Wind and Water

The UK governmentt promises more green jobs, whilst factories close; and algae gets another cash injection. Can green slime save the day?

This another shameless re-tread of old, slightly crusty material from the Throbgoblins International compost bin

Infernal Combustion

Frank is feeling a little better today. Thanks for asking.

While the UK entrenches itself up to its neck in car culture, the scientific world debates whether it is best to starve us all and destroy our biodiversity in the name of biofuel or bio-electricity - whichever gives most miles per acre. Motorists, as ever, expect to be coddled through without inconvenience.
Those on two wheels had better watch their backs.

So many choices, so little accurate information.

What price action?

China and Italy invest heavily in renewables

Fuel Dump

It might need a revolution in the water-heavy way we process our own waste, but there's a lot of potential here, isn't there? If we need a massive infrastructural rearrangement, why not make it inherently sustainable.
If I'm talking shite, please tell me. (Please see very informative comment by Anonymous (Dr. J. Singmaster), below)

Elsewhere - despite continuing improvements in the technology, the "demand" ( now there's a can of semantic worms) for wind turbines declines .

An early-doors pointer to the potential problems we might face, should a nuclear future coincide with further economic collapse; Will capital run for the hills when the bills outweigh the profits and the dangers are on someone else's doorstep?

Char wallahs

BioChar seems set to be a nice little earner for those unable to fill their boots with biodiesel. But before everybody runs away with the idea that this is some sort of tried and tested technology, lets have a little look at the downside, shall we. (with thanks to Almuth Ernsting and Rachel Smolker)
Especially in light of the unsettling ups and downs of the palnet's forests, the state of the larder and the urgency of the task

This is something of first for Throbgoblins International:
Of all the links we have included over the past year we have never had occasion to link to that great British arse wiper, the Sun. But there's always a first time, and their splash coverage of "The Age of Stupid" can be seen here.

Burning Man

Renewable energy, - if it is to be resilient enough to manage the transition from carbon based mass consumption to a sustainable future - must be accessed through a technology based on materials in plentiful supply. There's no point basing it on kryptonite or on materials that are prohibitively costly to access or convert. There is only so much platinum (or uranium, for that matter) to go around.
The idea that we can carry on regardless and simply substitute another power source for our present ones is foolish in the extreme. Carbon was a once-only offer. The party's over.

Energy is an expression of labour and time. What human or horse muscle can achieve in an hour pales beside the work rate of carbon fuelled engines. We have created a global culture that is entirely dependent on more labour and more time than is available without burning fossil fuels. When the fossil fuels are no longer available, and the alternatives prove inadequate to the immense and wasteful scale of our chosen way of life - how will the powerful seek to satisfy their "needs" for additional labour and time? In the time honoured tradition -of enslavement and conquest? How will the powerful deal with those who compete with them for labour and time? In the time honoured tradition of enslavement and conquest.
We are a predictable species, by and large (give or take the odd black swan moment)

There is no alternative energy source that can meet our "need" to have our cake and eat it too.
Reduce. Re-use. Recycle

One might add - Re-Design

Plots and Plans

Sowing and reaping becomes a more unpredictable affair as weather begins to dance to a new tune

Obama keeps his momentum going.

Please complain to the BBC about their shameful and cowardly refusal to broadcast appeals for humanitarian aid to Gaza. It won't take a minute.

Meanwhile, turbines get tougher, racism gets weirder and yeast levels begin to stabilise

Lipo-Diesel

Who needs Jonathan Swift when we have Californian plastic surgeons?
I wish I'd thought of that.

Here's an old set of LabRats strips based on a much weaker premise - for old time's sake.

Life as we know it

The Carbon Trust are developing technology that is perfectly poised to take advantage of a rapidly developing ecological niche -ie -the whole planet is turning into a stagnant swamp of fetid pond-scum. So Mad Max can still be a road warrior. Hoorah!



An illustration of an established point

The public gets what the public wants

I was looking through a survey the other day that sought people's opinions on difficult subjects requiring specialist knowledge and a broad command of a range of complex issues. It wasn't child's play, and it's purpose was serious. But it's tone reminded me of the tone of appraisal documents the world over - Are you satisfied, very satisfied, unsatisfied, very unsatisfied, not bothered, suicidal etc. As if how the respondent felt about the situation was the important thing.
I might be reading rather too much into this, but - We find ourselves strapped into a car that's hurtling up the sharp incline of half a dozen exponential hockey-stick graphs towards almost certain calamity on a roller coaster without breaks - and we are being asked if we're comfy. Something is amiss. Maybe it's just me, but I think it might be time to put our feelings on the back burner and concentrate on issues for a while. Maybe we should be saying to ourselves, "Never mind how you feel - read a few books and have a bit of a think. Leave the comfort zone. You don't have to like it, and you probably won't. Grow up and put your fairy tales away"
Maybe we could all specifically ponder...
How does one run a democracy when no one is paying attention? When most of the people think that more and more people can have more and more forever?; when most of the people think that the looks and style of a politician are the most important considerations?; when most of the people are watching X-factor?: when most of the people want a Beamer, a boob-job and a McMansion?: when most of the people spend more time cultivating their appearance than their understanding? when most of the people are under the impression that they are only here to have a good time and that some supernatural superbeing tucks them in at night? Can serious and necessary work be undertaken under those conditions? And if not, how do we change those conditions? Or do we wait for circumstances to change them for us?

Fucked if I know.

Anyway - I colourised these old strips for a Brasilian biofuel-awareness campaign, which gives me an excuse to re-up them, and an opportunity to cheer the demise of the Hummer that was so recently considered acceptable in some quarters