To contact us Click HERE The Facade Now if there's a smile on my faceIt's only there trying to fool the publicBut when it comes down to fooling youNow honey that's quite a different subjectBut don't let my glad expressionGive you the wrong impressionReally I'm sad, oh I'm sadder than sadYou're gone and I'm hurtin' so badLike a clown I pretend to be glad Now there's some sad things known to manBut ain't too much sadder thanThe tears of a clown, when there's no one aroundUh hum, oh yeah baby
Smokey Robinson and the Miracles - The Tears of A Clown : The Tears of A Clown 7" Smokey Robinson and the Miracles - Who's Gonna Take the Blame : The Tears of A Clown 7" B-side Find them both on Icons: Smokey Robinson & the Miracles.
To contact us Click HERE A few days ago I wrote about the new Eleanor Friedberger album Last Summer that, contrary to the title, just came out this summer. Last night I was able to check out Eleanor play solo at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, MA for 45 or so minutes. The performance was in sharp contrast to the last time I saw her and her brother play as The Fiery Furnaces in 2006. With just her on the stage (if you want to call it a stage - the picture above was taken from the table I was sitting at about seven feet away from her, with no step up to the "stage," which was really just a carpeted section of the lounge) the selections were obviously stripped down. Also unlike the previous time, on this occasion, by herself, Eleanor was awkwardly enchanting in her own way, which perhaps explains my previous impression of her. She's been a musician for a while now, but it was clear that she felt out of her own trying to singularly interact with the crowd, which is incredibly revealing and intimate, when you think about it. My appreciation for her increased.
While only playing for 45 minutes or so, Eleanor managed to work through a rather wide range of tunes, both her own (from this new album - I Won't Fall Apart on You Tonight (which she opened with), My Mistakes, Early Earthquake, Scenes from Bensonhurst, Heaven and some even newer songs not on the album) as well as Furnaces' songs (from as far back as Gallowsbird's Bark - Tropical-Iceland, Bitter Tea - Police Sweater Blood Vow, and their latest, I'm Going Away - Staring At The Steeple and Lost at Sea). She stumbled a few times while playing her new songs, but considering she's just hit the road in support of an album that came out days ago, that's to be understood. The time flew by all too quickly, with mention of a return visit soon with her brother and band. She also has some remaining solo dates coming up which you can find below. I'll be looking forward to seeing her again, with memories of the first time assuaged.
The Fiery Furnaces - Police Sweater Blood Vow : Session Planet Claire 05-04-06 (studio version appears on Bitter Tea) Visit her website and her label Merge Records. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-Upcoming tour dates Sat, Jul 16, New York, NY @ South Street Seaport - The Village Voice / 4knots Festival Tue, Jul 19, Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern Wed, Jul 20, Chicago IL @ The Hideout Sat, Jul 23, Portland, OR @ Neumo's Crystal Ball - Capitol Hill Block Party Sun, Jul 24,Seattle, WA @ Doug Fir Lounge Tue, Jul 26, San Francisco, CA @ Hotel Utah Saloon Wed, Jul 27, Los Angeles, CA @ The Satellite
To contact us Click HERE Love is Everywhere - Love Tree ubiquitous, adj. When it's going well, the fact of it is everywhere. It's there in the song that shuffles into your ears. It's there in the book you're reading. It's there on the shelves of the store as you reach for a towel and forget about the towel. It's there as you open the door. As you stare off on the subway, it's what you're looking at. You wear it on the inside of your hat. It lines your pockets. It's the temperature. The hitch, of course, is that when it's going badly, it's in all the same places.-from The Lovers Dictionary, by David Levithan
Willie Nelson with Emmylou Harris & Daniel Lanois - Everywhere I Go : KBCO Studio C - Volume 10
To contact us Click HERE goodbye my lover You'll never find another love like mineSomeone who needs you like I doYou'll never see what you've found in meYou'll keep searching and searching your whole life throughWhoa, I don't wish you no bad luck, babyBut there's no ifs and buts or maybes You're gonna, You're gonna miss (miss my lovin')You're gonna miss my lovin' (you're gonna miss my lovin')I know you're gonna my lovin' (you're gonna miss my lovin')You're gonna miss, you're gonna miss my lo-o-ove
Lou Rawls - You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine : You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine 7" Lou Rawls - Let's Fall In Love All Over Again : You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine 7" B-side Find them both on All Things In Time.
So the one or two of you still reading might have noticed that after nearly four months absence, MISB has resurfaced, at least temporarily, for a gasp of air. It is by far the longest I've gone without sharing a song or two since it began almost six years ago (yikes, that's something like the equivalent of the Triassic period in blog years I think). Asking a magic 8 ball about its survival would reveal an answer such as "reply hazy, try again," which is to say I'm not so certain of it myself. In the meantime though, it's got a new look and a new short-term lease on life.
I settled upon a few New Year's resolutions for 2012, and when sharing them with others I prefaced them with a quote from one of my favorite authors, Henry David Thoreau: "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them."
I suppose I still have a few songs left in me to share. Happy New Years.
To contact us Click HERE From my article "Manufacturing in Our Favor" for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce:
Intro: There were three related and important manufacturing trends that emerged in 2011: a) American manufacturing remained at the forefront of the United States’ economic expansion for the second year in a row and re-established itself as one of the economy’s strongest sectors; b) An erosion of China’s manufacturing cost advantages, especially for wages, started to bring manufacturing production back to the United States from China and other low-wage countries, reversing a decade-long trend of outsourcing production overseas; and, c) An abundance of domestic shale-based natural gas brought gas prices to record low levels and sparked a new boom in the United States for energy-intensive manufacturing. As a result of these trends, American manufacturing in 2011 had its best year in at least a generation by all relevant measures of economic performance: profits, output growth, and employment gains. In fact, it’s possible that we will look back on 2011 as a watershed year that marked the beginning of a great manufacturing renaissance in America. Conclusion: Putting it all together, the U.S. manufacturing sector had one of its best years ever in 2011, reflecting a new manufacturing rebound that is now underway and is expected to accelerate in the years ahead. Flush with record-level profits, the manufacturing sector has never been financially healthier than it is today, and the future of American manufacturing has never looked brighter. After years of negative reports about the decline of American manufacturing, it’s now time to recognize and celebrate a great turning point, as America’s industrial sector moves in a new direction that many are now calling a “manufacturing renaissance.”
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From my article in the Detroit News this week: We are on the cusp of a revolution in information technology that will be even larger than the one that's taken place over the past 40 years. Evidence of this transformation is emerging in what's known as direct-digital manufacturing, an innovation that could lead to the "desktop" printing of entire products from automobiles to washing machines. Some products developed from three-dimensional computerized manufacturing — such as patient-specific implants for hip joints or teeth, and lighter and stronger aircraft parts — are being made from computer-engineered materials that did not exist a few years ago. Smart manufacturing, in which the science of emerging materials revolutionizes the very fabrication of physical products, has extraordinary economic implications for the United States, which is at the epicenter of digital innovation. To grasp the magnitude of the changes taking place, consider that, in the last three decades, computing speeds have risen 200,000-fold, while costs have dropped 10,000-fold. In 1980, it cost $10,000 for the hardware to store a single book. Today it costs one penny. That's why a Kindle can store thousands of books. And the cost of storing books and digital information is still collapsing. We're entering a new age of super-computing, providing cheap information and processing power to nearly everyone. But that assumes that our electricity production keeps pace with the rising energy demands of the new information-intensive technologies. Those states that fail to increase electrical generating capacity will pay a huge price for such shortsightedness in terms of lost economic opportunities and jobs. It's time to start modernizing the electrical infrastructure now to prepare for an exciting digital future.
To contact us Click HERE Since 1999, when economist Paul Krugman started writing for The New York Times, he has been drawing the criticism of free market-oriented economists (and recently the president of Estonia) for glaring deficiencies in economic analysis and for writing what amounts to “fiction” (economist and Estonian expert Steve Hanke’s word to describe Krugman’s trashing of Estonia’s recent robust economic growth and counter Keynesian fiscal reforms). The Krugman-Estonia kerfuffle raises an interesting question: Has Krugman ever sided with free market economists against government activism in his Times forum?
In Back from Serfdom, my Atlanta colleague Robert Dell quotes a Krugman column from June 2008 to support the case for termination of government affordable housing policies. The normally predictably partisan pundit Krugman appears here to be channeling AEI's Peter Wallison: “Why should ever-increasing homeownership be a policy goal? How many people should own homes, anyway? Listening to politicians, you’d think that every family should own its home—in fact, that you’re not a real American unless you’re a homeowner. . . . and that is reflected in U.S. policy (MP: Which drove homeownership to unsustainable levels and created the housing bubble, see chart above). Because the I.R.S. lets you deduct mortgage interest from your taxable income but doesn’t let you deduct rent, the federal tax system provides an enormous subsidy to owner-occupied housing. On top of that, government-sponsored enterprises — Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks — provide cheap financing for home buyers; investors who want to provide rental housing are on their own. In effect, U.S. policy is based on the premise that everyone should be a homeowner. But homeownership isn’t for everyone. In fact, given the way U.S. policy favors owning over renting, you can make a good case that America already has too many homeowners.” We can only hope Krugman will direct a future critical blast toward the Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae) for continuing to promote home ownership on its web site.
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From the Wednesday WSJ: "Managers are fighting an epidemic of grammar gaffes in the workplace. Many of them attribute slipping skills to the informality of email, texting and Twitter where slang and shortcuts are common. Such looseness with language can create bad impressions with clients, ruin marketing materials and cause communications errors, many managers say. There's no easy fix. Some bosses and co-workers step in to correct mistakes, while others consult business-grammar guides for help. In a survey conducted earlier this year, about 45% of 430 employers said they were increasing employee-training programs to improve employees' grammar and other skills, according to the Society for Human Resource Management and AARP." Accompanying the article: How's Your Grammar? Take a 22-question grammar quiz here to test your skills.
To contact us Click HERE It's been awhile since I've featured an illusion, the last one was the peacock illusion above, which I thought was one of the best ever. Both birds are exactly the same color, but you'll never convince your mind of that, see it here without the background. Here's a new one that might be even better, courtesy of Alex Tabbarok, where again you can't convince your mind that the two boxes are the same color.
To contact us Click HERE >>>> NEW <<<<22:05 - Through the efforts of fire trucks the Japanese military who have poured water damaged reactor Fukushima slightly lower levels of radiation, said Tokyo Electric Power Company.
20:00 - The Japanese government informed the IAEA that the workers at the plant failed to set the power cable into the reactor 2 muklear Fukushima. The electricity will be connected when you finish pouring water into the reactor 3, which was stopped while it lasted for mounting power supply on the second reactor
19:02 - Tokyo Electric Power Co.. (TEPCO), which manages the surveillance Fukushima nuclear power, has opened a profile on Twitter and immediately attracted 117.000 watchers in the first six hours after only two messages. - I sincerely apologize for the serious situation in the nuclear Fukushima 1, radiation leaks and power cuts, they wrote in a post. TEPCO plans to regularly report on current developments in nuclear power plants.
18:50 - The situation in the nuclear Fukushima Dai-ichi has not significantly worsened in the last 24 hours, but it would be premature to talk about the trace of hope, said experts at the IAEA.
- The current situation in reactors 1, 2 and 3 is relatively stable, but the situation remains very serious - said Andrew Graham, scientific and technical adviser to the IAEA.
18:39 - Germany has announced it will temporarily move its embassy from Tokyo to Osaka.
17:37 - A senior IAEA said the nuclear situation in the Fukushima Dai-ichi is still very serious, but relatively stable. - There was no significant worsening of the situation in the last 24 hours, said Graham Andrews.
16:50 - French nuclear safety agency yesterday, the situation in the reactor, 4 called extremely alarming .- The next 48 hours will be crucial - said Thierry Charles from the French Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety.
15:50 Many residents of Yamaga, a city with more than 250,000 inhabitants on the island of Honshu are extremely worried because the place has less fuel. Therefore, trucks refuse to go to the store in town until they had provided fuel for the return. "Shops were completely devastated. The situation is extremely stressful '- residents complain Yamaga.
15:25 - The official number of dead and missing after the devastating earthquake and tsunami that destroyed the northeastern coast of Japan has exceeded 15 000, police said. The death toll has reached 5692 while the number of missing has risen to the 9522nd 2409 people were injured. Despite the already daunting numbers, authorities believe the numbers will increase significantly.
14:22 - Damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant will again be connected to the national power grid, reports TepcoDisaster on Twitter. Water pumps and other equipment still need to be connected, but this could be a turning point for a potential nuclear disaster. Namely, because of a power failure stopped the work in the reactors cooling system, and they have started to overheat. The same source reports that the No. 1 reactor cooling water cannons effectively. New action splashing water reactor from helicopters have been announced for Friday morning.
13:11 - Taiwanese authorities have discovered the radioactive particles to 26 passenger plane which arrived from Japan. Three days after the major airports in the region have set the sensors to detect radiation, tested more than 4400 people, and 26 of them carried the radioactive particles, said the Atomic Energy Council, Taiwan institutions to control nuclear energy. Most particles located on shoes and clothing, but the radiation level is not detrimental to health. The level of radiation is 0.2 mikrosevert per hour which is more than the usual background radiation. Passengers are released after I changed clothes and shoes and wash them in water.
12:47 - Special fire trucks the Japanese military began the damaged reactor Fukushima nuclear power plant watered with water, NHK reports. Two trucks, a total of five vehicles, began to cool the reactors after police reported that their fire trucks do not have a sufficiently powerful water cannon which is why they had to bring the irradiated buildings. The advantage of military vehicles and that the crew can remain inside the cab while using the water cannon while additionally protected.
12:44 - France to Japan will send 95 tons of boron, an element that mitigates radiation, said French Minister of Energy and Industry Eric Besson. Clarify, chemical elements boron and cadmium very well absorb the neutrons that are 'wrong' for the nuclear reaction. If neutrons are effectively 'curb' break up of nuclear fission in the reactors.
12:40 - The official number of dead and missing after the devastating earthquake and tsunami that destroyed the northeastern coast of Japan is approaching 15 000, police said. The death toll has reached 5457 while the number of missing has risen to the 9508th 2409 people were injured. Despite the already daunting numbers, authorities believe the numbers will increase significantly.
10:41 - Fourteen elderly patients died after being evacuated from a hospital which was located in the zone of radiation damaged nuclear power plant. Authorities say the two died during the journey, and another 12 during the temporary accommodation at the high school gymnasium. Other patients were transferred to other hospitals on Thursday morning.
10:05 - China has asked Japan to publish "a regular and accurate 'information about the development of a nuclear crisis in fear of radiation contamination.
09:35 - Low concentrations of radioactive particles moving from the damaged nuclear Fukushima east to North America, said the Swedish official told Reuters. Level, fortunately, is not sufficient for any kind of threat to human health.
09:25 - Approximately 850 000 households in the north of Japan has been without electricity at temperatures down to zero, TEPCO said. Another 1.5 million homes no drinking water. Additional problems in the rehabilitation of infrastructure and rescue operations creates a powerful snow.
09:17 - According to the German portal Blick in Fukushima plant damaged by a total of 750 workers remained, 50 of them who are doing their best to overheated reactor brought under control. Japanese authorities have announced that other workers are voluntary.
Edmund Lengfelder, a German scientist with the Institute of Radiation in Munich, said that plant employees were exposed to excessive doses of radiation and that half could die within a few weeks.
Also, Spiegel says that so far at the plant five workers died, 22 injured and two others were missing since the time of the earthquake and tsunami.
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TOKYO - Japanese military helicopters on Thursday dropped more tons of water on the damaged nuclear power plant Deiichi Fukushima, which is located 220 kilometers north of Tokyo, would not it so cool off the fuel rods and to prevent a catastrophic release of radiation.
Four helicopters with two propellers CH-47 Chinook carrying the water tank which can accommodate up to seven tons of fluids. The aim of the mission was to keep fuel rods inside the reactor and the protective pool, under water, which will stop their decay, which occurs when they are in contact with air.
Helicopter flights have started very early in the morning in fine weather, but like the previous days were suspended before dark because of fear of strong radiation and strong winds.
Police water cannons were also supposed to be used along with other methods. Toshimi Kitazawa defense minister said the additional 11 vehicles to be used for cooling the reactor, and on the road and the water pump that sent the U.S. military.
Agency for Nuclear Safety, the Japanese government explained that the water will flow into the reactors 3 and 4 for which it is suspected that the key you are fully protected.
Tokyo Electric Energy, owner of the damaged nuclear power plant, said Thursday that the pool reactor 4 'seems to have water. "There is an argument founded on the observation of air performed by military helicopters, but could not confirm on which the amount of work and whether they spent fuel rods exposed to the atmosphere.
TEPCO had earlier announced that he is prepared to return the power plant which will start operating scheduled and cooling system that has ceased to operate after the twin disasters.
An earthquake measuring 9 on the Richter scale, the strongest ever to hit Japan, destroyed the infrastructure that is necessary electricity supplied Fukushima nuclear power plant. The plant is currently 70-odd workers mobile stations pouring sea water into the reactors.
In Fukushima Prefecture, where within a radius of 20 kilometers from the plant were evacuated residents at 26 sites each day 10 000 people being scanned in fear of radiation. For now, it was discovered all six people who were exposed to radiation exceeding the amount allowed.
Japanese authorities have published the latest official data. The earthquake and tsunami killed 5178 people and 2300 were injured. Rescuers still looking for 8606 people. Even 380 000 people live in shelters, according to Kyodo News. Print Page
To contact us Click HERE Final dimensions of the accident in Japanese nuclear power plants are still not in sight. Appears clear, however, clear. The debate over the future of nuclear power is back on the agenda.
Nuclear disasters in Japan will change the world. Will permanently change it. It clearly showed us how dangerous and unpredictable at the end of atomic energy. Yes, we can control the splitting of atoms. Yes, we know how atoms behave and what we do to help us produce large amounts of energy. But we now know that the experts, nuclear physicists and politicians frightening helplessness when a nuclear power plant falls out of balance. Prevailing weakness and hope that it will melt the reactor core itself may cease.
Who says that Japan knows where tectonic "a barrel of gunpowder" sitting in Germany and never be so strong earthquake, this stuff makes you damn simple. What about planes that can drop to a nuclear power plant, which is to terrorist attacks and the multiple human and technical error?
The danger is not only a potential disaster - but the nuclear waste. We do not know where the management team that might someday be a problem. Despite an intensive search for the location, anywhere in the world at the moment there is not the only one landfill for eternity.
The risk of future
If we want this risk in the future? Although we have alternatives. Solar energy, wind energy and so on? Renewable energy sources that make us independent of oil, which are benign and permanent, are not problematic for those who will come to earth after us. In this energy finally has much to invest. They are not environmentally dream. No. They are a symbol of clean, sustainable, technically modern society.
Atomic energy is itself overtaken. It is dirty, dangerous and wasting resources. Slowly disappears and the uranium fuel for nuclear power plants. Uranus has a maximum of another 50-60 years, experts say. Is this sustainable? Such as claiming only the atomic industry lobbyists and energy corporations, who make a lot of money by splitting the atom - and who have a strong influence on politicians. A policy is, hopefully, a disaster in Japan awake.
Now has to prove courage. I invest in energy technology and the future.
History of use of nuclear energy is full of minor and major incidents. Some of them were particularly dramatic. We present a chronological overview of the major accidents that have partly changed the view on nuclear energy.
April 1986th
The most difficult disaster in Earth's history occurred in Chernobyl in Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union. The graphite reactor explosion at the site killed 32 people. Thousands of people died as a result of failures over the years and decades that followed.
Around 120,000 people had to be relocated from the irradiated area. Winds and clouds of radioactive material is then "transported" to the area of Western Europe.
A comprehensive and shocking article about the Chernobyl accident can be viewed HERE.
March 1979th
The largest nuclear accident in the United States occurred at Three Mile Island nuclear power in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania federal government. Radioactive "cloud" is then registered and a few hundred kilometers from the accident site.
More than 200,000 people had to flee their homes.
October 1957th
In a nuclear power plant in Windscale in the UK once the fire broke out in a reactor that was used for plutonium production. Radioactive gases are "poisoned" the large area of several hundred square kilometers.
From the resulting accident died at least 39 people.
September 1957th
The world is one of the biggest nuclear disaster learned only a few years after it actually occurred. In Soviet plutonium plant Majak exploded an underground tank with liquid, radioactive waste management. At least 1,000 people were killed and more than 10,000 came in contact with radioactive material.
To date, no reliable figures on the extent of the accident. For half a century has been irradiated in a large area of about 12,000 square kilometers.
Only 1976th the world learned of this accident, the secret was betrayed a Soviet scientist who had emigrated. Moscow has yet 1990th officially recognized by the general average.
RADIATION EFFECTS
On Saturday afternoon, the radiation level was 1015 milisiverta (mSv). By comparison, the radiation from the vicinity of the average person receives 2 mSv per year.
What is the dose that is received during a medical examination?
Whole body CT received a 10 milisiverta, a lung X-ray 0.1 milisivert. Rengenolozi and operators of nuclear power plants should receive about 100 milisiverta over five years, or 20 milisiverta in one year of that period. Such persons are under regular medical control.
What is the lethal dose of radiation?
- Around 6000 mSv. These larger doses are lethal, a radiation dose greater than 2000 mSv causing severe radiation sickness.
What are the immediate effects of radiation on human health?
Exposure to moderate doses of radiation can be removed after several hours lead to nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headache and fever. Higher doses of radiation damage internal organs and ultimately may be deadly.
Fission products which are particularly dangerous to your health?
Radioactive iodine, which is embedded in the thyroid gland and radioactive strontium that is built into the bones. The main danger threatening the organism if the radioactive products from entering the body, either through the airway, either through the digestive system.
What are the parts of the body most susceptible to damage by radiation?
The most sensitive to radioactive rays are the cells of the stomach and intestines and parts of the bone marrow where blood cells are created.
What are the long-term effects of radiation on humans?
Radiation leads to genetic mutations and the biggest risk in the longer term is cancer. Among the later effects of radiation are degenerative changes in the lungs, kidney damage, vision problems, etc.
Are children exposed to greater risk from radiation?
Potentially, because they grow and develop in line with more cells in their body is divided. Therefore, it is more likely to disrupt the cycle of separation and that comes to cancer. After Chernobyl, the World Health Organization has recorded a dramatic increase in thyroid cancer among children in the area. Print Page
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New solar cycle 24, in combination with the weakening MAGNETIC FIELD ENVIRONMENT, can have severe consequences for the country in terms CLIMATE, power networks and human behavior.
If you thought that only which is why we should be concerned about include wars, famine and economic breakdowns think again. Emerging science suggests that the next cycle of solar flares could be strong enough to disrupt the entire electrical grid of the planet. This article documents! I number of changes that occur in connection with the Earth magnetic field term. Sun and solar system and clarify some of the concerns expressed by today's leading scientists. I analyze how it could hit the human race on an energetic level.
Planet's magnetic field
Magnetosphere is a bubble of magnetism that surrounds Earth and protects us from solar wind. Fortunately, the planet's magnetic field rejects most of the particles in a circular orbit around the Earth. Like the weather patterns on Earth, the solar or wind patterns can change rapidly. It is fortunate that our planet's magnetosphere reacts to the threat and absorbs shock. without wavering, and leaping. Geophysicists call this reaction geomagnetic storm, but because of the way that distorts Earth's magnetic field also has to be called electromagnetic pollution. In these circumstances we see the polar light in our night sky.
But strange things are happening in the atmosphere and in space. Earth's magnetic field has been weakening. This decrease actually began 2,000 years ago, but the rate of decrease rapidly grew 300 years ago. However, in the last twenty years, the magnetic field has become erratic.
Aeronautical maps of the world, which is used to enable the aircraft has landed using automatic control systems had to be revised in the whole world to autopilot systems to work.
Now, NASA's five spacecraft from the mission THEMIS discovered a crack in the Earth's magnetic field that is 10 times larger than anything previously thought to exist When this happens, the solar wind can penetrate through the opening to "recharge" the magnetosphere, causing a strong geomagnetic storm. Exploring the mystery is a key goal of the THEMIS mission, launched in February 2007. The big discovery occurred on 3 June 2007. When the five probes serendipitously flew through the cracks just at the moment it opened. Onboard sensors recorded a torrent of solar wind particles streaming into the magnetosphere, signaling the event of unexpected size and importance.
But the breach itself is not the biggest surprise. Researchers are even more amazed and baffled at the unexpected way in which it occurs, overturning the accepted notions of space physics.
"At first I did believe it," said David Sibeck, THEMIS project scientist at the Center Goddard Space Flight Center. This finding fundamentally changes our understanding of the interaction of the solar wind and magnetosphere. The opening was a huge four times wider than Earth itself, said Li Wenhui, a space physicist from the University of New Hampshire, who analyzed the data. A hunting Li's colleague Jimmy Raeder, also of the University of New Hampshire. He said the 27-l particles per second were flowing into the magnetosphere - that's 1 followed by 27 zeros. This influx is an order of magnitude greater than what we thought was possible. Space physicists have long believed that the holes in the Earth's magnetosphere open only in response to solar magnetic fields that are oriented toward the south. However, a large hole in June 2oo7. opened in response to the solar magnetic field, which was directed towards the north. To the layperson it may seem like a quibble, but to a space physicist, it is almost like an earthquake.
Unexpected pad shield
In conjunction with changes in our magnetic field today in the scientific community believes that the solar wind pushes the Earth's magnetosphere almost directly above the equator, where the planet's magnetic field points north. Scientists had previously believed that if a large amount of solar magnetism is also directed towards the north, the two fields should reinforce one another, strengthening the defense of the Earth's magnetic closing door and the solar wind. Language of space physics, solar magnetic field points north is called the "northern IMF" (interplanetary magnetic field) and is synonymous with "shields".
The big surprise is that when a northern IMF shields off. It has completely overturned the understanding of many scientists. While researchers have investigated the gap in the magnetic field, they discovered that 20 times the solar wind enter the Earth's protective shield when the magnetic field was aligned.
Events with Northern IMF does not trigger geomagnetic storms, said Raeder, but creates conditions for the storm filling the magnetosphere with plasma.
Loaded magnetosphere is ready for the auroras, power outages and other disruptions that may occur when a CME (coronal mass ejection). This means that the impact of solar flares is 20 times stronger when the magnetic fields are aligned. The magnetic field of the earth and the sun will be aligned at the peak of Solar Cycle 24 which is expected in 2012. This will cause the flow of solar particles. What the researchers did not discuss the impact ua human bioelectric system.
Eart's magnetic field change
At the Earth's climate significantly affects the planet's magnetic field, according to the Danish study, published in January 2009. that could challenge the notion that human emissions responsible for global warming. Our results show a strong correlation between the strength of Earth's magnetic field and the amount of precipitation in the tropics, said one of the two Danish geophysicists involved in the study,
Faurschou Mads Knudsen from the Department of Geology University of Denmark Varhus newspaper Videnskab.
Results of the study (which was also published in the American scientific journal Geology) speak in favor of a controversial theory that a decade ago published Danish astrophysicist Henrik Svensmark. He claimed that the climate has a strong influence particles of galactic cosmic radiation (GCR), which penetrate into Earth's atmosphere.
TORQUE geomagnetic field
Bottom published other recent studies is the view that rapid changes in the turbulent movement of the Earth's liquid outer cortex attenuate the magnetic field in some regions of the planet's surface.
What is surprising is the fact that the Earth's magnetic field occur fast, almost instantaneous changes, "said study co-author Nils Olsen, a geophysicist at the Danish National Space Center in Copenhagen. The results suggest that similar changes occur simultaneously velocity in liquid metal, 3,000 miles beneath the surface, ie said Olsen. Fluctuations in the magnetic field have occurred in some scattered regions on Earth. These changes, "my point to the prospect of a trade geomagnetic field", ie co-author published a study, scientists from the German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam. Earth's magnetic field reversed hundreds of times over the past billion years, and for the completion of this process might be needed thousands of years. The weakening of the magnetic field also opens up more layers of Earth's atmosphere to intense charged particle radiation. scientists have said.
Cosmic rays hitting Earth
An international team of researchers discovered a puzzling excess of high-energy electrons that bombard the Earth from space. The source of these cosmic rays is unknown, but it must be close to the solar system and could be made up of dark matter. The results reported by Nature magazine in its issue dated 20 November 2008. It is a great discovery, said co-author ie Jolm Wefel with Louisiana State University. "This is the first time we see a separate source of accelerated cosmic rays that stands out on the wider galactic background."
To study the strongest and most interesting cosmic rays, Wefel et al spent the last eight years managing a number of balloons in the stratosphere over Antarctica. Their cosmic ray detector, which is financed by NASA revealed a significant excess of high energy electrons.
"The source of these exotic electron must be relatively close to the solar system - located not more than one kiloparsec, - said co-author Jim Adams of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Marshall. Galactic cosmic rays are subatomic particles accelerated to near light speed distant supernova explosions and other violent events.
One in crowds rushing through the Milky Way, creating a mist of high-energy particles that enter the solar system from all directions. Cosmic rays consist mostly of protons and heavier atomic nuclei with some electrons and photons as a spice in the mix. Why the source must be close? According to Adams: "High-energy electrons rapidly lose energy as they fly through the galaxy. They impart energy to the two main ways:
(1) clash with the lower-energy photons, in a process called inverse Compton scattering, and (2) when the radiation is losing some of its energy in a spiral motion through the galactic magnetic fields. " High-energy electrons because they are local, but researchers can not accurately locate the source in the sky.
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The sun is a huge electromagnetic transmitter that is flooding the planet of the solar system by heat, light, UV radiation and electrically charged particles. The Sun itself has a magnetic field and magnetic field creates an "egg" around the solar system known as heliosphere. Heliosphere is shaped like a droplet, with an elongated, narrow end pointing in the opposite direction in which we move.
Any change that occurs in or on the Sun will eventually affect every living person. Solar activity during this last sunspot cycle was the solar is greater than anything previously seen, spinal studies, written by Dr. Mike Lockvvood and colleagues at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Chilton, UK, 1999. investigate the solar activity over the last 100 years. They reported that since 1901. total solar magnetic field has become stronger by 230 percent. Scientists do not understand what it means for us.
Some of the sunspot activity in this last cycle was stronger than anything ever recorded. But researchers say do not understand what it means for us. Apparently, the sun ie earth's driving force, said Richard Fisher Director of helio physics at NASA. To mitigate possible threats to public safety, it is crucial to better understand the extreme space weather events caused by solar activity.
Solar cycle 24
According to NASA, the Sun begins another 11-year cycle of activity. The sun reverses its magnetic poles every a year. Given that the Sun is responsible for some adverse climate changes on Earth the next decade could bring more trouble for our planet. The years ahead could be tumultuous. Jimmy Raeder explained:
"We enter the 24th solar cycle 1z reasons not fully understood, CME and the even-numbered solar cycles (such as 24) are usually hit Earth with a leading edge that is magnetized north. CMF This should open a crack and fill the magnetosphere with plasma just before the storm. This is a perfect sequence for a really great event. "
Every 10-11 years the number of sunspots is our closest star rise from zero (as it was in 2008.) To a maximum of over four hundred. While the sunspots affect the Earth, solar flares and other disturbances that are spreading around our sun during increased sunspot activity lead to an increase in the number of particles (electrons and protons) and harmful light radiation (ultraviolet and X-rays), known as solar wind. Yes No Earth's protective magnetic field and atmosphere, this bombardment of particles would completely burn us. Sunspot Cycle 24, which is expected to peak somewhere in the 2012th, it could be one of the strongest in the last few centuries.
It will be 30-50 percent stronger than last and will start with a delay of a full year, the revolutionary foresight that uses a computer model of solar dynamics developed by scientists who are from the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Accurate prediction of solar cycles years in advance will help the company to prepare for active gust of solar storms, which can slow satellite orbits, disrupt communications and bring down power systems. Scientists have confidence in the forecasts because of a series of tests recently developed model simulated the strength of the last eight cycles with an accuracy of over 98 percent. Forecasts are generated in part by monitoring the movement of debris below the surface of sunspots from the previous two solar cycles.
Solar cycle 25
"The great conveyor belt" is a huge circulating current of fire (hot plasma) within the Sun. There are two branches, north and south, and each takes about 10 years to pass a full circle. The researchers believe that turning the conveyor belt controls the sunspot cycle and therefore it is important to slow down.
Usually, the conveyor belt moving at a speed of about one meter per second speed walk, NASA said in Solana physicist David Hathaway. "That was the end of the 19th century, "In recent years, however, the belt has decelerated to 0.75 m / s in the north of 0.35 m / s in the south. "We have never seen so low, said Hathaway."
According to the theory and observation, the speed of the belt says it will be the intensity of sunspot activity about 20 years in the future. Slow belt means lower solar activity; fast belt means stronger activity.
"The slowdown that we see now means that Solar Cycle 25, which will be the culmination of about 2022nd year could be one of the weakest in the last century, said Hathaway.
The solar activity on the Earth
The first instrument for measuring the activity of solar flares have occurred 440 years ago. They showed that the closest star to our Earth is not only the honor of eclipses. Sunspots, solar flares and other phenomena affect everything on earth, from weather events to human behavior. These phenomena are known collectively as the solar activity. This activity, which is expressed by a gust of solar radiation, magnetic storms and fiery flashes, the intensity can vary from very weak to very strong. The greatest threat to civilization are the storms.
On 28 August 1859th polar light shone and sparkled over the entire American continent, when darkness fell. Many people thought that their city is in flames. The hands on the instruments that were used for recording Uh magnetic fluctuations around the world came out of the scale. Telegraph system broke down, hit by strong surges. It was perhaps the worst solar storms in the past, 200 years ago. Its effects on humans were small because civilization had not yet been entered into high-technology development phase. But with the advent of modern electricity grids and satellites is much more in danger.
That something similar happened in our era of space nuclear destruction would be catastrophic. According to scientific data, a storm of this size occur about once in five centuries. But half of low-intensity events occur every 50 years. The last recorded 13th November 1960 .. Disrupted the Earth's magnetic field, disrupting the work stations.
Today is our dependence on radio-electronic devices so huge that increased solar activity could be disabled for life support systems around the world, and not just on the surface. Bad space weather can cause disturbances in any orbital system, light solar storm can ruin navigation systems controlled from space. NASA is now ringing the alarm because the North American continent near the northern magnetic pole, and is most sensitive to solar activity, spinal studies corporation "Metatech" revealed that the attack similar to the one from 1859. disable the entire power grid in North America. Even the relatively weak magnetic storm of 1989. encourage solar activity caused the accident in a Canadian hydroelectric power plant that is six million people in the United States and Canada for nine hours left without electricity.
Study of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, also spoke about the troubling features of the Earth in the worst case scenario of solar storms. Modern power grids are so interconnected that the large space storms - type such as expected to occur once in a century could trigger a cascade of crashes that could be expanded throughout the United States, left without electricity for 130 million people or more only in that country, the conclusion a new report. Such widespread power cuts although, as expected, a rare ability to hit other vital systems.
"The impact would be felt on the interdependent infrastructures, for example, drinking water supply would be affected for several hours, quickly perishable foods and medicines for about 12-24 hours. and the current or subsequent loss of heating / air conditioning, garbage disposal, telephone service, transportation, fuel supply and clock on, "the report reads.
To fix the system could be taken months, the bank could be close, and trade with other countries could be interrupted.
"Emergency services would be overloaded, and command and control could be lost," say researchers led by Daniel Baker, director of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado at Boulder.
Sun's cycles and human behavior
Could cycles of war and peace could be associated with the solar cycle?
Some researchers claim that geomagnetic storms affect brain waves and hormone levels, causing many different reactions, mainly in men. Although some women may also feel the changes during these storms, it seems that they are generally less affected by the behavior of the Sun. Reacting to changing hormone levels, some men may become increasingly irritable and aggressive, while others may instead become more creative.
It was found that an increase in solar activity increase psychotic episodes in people who already suffer from unstable psychological states. Although we may associate such behavior with a full moon, Dr. Robert Becker and his colleague Dr. Howard Friedman 1963rd demonstrated that changes in the sun and water to a noticeable increase in psychotic activity. Yet, these reactions do not occur only in a few particularly sensitive or unlucky individuals.
Evidence suggesting that the wars and international conflicts often break out when sunspots are rapidly forming or rapidly decaying, because in these conditions occur more intense geomagnetic storms. In addition. to an increase in solar activity are correlated with periods when the increased number of accidents and diseases, as well as crimes and murders. The entire biosphere is affected by this electromagnetic pollution, and it seems that human behavior responds accordingly. Not cause any geomagnetic storm disturbances. But over time, extremes of solar activity can also affect the period of earthly conflict. Data on cycles of war and peace extend to at least 2,500 years old.
Another 1915th some scientists have begun to recognize the connection between solar activity and human behavior. This work began with Russian scientist Alevander Chizhevsky who observed a correlation between mass changes in human behavior and the cycle of sunspots.
The thirties of last century, Professor Raymond Wheeler, a historian at the University n Kansas, took this observation one step further. His research numerically ranked severity of individual battles correlating to solar cycles. The information obtained by statistically analyzing Edward Dewey, who confirmed the existence of these cycles of wars. However, he was unable to establish a clear link with the cycle of sunspots, because at that time was insufficient data. The 1980s, with a detailed analysis Wheeler's data, is the connection became clear.
After a more detailed study of the data seems to begin to discover the pattern by which IE most likely to start a war in the key points of the sunspot cycle. These are periods when geomagnetic activity is changing the fastest in the rapid increase in solar activity, or in a downward cycle, when sunspots are rapidly diminishing. In addition, we can see how it negatively affects the psychological mechanisms such as brain rhythms and hormone levels. In other words, wars could be a kind of mass psychosis. When you see the connection with physical mechanisms (such as IE electromagnetic pollution), it gives us some predictions about when it is likely that they could begin intensified aggression. Calculations show that we are facing another increase of intense solar activity in less than two years, roughly around 22 September 2010. NASA predicts that the activity reached a peak in 2012. year.
Changes in the Solar System
Five planets atmosphere and Earth's moon change. In the upper layers of Earth's atmosphere creates HO gas that did not exist in amounts that exists today. Scientists from the Russian Academy of Sciences say that it is not associated with global warming, CFCs or fluorocarbon emissions. They argue that the atmosphere of Jupiter, Uranus and Neptun also changing.
The Martian atmosphere becomes much thicker. In 1997. probe "Mars Observer" has lost one of its mirrors, which caused her fall. This happened because the atmosphere was about twice as much too dense, but NASA was calculated. Brightness and magnetic fields of planets are also changing. Venus shows a significant increase in its overall brightness, Jupiter's energetic charge has risen so high that there is now a visible tube of ionizing radiation, which is formed between the surface of Jupiter and its moon "Io." At the recently captured images can be seen a great power tube. Uranus and Neptune also are becoming brighter. The magnetic field of Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune are changing.
Jupiter's magnetic field has more than doubled, and Neptune's magnetic field is stronger. The Russians say that all three of these planets become radiant, and their atmospheric qualities are changing, but do not explain what that means. The Russians also report that looks at how Uranus and Neptune has recently been a reversal of the poles. When the space probe "Voyager II" flew by Uranus and Neptune, it seemed that the north and south magnetic poles substantially deviated from the spot where the earlier recordings was a half rotation. In one case, it is 50 degrees, and in another case, the difference was 10-odd degrees.
This new information on changes in the solar system comes at an interesting time for our planet. It is possible that for some time the celestial events play a role in shaping our lives on this planet, and that these changes that we see now in our sun, solar system and Earth's magnetic field could be just what transforms our world as we know it into something new . Only time will tell, but it seems that the future is already knocking at the door.
To contact us Click HERE Author and scientist Amory B. Lovins and the Rocky Mountain Institute see a bright future beyond dirty fuels... and sooner than you think
In an essay in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs and a recent interview with Yale Environment 360, Amory Lovins discusses his latest book, Reinventing Fire, written with his colleagues at the Rocking Mountain Institute, which looks at what a transition away from an economy and energy system based on fossil fuels towards one based on renewable energy would look like.
Amory B. Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute
"Weaning the United States from fossils fuels would require two big shifts," writes Lovins at Foreign Affairs, naming "oil and electricity" which he says are "distinct." He points out, "In the US, three-fourths of electricity powers building, three-fourths of oil fuels transportation, and the remaining oil and electricity run factories. So saving oil and electricity is chiefly about making buildings, vehicles, and factories far more efficient." This, admits Lovins, is "no small task."
Dwelling on the scale of the challenge, however, is not where Lovins devotes his energy. Instead, he looks at other "epochal energy shifts" that have occurred in history, like the end of the whale oil industry in the mid 19th century, where in just thirty years the whale oil industry went from bringing lighting to nearly every American household in 1850, to being essentially snuffed out by 1879, when Edison's electric lighting hit the scene. "Whales," writes Lovins, "had been accidently saved by technological innovators and profit-maximizing capitalists."
The point, of course, is not that we should look to 'profit-maximizing capitalists' to lead us to a clean energy future (though they will certainly play a role). The point is that we should definitely not expect whaling captains to lead us. And in this era, the whale ship captains are the captains of the big oil, coal, and gas companies and the politicians who do their bidding.
"The chief obstacle is not technology or economics," concludes Lovins, "but slow adoption." He writes: Helping innovations catch on will take education, leadership, and rapid learning. But it does require reaching concensus on motives. If Americans agree what should be done, then they need not agree why. Whether one cares most about national security, health, the environment, or simply making money, saving and supplanting fossil fuels makes sense."
"Wise energy policy can grow from impeccably conservative roots-- [...]
Moving the United States off oil and coal will require Americans to trust in their own resourcefulness, ingenuity, and courage. These durable virtues can give the country fuel without fear; help set the world on a path beyond war, want, or waste; and turn energy from worrisome to worry-free, from risk to reward, from cost to profit."
A Clean Energy Plan
In the interview with Yale Environment 360 senior editor Fen Montaigne, Lovins discusses how business and society can pull off this transformation even if the U.S. Congress keeps failing to act, why climate change need not even enter the discussion, and why the oil industry will ultimately forego fossil fuels and jump aboard the green bandwagon. “One system is dying and others are struggling to be born,” says Lovins. “It’s a very exciting time.”
Yale Environment 360: Given that we’re in the midst of what could only be described as a fossil fuel boom, with the discovery of new unconventional sources and new oil sources being found all over the world, how do you speed this transition and get from here to there?
Amory Lovins: Well, I’m not sure what boom you’re talking about. When I read the Wall Street Journal, I see a headline a few weeks ago about coal running out of steam.
e360: China is consuming tremendous amounts of coal.
Lovins: Hang on — I look at the data and I find that in the United States, coal’s share of the electrical services market, which is 95 percent of its market for fuel, has fallen by a quarter from 2005 through 2010, displaced by cheaper gas, efficiency, and renewables. And then when you look in the forward prices and the options market, that spread is going to keep widening. And when I hear how cheap natural gas is, I remember that it’s also very volatile. This has nothing to do with the many uncertainties around fracking, which will take a decade to resolve — if they work out well, we’ll be satisfied with a new option; if they don’t, that’s okay because we won’t need that much gas, so we won’t be very disappointed.
e360: Certainly in China, India, and the developing world there is a fossil fuel boom going on.
Lovins: But in a global context, there is a remarkable boom in efficiency and renewables in China, the world leader in five renewables. Part of the story in China is that the extraordinary vitality of renewables is coming very largely from the vibrant private sector, while all of the nuclear and half the coal business are the old state enterprises. So the story of incumbents and insurgents is partly the story of the reshaping of the Chinese economy from the old and rather bureaucratic command organizations. That is, I think, an encouraging trend.
We must use our most effective institutions to end-run our least effective institutions.
Last I looked a couple of years ago, the private sector in China was something like 50 to 70 percent of the profits, the growth, and the new jobs. Of course there is still a lot of momentum in the coal bureaucracy in China and India, which together burned half the world’s coal and account for about three-quarters of the projected increase, but I think those projections are looking quite dubious. In China, for example, they have lately retired over 70 gigawatts of inefficient coal plants, so that their coal plant fleet is now more efficient than ours. In 2010, 59 percent of their net new [electricity] capacity was coal. It used to be much higher.
e360: You feel we’re in a period where fossil fuels over the next decade or two are going to be increasingly like whale oil?
Lovins: Yes.
e360: You’ve got the president of Shell writing a foreward to your book. There are prominent quotes from the president of Texaco in one section of the book. How do you persuade these oil companies that are making billions of dollars now and into the foreseeable future to get on board with this renewable energy revolution? What is going to persuade them to be on what you see as the right side of history?
Lovins: Mainly risk management, and as a member of the National Petroleum Council, having worked in this industry for 38 years, I’ve seen a lot of concern about risk. Oil is like airlines. It’s a great industry and a bad business. Look at its fundamentals. It is extremely capital-intensive, long lead time, based on a wasting asset of which you only own about 6 percent and the rest can be taxed away or confiscated at any time. It is a business overflowing with all kinds of risk — technical, political, financial. It is unpopular politically. Its subsidies are at some political risk in this country. Put all that together and you have a magnificent recipe for headaches. Why would you want to be in a business like that?
e360: You’re making huge profits at this point.
Lovins: Well, sometimes yes, and sometimes it gushes red ink. So the smarter leaders in that industry have been trying to get out of the business since at least 1973, and have constructed some pretty intelligent portfolios of both activities and options that are getting rather rapidly diversified. Some companies that were not very foresighted, even though they were operationally excellent, are starting to smell the coffee.
I think there is a bright future for what we now think of as the oil industry in the new energy era, using its formidable capabilities and assets, but in different ways. A lot of refineries will turn into biorefineries; a lot of drilling will go to geothermal, possibly carbon sequestration and other pursuits. The fuel logistics will diversify into hydrogen — which of course is mainly a business of the oil industry right now and it’s a very big business — and into electricity and biofuels. Shell is already the world’s biggest distributor of biofuels. The average cost of getting our U.S. transport system off oil is about $18 a barrel for the efficiency and electrification part, or if you include the biofuels to run the trucks and airplanes to the extent they’re not on hydrogen, it might be at most about $25 a barrel. So I don’t much care what the world oil price is, this is a better bet and it very much better manages the risks.
e360: In the spheres that you write about — transportation, electricity generation, industry — what pieces of the puzzle need to be put in place in the coming decade or so to do this massive scaling up that’s going to be required to attain your vision of an economy that by 2050 is primarily powered by renewable sources?
Lovins: Broadly we need to pay attention to allow or require full and fair competition, preferably at honest prices. And to use our most effective institutions to end-run our least effective institutions.
e360: For example?
Lovins: Well, we use private enterprise, co-evolving with civil society and sped up by military innovation, to end run Congress. The transition we describe requires no act of Congress. It’s led by business for profit.
e360: So you want the private sector to end-run the dysfunctional political system?
Lovins: At the federal level, yes. There are policies required to unlock or speed the transition we described, but they could all be done administratively or at the state level, where most of the action is.
e360: From a technological point of view, how do you scale up wind and solar to the point where it can be generating the volume of electricity that you envision by 2050?
Lovins: The way we’re scaling it up now. U.S. photovoltaics have doubled each of the last two years. World [photovoltaic] growth last year — a difficult year for many industries — was 70 percent. And 68 percent of Europe’s new capacity last year was solar and wind. Wind, for example, is generally competitive without subsidy, even though the global wind industry will of course shift its projects in a given year to wherever they get the most subsidy, as you would expect. But even without subsidy they have a very strong business case.
e360: So you foresee in the U.S., Europe, and China a steady accretion of this scale and volume for these new sources?
Lovins: Yes, and China is leading the plummeting cost and rocketing volume of most of the renewables. They’re the world leader in five. They aim to be in all. The ones they lead are photovoltaic, wind, small hydro, biogas, and solar thermal for hot water.
So this is actually quite a big business. Clean energy was a $260 billion investment flow in 2011. Europe has now more than one million new renewable jobs. The big winner is Germany. They have more solar workers than America has steel workers. [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel bet that it would be smarter to send their energy money to their own engineers, manufacturers, and installers than to keep paying it to [Russia’s] Gazprom. She’s right, and it was a winning bet.
e360: In your book you are not counting on any sort of miraculous silver bullet technologies.
Lovins: No, no new inventions.
e360: But do you think there will be within a matter of decades technologies we can’t envision that could even further accelerate this transition?
Lovins: Oh, yes. I think there will be many, and actually although we’re not counting on any new inventions, we do give examples of emerging technologies in the lab about to get to market that are going to be quite powerful. For example, windows whose ability to transmit or block heat is a function of the temperature of the glass, and that’s a passive property. It doesn’t require any control system. That sort of thing is so revolutionary we haven’t even figured out how to use it yet. Or as another example, Tsutomu Shimomura, the computer security expert, has invented a way of controlling LED lighting in big buildings that gets rid of almost all of the wire and power supplies and controls, but gives superior control flexibility. And that should ultimately cut by manyfold the installed cost of those LED lighting systems and thus help them take over even faster in both new and old buildings. Fuel cells have already beaten the cost targets that we had expected. The list goes on.
Despite our woeful underinvestment in efficiency R&D, the technical progress here and abroad continues to accelerate with no end in sight and it’s not just in widgets. It’s also progress in new business models, new designs, ways of combining technologies more effectively to get expanding returns, not diminishing returns, new delivery channels that are rapidly maturing, new regulatory models. These things all together I think have put us irreversibly on the path to a new energy era, and a lot of it is an incumbents-versus-insurgents play where the incumbents have many intelligent ways they can respond and some dumb ways, one of which is called ostrich.
e360: Your book, in each of the main chapters, lays out detailed prescriptions — down to diagrams of factory piping — of how to improve efficiency and make advances. What has the reaction been to the book from corporations, from politicians?
Lovins: The reaction I have seen has been uniformly favorable, partly because it’s a trans-ideological approach that focuses on outcomes, not motives. Whether you most care about profits, jobs, and competitive advantage, or about national security or environmental stewardship and climate and public health — regardless of the reason, you’ll still want the outcomes. They’ll still make sense and make money, so let’s just do what we all agree ought to be done for whatever reason, not argue about what reason is most important, and then a lot of the stuff we may not agree about becomes superfluous. The military is very strongly on this track already — with both efficiency and resilient electric supply — for their own good reasons. We are not seeing so far political resistance to these ideas and we’re getting a very warm welcome in the business community.
e360: How big an impediment to your vision of how to go forward is the fact that many of the leaders of the Republican Party not only deny the existence of climate change, but belittle renewable energy. Is the political gridlock on this issue a big impediment to maybe moving forward?
Lovins: I don’t see it as a big impediment because we’re not relying on Congress to do anything. Again, you don’t have to believe climate science to think that the outcomes of Reinventing Fire are desirable. If you care about either making money or national security, either of those suffices; you may even care about both together. Then you’re twice as motivated. We are counting in the analysis all externalities — carbon [reduction] and otherwise — as worth zero, a conservatively low estimate. And we still get a $5 trillion surplus from getting the U.S. completely off oil, coal, and nuclear energy and a third off natural gas by 2050, with a 2.6-fold bigger economy. That, I think, is an attractive outcome regardless of your political beliefs.
e360: Let’s say there’s a President Santorum or a President Romney, do you think that they could be persuaded once they’re in office to embrace a vision like this?
Lovins: I don’t know, but I don’t much care. Rocky Mountain Institute is non-partisan, and we observe that most states, including many strongly Republican states, have renewable portfolio standards. The renewable leader in the nation is Texas, which is not noted for being environmentally minded, but does care a lot about making money and is very good at it. That’s fine.
e360: On the issue of climate change, do you believe the climate movement has made a strategic error by focusing so much on the issue of warming and its impacts rather than on the positive economic message you propagate in the book?
Lovins: I think you could make that case. In fact, to go back to the beginning of the modern climate debate, I think that when the bogus studies were issued claiming that climate protection would be very costly, the environmental movement fell into a trap of saying it won’t cost that much and it’s worth it. What they should have said is, “No, you’ve got it wrong. Climate protection is not costly but profitable because it’s cheaper to save fuel than to buy fuel.”
So the whole climate conversation has been distorted by this error of mistaking cost for profits and that has blocked international negotiations, because it’s so much harder to talk about cost burden and sacrifice, what is it worth to save the climate and who should pay for it, than to talk about profits, jobs, and competitive advantage, which should have been the subject all along. I think you could make that case. In fact, to go back to the beginning of the modern climate debate, I think that when the bogus studies were issued claiming that climate protection would be very costly, the environmental movement fell into a trap of saying it won’t cost that much and it’s worth it. What they should have said is, “No, you’ve got it wrong. Climate protection is not costly but profitable because it’s cheaper to save fuel than to buy fuel.”
So the whole climate conversation has been distorted by this error of mistaking cost for profits and that has blocked international negotiations, because it’s so much harder to talk about cost burden and sacrifice, what is it worth to save the climate and who should pay for it, than to talk about profits, jobs, and competitive advantage, which should have been the subject all along.
e360: When you look at your 2050 vision, yet you also look at all the carbon that’s still being burned, how do you reconcile the two?
Lovins: Well, one system is dying and others are struggling to be born. It’s a very exciting time, but I think the transitions that we need in how we design vehicles, buildings, and factories, and how we allow efficiency to compete with supply, are well under way. Most of the key sectors are already at or past their tipping point. And it’s clearest for oil, but will become clearer for coal that the stuff is becoming uncompetitive even at relatively low prices before it becomes unavailable even at high prices. It’s the whale oil story all over again. They ran out of customers before they ran out of whales.
Video
Amory Lovins at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
To contact us Click HERE Radioactivity in water at reactor 2 at the quake-damaged Fukushima nuclear plant has reached 10 million times the usual level, company officials say.
Workers trying to cool the reactor core to avoid a meltdown have been evacuated.
Earlier, Japan's nuclear agency said that levels of radioactive iodine in the sea near the plant had risen to 1,850 times the usual level.
The UN's nuclear agency has warned the crisis could go on for months.
It is believed the radiation at Fukushima is coming from one of the reactors, but a specific leak has not been identified.
Leaking water at reactor 2 has been measured at 1,000 millisieverts/hour - 10 million times higher than when the plant is operating normally.
"We are examining the cause of this, but no work is being done there because of the high level of radiation," said a spokesman for the plant's operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco).
"High levels of caesium and other substances are being detected, which usually should not be found in reactor water. There is a high possibility that fuel rods are being damaged," the spokesman added.
Tepco has been criticised for a lack of transparency and failing to provide information more promptly.
The nation's nuclear agency said the operator of the Fukushima plant had made a number of mistakes, including worker clothing.
Meanwhile, the Japanese government said that airbone radiation around the plant was decreasing.
The plant was damaged in the deadly 11 March earthquake and tsunami.
The death toll has now passed 10,000, and more than 17,440 people are missing.
The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has now sent extra teams to the Japanese nuclear plant.
The radiation found in the sea will no longer be a risk after eight days because of iodine's half-life, officials say.
Fresh water
Japanese government spokesman Yukio Edano said on Saturday that Tepco had to be more transparent in the wake of an incident this week in which three workers were exposed to radiation levels 10,000 times higher than normal, suffering burns.
"We strongly urge Tepco to provide information to the government more promptly," Mr Edano said.
Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (Nisa), said two injured workers were wearing boots that only came up to their ankles and afforded little protection.
"Regardless of whether there was an awareness of high radioactivity in the stagnant water, there were problems in the way work was conducted," Mr Nishiyama said.
He said Tepco also knew of high air radiation at one reactor several days before the incident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant 240km (150 miles) north of Tokyo.
He said Tepco had been warned and measures to improve safety had been put in place.
He said that leakage from reactors had probably caused the high levels of radiation found in water at the Fukushima plant.
Emergency workers are continuing to cool the reactors in an effort to prevent a meltdown. They have now switched to using more favoured fresh water as a coolant, rather than sea water.
There had been fears the salt in sea water could further corrode machinery. The fresh water is being pumped in so that contaminated radioactive water can be extracted.
The team of more than 700 engineers has found radioactive water in three of the six reactors.
Four of the reactors are still considered volatile.
The US 7th Fleet is sending barges loaded with 500,000 gallons of fresh water.
Mr Edano said: "We seem to be keeping the situation from turning worse. But we still cannot be optimistic."
Iodine
Mr Amano told the New York Times that Japan was "still far from the end of the accident".
Although he saw some "positive signs", particularly the restoration of electric power, he said: "More efforts should be done to put an end to the accident."
His main fears were that the lack of coolant would mean spent fuel rods would remain exposed to the air, and then heat up, releasing radioactive material.
China, Singapore, Hong Kong and other Asian importers have banned some imports of vegetables, seafood and milk products for fear of contamination.
Australia, the European Union, the United States and Russia have followed suit.
Meanwhile in Japan's tsunami disaster zone, the military has helped supply food and water and has continued clearing areas to try to recover more bodies.
There has been a need for mass burials in some areas along the coast.
Hundreds of thousands of displaced people are still housed in temporary shelters such as gymnasiums.
The Japanese government has put the rebuilding cost at $309bn (£191.8bn).
The Facade 
The risk of future
Amory B. Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute
He said Tepco had been warned and measures to improve safety had been put in place.