sustainable technology
Aviation Sustainability?
Sunday, August 31st, 2008Much 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 […]
True Progress is Looking for Writers
Tuesday, June 17th, 2008True-Progress.com is looking for writers to contribute to the mission of finding enduring solutions. If you or someone you know would like the opportunity to regularly publish articles on this site, please see the details here.
Deep Water Offshore Wind Energy
Monday, June 9th, 2008Drilling for Oil is not the only Potential Energy Producing Activity Offshore
While “green” or renewable energy technologies are often seen as the rival against traditional fossil fuel technologies in some kind of epic battle, they can actually sometimes enhance and support each other. Recent news from wind power companies suggests that they may be able […]
Development and Official Regulation
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008If we consider development to be the general increase in well being of a population, then we have to recognize that there are times when the increase in one type of measure (real income) is countered by the negative action of another type of measure (disease rates). In these cases, government often steps in to […]
Progress and Unintended Consequences
Thursday, May 22nd, 2008So, what happens when the very actions that we each individually take to improve our lives in the end cause detrimental consequences to all of us? The sage might say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and she might be right. But, does it have to be that way? Are we […]
Energy Efficiency: Good News onto Deaf Ears ?
Tuesday, May 20th, 2008Energy efficiency is a wonderful investment both for businesses and consumers often paying far better returns than the stock and bond markets. If so, then why don’t we take advantage of it? Increases in efficiency can reduce energy consumption for the same or increasing amount of output. All the while, pollution is reduced and money […]
Landfills as an Energy Source
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008As landfills which hold municipal solid waste are closed the emissions from decay of the material in the landfill becomes a pollutant. That pollutant can either contribute to smog and the increase in greenhouse gases, or it can be used as an energy source. A free, environmentally friendly fuel, potentially harmful if released, is not […]
Defining Sustainable Technology
Friday, May 9th, 2008Sustainable technology is an idea that may produce a new level of real progress around the world. But often today, the term is more of a marketing badge that may or may not prove to be true when put to the test. I have written before about sustainable technology and some of the problems with […]
Conservation and the Marketplace
Thursday, May 1st, 2008How Conservation and Efficiency Can Sometimes Increase Consumption
Conservation and efficiency are always good, right? Unfortunately, not always.
Many of us, myself included, consider ourselves conservationists. We don’t buy or take things that we don’t need (for example, lots of extra paper napkins at the restaurant). We consider the energy efficiency of […]
Green Production versus Conservation
Thursday, April 24th, 2008In honor of Earth Day on 4/22 (a little late, I know), let’s consider the relationship between “green” production and conservation.
Our question is does conservation or “green” production result a greater positive impact regarding our use of resources. I am going to take the case of paper, as it is relatively simple product to […]
Durability and Progress
Friday, April 18th, 2008Some would say progress is continually achieving a higher and higher level of capability as individuals and collectively as a society. For example, we can buy improved cell phones, computers, and automobiles each year. Others would say that progress involves reaching a state of balance such that we are not destroying any nonrenewable resources and […]
Distributed or Centralized Solar Energy: Costs and Benefits
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008Excuse me, are you going to use all that Sun in one place?
Given present-day concerns about energy independence, pollution control, and energy price stability, solar energy is often touted as one of the (at least partial) solutions to that problem. Solar energy involves making electricity or other useable energy out of light from the […]
The Challenge of Sustaining Sustainable Technology
Monday, April 7th, 2008One small step forward…
While I was serving as a teacher in the small town of Kankalabé (population: ~5000), Guinea in West Africa, the European Union financed a project to install a running water system in that town. The project, of limited benefit, was soon sabotaged and has since been nothing but a monument to unrealized […]
Week-Long Aid Missions, Charity, and Sustainability
Sunday, April 6th, 2008Is this for them or for us?
A couple years ago, I was advising a group of undergraduate engineering students from Rice University on a project they were pursuing for Engineers Without Borders. They were designing a rainwater catchment and drip irrigation system for a village in Mali, West Africa. Having heard about their project and […]
Appropriate Technology and Development
Friday, April 4th, 2008Please, That’s Not Appropriate Here…
Appropriate Technology, a somewhat condescending (from the receivers point of view) title for a movement that arose in the 1970s, focuses on providing an improved intermediate step on the technology staircase between developing and industrialized countries. While some of these ideas have been expressed for many decades (see The Ugly American […]
Welcome to True Progress
Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 Onwards and Upwards
Do we know what we are doing? Maybe the right question is do we ever know what we are doing? What are the true consequences of our actions today and tomorrow and hundreds of years from now? Are we responsible for those consequences or should we never be concerned with them?
I believe that […]