The MIT Tech Review covers this new combination of silicon solar technology and targeted mirroring that combines to make practical residential solar panels. As they point out this isn’t rocket science- Soliant utilizes a combination of proven technologies. What it is is usable tech that can be installed by existing installers without a learning curve + a 50% increase in efficiency. Their next generation model promises 88% improvements, bringing their costs below conventional energy sources. Love it.

Here’s a photoset of the largest municipal park in the US burning, taken by a neighbor, Elliot Trinidad. He notes that many people sat and watched all night mesmerized by the flames. He also notes the resemblance to scenes from disaster movies set in LA. It was the first thing I thought of when I saw the shots.
We live in strange times. Imagining a future with scenes like these inspired the name for this blog. I wrote an unpublished novel of the same name several years ago that took place in the near future. The narrator described an LA that was a burned out dustbowl inhabited by surfers covered with white sun block. Practically everything I wrote about back then (5-6 years ago) is actually happening including giant F5 tornados destroying midwestern cities.
(thanks to BoingBoing)

Shift Happens is a stand alone PPT presentation on globalization. It is not an anti-rant, it is a presentation of reality.
I have been trying to get my arms around facts like this for awhile and every time the conclusions are overwhelming:
50% more people on the planet in the next forty years.
China exceeds US carbon emissions three years earlier than expected. We cannot offset this with conservation.
A British research group suggests population control is necessary for carbon reduction. One child less means saving the emissions of 600 plane flights from London to NY each year.
F5 tornado destroys an entire midwest town, at night. We’ve had 67 tornado deaths this year- average is 27 to the same date. The season has not really begun, technically (tell that to the citizens of Kansas and Nebraska and Florida).
Army Corps of Engineers rebuilt levees are disintegrating already. Hurricane season is around the corner.

Meanwhile we are spending a trillion dollars for an oil war in Iraq that we are losing- and we don’t even have any control over the oil!

The irony is that as I write this it is the most beautiful spring day imaginable outside.

Franke James posted one of her great art blogs about giving up her SUV back in February. Now she wants to remove her interlock driveway which takes up the entire front of her urban home in North York which is a part of the greater Toronto area. No car, why have a paved yard? It turns out that she is required to have a driveway so she wants to use pavers that have gaps you can grow grass in, offering a greener alternative and helping the paved-over city’s water retention issues. In spite of having a self-proclaimed ‘green’ mayor, the city of North York says no.
Somehow I’m guessing Franke will have her way eventually.
We just had a new asphalt drive put in. I like the idea of the green pavers but our drive is steep and hard to get up in the winter so I don’t think they would work for us. Of course we have a half acre of gardens so its a totally different situation.

Go Franke!