About Barry A.F.
Barry A.F. I've had an interest in renewable energy and EVs since the days of deep cycle lead acid conversions and repurposed drive motors (and $10/watt solar panels). How things have changed.
Also I have an interest in systems thinking (or first principles as some call it), digging into how things work from the ground up.
Did you know that 97% of all Wikipedia articles link to Philosophy? A very small percentage link to Pragmatism.
A link to all my articles
November 25th, 2019 | by Barry A.F.
A recent article on CleanTechnica, "BBC Click: Are Electric Vehicles 'The Future Of Road Vehicles?' EV Owners: 'Duh.'" basically covered what CleanTechnica and other green energy websites have been saying for years, that EVs are superior to internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles in more ways than one. This is not news to informed progressives, but it is very much news to the general public
October 27th, 2019 | by Barry A.F.
For background, please see this previous article: "Will A Watershed Event Turn The Tide Against Fossil Fuels?"
A watershed event is defined as: An event or period that is important because it represents a big change and the start of new developments
October 25th, 2019 | by Barry A.F.
We are still not at a mitigation level to avoid 1.5ºC or even 2ºC temperature rise, but of course we hope to get there before runaway climate change destroys us. Part of what we can do is to be prepared for extreme climate events. They can happen to anyone, and there is no way to know who that will be and when
October 10th, 2019 | by Barry A.F.
How we get to zero carbon is an unanswered question at this point
September 26th, 2019 | by Barry A.F.
At the moment, many right-wing ideologues are sticking to abject climate change denial, crazy ideas like — it is not happening, it is good for us, it is not caused by humans, it is a left-wing conspiracy, it's designed to steal your money, and so on. Notice how many are contradictory — not happening and good for us are mutually exclusive. The idea is to throw out as many rationalizations as possible to provide a "plausible" excuse for each of their supporters via varying reality-denying views
September 17th, 2019 | by Barry A.F.
Right now we are facing an existential crisis, despite the fact conservatives deny the reality of climate change and the media doing their bidding (thanks to bullying, bothsiderism, and disinterest) climate change quickly threatens the future of the planet and the human race
September 9th, 2019 | by Barry A.F.
Just recently we learned Volkswagen is going to sell an electric vehicle (EV) retrofit kit for its classic Beetle. Many CleanTechnica articles are about the transition of the world's driving fleet to EVs, the expectation that sales of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles will eventually be supplanted by EVs, and a broad forecast that fleet turnover will take approximately 15 years once ICE vehicle sales cease until the world reaches 100% electric power in this sector
August 27th, 2019 | by Barry A.F.
I suspect, being a progressive bunch, at least a few of us are Star Trek fans. Climate denial is mostly funded by oil company greed, and oil company actions are meant to maximize their profits. So, the idea of this series of short (somewhat satirical) articles is that climate change denial will be analyzed under the lens of each stated rule, how it applies, and what we should consider for our strategies to achieve climate victory over oil company greed
August 24th, 2019 | by Barry A.F.
Recently, an article about Sandy Munro's most recent interview was posted on CleanTechnica. The article and video are very interesting in quite a few ways. I commented with my thoughts and the replies convinced me to write this article
August 17th, 2019 | by Barry A.F.
I suspect, being a progressive bunch, at least a few of us are Star Trek fans. Climate denial is mostly funded by oil company greed and oil company actions are meant to maximize their profits. So, the idea of this series of short (somewhat satirical) articles is that climate change denial will be analyzed under the lens of each stated rule, how it applies, and what we should consider for our strategies to achieve climate victory over oil company greed
July 28th, 2019 | by Barry A.F.
I suspect, being a progressive bunch, at least a few of us are Star Trek fans. Climate denial is mostly funded by oil company greed and oil company actions are meant to maximize their profits. So, the idea of this series of short (somewhat satirical) articles is that climate change denial will be analyzed under the lens of each stated rule, how it applies, and what we should consider for our strategies to achieve climate victory over oil company greed
July 19th, 2019 | by Barry A.F.
One day I was at the grocery store and happened to run into our city’s roads coordinator while waiting to [&hellip
June 26th, 2019 | by Barry A.F.
I've come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies:
1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
2. Anything that's invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
3. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things.
—Douglas Adams
June 24th, 2019 | by Barry A.F.
Last week I wrote about why Tesla should advertise. That stimulated plenty of discussion, some pro, some con, and a fair amount of pushback. This article is meant to address the many points raised by commenters and add extra perspective to the first article
June 17th, 2019 | by Barry A.F.
At this point, Tesla has awoken the giants to the need to transition to electric vehicles (EVs). They are slowly [&hellip
June 15th, 2019 | by Barry A.F.
In a recent article, we found that curtailment of renewables may be cheaper than grid scale energy storage. Sometimes, the [&hellip
June 2nd, 2019 | by Barry A.F.
This is a followup to my article “China Is Eating Our Lunch While We Watch.” Once again, here is a [&hellip
May 30th, 2019 | by Barry A.F.
When reality comes to you with a bill you and you're a right-wing ideologue, you don't just accept the charges, you rebrand and move forward with confidence
May 20th, 2019 | by Barry A.F.
One way or another, the future is coming for us. While we have not yet "decided" whether it will be climate disaster or climate saved, time will tell.The developed world's recalcitrance is not only costing us time in preventing the runaway effects that are coming, it's allowing China to gain a foothold and increase its influence, wealth, and power on the world stage
May 16th, 2019 | by Barry A.F.
As part of the trashing of the Green New Deal, the political right wing has claimed the deal will essentially ruin life as we know it, ban air travel, and even lead to cannibalism (no joke).Let's take a look at reality