Rolling blackouts, no local generation, huh?

El Paso can't produce its own electricity and schools and business' are closed. So, is this an emergency caused by the weather? Hmmm. Seems that mother nature is a great teacher - just when we think we're safe and that there's a plan in place we find out how susceptible we really are and how dependent we are, and how close to the edge we are to not having any energy to even get water from the tap.

I was asked not too long ago to submit testimony to the Emergency Preparedness subcommittee for the Texas legislature, ya know, the kinda thing that happens when a hurricane or tornado or other natural disaster wreaks havoc on our everyday. Well, I posited that an even bigger disaster would be precipitated by an event that left us without electricity - say - a coronal mass ejection.

Seems that we didn't the sun after all - just a cold snap (well a really bad one). Does anybody care to guess at the economic impact of having rolling black-outs for the last two days?

Murrumbateman, amateur or expert?

Sometimes I wonder what impact I can have on changing the way that people think about how we effect the world we live in. Then along comes Anthony Wesley, Murrumbatemanian amateur astronomer who captures evidence of a massive impact on Jupiter (his image on the left). According to Leigh Fletcher (in Scientific American), including the Shoemaker-Levy 9 impact, "these are the only two occurrences of an impact being viewed on Jupiter," Fletcher says. "To be able to view another one in our lifetime is extremely exciting." That excitement made possible by an amateur Anthony. So where were all the experts? Writing articles for peer-reviewed publication at their desks?

This reminded me of the article in SFGate by Cameron Scott that outlines the strategy of Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla) for using "experts" to discredit the idea that recent climate change is caused by human activities. The nature of scientific inquiry and its non-falsifiable proposition opens up the possibilities for competing theories, leading to the need for further research, until an expert finds the one theory that no one can prove false. That’s many years away when it comes to an undeniable scientific “consensus” on what exactly is causing global warming and climatic change. In the meantime that perceived lack of consensus facilitates a wide variety of claims from purported “experts” that have traction because of the nature of scientific inquiry itself. How as a scientist do you prove your point if you have to admit that there is the remote possibility that you might not be right?

Returning to Jupiter and the experts that study that sort of thing, “astronomers admit they might never know for sure what hit Jupiter. “It’s like throwing a stone on the pond,” explained Dr. Fletcher. “You see the splash, but lose the stone. It’s the splash we can study” (NY Times). That’s an honest assessment of what scientists don’t know - all good scientists are the first to admit that they don’t know everything – that quest to know is what drives them. But do we really want to wait for the experts to agree unequivocally that human activities are the primary drivers behind climate change before we change our unsustainable lifestyles? Do we really want to wait to study the impact of that climatic “splash?”

Returning to Earth, Anthony Wesley’s discovery is a chance for everyone to be reminded that our oft-times over-reliance on experts can keep us from acknowledging and acting on our own knowledge. If he hadn’t been using his own knowledge to observe Jupiter the impacts might have never been observed by anyone at all, let alone the experts. Opportunities for discovery start at home, Anthony is a perfect example of that. That’s also how I answer my own questions about whether what I do as an individual makes a difference.

Beware the Blob!

It was reported that a mysterious black blob, unlike anything seen, is growing in Alaskan waters. It turned out to be organic rather than some hydrocarbon.

Playing a little, what if climatic change came in the form this as yet to be identifed "Artic goo", which is the what the Achorage Daily News reported the water anomaly was. Imagine a scenario in which the most basic of organisms takes over the oceans in a matter of years rather than eons, changing the environment in unpredictable ways. Now the article doesn't say that, nor do the experts that don't know what it is, but its worthy to note that change can be nearly instantaneous, especially in a geological time frame. More reason to not sit around and wait to finish weatherizing the house - its not godzilla coming out of the ocean to step on your home but algae seeping in through the cracks!

Stimulus Monies Flow to State

The stimulus monies are starting to flow... There were two announcements today from the Department of Energy (DOE). According to DOE

• Texas was awarded $130,790,293 for its Recovery Act Weatherization Assistance Program funding to weatherize 38,000 homes in the next three years.
• Texas was awarded $87,512,800 for its Recovery Act funding to increase energy efficiency and expand the use of renewable energy in the public sector.

Does anyone know who is responsible in El Paso for using these funds? What agencies are going to be doing the job training?

Seminar at Ardovino's Farmer's Market

This coming Saturday I'll be having a seminar entitled Introduction to Solar Energy. It's part of a series that will run throughout the season at Ardovino's. If you have any questions or would like to suggest another seminar topic please let me know.

Saturday, 10:30 AM, Holiday Hall,
Cost: Free

Defining sustainability

The issues that inform the concept of sustainability are as varied as the perspectives of those that endeavor to engage in the conversation. What I've found in El Paso is a very low-level of conversation about what it means to sustain a community such as ours. There are pockets of folks doing good works and trying to educate us about what it means to live in such a way that we take no more than we give from our environment, to create a balance.

But I think that one of the most important ways to engage in the conversation is to know about it. We only know what we are allowed to know. So if you have something to educate us about please do so. In my experience, learning and being aware of what's happening in the much hyped realm of renewable energy is key for beginning the conversation. Here's my attempt at that.