Sustainable Planet

Teens sought for Loudoun’s Battle of the Bands

October 9, 2021

The 2021 Loudoun Battle of the Bands is open to middle and high school students, including soloists, vocalists, instrumentalists, and DJs/producers. The competition is a joint venture among the Loudoun County Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Services, Loudoun Youth Inc. and the Loudoun County Youth Advisory Council. Performers interested in competing should apply online at loudoun.gov/teens by…

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High Speed Rail; “That Used to be Us.”

February 20, 2021

“It makes no sense for China to have better rail systems than us…. That used to be us.” President Obama November, 2010  [Turnbull] By Tony Noerpel In order to avoid a climate catastrophe, we are probably going to have to stop flying.  Flying is responsible for 5 percent of global warming [Timperley] and there is…

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Dishonesty is Unsustainable

February 2, 2021

“I’m a little child.  You know the emperor’s new clothes? I can see the naked emperor, just because I’m a little child-minded person. I’m not smart. I mean, good scientists are like that. They have the minds of children, to see through all this façade.”  Clair Paterson [Reilly] By Tony Noerpel Applied Mathematician Roger Penrose,…

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When we cross 1.5 degrees for good

January 6, 2021

“continuing on our current path will lead to catastrophic changes to the Earth system that give us life.” Peter Kalmus “We climate scientists have … concluded, unequivocally, that global warming is caused by humans burning fossil fuels, although we continue to understate the urgency and seriousness of the threat… we have nonetheless delivered our message. …

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Another polarizing vacuous bad actor

December 20, 2020

“Polarization and objectivity don’t mix well; the search for truth becomes submerged by the implicit and demanding question:  Are you with us or ag’in us?”  Garret Hardin [Hardin] Let’s assume my premise is correct that people would accept facts if they knew what the facts were.  A problem is that humans have collectively accumulated too…

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Agriculture and Climate Change

December 2, 2020

In a recent paper published in the journal Science, researchers Michael A. Clark, Nina G. G. Domingo, Kimberly Colgan, Sumil K. Thakrar, David Tilman, John Lynch, Inês L. Azevedo, and Jason D. Hill [Clark] show that greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from agriculture alone are enough to warm the planet 2 K.  In their study, the…

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