This website follows one of my main interests which is to have a healthy planet in which to live.  Climate change and Global warming have become a central concern of this generation as we push the limits of our planet.   As the site develops the category and topic layers will become deeper and provide a repository of concerns, ideas and examples of successful projects for those seeking new business models  and alternate energy systems   The links menu item in the top menu has many links useful to those who are trying to develop solutions.

Check out this new version of the Christmas Carol

 Company News: 

Xantrex signs CDN$4.5 million wind converter contribution agreement with Sustainable Development Technology Canada 
(Download PDF version)

VANCOUVER, B.C. July 5, 2007 — Xantrex Technology Inc. today announced that it has signed an agreement for a contribution of up to CDN$4.5 million with Sustainable Development Technology Canada (STDC), a not-for-profit foundation created by the Government of Canada to fund and foster Canadian clean and sustainable technologies.

Groups are created around common interest.  You should realize however that very few in a group are committed to the core values of the group.  Many in a group are there because they are interested in spending time with someone else who frequents the group.   

The power of the group is in its ability to influence others and its ability to utilize many minds to advance the the agenda of the group.  Ad to this the ability to raise sufficient sums of money to effectively communicate with and sway public opinion.  The influence of a group on the political status quo also depends on whether their cause is sensitive to those in power.  If those in power do not think that what the public wants is important they may disregard pressure from public groups.   Only when they are directly threatened with removal will some politicians react.  Even then many who may be bought and paid for puppet politicians will not react to public pressure.  They are looking to exit politics and take up well paid positions in industry where they can use their government connections for the benefit of their employer.

Given these constraints on the public puts considerable barriers to change in the way.  For a group to be successful in the public arena it is necessary for them to work on many levels.  Utilizing the media is just one tool groups can use.  The tendency however is for most groups to focus exclusively on the media.  Traditionally most groups have a hierarchical structure.  In this structure a few do the talking for the group. 

A modern group needs to utilize modern communications to encourage its members to communicate with each other and form working groups.   How often have you gone to a meeting where a speaker is brought in.   During the talk a clipboard is passed around.  If you put your email on it you will start getting emails from the group who put on the event.  By law the group cannot distribute its mailing list without the consent of those signing up.  Anyway most groups are self centered and want those who came to the event to be followers who donate money and time to what the leaders of the group want.   The leaders of groups do not want a group full of leaders, however that is precisely where I am going with this handbook.  This handbook is about how every member of the group can become a leader.   It is about how to create a viral group that can replicate itself rapidly.

The Stirling Energy System SES company located in Phoenix, Arizona produces a Stirling  Heat  Engine powered by energy from a reflective solar dish.   Working as in a piston engine gas is heated and pushes against a piston.  The expelled gas is cooled and reused.   Check out the SES website at http://www.stirlingenergy.com/   Also see

Southern California Edison, 
San Diego Gas & Electric

 Sterling engine Video 

Cleaner air is blowing in the wind - by Faculty of Engineering McMaster University  
June 22, 2007

Research and development undertaken in the Department of Mechanical Engineering has played a significant role in the official launch of a next-generation wind turbine by Cleanfield Energy.

Faculty and students from the department joined company officials, local politicians, educators and government representatives on Thursday to celebrate the naming of Cleanfield V3.5, a three-metre tall, vertical-axis wind turbine designed to provide electrical power for use by individual hom

"McMaster's testing of our VAWT is crucial to our overall product development process and corporate objective of becoming a global leader in the residential and commercial wind turbine industry," said Tony Verrelli, president & CEO of Cleanfield Energy Corp. The testing and evaluation conducted by McMaster led to improvements that resulted in the commercialized 3.5kW unit..

Cleanfield Energy demonstrated the V3.5 at the event. The turbine blades typically operate at a rate of 120 rpm, but can go up to 180 rpm (three revolutions per second) or higher under very windy conditions. The turbine can generate enough electrical energy to power most household needs and feeds extra capacity back into the hydro grid.

 Washington, D.C., United States [RenewableEnergyWorld.com]

As utilities work to meet electricity demand, especially during peak summer days, examining the relationship between demand and solar photovoltaic (PV) output can be of significant value to the utility industry. Over the years, energy researchers have developed different statistical methods for calculating this relationship. However, there is no consensus across the utility or solar industries on a statistical method for calculating the capacity value of PV or its practical use in electricity markets and utility planning.

Richard Neufeld -energy, mines and petroleum resources minister and other BC Government cabinet ministers have been lobbied by the following energy interests:

The choices are coming down to Carbon Rationing and Population Control if we are to stop what is becoming runaway global warming.  People assume that producing clean energy will help save us from the Climate Change effects of Global Warming.  The opposite is happening. I just finished reading about a company in England who is

suggesting that people switch to getting their energy from their windmills because they can.  Apparently in the UK customers can opt to choose the source of their electricity.   Well not exactly. What is really happening is that the electricity bill directs the payment to the wind supplier rather than to the coal and oil energy producers.   Good stuff right?  Well yes but..... The amount of electricity produced by the oil and coal producers continues to rise because the overall demand for energy is soaring.   Because of increasing populations and the rise of  industry and materialism in the world, this demand will continue to soar unless drastic action is taken by the nations of the world.   Global warming is actually being increased by the amount it takes to build and maintain alternative clean energy and the uncontrolled increase in the amount of dirty fossil fuel energy production.

Source: REpower Systems AG

Certainly if all energy came from a clean energy source such as wind or solar we could sustain a much higher energy demand than present.   However, the situation is hopeless as long as  dirty energy source production is not kept in check.   Reducing the amount of dirty energy allowed by the amount of clean energy produced would help.   Carbon rationing, public pressure, political will and clean energy developments will be required to make that possible.  

Carbon credits that are being proposed only encourage alternate energy but do little  to reign in fossil fuel pollution.

Population control is a sensitive issue.  We can teach women to press their knees together  which has proven  not to work or we can face the alternatives such as birth control.   Right wing extremists need to rethink their position of throwing everyone out of the life boat in favour of promoting population explosions.  Being oblivious to the benefits of birth control is living in denial and ignorance.  The planet cannot accommodate unending population increase.

If we do nothing, there is the also the approach of exterminating large populations of the  world which seems to be the default strategy.  

Most do not want to rattle the oil and coal cartels, but there is no choice.  If the human race is to survive we have to find ways to stop using the same old energy sources or clean them up.  The people of planet earth are in a race against time so we need to get it right this time around.

--editor  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

WASHINGTON, March 19 — A House committee released documents Monday that showed hundreds of instances in which a White House official who was previously an oil industry lobbyist edited government climate reports to play up uncertainty of a human role in global warming or play down evidence of such a role...... By ANDREW C. REVKIN and MATTHEW L. WALD