May 13, 2014

hard not to sound like 'chicken little' but the cure will happen by economics eventually

I don't know that anyone really can separate out what's caused by normal climate swings and our man-made pollution - though I admit it's really hard to pretend that our impact is not screwing up things. But it is possible today to see that non-polluting power generation from solar, wind, tides and geothermal are almost to the point that they will be economically superior compared to oil, coal and nuclear - even if you forget about the advantages from getting rid of the pollution. All that's needed is a little more time and the game changing will occur automatically. Fossil fuels while they are still there for the taking are becoming much more expensive as time goes on. Think of how far wind and solar power have come in the last 30 years in terms of cents per watt - and it still has a lot of room to get even better economically. Think ahead and we should see the same things happen to batteries to store the power when the sun isn't shinning or the wind isn't blowing or to run your car instead of gasoline. We could however speed up the arrival of this better future by pouring some more money into R&D along with some subsidies to get things rolling.

February 5, 2014

Here's the commercial I remember

Back in 1968 the actor William Talman who played the lawyer who lost every case to Perry Mason, got lung cancer from smoking in real life. Six weeks before he died he made an anti-smoking spot for TV. Here it is on you-tube....he was only 53. If that didn't cause people to stop smoking I don't know what can.

Here's the wikipedia entry about that:

Talman is also known for being the first actor in Hollywood to film an anti-smoking commercial for the American Cancer Society. A lifelong heavy smoker, he was diagnosed with lung cancer, and knew he was dying when he filmed the commercial. The short film began with the words, "Before I die, I want to do what I can to leave a world free of cancer for my six children... " Talman requested that the commercial not be aired until after his death.
He had made another such commercial, which opened with his voice-over and a picture of his home, followed by filmed shots of his wife and kids, then a still of himself "with a friend of mine you might recognize," Raymond Burr, from the Perry Mason TV series. He then said, "You know, I didn't mind losing those courtroom battles, but I'm in a battle now I don't want to lose at all. Because if I lose it, it means losing my wife and those kids you just met. I've got lung cancer...If you don't smoke, don't start. If you do smoke, quit! Don't be a loser."