Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: sustainability – Page 224

The Space Solar Power Project (SSPP) began in 2011 when Donald Bren — philanthropist, chairman of the Irvine Company, and a lifetime member of the Caltech Board of Trustees — and Caltech’s then-president Jean-Lou Chameau came together to discuss the potential for a space-based solar power research project. By 2013, Bren and his wife (Caltech trustee Brigitte Bren) began funding the project through the Donald Bren Foundation, which will eventually exceed $100 million. As Bren said in a recent Caltech press release:

“For many years, I’ve dreamed about how space-based solar power could solve some of humanity’s most urgent challenges. Today, I’m thrilled to be supporting Caltech’s brilliant scientists as they race to make that dream a reality.”

While the technology behind solar cells has existed since the late 19th century, generating solar power in space presents some serious challenges. For one thing, solar panels are heavy and require extensive wiring to transmit power, making them expensive and difficult to launch. To overcome these challenges, the SSPP team had to create a satellite that would be light enough for cost-effective launches yet strong enough to withstand the extreme environment of space. This required envisioning and developing new technologies, architectures, materials, and structures.

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The state introduced the resolution as a tribute to its oil and gas industry.

A U.S. state has decided to swim against the tide with its proposal to phase out all-electric vehicles from the state by 2035. You heard it right. Wyoming’s legislature is debating a resolution introduced on January 13, intended to pay tribute to its oil and gas industry which has created countless jobs and revenues over the decades.

In 2021, the state had produced 85.43 million barrels of crude oil, making it the eighth largest producer of oil among states in the U.S. Wyoming has a total population of just 577,000 people.

MarioGuti/iStock.

The resolution — Senate Joint Resolution 4 (SJ4), urges its residents to voluntarily limit their purchases and businesses to stop their sale of EVs, measures which aimed at phasing them out entirely by 2035. Through this symbolic act, lawmakers in Wyoming led by Senator Jim Anderson aim to send a message to EV supporters and people who campaign against ICE engine vehicles.

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Climate change is the biggest challenge of our time. To slow down global warming, we need to rethink how we generate and consume energy. Facing significant structural changes in supply and demand, we are in the middle of an energy transition with a strong need for action.

To reach a net zero economy by 2050 we have to swiftly replace fossil fuels in power generation with renewable, clean and secure sources. At the same time technologies powered by fossil-fuels must be replaced by electrified applications such as those seen in electric vehicles or heat pumps. Microelectronics plays a decisive role in respective applications.

Infineon’s semiconductor solutions enable the provision of green energy as well as the electrification of applications in the industrial, mobility and consumer sectors. Our semiconductor solutions are vital to decarbonization, they are key elements in creating a better future.

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Replacing fossil fuel with hydrogen seems like an ideal solution to make transportation environmentally friendly and to provide a backup for intermittent energy sources like solar and wind. But how environmentally friendly is hydrogen really? And how sustainable is it, given that hydrogen fuel cells rely on supply of rare metals like platinum and iridium? In this video, we have collected all the relevant numbers for you.

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00:00 Intro.

Continue reading “Hydrogen Will Not Save Us. Here’s Why” | >

Even with their previous prices, the Tesla Model S and Model X are already formidable in their respective segments. But with their recently adjusted costs, Tesla’s two flagship electric vehicles just became a lot more competitive.

Following a recent round of price adjustments, the Tesla Model S and Model X are now more affordable. The flagship all-electric sedan now starts at $94,990 for its Dual Motor AWD variant. Previously, the vehicle started at $104,990. The Model S Plaid, on the other hand, now starts $114,990, a notable drop from its previous price of $135,990.

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Wind turbine blades are recycled into reinforcement fiber that increases the strength and overall durability of concrete.

Wind turbines are great for producing energy but become quite wasteful once their lifetime has expired, as the materials used to construct them simply don’t biodegrade very well.

One company is seeking to do something about that according to a report by electrek published on Thursday.

XtockImages/iStock.

They have a lifespan of around 20–25 years, and once they are discarded, their massive, glass or carbon fiber-reinforced blades often end up in landfills.

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As students of the Fresconean way of thinking, Theofilos Chaldezos breaks down Jacque Fresco’s lecture in this video on “Expectations, Predictability, and Subjective Behavior” with Matthew Kahn. These discussions could aid in the way of thinking that helps people live lives with less frustration, stress, and anxiety.

Chapters.
00:00 — Introduction.
2:27 — Expectations.
3:00 — Subjectivity Influencing Expectation.
6:15 — Thalamic vs. Cortical Behavior.
7:20 — Compromise.
8:11 — Take Action without Subjectivity.
10:43 — Alternative Plans.
12:57 — Insufficient Tools.
14:18 — Incremental Changes.
14:58 — Accelerating Change.
21:58 — Neural Lag.
25:02 — Simulating Values.
27:09 — Reason vs. Neural Lag.
27:54 — Convenient Alternatives.
30:09 — Competition.
30:56 — Rationality.
33:05 — One-upmanship.
34:05 — Summary from Matthew.
35:20 — Belief vs. Predictability and Expectations.
42:52 — Summary from Jacque Fresco.

The Sociocyberneering Education Project is a project which Theofilos Chaldezos developed to build enhanced skills through education. The Sociocyberneering Education Project uses a systems approach to education to allow The Venus Project to experiment and develop courses that can be used internally and externally to educate volunteers and the general public. The course offered builds a solid knowledge base that would help individuals handle teaching, present the history and the aims and proposals, and manage change towards the direction proposed by The Venus Project.

The Venus Project proposes an alternative vision of what the future can be if we apply what we already know in order to achieve a sustainable new world civilization. It calls for a straightforward redesign of our culture in which the age-old inadequacies of war, poverty, hunger, debt, and unnecessary human suffering are viewed not only as avoidable but as totally unacceptable. Anything less will result in a continuation of the same catalog of problems inherent in today’s world.

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Tesla is the cheapest luxury brand to maintain, and not just among electric vehicle brands, but also those with internal combustion engines (ICE), according to a new study.

The findings come from Clunker Junker which looked at maintenance cost data from the last ten years and cross-referenced vehicle price data.

As in most auto studies, they divided brands and vehicles into popular and luxury. The popular car winner was Toyota. The Japanese automaker took eight of the top ten cheapest cars to maintain.

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