Algae have great potential in the quest for biofuel, but the basic research needed to support the farming of algae is starving. Recently several start-up companies have failed, and energy research in this area is not funded at a level that will support the development of basic research and applied research.

Wired magazine has a piece that reports the latest gloomy developments (Wired Magazine December 2009-How Algal Biofuels Lost a Decade in the Race to Replace Oil* By Alexis Madrigal ), pointing out that venture capitalists are pulling back from funding development efforts as the prospect of profits recede toward the horizon. Alexis also reports that collections of algae that were studied are now lost since the money to renew the cultures collected has vanished. This is a tragic loss since without the culture lines that were studied, much of the research knowledge was lost with them.

This is a classic example of where government funded research into the basic science can be effective, as a base level of knowledge and a community of scientists and technologists are necessary before a new industry can develop. It also highlights that without a congressional sponsor or "angel" who keeps the research funding going in the U.S. budget, science suffers.

The model to date is that small start up companies are formed to develop commercial technology, but this model usually results in the scientific knowledge being viewed as "intellectual property" that is proprietary.

When government research done through Universities and the energy research national laboratories produces a corpus of knowledge that is part of the public commons, this process can seed a real diffusion of the knowledge necessary to make a viable industry. Unfortunately the greed apparent in the current model is antithetical to the development of a critical mass of basic scientific knowledge that would enable such a transition from lab to farm.

While large energy companies have announced large programs to make biofuels, many sound more like PR campaigns than viable commitments to do the research needed to understand culture, genetics, and extraction of useful products from algae grown as an agricultural crop.

We need to better understand how communities of algae can be kept going for long periods of time, and to conserve the many species of algae that are endangered as global warming dries up the pond scum that nurtures these beings. Indeed there may be species living in some puddle that can produce pharmaceuticals, feed-stocks, biofuels, and sequester Co2 efficiently from the coal that we continue to burn in excess. We should make the basic science available to the public, and encourage the private firms that are experimenting with the technologies to publish more of their research.

When one of the start-up firms goes belly up, perhaps the government could purchase the research and make it available to the research community. It is important to learn from the failures as much as to publicize the successes. When we loose the story of the failures, so often the history is just going to be repeated elsewhere. Since failure of a start up may be a convolution of management failures along with scientific and technological failures, the gleaning of this knowledge is a research topic that demands a multidisciplinary case study if we are to learn useful lessons from the failures. Such research is properly conducted by University teams, and funded by government or foundations.

I hope that Stephan Chu as Energy Secretary will have the vision to fund the basic science needed to understand this ancient plant family better. While I can't predict where the research will lead, I know that growing a crop of new scientists and technicians who will build the intellectual commons where algae knowledge is a public resource is a good investment for our future.

Bruce Bagnoli

Climate warming drives sea level rise and that may trigger increased seismic and volcanic activity. As the weight on the continental margins shifts as sea level rises, we may begin to see responses from the earth that could include earthquakes.
A recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle explained how scientists have discovered that tides, and the gravitational tugs of the sun and moon can trigger small, long duration low magnitude seismic action deep in the earth along the San Andreas Fault in California.

San Andreas found extremely sensitive...by John Wildermuth


This activity is below the level that generates most of the earthquakes that we feel, but as it moves, it puts strain on the levels closer to the surface and may create the conditions for a larger quake. The research was reported here:

Tremor-tide correlations and near-lithostatic pore pressure on the deep San Andreas fault by Amanda M. Thomas, Robert M. Nadeau & Roland Bürgmann,Nature,Volume 462 Number 7276,page1048

I speculate that similar mechanisms may respond to the shift in the weight distribution as glaciers melt, ice sheets move, and sea level rises. Indeed the geological record has hints that this may have happened during earlier climate shifts. There is no way to predict the magnitude of the effects that will be experienced as a consequence of the redistribution of so much mass but the forces involved are huge and even slight shifts in the earth can have huge consequences for our society.

Increased volcanism could be beneficial as it can send clouds of gasses that provide short term cooling as happened when Mt. Pinatubo exploded a few decades ago. Of more concern is the increased seismic activity that may be triggered.

More research is needed, and funding for both deep earth science and modeling that would simulate the redistribution of mass as the climate warms could help us understand the changes in store as we experience the climate change already "in motion".

Kindness has a universal quality, a warmth made all the more important in it's rarity. It's a situational thing, a recognition of an opportunity, a conscious choice from an intuitive, emotional knowing rooted in shared values.

Kindness brings light to a darkness sometimes colored by despair, and a reward not sought. Kindness crosses species, and may be observed amongst "animals" as well as humans.

So practice systematic kindness and random acts of beauty!

In a short video available on Google Video, the Cambodian Norry railroad story is presented in an enjoying short video..

Bamboo Railway - Battambang, Cambodia

The story of how the Cambodian people could recycle pieces from the weapons of a genocidal war to fashion a working means of communication with the help of critical U.N. technical assistance in the form of gasoline engines shows how U.N operations can be effective with little cost. This railway operation benefits from the Cambodian ingenuity and cooperative values.

The very simple design of the rail car is economical in use of materials, only the basics beyond the gasoline engine. It's one use of gasoline where its an amazing and appropriate energy source. These engines are simple, rugged, and effective. The use of a stick on the axle as a brake is, perhaps, not enough safety for me however.

One wonders what they will do when the supply of abandoned battle tanks runs out that provide the wheels for the Norry. The absence of bumpers requires a certain fatalism from the passengers. Low speeds and the lack of rail traffic make this system practical.

Since the car must be taken off the tracks when a "REAL TRAIN" comes along or one Norry must pass the other, the design has parts that can be moved by at most two people, even one. Obviously the passengers are expected to help with taking the car on and off the tracks..... This limitation in the design is quite a challenge. The bamboo in the car platform deck is a locally grown resource and lightweight

I found this web video after following a link from a Facebook posting to a video by Gib Cooper where a Mexican master craftsman shows how to bend bamboo culms with heat. From there the YouTube suggestions with keyword bamboo had this video. I love railroads and bamboo, so I went there. What a gem!

The vision to create this informal rural rail system had huge and lasting beneficial impact on the lives of the survivors of the Khemer Rouge genocide. The U.N. is a vital part of our international community when it acts in this way. A catalyst and an enabler of the things that make life better.

My grandmother said that the hardest part of growing older was loosing friends. She lived to be 102, and by then, had lost all her friends though she still had our family. She passed away while my mother was in Europe with her husband, and I think that she had to go when Mom wasn't there. They were very close, and even though Grandmother lost some of her cognative powers as she aged, that love never faded.

For me, growing older has been good in some ways, as I'm married again, and happier than before. My values are more clear, as what's important comes through the noise as I age. Indeed Grandmother was right, friends are so important, and making new ones is both a pleasure and a challenge.

With my first wife, there was a time of closeness, family, learning and the shared dreams. The shared visions and values were corroded as fundamental incompatibilities in our core values came through, turning raw emotional sores into deep wounds.

My own immaturity was a factor in some dumb choices when I was young, but I did the best that I could and many of my choices were good. Now 60, my first wife died some 27 years after we divorced. She left me and precipitated a crises in my life, upending my story, in a painful episode that cauterized some aspects of me. It also caused me to seek counseling and to question many of my assumptions, and I changed in some important ways. Fortunately we were able to forgive each other before she passed away, and she was honest about some things that I suspected but never knew that happened during our marriage. She confirmed that my intuition was right, that my deepest self knew what I didn't want to know. She was able to grow and before she passed away, she was able to bring love to the forefront, and to give her daughter that unconditional love that is the gift that never dies.

So for me, living long enough to get some perspective on those painful events so long ago, to forgive and be forgiven, to learn and to understand has been a great gift. I learned about some of my unrealistic expectations and choices, and how some of my values and choices meant so much to those around me. That validation of who I am and my worth has been a comfort, and one that could only come with the perspective of time.

Even under the stress of loosing my marriage, I held to certain core values and personal decisions about how I would live my life. Those core values have been life saving, in ways that I never imagined. Indeed, it was only later that I learned that a slightly different choice could have been deadly for me, as I could have been exposed to disease that later killed her. Of course, her passing was the confluence of many things, and the lifelong alcoholism wasn't going to "work out". It's not a feeling of superiority that I'm talking about, rather the experience of amazing grace.

The grace that got me through those tough times and is with me today. The grace that got me through being with my dear partner Peggy when she passed away from cancer and the grace that lead me to open my heart again to my wife today. Amazing grace, thanks for the grace in my life! Thanks for this morning, for this breath. Thanks.

As the American Indians pray, "all life is sacred".

for all my relations,

thanks.

Combining the use of sophisticated room mapping laser scanner data models with acoustic sensors that report acoustic signals from many locations at the same time is an improvement that I thought of while discussing how to map room acoustics. There are existing systems that don't use computer room mapping and computer sensor geolocation but that use optical techniques to visualize room acoustic performance.

One application of the present system uses dozens of small sensor modules that read sound pressure and spectrum, reporting the data using led sensors, and viewed either directly or through a camera with a high scan rate.

What would be especially useful is to be able to have a direct data set of the generator waveform/spectrum as well as having access to processed waveform data from many discrete point in a room. If you are setting up for a concert, the sound sources can be balanced rapidly with existing equipment.

This additional improvement would allow designers to incorporate real world data, in models of how the space might be modified and how that modified space would perform. With this equipment, the first process is to made a digital model of the space, using the laser-scanner technology ( such as produced by Leica Geosystems) to measure the space and locate objects in the room). Then the sensors are activated, the sound source emits the test acoustic signal, the data is recorded both as a data packet, but also as a visual record.

From a design point of view, the proposed system provides both a mathematical model of the space, but since it knows the location of each sensor, the software can visualize the acoustic picture in a three dimensional way. as well as interacting with design software.

Once the model of the existing space is created ( perhaps using autocad) textures of the surfaces may be identified, then the designer can change dimensions or materials, and check performance using conventional modeling software.

The equipment can also display the patterns in real time, which can help in the tuning of a space as loudspeakers are aimed, baffels adjusted, mics placed, delays adjusted.

10-31-2009

Fast Ignition Fusion is being tested in several laboratories around the world this year and next. The main idea is to use lasers to spark a fusion burn, after the fuel is compressed by other means. While nature doesn't give up secrets easily, and there is much to learn, it's exciting that the field has such vitality.

Already there are potential spin offs, with the use of tiny laser accelerators to do heavy ion radiotherapy a very real possibility in the near future. Using lasers with very high intensity pulses, a beam of protons can be generated that only has a short range, but it could be used to treat cancers, and is potentially less expensive than the RFQ accelerators now used in hospitals.

The fast ignition fusion systems that are now contemplated may have a high enough repetition rate when combined with z-pinch technology to generate enough neutrons to extract energy from some of the nuclear waste that we now argue about where to store.

We could have a new generation of reactors that could extract power now locked up in spent reactor fuel. To do so takes an inexpensive source of an intense neutron flux. When generated by an inherently unstable source, it is easy to control the reaction as the fission process is driven by the more controllable fusion process.

This sort of reactor was invented by Carlos Rubbia (Nobel Prize Winning CERN physicist) in the context of an accelerator driven sub-critical device. Carlos pointed out that a useful reactor could use a small barrel of U233 or Thorium driven by an accelerator bean to produce useful amounts of energy. The same approach can substitute a fusion neutron source, possibly using fast ignition technology.

The present generation of lasers don't have a duty cycle that would be fast enough for a pure fusion power plant, but this approach could significantly relax the repetition rate requirement.

These hybrid reactors utilize a burst of neutrons to initiate fission, and the time scales are quite different. Fusion burns are short unless you contain them as in the sun, maybe on a time scale of 10e-10sec, while fission occurs on a time scale of pico seconds 10e-6sec, and fission doesn't happen at the same time to an ensemble of fissile atoms. So you could have a series of bursts of fission that would drive a more drawn out fission burn, and if controlled well, you could manage the fission power level to keep it at a manageable level. With enough neutron intensity, the present nuclear waste could be burned to a combination of isotopes that would be easier to manage.

Now I know that the idea of handling something labled as nuclear waste for power generation is a controversial subject, but the technology isn't all that far fetched and could be an environmental boon. While there will be scare mongers who object with knee-jerk predictability, thoughtful environmentalists will recognize that producing energy while addressing the legacy of the first generation nuclear power plants is smart, and can help address the climate warming due to fossil fuel use.

Research should be accelerated to investigate this technology in parallel with the fusion program. While this research isn't directly relevant to weapons, it is relevant to national security. Our security is enhanced when our energy production is combined in a reduction to the threat that storing large amounts of nuclear waste for generations now poses.

With the repository in Nevada effectively blocked, and billions spent on the unused repository in the southwest, a modest program to study a transmutation power reactor is a smart investment, one that the two U.S. National labs are well equipped to cary out. Some work is already underway at Lawrence Livermore and at Los Alamos, but the program is not focused, doesn't have clear leadership and isn't likely to produce a coherent message that can attract the sort of sponsorship needed to develop the concepts, engineering and technology needed to make hybrid reactors a reality soon.

Spirit of Place August 29 2009

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Submitted by bruce on Sat, 08/29/2009 - 10:12.

I'm working on a show that grows out of a performance of a dance at Stern Grove choreographed by Marin's Anna Halprin called "Spirit of Place" on May 3, 2009.  Lawrence Halprin designed the renovated theater. This performance explores the space that he created and honors his design.  We hope to air the shows starting in October 2009 on Marin Public Access cable Channel 26.

Five volunteers from the Community Media Center of Marin collaborated with two other videograpers to videotape the two performances.  The performance area was almost 100 yards wide and 50 yards deep, making the taping very challenging.  We used 4 camera's and were constantly challenged since this dance had many  activities going on simultaneously across the extraordinarily wide performance area.  Editing is also quite challenging. Anna Halprin is actively involved in the production process.

It's wonderful to be working on a production at the new media center with such creative and skilled people.

We also interviewed Anna Halprin about the development of the piece, and the "back story".  Lawrence ( a well known master Landscape Architect) also spoke with us about ideas incorporated in the design of the amphitheater.  He and Anna have been working and performing at Stern Grove since the early 1950's. It's a whole new place for performances since he redesigned it in 2003 and it was rebuilt in a 15 million dollar renovation of the park. This dance shows off the imported Chinese stone work and reminds of of the possibilities, of dimensions beyond the usual. 

Light rain kept the crowd to a minimum,  though it also made for a unique performance of the piece during the morning. We also taped an afternoon performance.  There were over 30 performers, many of whom have worked with Anna for years, some from her dance workshops, some local residents from the Stern Grove area.

 


For additional information on the Community Media Center of Marin you can check out their website: Marin.TV

California may have made a public statement about settling the budget, but the impacts of the decisions made are just starting to ripple through the state and it's obvious that the Governor and legislature took an ax to the "safety net".

We do foster care for some of the most innocent, vulnerable people in the state, the children displaced by family tragedy. The new state budget won't provide child care for these infants and kids, so working families who are willing to provide foster care are now asked to subsidize the state welfare system from their own pockets.

Many who provide foster care will not be able to continue to support this system, leaving many kids without good temporary homes when they are without their own families.

How can the Republicans justify this heartless attack on the most vulnerable? What political principals hold that our society should not care for our little kids who are homeless through no fault of their own. Some of these kids are traumatized, all are vulnerable. Some semblance of a system remains, but the guts are being cut out in the name of "no new taxes" or "tax cuts for the rich!".

There was rhetoric about how some people made money doing foster care, but in my experience knowing many foster care families, no one is getting rich off the system, most foster care families do so out of love for children, and most foster care providers were putting in more than they got out of the system. No doubt, as in any system, there may be some folks who game the system, but instead of addressing those few problems, the whole system was cut back. Our county also lost social workers, case loads increased, and expenses were shifted to private citizens and groups. It's the kids and the families who bear the immediate cost, but it is society that will ultimately feel the cost of kids who's needs were not met, kids who didn't get therapy, kids who grow up bitter and sad, kids who won't know compassion.

While this is the tiny area that I can see, it is clear that there are hundreds more examples of cuts that target the ill and infirm, the powerless.

Maybe it's a Republican value to change our society into the sort of third world place where the powerless are not even seen, where hopelessness and cruelty are taken for granted, where "justice for all" and basic human needs are available only for the rich and strong. For most of my life, it wasn't a party thing, we all believed that our society should provide basic human needs for the least amongst us.

Sad, but this is the reality here in California in August 2009.

Community service work is one element of my life that has grown larger as I've matured. I choose where to volunteer, and am more careful in where I give my energy. There are so many worthy groups, and I have so little time that is descretionary, I choose small tasks, small projects to avoid over commitment.

Some of the work that I've taken on aims to enable community video broadcasting, to give voices to folks who would otherwise be invisible. I've been working to bring this capacity to Marin, sometimes by individual action such as volunteering as a camera operator on a crew making a public access show about a local human treasure or a local issue. Other times it is supporting the Community Media Center of Marin, serving as a volunteer board chair, working with Marin Telecommunications Agency on Public Access issues, negotiating contracts and organizing the non-profit that now runs the local stations. Sometimes it's a solo project, something that I can do on my own initiative. Sometimes those projects become the seed for a project in another cycle.

Recently I took some photographs of a local event, the 2009 Planetary Dance at Santos Meadow, and posted a few on the web. I shared the images with some of the folks who participated, and a link went out to a group of folks. Out of the blue, I received an email from a person who I knew back in 1975 and hadn't seen for all these years. Nice complement on the photos, and a reminder of just how connected we are in this community. Our links are many times unknown until some serendipity releases a glimmer of light.

There were othe comments, and that was nice, a project "delivered", a promise kept.

When I made these photos, I knew that the group has some amazing people in it, some artists, some dancers, poets, drummers and musicians, singers and actors, writers, architects and crafts people, dabblers and masters, cooks and parents, children and grandparents, and many who are much more. It was a privilege to be able to take photos amongst folks who are comfortable with media, who embrace it and utilize it themselves, people who are comfortable enough with themselves ( for the most part) that a camera isn't a distraction from their focus on the performer or the audience. The performances were called "offerinigs" and indeed that was the spirit of the day.

Interesting to edit the photos, as I thought that I was taking a lot of pictures, but when I'm critical, there aren't that many good pictures. While shooting I'm working to get the best image every time, but I also know that with movement I must be both with the rhythm and anticipatory, and repeat often to ensure that I have made an image of the action at it's most expressive instant.

Still photos are by nature in tension with the fluidity that is the essence of dance, yet sometimes the still image captures something of the event that is evocative and true to the performance. This is what I seek when I make event photos.

The Nikon D300 is fast enough that I am regaining my sense of precisely how long it is between the time that I press the shutter release and the time that the image is recorded. This physical knowledge in my mindBody enables me to take thoughtful photographs rather than use the "hose" method of action photography. Even so, I need to make quite a few images to yield a few really outstanding images that convey what I envisioned, and what was going on with the subject.

Just a few years ago, digital camera's couldn't capture a good image fast enough and with a very predictable interval so for years I couldn't use the techniques that I'd developed shooting news and sports with my Nikon film cameras. You have to shoot thousands of images, working to make a good picture each time, before you have the proficiency to start to attend to another level of the art. It's a skill thing, enabled by hardware. It's a skill built by reviewing thoughtfully each image that I made, reflecting on what works, what I missed each time that I made an image.

It was fun this weekend to know that the ability to capture an image when I think/see that its the right moment is returning. I used two lenses, a 12-24mm zoom and the 18-200 VR lens. Some of my favorite images were made with the wide angle lens. I'm glad that I had both, there were even a few times when I wished that I had brought the 80-400mm VR lens along. The long lens is heavy, maybe 4 lbs, and I left it in the car. My mobility was very important.

Once back home, I transferred the images to a pc and used Adobe Lightroom to edit the days production. I selected a collection of about 112 images from over 425 that I made on Saturday. Each image was cropped, had it's histogram adjusted to ensure proper whites and blacks, then I adjusted the gamma curve on many of the images, adjusted saturation, applied sharpening. Next I dodged and burned some parts of images to deal with the excessive contrast outdoors.

Then I exported the non-destructively edited images to a web gallery using a Flash template. Next I wrote some minimal copy, and posted the 200mb+ ensemble to a web site. Sent out some links to folks after testing the web gallery to ensure that it "could work". This editing process took about 4 hours, at least.

It was important to complete the edit asap, to post the images before the glow of the event faded. This I did, and the process was very enjoyable.

It would have been even better to have collaborated with someone who could record and edit audio, as sound was an important element at the event. The stills are really abstract without sound, but they have a descriptive artistic power of their own.

Recently my 21+ year old cat friend Kiwi died, and while its hard for me to write, I want to share some of the lessons that came from the experiences at the end of her long life.

Kiwi had a change in her condition a few days before she passed, her circulatory system was failing, and even though her kidneys were ok, I noticed that she wasn't processing fluids properly. When I'd give her Ringers Lactate under the skin for hydration, it would pool in her legs instead of being absorbed in a few minutes. The vet said that her peripheral circulation was failing and he could hardly feel a pulse in her legs.

Sharon urged me to keep her at home unless she was really suffering. We considered "putting her down", and discussed it with the Vet, but she wasn't in pain and seemed to want to be with me. Even though it was hard for me, I took her home and decided to keep her comfortable.

Once she was home, she was wanting to be close to me, and I held her head in the palm of my hand, stroked her emaciated body, and comforted her. I took her outside and and put her on a bed that I'd brought on the table in the garden courtyard. She seemed to enjoy being in the sun, but after a while, it was too warm for her. I moved the table under the shade of the plum tree, and she was more comfortable.

It was time for her to get more fluids, so I hung the bag from a tree branch and inserted the needle under her skin of her back around the shoulders. I again held her head in the palm of my hand and stroked her flank as the life giving fluids flowed through the tubing into her body. She seemed weaker, but also enjoying this time in nature outside. After a while, it seemed as if she had enough, so I unplugged her and took her back inside.

She refused to eat, a change that signaled the beginning of her passing. She and I spent a lot of time together that Saturday, and I cried knowing that she wouldn't be with me for long. She was so weak, yet she responded to my touch. I was very glad that I brought her home, even though it was very difficult for me, it was also important to support this Kitty friend in her time of need.

The next morning, her breathing was labored, more or less like chen-stokes syndrome. I spent time with her, but had to go to the Community Media Center on my bike. Before I left I said good-by and told her that she could leave while I was on my errand. She wasn't responding to me, and her eyes seemed far away.

When I returned a couple hours later, she was gone.

Kiwi was such a loyal friend, and we had a great last few months together. Early this year she rallied, started getting up before me, going down the hall on her own to the kitchen to wait for me to get up and make coffee. She would hang out with our other two cats, Snowy and Carol. She'd bray for me when she wanted me to do something for her, like carry her back to her warm cat bed with the warm pad. She'd eat crunchies from Snowy's bowl even though she only had about three teeth left, pushing him aside to get a few bites. Carol snuggled with her most mornings, cleaning her head and sleeping with Kiwi on the warm pad.

I spent more time with her, took her outside more, and had her stay with me on the couch in the living room when Sharon and I settled in after dinner. Kiwi took quite a bit of maintenance, as I had to provide fresh towels ( she had some incontenance), give her fluids twice a day, and Lactulose stool softener. I gave her this care for over three years, every day. The cost wasn't insignificant, and she had to visit the vet a few times each year.

In some way, I felt joy at being able to provide the support that kept her going while she had the spirit and the will to be with me. She had been there as my cat friend through many difficult times, through the good times as well. All her life she was really good about comming when I called, and even though Alex and Alicia Star were my favorites, she would waddle along like the nerd kitty when we went walking along the railroad track.

Kiwi was there when my partner left way back in 1989, she was there during my difficult times in the early 1990's, and again when I lost my job in 1995, when my dear love Peggy died in 2001, and Kiwi stayed as my lap cat until her kidneys started failing in 2006. I thought it unlikely that giving her fluids would do more than make her passing easier, but she responded strongly to that early supportive therapy and made it though her crisis. Her willingness to endure the twice daily fluids under the skin with a needle made it possible to give her fluids without a struggle, and contributed to our success at supporting her health.

We had outstanding vet care, mostly from Dr. Bill Estheimer at East San Rafael Animal Hospital. Bill was willing to work with me with this old cat, and patiently taught me how to improve my techniques in giving fluids, injectons, etc. Dr. Estheimer and Dr. Michelle Rose helped Kiwi when she became blocked, and helped me to find a special diet that worked for a cat with megacolon disease.

Since I know that I did everything that I could for her, and that she appreciated her life and being part of the Skolnick-Bagnoli family, when she passed it was easier for me than when I've lost other cats. I had accepted that she would pass when she was ready for months, maybe even years. I was grateful for the time with her, but recognized that her time was at hand when she stopped eating and her circulatory system began to collapse.

Thanks Kiwi, you were a great friend and teacher!

A friend once said "White man make big fire, sit far away, Indian make small fire, sit close."
This phrase offers a wise observation from a culture that lived at least 10,000 years here in North America without devastating the ecology. A people who didn't talk about sustainability, but who were all about it.

Some supposedly "advanced" folks liked to talk down about "savages", but it now appears that they were advanced in some important ways. Some would argue that they didn't have the capacity to alter the planet, others observe that they thrived and lived in a sort of harmony with nature.

Our civilization may alter the climate in such a way that we loose a third or half of the species on the planet. If so it would be one of the worst mass extinction event in the future history of the planet. I've wondered what it would look like if we were 10,000 years in the future? With an asteroid, we can find an impact crater perhaps if it caused a geophysical event, but with CO2 driven climate change, it's a more subtle signal if viewed from a distant planet. A sad change, and one that we can yet mitigate.

Hopefully we will learn from the ways of the native Americans, from our farmers, foresters and ecologists, scientists and our best minds. Can we learn to live with our nature as the treasure that it is? Can our society learn to respect, protect, and conserve the wild spaces,? It is the diversity of life and the large habitat areas that are the most precious legacy we could give to future generations.

Sometimes it is so easy to help a species through the narrow point as they face extinction, and yet so difficult to get folks to support these efforts. Extinction is different from individual death of course, and it's so unnecessary to allow entire lines of evolution to stop just because some greedy fool wants a blip of profit, just because the values don't yet account for the environment, and our economic system hasn't figured out how to work effectively in the new ways that are necessary to adapt our society to the realities becoming apparent in global climate change.

With Perigrine Falcons, a small amount of money, some dedicated scientists and caring people, good luck, and they are now populating California again in sustainable numbers. This small triumph shows how we can make a difference, yet it is a fragile triumph as the species will need continued stewardship as the climate shifts and habitat is threatened.

I suspect that as the climate heating raises the ocean levels and unloads the glacier weight, the crust of the earth and the tectonic plates may flex a tiny bit, but make big news in the process. It seems to me that the distribution of weight on the plate boundaries (margins in some cases) may allow some things like large earthquakes and increased volcanic activity.

On the good side, volcanic activity can cool things, unfortunately we may be fooling with a system prone to catastrophic transitions to other parts of the dynamic map. Some "tipping points" appear within the horizon, a wake up call, an opportunity to conserve the heritage that we enjoy for future generations.

Climate Change and Nuclear Waste: Solve both with one stroke!

A new perspective on nuclear power is long overdue in the environmental movement and James Hansen's recent talk at U.C. Berkeley points the way ( see video of his presentation here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4ctTxZHosI). The urgency of developing a new energy infrastructure to replace the coal and oil based technology is understood, how to do it is the open question.

What most folks don't know today is that the current generation of nuclear power generation plants don't efficiently burn the nuclear fuel, and they depend on a continuous supply of new Uranium. The main reason that they only extract a tiny fraction of the available energy from the fuel is concerns over proliferation and technical limits that are intrinsic to the first three generations of nuclear plants. Current plants generate what is labeled as "waste" but it's really a resource that can power the planet for the next 1000 years, enough to heal the earth from the blast of heat we are just beginning to experience from the burning of fossil fuel.

With the current nuclear power systems, we must store the waste for 24000 years or more and are committed to something that just isn't realistic. The current systems produce waste that has long decay times and it's been known for a long time though not discussed in public very much that the storage of nuclear waste for the long term isn't likely to be a viable solution. The more practical solution is to transmute the waste into a less harmful and shorter lived form, extracting the energy locked up in the process. We have enough waste now to provide power for our civilization for 1000 years-long enough for the excess CO2 to come out of the atmosphere.

The key to extracting the energy from what we now call nuclear waste is the development of subcritical fast neutron reactors such as the systems proposed by the Nobel laureate Carlos Rubbia ( see for example: http://blogs.nature.com/climatefeedback/2008/07/nobelists_talk_energy.html or a more technical talk : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHs2Ugxo7-8) or the more recent Lawrence Livermore proposal with the market ready acronym of "LIFE" : https://lasers.llnl.gov/missions/energy_for_the_future/life/how_life_works.php)

We will need to invest in the Research and Development that will make practical the recycling of our present harvest of nuclear "waste" and the recent impasse on the construction of a nuclear waste respository gives us an opening to rationalize our policy, and to solve one of humanities biggest challenges.

The use of the new generation of fast neutron sources growing out of the laser fusion and the z-pinch fusion programs makes it possible to both extract useful energy from the waste that we now store at each nuclear power station, and to reduce the volume of the waste that will need long term storage and to do so in a proliferation resistent way.

Our current generation of environmental activists are repeating slogans, and not grappling with the scientific realities, stuck in an old paridigm that obscures the real potential of this avenue to restore the viability of human civilization without giving up the precious aspects of our society and to get back to living in harmony with the natural world.

We can develop energy sources that reduce the potential for toxic pollution now present in every nuclear station through reprocessing of the waste, and it's important to do so before the thousands of tons of waste now stored deteriorates and poisons the environment and the possiblity of making use of this precious energy source.

The US and the world scientific community should immediately launch a project to develop the family of reactors that we know are possible. Several tracks are necessary including laser and z pinch fusion neutron sources, Thorium energy amplifiers, liquid flouride fast reactors, and the engineering studies and test facilities that can bring this technology to the point where we can build thousands of modular power stations within the next 30 years.

I think that with leadership from the Obama administration, and a clear vision from the scientific community combined with public education we can do this!