Shamus' Time Capsule thought experiment

Image via Wikipedia

Shamus Young at Twenty-Sided posed an interesting hypothetical question this week: What would you include in a time capsule for recovery 200 years later if you saw an unavoidable disaster about to destroy human civilizations? I've included the first paragraph below, but its worth visiting his site to see the rest of the rules and guidelines.

	Time Capsule
	Posted by Shamus on May 21st, 2009
	Previous in Random Thoughts: Timetravel: What to Take? Civilization is about to undergo some calamity. You can see it coming, but you can’t avert it. (Perhaps it’s unavoidable.) Sometime before the end of this century, civilization is going to be blasted back to the stone age, but projections suggest that things will calm down again in 100-200 years. During that time it’s expected that humans will lose nearly everything, technology-wise. We’ll be back to spears and animal skins.

Anyone who has read the Mote in Gods Eye, an excellent Science Fiction novel, has already encountered at least one author's approach. Dedicated museums housing technologies (mainly weapons as I recall) to "jump start" the finders technological and conquest abilities.

The rules in Shamus' challenge don't allow for such elaborate facilities or the inclusion of any large technologies, space being limited to a 1 cubic meter volume, however mass is of no concern in this case. Interestingly, many people were attempting to include information in various ways to perform a similar jumpstart of technologies. Many are trying to figure out ways to provide electricity or electric devices to provide interactive media, or ways of storing books. Some have thought of the very Asimov Foundation Series approach of limited access to layers of the repository that require unlocking and achieving a certain piece of information to presumably have reached a technological maturity to handle the decoding and understanding of the next layer. Most writers seem to be focused on giving the inheritors of the earth a technological leg up, either with help knowledge of agriculture, medicine, and advanced sciences, or even attempting to include the as much of the body of knowledge of human society as possible, frequently in some digital/electronic form. Admirable as these are, my thoughts diverge quite significantly. To quote one of my favorite science fiction series, answering a slightly different question, but essentially what is probably the most interesting aspect of the thought experiment to hand, what do we want to be remembered for when we are gone:

"Ask ten different scientists about the environment, population control, genetics and you'll get ten different answers, but there's one thing every scientist on the planet agrees on. Whether it happens in a hundred years or a thousand years or a million years, eventually our Sun will grow cold and go out. When that happens, it won't just take us. It'll take Marilyn Monroe and Lao-Tzu, Einstein, Morobuto, Buddy Holly, Aristophanes .. and all of this .. all of this was for nothing unless we go to the stars."

--Commander Jeffrey Sinclair, Babylon 5--

In my opinion, what we want to communicate about ourselves should reflect what we, as a species want others to know about us, and also what we've decided to be the truth about ourselves. Since it is unclear what the source or cause of the calamity in this scenario is, the cautious skeptic in me half assumes that humans themselves are to blame. I see no reason that future humans should be asked or channeled into making the same choices (let historians and future anthropologists determine which are mistakes) that have been made up to now.

The contents I would choose capsule would simply be a history of every civilization for which one can be provided, translated into as many languages as possible, printed onto something akin to Tyvek sheets and collected in bound volumes. Maps of the world to accompany the texts would be important.

I would also include a series of graphical or comic style books that cover the same material, though at a much less detailed level. I would also include texts on art from all corners of the world and examples of the same. My goal is to include as little as possible of a technical nature, no details of science, chemistry, technology. My theory being that providing such information would create a "shoulder of giants" situation, where they've inherited technologies without the moral frameworks or understanding to realize their implications. It is naive to assume that whatever tribe discovers the capsule will share the findings with any other, also thereby possibly setting up one tribe/clan/culture to dominate others by having a technical head start on everyone else.

The Tyvek is difficult to tear or rip, and durable against abrasion, though of course, it isn't indestructible. Include a bunch of blank copies of this material for it to be played and experimented with so that the discovers can learn the limitations of the material without destroying the collected works on first discovery. (Hey Xingoran, Who cares what this strange symbols on here is, it makes a great lining for a bowl to hold liquids and roofing material!)

I'd rather that civilizations arise in new and wondrous arrangements, based on the needs and proclivities of the people who survive, creating human civ 2.0, rather than Human Civ 1.5. As is probably in evidence, my preference is to leave well enough alone and simply preserve as much of the knowledge of who humans were, rather than what we had built and learned.

Print Less!

Ever printed out something and had the last page be essentially useless. The most common example I can think of is printing out a Google maps direction sheet. They always seem to be 2 pages with nothing but logos and URLs on page 2. My other favorite is large PDF manuals that have a page labeled 'This page intentionally left blank'. How useful.

Enter GreenPrint, a piece of software that analyzes what is being printed and automatically eliminates those blank pages so you don't have to remember to only print page 1 of your directions. GreenPrint has just released a free version of their software for home use called GreenPrint World. It offers the ability to create PDF files, the page removal feature as well as a money saving feature based on the number of pages that aren't printed.

Personally, I won't get use from this since I only print out about four pieces of paper a month, but for those of you who work with printouts a lot, this might help you reduce paper and ink usage with minimal fuss.

If you are using an inkjet printer, don't forget to set the print output to"draft" mode. This will save you ink and therefore money on ink cartridge refills. Don't forget to recycle those empty ink cartridges. Free recycling mailers tend to be available in many post offices as well as in all Best Buy stores.

Visually Interesting, Air Cleaning Building

The building pictured here is designed to reduce smog. It surface is composed of solar PV panels and Titanium Dioxide. This metal reacts in combination with UV to break down some air pollution, essentially acting as a giant catalytic converter. More photos can be found on Inhabitat.

The building's small "Solar Drop" is located over unused railroad tracks and in addition to its anti-smog and energy generation collects rainwater through rooftop greenspaces. The adjoining "Wind Tower" contains a vertical axis wind turbines to generate additional electricity as well as containing greenspace.

The intended function of the building is musuem for urban sustainability and a space for teaching urban ecology.

Reading Roundup: Jan. 19

Reading Roundup is a regular feature of WebEchoes. It exists to limit the number of "read this" posts with minimal commentary on my part.

Pictures from the End of the World, by Amado Becquer Casaballe : TreeHugger
Photos from Antarctica.

Breaking News: MMS Releases Favorable Report on Cape Wind : Sustainablog
Good news for the Cape Wind project. Perhaps within a year they can actually do something. Assuming that someone doesn't scuttle the project in some other phase.

Small-Scale CO2 Capture Plumps Up Vink's Peppers : TreeHugger
Interesting innovation and way to use CO2 in a useful way. Did that say 'per hour' for the wood burning rate?

The Key Ideas Behind Sky Trust » Celsias
Rounding out the emissions cap and trade with a summary of the SkyTrust and similar proposals for creating a Non-Government emissions management organization and how to use the proceeds from emissions credits/taxes.

Monsanto's latest court triumph cloaks massive market power | Grist | Victual Reality
More on Monsanto and the seed and fertilizer/herbicide business. Mostly, how much of food production is controlled by the companies selling the seeds.

Compact Stellarator: Fusion reactors that produce star-like power (Triple Pundit)
Nuclear Fusion Reactor demonstration project being built. Decades away, but apparently possible, at least in theory. Of course, nothing comes free...what are the side effects, down sides and dangers. (eg: if it generates 1000MW, does it take 900 to power the magnets?)

Tuesday Review: Solar Future

Solar Future, Scientific American, January 2008.

I'm cheating for the review this week. I've been delayed getting the next book read, so instead, I'll be reviewing something that has been covered elsewhere before. The Scientific American article in the January 2008 issue on powering the US on solar.

The short coming with the plan presented, I believe is that it focuses entirely on a single source of fuel. While there certainly is enough solar energy falling on a relatively small surface area to provide electricity,even at current efficiency rates, it seems short sighted to rely so exclusively on just one source when there are so many available. They also focus almost exclusively on centralized generating facilities, focusing not at all on more localized options such as rooftop systems to supplement grid power.

As the authors of the report included discuss, there are still some technological limits with solar. Particularly with providing electricity overnight and during extended overcast periods. While they do suggest the use of both solar thermal plants, the claim is that such plants need to be improved from current 7-hour running without solar input to 16 hours.

An additional proposal is the use of compressed air stored underground in conjunction with natural gas generation to allow unneeded electricity to be stored and used as later. This similar to the German system that uses pumps to move water between a lower and upper reservoir to allow on demand generation using hydroelectric turbines.

What is well taken in the plan is the need for a massive infrastructure upgrade to more easily enable long distance distribution without the associated losses of AC transmission. From the 109,000 miles of proposed DC transmission capability, it would appear that the authors envision a new and extensive distribution network to feed local AC grids.

The cover states "could free the U.S. from foreign oil," which isn't covered in detail to discuss the massive change in automobile's that would need to take place in order to achieve that. The plan presented is also lacking in implementation specifics in terms of policies that would speed the development and spending on this rather modestly priced 420-billion over 36 years project.

The article succeeds as a technology review of current photovoltaic, solar thermal and compressed air state of the art, but assumes that more development is still necessary to provide the vision outlined.

The Continuing emissions trading discussion

Continuing the discussion I referenced here and here, Kevin Smith has written a response for Celsias arguing against a trading scheme. His argument is principally refuting the example of the UE ETS cited in the earlier piece by Shayle Kann. All of his arguments are against the systemic and implementation flaws of the system and don't necessarily apply generally to the case of emissions trading.

According to his argument, the EU ETS isn't working because companies aren't being required to do anything. The caps are too high, carbon certificates have up to now been free, and options exist for investing elsewhere. All of this points out structural problems with the system as implemented and need to be applied to making a system work. I don't think even those in favor of emissions trading would agree with the problems Smith points out. (as the first commenter points out).

The point that the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) gives a way out for companies in the scheme to choose to do nothing substantial towards reduction of emissions is well taken. Even if these methods are used, they must be held accountable that the emissions really have been reduced. Economic development, while admirable, isn't the goal of an emissions trading scheme. While it is admirable and desirable for less-developed nations to get access to funds and technologies that pollute less than the ones that are more easily available, it shouldn't be used as a sop for taking action. It seems that he eventually equates this trading of credits between industrial nation polluters and non-industrial nations to be the entire "point of the system is to provide opportunities for Northern
companies to delay making the costly transition to low-carbon
technologies."

He concludes on this note:

Waiting yet more years to learn further lessons from the next round of
ineffective emissions trading is a luxury we don’t have. However
politically unfashionable it may be, and however inimical it is to the
business community, there is an urgent need to return to the tried and
tested means that do deliver real results in terms of emissions
reductions, such as stricter regulation, oversight and penalties for
polluters on community, local, national and international levels, as
well as support for communities adversely impacted by climate change.

And certainly, straight up and up emissions regulations without a trading scheme could be deployed. And perhaps such a simple policy implementation is desirable. However, it will still incur costs or quite possibly put emitters out of business if they cannot keep up with lower regulations. And given the grand success at increasing CAFE standards over the last few years, is it really likely that regulation isn't going to be gamed any more than a market system that allows those with inexpensive emissions solutions to help those with less flexibility?

Reading Roundup: Jan. 8

Reading Roundup is a regular feature of WebEchoes. It exists to limit the number of "read this" posts with minimal commentary on my part.

A long edition this time around read more through the continue link.

PolyWhey™ Floor and Furniture Coatings From Vermont : TreeHugger
A company in Vermont has developed a floor and furniture coating (clear) that uses waste from cheese making to make a low-VOC, non-hazardous product. They also use recycled and recyclable (plastic #5) packaging.

The Associated Press: New Energy Uses for Asphalt
Using road ways as a means of heating water for later use in heating and road clearing in the Netherlands. Given the amount of road surface out there, there's probably a lot of it that would be practical for this sort of treatment.

WorldChanging: Stablization and Peak Targets: Understanding CO2 Numbers
A nice short explanation of sustainable and peak CO2 atmospheric measurements.

Scientific American’s Solar Grand Plan : Sustainablog
Powering the US on abundant solar energy is a suggestion published in the January 2008 Scientific American, as reviewed by Sustainablog. I'll be finding this edition and reading with interest.

U.S. miscalculates threat of global warming | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist
Impact of sea-level rise on the US not being given much attention. Granted, 1 meter isn't "predicted" this century, but then, it isn't understood how quickly the glaciers and polar ice caps are melting and raising ocean level.

FAQ: Carbon Capture & Sequestration « Earth2Tech
Summary of the CCS technologies and investors currently at work, primarily in the coal fired electric generation industry.

Fighting False Solutions Interview: Kevin Smith & Jutta Kill » Celsias
"You need to replant an area roughly the size of Belgium to offset the emissions from tourism related travel every year and keep those trees for decades, if not centuries. So there is an issue of where to plant these trees if we ever decide to try this"

Waterworld
I was beginning to despair of finding a cool photograph for this edition of Reading Roundup. Found via WorldChanging.

Smarter Power Bricks (wall warts)

Earth2Tech has a feature on the company Green Plug, a company advocating and selling a system for making smarter, interchangeable wall chargers. As anyone who has purchased a cell phone in the last few years can probably identify, “Why is it every time I get new phone…the old power supply
doesn’t work? Why do I have to throw away perfectly working
cables?” says Paul Panepinto, Green Plug Senior VP.

The solution and technology that Green Plug is advocating is a free protocol for devices to communicate their power needs which will then communicate with a chip that can be embedded in the power supplies of devices to ensure that the power supply only provides the power the device needs when the device needs it. Green Plugs vision would be for their power supplies to be universal, such that when you purchase a new device, it wouldn't need to include a power supply, as the previous supply would still work. And thinking further, for rechargeable devices, not every one of them would need a power supply, as they might not all need to be charged simultaneously.

Reading Roundup: Jan. 1

Reading Roundup is a regular feature of WebEchoes. It exists to limit the number of "read this" posts with minimal commentary on my part.

APOD: 2007 December 22 - Tyrrhenian Sea and Solstice Sky
I seem to be developing a habit of including a photo or set of photos in the reading roundup, so to continue the tradition, sunrise to sunset time lapse taken on the day of the Winter Solstice in 2005.

Builder reduces its carbon footprint: Pays Off (Triple Pundit)
Deltec Homes, manufacturer of prefabricated round homes, is switching to 100% renewable energy resources and is the the largest private generator of solar power in North Carolina. I've seen a television program once watching the assembly of one of these homes, very cool system, and glad to read about their commitment to reducing waste and renewable energy use.

The Associated Press: 'Drilling Up' Into Space for Energy
US Department of Defense and the Pacific island nation Palau in a joint project to collect solar energy on an orbiting satellite and send it to an an ground station using microwaves. Project to generate 1MW and be deployed by 2012. Explore all avenues, but this one sounds like it may not become very widespread to me.

Got a Supercomputer? Run It By Bicycle! : TreeHugger
Modeling fusion reactions on human power. Too bad I didn't scoop this one, I was talking with a gentleman at MIT the day after it happened.

Tuesday Review: The Clean Tech Revolution

A standing feature of Webechoes is the Tuesday Review. This feature will review a book, video, television series or episode or other lengthy work of interest. [Apologies for the delay, no internet access on Christmas Day]

The Clean Tech Revolution: The Next Big Growth and Investment Opportunity by Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder.

The book's purpose is to serve as an overview of growing clean technologies industries and companies. The technologies and companies that are presented are considered to be up and coming and likely candidates for investment. In so doing the book gives a snapshot of the state of development of many technologies for reducing energy usage, generating electricity more cleanly, altering personal transportation, and several others.

Each chapter examines a technology sector for chapters two through eight. Included in each is a focus on the companies that have traditionally been working in that field, as well as new comers who have secured financing. The technology groupings used are Solar Energy, Wind Power, Biofuels and Biomaterials, Green Buildings, Personal Transportation, Smart Grid, Mobile Technologies, and Water Filtration. Unfortunately, since its a book with a fixed set of information, the volume will quickly be outdated as new innovations are made and new companies emerge.

The final two chapters do not examine any technologies. Chapter nine covers the incentives and tools that have been used to create clean tech magnets and examines the cities that have become centers for clean tech development. The final chapter contains advice on how to market clean technology. This is Marketing 101 and in the author's estimation, necessary, given the failures of the industry to successfully mass market their products and services. The biggest points here are to price the product correctly to not be seen as luxury or niche and don't sell focused on the cleanness of the product. To achieve mass market appeal, the product has to stand as as good or better than its rival products with its cleanness a secondary facet.

This book is a valuable read for anyone who wants to see what the current state of development of various potentially breakthrough technologies. It is easy to bypass the investment and technology development advice angle of the book. The authors chose to separate their recommendations into boxes separate from the text of the chapters. The end of every chapter is a 10 to watch, summary of the companies they feel are most relevant or most likely to make a big impact in their space.

Most chapters also contain one or more "Breakthrough Opportunity" box. These summarize what the authors feel is the breakthrough most needed to significantly alter the market for the products. For example, for solar energy, the breakthrough the authors see as making the difference is the creation of a solar system that costs less than $2/watt of installed capacity, and therefore installed cost to a homeowner near $5000 for a 2.5kW home system.

Lastly, each chapter has a "Clean Tech Consumer" box just before the 10 to watch list. Each of these contains two items that should be practical now or products that are now available. They range from using more energy efficient products, purchasing high-ethanol fuels, going to a tankless water heater, and installing a home wind generator.

Reading Roundup: Dec 19th.

To limit the amount of "read this" posting with little commentary on my part, a new recurring feature will be the Reading Roundup. Generally this will contain a list of links and a brief explanation of the post and why I think it is valuable to read.


Top 5 Reasons Why the Mortgage Crisis = Global Warming | SolveClimate.com
This post takes the stance that the mortgage crisis and global warming crisis are caused by the same phenomenon - Desire to increase wealth and maintain power at the expense of a wider population (tragedy of the commons scenario(wikipedia)).

Sizing up China’s Climate Change Efforts » Celsias
For all those saying that the US shouldn't take any steps if China and India don't agree, here's a synthesis of some of the steps China is taking to take on emissions. I particularly think that #5 is of great import as their auto market is still developing and can be shaped early by regulation.

PG&E: “Wave Is the New Wind” « Earth2Tech
Pacific Gas and Electric in California is in the news again, this time for signing a power purchase agreement from wave generation. They've already signed deals for solar thermal and other alternative energy generation. Perhaps wave generator won't trigger the "they're ugly" NIMBY response that wind mills get.

Green Car Congress: Fuel Cell Powertrain in the Honda FCX Clarity Is Significant Advancement over Predecessors
A nice article explaining advances made by Honda in hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles and an explanation of how the technology works. Doesn't address the issues with Hydrogen as a energy source/storage. (expensive /inefficient electrosis, or use of natural gas to release hydrogen and carbon monoxide)

Biomimicry: HVAC Inspired by Termites
I remember a trip to Australia a few years ago and the tour guide taking us past some very large (10+feet tall) termite mounds. The big takeaway from that experience is that the structure was designed to absorb and radiate heat, essentially having heat sinks jutting out of it to aid with thermal dissipation.

AOL Visions - Natures Best Photography 2007 Award Winners - AOL Pictures
Just pretty pictures.

regulation drives innovation?

New article on Earth2Tech points out the newly created Clean Energy Patent Growth Index being published by Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C.

While the graph of patents in clean energy for 2002 to 2007 doesn't specifically apply to regulation driving innovation, post author Alexis Madrigal has a subsequent graph of the patents after passage of the Clean Air Act in 1963 and amendment in 1970. I'd be interested to see the patent application numbers following 1995. Is there a fall off in patent applications, presumably as the intellectual space is saturated or all of the "obvious" ideas are registered?

Waste Heat and how to use it

I've written previously about the need to find better ways to convert heat directly into electricity. And if I didn't write about it, I meant to, and certainly thought it.

I was thinking small, I never even considered waste heat going up stacks associated with manufacturing processes. It makes perfect sense that generally speaking, there are many industries that require high heat for their processes, and that heat has to be vented at some point. Industrial processes aren't closed systems in many cases, heat is being vented to the atmosphere in steel plants, coffee roasters, cement factories, all manner of kilns, and who knows where else.

Thanks to Erik Hoffner writing on Grist, I am now aware of a company that is seeking to use that waste heat to generate electricity. Recycled Energy Development, based in Chicago is covered in this article in Orion magazine referenced in the Grist piece.

The exchange of comments on the page is also worth reading, expanding on the base article very well and providing more details. Assuming that this is as deployable as they believe, even at 9%, as stated by user apsmith in the comments is a significant contribution to the total energy generation of the US. Sean Casten of Recycled Energy Development repeatedly states that the biggest obstacle to this in many cases is the regulatory structure associated with electric generation.

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Amusing and Serious campaign to support the fuel efficiency standards

David Roberts posted an image from PewFuelEfficiency.org from their ad campaign in support of the proposed new CAFE legislation in the current energy bill.

I can't find the image on PewFuelEfficiency.org right now, but they do have a few others available:

Why are these men smiling (pdf)
Can't be done (pdf)

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Disingenuous Comparisons

I find this post by David Roberts, whom I normally enjoy, to be disingenuous, as is the graphic upon which he is commenting.

Money spent on the war, while I agree is a frightening large amount that could be better used in other ways, is not directly comparable to the money spent on R&D in any field or even the whole of all R&D. There is only so much money that can be absorbed into research organizations and be used in a meaningful way. The goals of the spending are at odds with one another, the war spending is paying salaries, for tangible goods, services and a host of other things, the goals of research is to refine ideas to the point that a product can be brought to market that is economically feasible, and part of the feasibility is the cost of the research itself.

I haven't read the source document to determine the authors position, but Solar Power Rocks, who Mr. Roberts links to, points out at least one way in which the money could have been spent otherwise: using existing technology to build non-fossil fuel electric generation facilities. Better yet would be to not go into even deeper debt as a country, but I'm not an economist and have no idea what the impact of more debt is really on the US and global economies.

They're of course dodging the issue, or assuming that the logical next step for Iraq is to pull out and spend almost nothing. A fine reward to that country for our leaders deciding to impose someone's interpretation of how the world should look and breaking it. Not that I have any idea that what we're doing now is better, just doesn't seem right to leave them to their own devices when its our countries fault that they're where they are now.

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A sweet new light bulb

It reads almost too good to be true. A light bulb with less mercury than the CFLs currently being touted and pushed as well as dimmable, instant on and able to operate in a wide temperature range, and 4 times the life span of a CFL. Oh, and at approximately the same initial cost and operating cost as a CFL. Welcome CCFLs (Cold Cathode Florescent Light) to the efficient lighting products to consider.

I'd been holding off on CFL's in many of my primary uses for two reasons. I'm not comfortable with the which product is going to give me the quality of light to not feel like the horrible bulbs used in so many hotels. Secondly, a lot of my light fixtures have dimmers or multi-way switches. Oh, and it is claimed that CFLs operate better in a bulb-down orientation, which doesn't work with most floor/up lights, which I find provide a better light distribution and reduced glare.

I think I'll be trying a couple of these out in my overhead (yick) fixtures and in the non-task lighting lamps. More information on the bulbs at Better Bulbs. They are currently only offering a 13-watt (60-watt equivalent) bulb, with an 18-watt (75-watt equivalent) promised.

According to Treehugger, the color temperature on the CCFLs is 2700K, which sounds reasonably low, and some quick research shows that 100-watt incandescents light output in the 2800s. This makes it seem like these would make reasonable indoor replacement bulbs. However, because fluorescents only emit a single color light, they don't directly have a color temperature. In this case, the bulb should appear to have a yellowish shade, not a pure white, which would make it a more pleasant light for most uses. Assuming that CCFLs otherwise follow the same rules as other fluorescents, the 2700K is an estimate because of the reduced spectrum different from similarly rated incandescent with its more complete spectrum. See Wikipedia for more details on color temperature and incandescent versus fluorescents.

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Power from the Wind

Encountered two articles on TreeHugger covering two very different aspects of electric generation from wind power. The first is a technological improvement being introduced in China to reduce the friction associated with a wind turbine through the use of magnets. Seems they are using maglev principles with a permanent magnet versus an electro magnet. This could be a really interesting development, as I suspect this would help to reduce the energy consumed during wind generation, or fed to a wind farm in off peak to keep the turbine running.

The second describes a press release made available from WindTerra for a residential wind turbine now approved for use in California. The system looks to cost about 1/3 that of a solar installation based on the info quoted from the press release. Output is claimed to be over 1600 kwH at an average windspeed of 11.18 mph, though power generation begins at 10.8 mph. It is designed to be a low RPM system to reduce noise and vibration to its host structure as well. Depending on the source, it would appear that the average household annual electricity usage is 8600+ kwH (or around 1kwH/day). At an installed cost of over $7000, it is a better deal than PV, and if combined with a battery system and aggressive energy saving techniques, this could be an interesting addition to homes, but what about installing a small grid of these on a building to offset the occupants electricity?

On the other side of the wind power coin is the National Wind Watch, whose purpose is to point out the negatives and ills of using wind energy. According to their flier, windmills are a "harmful boondoggle". They achieve their "rated" outputs about 1/3 of the time, are unsightly for a number of reasons, potentially dangerous, disturb nature during their construction and operation, and in some cases draw power off the grid instead of contributing. An organization opposed to developing wind power isn't unique, but does claim to not be the mouthpiece of any lobby, but rather a network of concerned individuals. On the upshot, they seem to do a pretty good job of monitoring the media for news related to wind projects, culling local newspapers as well as national and international sources. They're on my watchlist to keep appraised of local developments in Rhode Island.

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