While getting my fossil-fuel powered car serviced this morning, I listened to the latest Glenn & Helen Show podcast. Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds and Dr. Helen Smith traveled to New York for the recent Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Conference where they interviewed energy-effecient expert Amory Lovins, Windbelt inventor Shawn Frayne, and MacArthur Genius Award winner and science educator Shawn Carlson.Lovins doesn't believe in what Reynolds termed "hair shirt environmentalism." Lovins notes, "The United States in 2006 used 48 percent less energy, 54 percent less oil, and 64 percent less directly-used natural gas per GDP than we did in 1975. Hen then added, "Oil is half as important as it used to be."
So the oil being pumped by Wichita, Kansas well needs to be used more wisely, in accordance with Lovins' reasoning.
Frayne's Windbelt isn't a big windmill, but something more compact that can replace dangerous kerosene devices.
Carlson favors better science education in our schools, but not the force-fed version that's in place now. His comments reminded me of when I was in high school, our biology teacher walked us to McGuinnes Slough (a large pond next to our school) to retrieve pond samples to be studied back in the classroom. Several students took a detour from that walk to smoke a joint--the only lesson they learned that day supplemented their sizable knowledge base in their high school major, "How Not to Get Caught."
Some kids don't care. Others need to be nurtured.
Listen to or download the podcast here. Or do what I do subscribe for free via iTunes.
As Glenn says, "We like that."
The podcast is sponsored by Volvo Automobiles.
Related posts:
My Kansas Kronikles: Gray County Wind Farm
Pajamas Media's Glenn & Helen Show podcast: Popular Mechanics and New Media
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