Watermelonism

Study Indicates That America’s Driving Boom is Over

"After decades of adding more cars to their household fleet while moving further and further out into the suburbs, Americans are waiting longer to get licensed, driving less and increasingly turning to alternatives such as mass transit or car-sharing programs, according to a new study by the U.S. Public Research Interest Group, or PIRG. It's not just millennials. Overall, the percentages of Americans of driving age who actually were licensed fell to just 86 percent in 2011, a 30-year low. As recently as 1992, the figure stood at 90 percent. Meanwhile, the number of vehicles Americans owned has also begun to tumble." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingStudy Indicates That America’s Driving Boom is Over

One Man’s Trash is Another Man’s Big Data

"In 2012, the Senseable City Lab, part of MIT, conducted an experiment called Trash Track to see just what happens when someone takes out the trash. By attaching transmitters to over 3,000 pieces of rubbish they were able to track where that item went, whether they went to the correct recycling facility or not, and how far they traveled. Now move to the story in the papers last week about the Renew bins in London. It came to light that a dozen of London’s recycling bins fitted with digital screens were tracking each smartphone and device that connected to them with WiFi. It allowed advertisers to deduce whether the same phone — although not necessarily the same person — is passing by" Continue reading →

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The war on African poaching: is militarization doomed to fail?

"Governments have given game rangers better weapons, engaged intelligence analysts, and put spotter planes, helicopters, and unmanned drones into the air. Some have deployed their national defense forces into national parks. Private wildlife custodians have spent millions on their own armed anti-poaching guards, sniffer dogs, mini-drones, and informants. The continental-scale slaughter of rhinos and elephants continues to intensify, despite rising arrests and killings of poachers and increasing interdiction of illegal shipments of rhino horn and ivory. Some drug policy experts liken the uphill battle against African poaching to the war on drugs, an extraordinarily expensive, bloody failure." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe war on African poaching: is militarization doomed to fail?

Predators in Your Backyard?

"This 2010-11 BBC documentary, Predators in Your Backyard, shows how 'Rewilding' is being accomplished in the US and other places. They state up front that this is a dangerous experiment but strangely fail to show the real downsides to the actual project. For instance, the BBC film would leave you believing that the reintroduction of wolves in the west has been an unparalled success. The Predators in Your Backyard gives the viewer the impression that efforts to reintroduce predators such as the wolf, bear and panther, into areas of human habitation are edgy projects but also entirely noble ones." Continue reading →

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Copenhagen Bike-Sharing Program To Be Most High-Tech Yet

"For the next generation of bike-sharing innovations, take a look at Copenhagen and smile. Trains and a bike-sharing program working as one travel option now offer a GPS built into the bike. Not only do you know where to pick up your next connection – you have a schedule of all local train times between your front bars. The Europeans and Copenhageners (again) increase a bike lover’s convenience in transit with this new innovation. With an Android tablet offering a built-in GPS, real-time train departures and ticket integration, and real-time info on available bikes and docks in the area, one glides easily from destination to destination." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCopenhagen Bike-Sharing Program To Be Most High-Tech Yet

British Politicians Aim To Ban Non-Hybrid Cars By 2040

"While some American politicians may take issue with the government’s investment in green automobiles, it pales in comparison to the debates taking place in England. There, the Liberal Democrats have proposed a bill that would outlaw all non-hybrid cars from English roads by 2040. It sounds insane, but stranger things have happened. Ambitious but left with a lot of blanks to fill, one of the key components of the Liberal Dems Britain of the future is eliminating all but ultra-low emissions non-freight vehicles from British roads. That would mean only hybrids, electric cars, or super-efficient diesels would be allowed to drive British streets." Continue reading →

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A Solar System Is Installed in the US Every 4 Minutes

"If market growth continues at its current pace, the American solar industry could be installing a system every minute and twenty seconds by 2016. That's a dramatic difference from 2006, when installers were only putting up one system every 80 minutes. Solar is on an extraordinarily fast growth trajectory. Two-thirds of all distributed solar in the U.S. has been installed over the last 2 1/2 years. And by 2016, cumulative installations of distributed PV will double. That means the U.S. will hit 1 million cumulative residential solar installations by then -- making the market in 2016 ten times larger than it was in 2010." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingA Solar System Is Installed in the US Every 4 Minutes

Bailout Buffett: The Sage of Solar

"Buffett sees the light (no pun intended). He's decided to risk his own capital to help save us from the climate. Except, in this case, 'risk' is for suckers. California utilities are under legislative mandate to get 33% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020. Twenty-nine other states also have similar mandates. What can be better than circumventing the market, and having the law say that people must use your good or service? It's like having your own printing press! It gets even better for Buffett. Utilities are already signing contracts for the renewable energy. And guess what? The cost is way higher than current market prices." Continue reading →

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Short Circuiting The Market

"One of the hallmarks of the Soviet System was top-down central planning – with 'incentives' provided by the government. Natural market mechanisms were crippled. You got what the government decided you needed – at whatever price the government decided was appropriate. The result – back then – was the Trabant and Lada. Today, the result is electric lemons like the Tesla and Chevy Volt and Honda Fit EV. GM just announced it will drop the price of the 2014 Volt by $5,000 – to $34,995. This is before GM’s partner – the government – cuts the price down by another $7,500 via a taxpayer-funded individual subsidy." Continue reading →

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Audit finds bloated budget for green jobs training despite lack of open positions

"A federal audit shows that nearly a half-billion dollars in government funds was spent on training workers for so-called 'green jobs.' The only problem is that not enough positions in the growing industry exist. The findings -- released in a June report by the Government Accountability Office -- showed that only 55 percent of those trained were able to place in a new job, many of which were not technically green jobs. The $501 million in funding came from the 2009 stimulus law." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAudit finds bloated budget for green jobs training despite lack of open positions