less space can be good for the Planet as well as for your bank account
Wendy Priesnitz, Natural Life Magazine
In most of the world, micro-homes are the norm because land is expensive and scarce and extended families are used to sharing their lives, living spaces and other resources.
Even new homes in places like Tokyo are built on lots the size of many Western front yards. And now, there is a rising interest in compact dwellings here in the land of wide open spaces, where building big has been possible, so we have done it…and become used to it, even addicted to it. Like so many other lifestyle addictions, this one has caused us to hit a wall and many people are looking for antidotes in the smaller living spaces with tiny footprints that are popping up amongst the “McMansions.”
Big houses cost big money and many people of my generation are choosing to downshift, taking early retirement, switching careers in mid-life and generally acting on a desire for simpler, more effective living.
As a result, many of us are “right-sizing” our living spaces, redirecting our financial resources away from big mortgages and toward our dreams. At the same time, many young people are having a harder time than their parents did getting established in careers, and are therefore finding that small houses and minuscule condos fit their economic conditions just fine. ..
(May/June 2007)
Energy software programs for educational use
Petros Axaopoulos and Georgios Pitsilis, Renewable Energy Journal
A package of six fully interactive energy software programs was developed for educational use.
The first three programs can be used to simulate energy systems, while the rest three can be used to calculate some characteristic values, which can be used separately or in conjunction with the first three programs.
The first one is a multimedia program for an active solar hot water system. It accounts for a large number of parameters and can be used to investigate their effect on the thermal efficiency of the system.
The second program is a transient simulation for thermal behavior of a building. It can be used to predict the temperature and relative humidity inside a building along with the heating/cooling load required to keep the temperature at a preset point.
The third program has been developed for sizing solar thermal systems. The fourth program is a graphical representation of the apparent motion of the sun on the celestial vault. The fifth program calculates the thermophysical properties of a number of gases and liquids for a desired temperature.
The sixth program represents graphically the psychrometric chart. The above-mentioned programs, are useful tools for education in energy, suitable for high school students and Universities. It can also be used for an extensive set of exercises in the tertiary education sector.
(30 Oct 2006)
The software discussed is available free , the paper for which the above is the abstract costs $30.
Online: The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity and The Renewal of Civilization
Thomas Homer-Dixon, ASPO-Canada
The Upside of Down sets out a theory of the growth, crisis, and renewal of societies.
Today’s converging energy, environmental, and political-economic stresses could cause a breakdown of national and global order. Yet there are things we can do now to keep such a breakdown from being catastrophic. And some kinds of breakdown could even open up extraordinary opportunities for creative, bold reform of our societies, if we’re prepared to exploit these opportunities when they arise.
The Upside of Down (PDF 3.94 Mb)
(15 April 2007)
Book is widely cited and praised, awarded, a nonfiction best seller; don’t be frightened by its 450 pages, only 300 are body text (most of the rest being footnotes).
