“Big Oil” Man T. Boone Pickens (you can’t make this stuff up) is moving into the wind power market with plans to develop the world’s largest wind farm in the Texas panhandle. The wind power facility will produce 4,000 megawatts of electricity per year, enough to power more than 1,300,000 homes.
“For a number of years I’ve watched the wind turbines develop - and I feel like it’s time for it. I think that oil has peaked at 85 million barrels in the world. We’ve got to develop other forms of energy - wind, I think solar will be next, and I hope I’m still around to be in the solar deal.”
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The average U.S. soldier needs 88 AA batteries for a five-day mission. That’s a lot of weight to haul around, but a new high-tech fabric that incorporates solar powered batteries into cloth could go a long way towards lightening that load, according to NPR’s Living On Earth:
“these threads are a fraction the thickness of a human hair. When they’re made out of battery electrodes and photovoltaic and fuel cells and then stitched together, they constitute a fabric that captures and stores energy while it’s worn.
Florida researchers designed the machine for the military, but as Living On Earth’s Mitra Taj noted:
The new technology might help in civilian life too, boosting efforts to make environmentally friendly power sources that multitask”imagine a jacket that keeps you warm while charging your cell phone.
Nice to see the military-industrial complex, which once brought us Agent Orange, being an agent of green.
Find out more about solar power’s potential at solarpower.org.
A first-of-its-kind presidential forum on global warming and energy issues took place last Saturday in Los Angeles, co-sponsored by Grist and Public Radio International’s Living on Earth. Of the 17 candidates they invited, only three bothered to accept: Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Dennis Kucinich. The eternally elfish Kucinich clearly has the smallest carbon footprint, what with his vegan diet, modest (1600 square foot) home, and fuel-efficient Ford focus. And he’s got an ultra-green agenda, as Grist’s David Roberts noted in his reflections on the forum, where he posed some of the questions. But Roberts came away from the debate most impressed by Clinton’s command of the issues: “My impression — and this was confirmed multiple times by various audience members I spoke to later — is that Clinton had the best grasp of the political and policy details.” Not everyone was won over, though; over on Daily Kos, thereisnospoon took exception to Clinton’s insistence that “Incremental change is the only way to go”¦it’s imperative we get something passed and implement it, so that we can persuade Americans that it won’t be disruptive or lower their standard of living, but will actually create jobs and do good.” The problem with this oh-so-pragmatic approach, as theresinospoon argues, is that we just don’t have time for it. Our lives are going to be disrupted, one way or another; either we start to radically alter the way we live NOW, or we’re going to have a lower standard of living thrust upon us, ready or not.Then again, Jimmy Carter told us to turn down our thermostats and put on a sweater, and look what happened to him. Maybe we just can’t handle the truth.
“Big Oil” Man T. Boone Pickens (you can’t make this stuff up) is moving into the wind power market with plans to develop the world’s largest wind farm in the Texas panhandle. The wind power facility will produce 4,000 megawatts of electricity per year, enough to power more than 1,300,000 homes.
Katie:
Nicole: 
Giulia:
Gina: 
Kerry:
