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Author Archives: Harry Katz
Post-Election Reading
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in CrisisBy J. D. VanceHarperCollins, New York, 2016 The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott WalkerBy Katherine J. CramerUniversity of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2016 Before … Continue reading
The Grid: The Fraying Wires between Americans and Our Energy Future
A PhD in cultural anthropology might seem like an odd background for someone writing a book about our national electricity grid. But Gretchen Bakke sees the grid as more than just generating plants, transmission wires, substations, poles, meters, outlets and … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Energy, Environment
Tagged book review, clean energy, electricity, Energy, grid, nonfiction
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State-wide Blackout in South Australia
Yesterday the entire state of South Australia, about 1.5 times the area of Texas, suffered an electricity blackout due to a severe storm that knocked out major transmission lines. Photo: Electranet Network Services Here’s an interesting report on the causes … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, Politics
Tagged Australia, electricity, grid, renewable energy
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The Chemistry of Burning Stuff
Whenever we burn fossil fuels, be it gasoline, natural gas or charcoal, one of the byproducts is carbon dioxide ( CO2). That’s a big worry these days because the huge amounts of carbon dioxide we’re putting into the atmosphere is … Continue reading
Posted in Environment
Tagged carbon dioxide, chemistry, climate change, Environment, global warming
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Swainson’s Thrush
They’re back! Swainson’s Thrush have returned to the North Cascades forests. I’m not a birdwatcher – glasses too thick – so I’ve never seen this bird close enough to identify it by color or markings. But I sure have heard … Continue reading
Agnostic: A Spirited Manifesto
Agnostic: A Spirited Manifesto By Lesley Hazleton Riverhead Books, New York, 2016 Lesley Hazleton does not like the word “the”. At least not when it’s used in discussing matters of religion, faith, or spirituality, such as the meaning of life, … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged agnostic, agnosticism, atheism, books, faith, fundamentalism, Lesley Hazleton, religion, sprirtuality
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Vibrator People
The Amtrak Cascades from Seattle to Portland slowed to a hissing stop alongside a BNSF freight train somewhere in open country south of Olympia, Washington. Through my rain-streaked window I saw this message painted on the side of the adjacent … Continue reading
Supreme Court puts Obama’s Clean Power Plan on hold
On February 9, the Supreme Court issued a “stay” blocking implementation of the Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan rules that aim to cut CO2 emissions from the nation’s power plants until challenges to the regulations can be heard by the … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, Law and justice, Politics
Tagged Clean Power Plan, climate change, CO2 emissions, Environment, SCOTUS
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Big World Small Planet
Are we doomed? Have we messed up the Earth beyond all hope? News reports about the environment would sure make you think so. From CO2 emissions to deforestation to species extinction; you name it, it seems like humans are totally … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Energy, Environment
Tagged book review, climate change, Earth, nonfiction, planetary boundaries, sustainability
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The Court and The World
The Court and the World is about the increasing interplay between the Supreme Court of the United States and the people, laws and courts of foreign countries. And it’s written by an extremely well-qualified expert, Stephen Breyer, Associate Justice of … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Law and justice
Tagged book review, international law, nonfiction, SCOTUS, Stephen Breyer, Supreme Court
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