True Progress

…Continued

Environmental issues such as conservation and biodiversity are often seen as peripheral to our lives or the problems we face, but nothing could be further than the truth. This world is habitable because of the weathering of rocks and the death and recycling of organisms, because of the filtration, oxygenation, and water capturing functions that plants carry out, because of consumers’ roles in suppressing the populations of plants and other animals and producers’ conversion of solar energy to chemical energy. All of that happens within the Earth’s ecosphere and the ecosystems that comprise it, and all of it is self-sustaining and self-maintaining. Or, at least, it is until we start interfering with it. Read the rest of this entry »

You and your team doubtless have a long list of priorities, many stemming from the current economic recession; despite this, I hope you find the time to address a few issues, issues which, in the long run, will determine whether we have the time and luxury to address the remainder. Read the rest of this entry »

Showing that we can afford space exploration, globally speaking, is not nearly the same as showing why we should pay for it. Despite the fact that we can make room for it in our list of priorities if we choose to, there are still many other priorities that are suffering from a lack of (or those that have died from an absence of) funding. Given budgetary realities, why should we fund space exploration? Read the rest of this entry »

One discussion that has surfaced repeatedly since the dawn of the Space Age is the worth (and role) of space travel, especially in the context of all the other priorities that demand attention, such as ending world hunger, developing flying cars, and creating a new energy infrastructure. We have no real shortage of challenges and crises on our doorstep- why should we take some of our hard-earned resources and spend them where they may or may not do any good? Read the rest of this entry »

So much for the problems- what are some of the solutions?

A number of options exist or are being developed on the alternative energy front. Purely from an energy standpoint, renewable sources are more than capable of providing our energy needs; the issue at this point is refining our alternative energy technologies to the point where we can harness a significant fraction of that energy. Solar irradiance (the amount of solar energy that reaches the surface) is about 145 watts per square meter; when you take into account atmospheric variables, the usable amount of solar energy received for locations in the USA ranges from 4 to 7 kilowatt-hours per square meter per day for a flat-plate solar array. At the present, the maximum efficiency for solar power systems of any type is about 40%, though there are some technologies that promise even higher efficiencies. At 40%, that translates to 1.6 to 2.8 kilowatt-hours per square meter per day. Read the rest of this entry »

Thomas Malthus, an English economist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, is famous for prophesying doom in the form of excessive population growth and the resultant crash that would follow; though he’s been dead for the better part of two centuries, his ideas still inform a number of prominent figures to this day.  Originally, his premise was that population growth would place stresses on a finite food supply, causing multitudes to starve. While his particulars may be off, resource shortages, real and imagined, are definitely a concern at the moment, freshwater and fossil fuels being two of the most prominent. Where, exactly, do we stand in relation to catastrophic resource shortages, and what can be done about it? Read the rest of this entry »

Sustainability has become a buzzword- it’s used in reference to energy policy, abiotic natural resources, and cultural practices. It’s also being used in reference to agricultural practices. Though we’ve improved on crop yields through modern farming methods, there are still ways in which we can increase our efficiencies while simultaneously providing a place for nature to thrive. Read the rest of this entry »

Much of the transportation talk these days revolves around finding more efficient ways to fuel our vehicles, for obvious reasons. Eventually, fossil fuels will run out, and we need to have an alternative in place long before we reach that point. As Italian air marshal Giulio Douhet was quoted as saying back in 1928, “Victory shines upon those who anticipate the changes in the character of war, not upon those who wait to adapt themselves after the changes occur.” Read the rest of this entry »