Ed Note: With tens of millions of Americans preparing for travel this Memorial Day weekend, Walt Whitman’s ‘Song of the Open Road‘ [Leaves of Grass (1856)] is apropos. His call to adventure in the mid-19th century, a time of Westward Expansion for the U.S., resonates for all of us today in travel.
Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.
Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune,
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms,
Strong and content I travel the open road.
The earth, that is sufficient,
I do not want the constellations any nearer,
I know they are very well where they are,
I know they suffice for those who belong to them.…
There are ominous signs that the Earth’s weather patterns have begun to change dramatically and that these changes may portend a drastic decline in food production – with serious political implications for just about every nation on Earth.
The drop in food output could begin quite soon, perhaps only 10 years from now. The regions destined to feel its impact are the great wheat-producing lands of Canada and the USSR in the North, along with a number of marginally self-sufficient tropical areas – parts of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indochina and Indonesia – where the growing season is dependent upon the rains brought by the monsoon. — Newsweek
Another climate-scare article? Yes, but it is from April 28, 1975, almost a half-century ago.
There is nothing wishy-washy about the assertions in popular press stories on the environment.…
“As Texas faces the possibility of high temperatures this summer and the certainty that wind will operate at only a fraction of its installed capacity during periods of peak demand, it is possible the Legislature may adjourn on May 31 having done nothing to address the harm renewables are doing to the Texas grid.”
Despite years of increasing reliance on intermittent generation sources like wind and solar, Texas policymakers seem to have been caught by surprise by the prolonged blackouts experienced by millions of Texans in February.
They should not have been. While temperatures dropped into the single digits for extended periods over much of Texas, solar and wind generators were largely no-shows on the Texas grid.
While other factors were in play, it was renewables that led Texas into darkness.…