the Warmest Generation

Hello Readers,

This morning I stumbled across an interesting climatic tid-bit, in a New York Times article about the temperature extremes this past month.

The fact, which jumped out at me, reminded me of a quote from the radio show a Prairie Home Companion about Lake Wobegone: "the little town that time forgot and the decades cannot improve ... where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average."

However, the fact in the article is - unlike the No Child Left Behind mandate that all children achieve  'above average' test scores - entirely plausible albeit disturbing. As it turns out, according to a recent NOAA report, every child born since March of 1985 has only experienced months with temperatures above the global average temperature for the 20th Century!

Or as the NOAA website puts it: "February 2012 was the coolest February on record since 2008. However, February 2012 also marks the 324^th consecutive month with a global temperature above the 20^th century average. The last month with below average temperatures was February 1985."

As someone born in the latter half of 1985, I have grown up hearing about older generations being called the 'Greatest' generation, the 'Baby Boom' generation, and 'Generation-X'. At the same time, I have heard the media try to apply a bevy of labels to my generation...'Millennials', 'Generation-Y',  'New Boomers', the 'Facebook' or 'Net' Generation... and the list goes on!

Of course all of these labels have been applied to my generation by older generations for arbitrary reasons: being young during the turn of the millennium, being born after 'Generation-X', being the children of 'Baby Boomers', the fact that we use the internet? None of these labels are have been made to define the challenge that our generation faces (such as the 'Greatest' generation or even the 'Baby Boom' generation) or as a response to the nuances of our generation's subculture (such as 'Generation-X').

In light of this new information about the climate during my entire lifetime, I propose that our generation claim the mantle of the 'Warmest Generation'. This label stands a testament to the circumstances into which we were born and the challenges that we must overcome. We were born at the end of or just after the so-called 'Cold War', and we have never known a climate as cool as our parents did. Accept it or not, our challenge is to prevent further global warming and possibly even reverse some of the warming that has already occurred while simultaneously setting a new global standard for non-violent political relations.

I challenge everyone from my generation to take up this mantle and this challenge!

Warmly,

Sean Diamond

Natural Gas TED Talk

Hello Readers,

I encourage you to check out T. Boone Pickens' TED Talk on conversion to natural gas. He offers some excellent facts, talking points, and arguments for the use of natural gas (at least as a bridge fuel... and possibly more).




Of course, he does not mention energy storage technology as a solution to intermittent renewable energy, but you can read more about energy storage in my dissertation.

Enjoy,

Sean

Eat Less Chicken?

Hello Readers,

I was surprised to discover that Chick-fil-a (the fast food restaurant chain), which has an advertising campaign including the slogan "Eat Mor Chikin", is suing a small-scale t-shirt designer from Vermont.

Curiously, the t-shirt design that spurred the lawsuit simply has the words "Eat More Kale", which is spelled correctly and is displayed in a different typeface (aka font) than the scratchy Chick-fil-a advertisements. As such, it does seem like Chick-fil-a should have any case at all. However, according to the website created by the t-shirt designer, the fast food chain has apparently sued (and won and/or settled with) 30 other organizations that have used the phrase "Eat More _________".

As a result, I have to ask would it also be copyright infringement for the t-shirt designer to start making shirts that simply say "Eat Less Chicken"?  While it probably would not be, it would be unfortunate to see the t-shirt maker step into another opportunity for a lawsuit under the Food Libel Laws.

Instead, the t-shirt designer has partnered with a documentary filmmaker to bring the issue to light. You can find more information on Treehugger and on the documentary website for "A Defiant Dude".

Below, I have included an amusing Youtube video that was posted by filmmaker, and for those of you who have not heard of kale before I suggest looking for it in your local grocery store or farmer's market. It is a leafy vegetable that will be somewhere near the lettuce and spinach. If your local grocer does not carry it, ask about them to order some!

Enjoy,

Sean

New Delaware Solar Incentives

Hello Readers,

Check out the information about Delmarva's new state-wide SREC Procurement Program in Delaware on the MainLine Solar, LLC website.

The official program website is being run by SRECTrade. The timeline for the program was just released today. It looks like applications need to be complete by April 6th!

Cheers,

Sean