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Happy Earth Day 2008!

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Al Gore brought 500,000 messages with him as he testified before Congress yesterday on the threat of climate change, urging legislators to take action. Unfortunately this has become a political issue and it doesn’t help matters that Gore is identified with the Democrats. It is unbelievable that there are people out there like Republican Senator James Inhofe leading a defensive charge.

“It is my perspective that your global warming alarmist pronouncements are now and have always been filled with inaccuracies and misleading statements,” Mr. Inhofe said.

And this is the guy that is the ranking Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee?!

When will this stop being a political issue and start being a real threat that we can all discuss without taking sides. We have a very narrow window of opportunity to change the course of destruction of our world and parties are bickering over taxes and protectionism.

A twitter friend, baratunde just sent this to me. If you care about saving the planet from irreversible damage, make yourself heard TODAY. Al Gore is testifying to Congress on global warming tomorrow, Wednesday, March 21st. He will hand deliver your message of support for immediate legislation. Click on Hurricane Katrina now and take 2 minutes to fill out the card. Here is my personal message:

The best solutions to reversing global warming are also the simplest: 1) Increase the federal gasoline tax 10 cents per year incrementally over the next 10 years as Dr. N. Gregory Mankiw suggests. You can keep your tax revenue even if you reduce paryoll taxes by the same amount 2) Ban incandescent light bulbs. 3) Invest in public transportation instead of building new roads.

You have to do it today since Mr Gore is testifying to Congress tomorrow.

NASA photo of Hurricane Katrina sea surface temperatures

Why are you still reading? Fill out the card now!

Like last week, I gave another presentation for a different class today. The course is called Economics of Technological Change and covers diffusion (adoption) of technology in a given industry and time frame, among other things. My semester project for this class is to examine the diffusion of solar power in the United States. I am looking at the rate of adoption, the impact solar power has had on innovation and R&D in the industry, effects on economic growth, effects of subsidies, impact on the environment, as well as how solar power has fared with other sources of renewable energy in terms of adoption rate.

The presentation went well considering we were limited to just 5 minutes. There are 48 students in the class so we had to be brief. As I have mentioned earlier, it seems to be a trend in Ireland, or at least at NUI Galway, to present research while in progress, long before the paper is due. Last semester I was hesitant about this procedure, but I have grown to like it and have quickly realized the benefits. For example, the professor has a chance to guide your research and offer suggestions. Dimitri, my instructor, seemed impressed by my topic but cautioned that there is enough material on solar energy diffusion to complete a PhD program. He suggested ways of focusing the research by looking at data for just the past 10 years within the commercial sector, for example. It’s good to air thoughts in front of a group and bounce ideas off others to enhance the focus and I’m much more excited about my project now.

This week, I was able to use Apple Keynote properly on my own notebook and it worked out nicely making for a smooth presentation. I must admit, I felt a little like Nobel Prize nominee Al Gore during An Inconvenient Truth. [grin] I enjoyed speaking in front of the class, it felt very comfortable. I even received some compliments about the slide presentation, thanks to Apple Keynote. Everyone else had the same boring PowerPoint theme, except one student that distributed an outline.

So far, two projects started and another one starting next week with a group of three of us. The semester is really heating up, no pun intended, but I will keep chugging away on the blog posts as well. I welcome your comments and suggestions about my project below.

Photo courtesy of National Renewable Energy Laboratory Credit–Robb Williamson

What a no-brainer headline. I chose it only to illustrate the point of the uphill battle still faced by scientists when it comes to convincing the public, especially Americans, that global warming exists AND is caused by humans. According to the San Jose Mercury News a bleak new report (PDF, 2.2MB) was released today with solid evidence laying the blame on humans for global warming.

Perhaps Senator Inhofe will finally eat his words that “global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people?” Maye now I can move on and refrain from using obvious headlines.

Al Gore has been nominated for the prestigious award along with Inuit environmentalist Sheila Watt-Cloutier, in recognition for their efforts to put the danger posed by climate change on the global political agenda. Though many here in Europe seem to dismiss films such as An Inconvenient Truth with a response of “tell us something we don’t know already,” it is wonderful to see this issue getting the coverage it deserves.

read more | via: digg

My family lives in Slidell, LA. Fortunately they are safe now. Here are some videos shot by a film crew from Baton Rouge, LA.

August 29 Slidell report:
http://media.swagit.com/s/wbrz/The_Advocate/08292005-39.html
(you can probably stop when they return to the studio after the
interview with the couple, it’s pretty long…)

08/29 I-10 bridge toward Slidell:
http://media.swagit.com/s/wbrz/The_Advocate/08302005-6.html

08/29 Slidell: http://media.swagit.com/s/wbrz/The_Advocate/08302005-5.html

here are the rest if you want to browse more:
http://www.2theadvocate.com/wbrz/video_index.shtml

someone put the Google Map API to good use which allows users to flag locations and post information about neighborhood conditions

read more | digg story

Look at these photos and consider donating some spare change:
http://flickr.com/photos/tags/katrina/show/

Click here to support the American Red Cross disaster relief fund for Hurricane Katrina victims