Search Results for: "David Simon"
Relevance | DateOn the ‘Ultimate Resource,’ Human Ingenuity
By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 3, 2019 5 Comments“Discoveries, like resources, may well be infinite: the more we discover, the more we are able to discover.” (Julian Simon, The Ultimate Resource 2, p. 82)
“The world is not ‘a bundle of hay’ but a living growing complex of matter and energy, a process rather than a thing.” ( Erich Zimmermann, World Resources and Industries, 1951, p. 815.
What explains the happy fact (really the miracle of man) that the more we discover, the more we find out if left to discover? Instead of mineral depletion, we have mineral expansion–turning the Malthusian predicament on its head. And instead of weather/climate doom, we have successful adaptation in wealthy (as in healthy) free economies.
Labor Day has passed, a day that could be renamed Energy Day for the saved labor that modern energy has transferred to machines and appliances.…
Continue ReadingCharles Koch vs. Crony Capitalism
By Robert Bradley Jr. -- August 15, 2019 No Comments“Good profit can only result from creating value for the consumer. It is the manifestation of the entrepreneur’s respect for what the customer values.”
– Charles Koch, Good Profit (New York: Crown Business, 2015), p. 244.
“Documents Shine New Light on Koch Brothers’ Early Efforts to Abolish the Department of Energy,” reads the headline of a new report about Charles and David Koch by Desmog Blog. This organization/site also announced a Koch Network Database,
a new resource library built by DeSmog to assist journalists, academic researchers, and the public to learn more about the backgrounds of individuals and organizations associated with billionaire fossil fuel industrialists Charles Koch and David Koch‘s free market approach to a broad spectrum of civic issues.
As just a compilation of individuals and groups and their purpose and work, “guilty as charged” would apply.…
Continue Reading“Energy and Society” Course (Part IV: The Perennial Energy Debate)
By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 3, 2019 No CommentsThis is the final installment of the course syllabus of Pierre Desrochers’ Energy and Society class.
Part I explored the course description as well as the videos and readings from the first two weeks of the class; Part II covered carbon-based energy. Part III yesterday was on electricity generated from non-carbon sources (Hydro, Nuclear, Renewables, Biomass).
| • Population Growth, Resources and the Environment Deffeyes, Kenneth, Peter Huber. 2005. “It’s the End of Oil / Oil Is Here to Stay.” Time, October 23. Ellis, Erle C. 2012. “Overpopulation is not the problem.” The New York Times (September 13). Pearce, Fred. 2010. “The overpopulation myth.” Prospect Magazine, March 8. Ridley, Matt. 2014. “Why Most Resources don’t Run Out.” Rational Optimist (April 30). Mann, Charles. |
“Energy and Society” Course (Part III: Electricity from Hydro, Nuclear, Renewables, Biomass)
By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 2, 2019 No CommentsThis continues a series on the syllabus of Pierre Desrochers’ course at the University of Toronto Mississauga, Energy and Society, which gets my vote as the single best course on its subject in North America if not the world.
Part I explored the course description as well as the videos and readings from the first two weeks of the class; Part II covered carbon-based energy.
General
“Electrification.” Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century. National Academy of Engineering. 2000.
Bradley, Robert L and Richard W. Fulmer. Energy: The Master Resource, Kendall Hunt Publishing Company, 2004, Chapter 2: Using Energy, pp. 19-20, 25-29, 30-31, 45-48.
Environmental Literacy Council Website.
“Electricity.”
“Electric Current and Power Transmission.”
“Electric Power Grids and Blackouts.”
Lomborg, Bjørn.…