Environment: Electronics recycling reveals huge scam
People want to feel good about "doing the right thing". Recycling is an example of a "feel good" activity and "ethical recyclers" stepped in to help people feel good about…
Environment: We make too much, store too much unused, dispose too much, and reuse too little
"The one thing we do know is that the biggest impact of most products is the manufacturing side. So if you want to reduce the environmental impact of your consumption,…
Energy: Why throwing money at climate solutions leads to no solutions
Politicians, who do not understand what they are doing, are likely to pursue policy options that are costly and accomplish little. There are better ways but it is unclear whether…
Energy: Should you buy carbon offsets, an EV or solar PV to reduce your environmental impact? It depends.
Should you buy an EV? Should you install solar PV? Details matter a lot as to whether your decision leads to actual environmental improvements - or not. Should you buy…
Energy: To achieve net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050 requires building a new, large nuclear power plant every 2 days
Simple calculations illustrate how much energy fossil fuels provided, globally, and what has to be done to achieve "net zero" CO2 emissions by 2050. Few people have any idea of…
Transportation: #Drone delivery of consumer packages is mostly hype but does have some specific good use cases
Most of the widely hyped drone delivery scenarios are not economically realistic and probably will not happen any time soon. But there are some targeted applications that should make sense…
Energy: “Climate Central Solutions Brief: Battery Energy Storage” – interesting background on grid-level energy storage
Batteries are likely to be an important component of grid-level energy systems. Solar PV and Wind are both intermittent power sources, plus their peak outputs do not necessarily align with…
Transportation: What percent of greenhouse gas emissions come from personal vehicles?
News reports imply that our cars are the largest contributor of greenhouse gases in the U.S. In fact, the "transportation" segment is the largest producer but this includes all transportation…
Increases in student loan availability lead to increases in tuition and fees
Increases in student loan availability are a cause of tuition hikes rather than in response to tuition hikes. This effect is also seen in housing (cheap loans made widely available)…
Health: Insurers pay $15-$85 for “free” flu shots; I paid $19.99 cash at Costco. “Insurance” is an enabler of high costs in health care.
3rd party insurance companies pay from $15 to $85 for your "free" flu shot. This is insane. Further, 3rd party payers make high prices possible and do not reduce costs,…