Re/Action on Climate Protection

NHK Climate Program

Here is a link to a Japan NHK radio presentation on California climate related activities. My wife and I play a modest role. The broadcast is in Japanese.

The Cost of Coal Mining

The tragedy at the Sago coal mine in West Virginia starkly reveals one of the externalized costs of coal: the danger to the lives of the miners. The ratepayers who buy electricity from the coal-fired power plants do not pay for the cost of human lives lost in this tragedy.

Frugality the basis for GHG reduction?

Zeno Swijtink recently commented,

"There is an earlier tradition of American frugality, of Benjamin Franklin and Henry David Thoreau, that is still alive in this country."

How can this be harnessed to bring about meaningful reductions in GHGs? Are Americans still capable of choosing to "use less" because it is "not right" to consume more than one really needs?

Using resources more efficiently implies that the same work is done with less energy. However, conservation goes to the root of what one thinks one needs or wants, and consciously "using less."

I was in a class one time where we had some Japanese guests from the energy industry. First time visitors to the United States, they were asked for their impressions. One of the responses was that they could not believe the size of the portions of food they were being served in restaurants. It appalled them that they could not finish it all, and it had to be thrown away. This is not to glorify Japanese society, however, it points to a fundamental difference in social constructs between societies.