Month: September 2022

  • Rare Metals Conundrum

    Cars. They can convey status. They can be political statements. And of course cars are required in most of America for us to get our groceries, run errands, get our kids to school. Many of us would like to invest in public transportation, micro-mobility, and other car-less solutions, but the fact of the matter is…

  • The Road

    Cormac McCarthy’s The Road follows a father and his son as they scrounge for survival in a post apocalyptic landscape. Devoid of animal life, sunlight, warmth, and living plants, the aftermath of our Earth is as menacing as the bands of marauding cannibals that hunt the protagonists . Their search for food is limited completely…

  • Jevons Paradox

    I had never head of Jevons paradox until I heard an Odd Lots podcast (through Bloomberg) on the energy transition. Jevons paradox is a cause and effect theory that generally states that increases in efficiency are offset by increased adoption or use He famously applied it to coal (in 1865), noting that the marvelously efficient…

  • Bend Change in Your Direction

    Climate change is very real and urgent. Changes in our infrastructure, policy, and energy production need to be made quickly, and I know our society will make them. But changes are hard, and so as an analogy I present to you my own career. I left a place of comfort and security, having taught Science…