Screw the Spotted Owl
Kudos to the guys over at Wired this month for their 15th anniversary edition cover. That’s one hell of an engaging lead-in to the issue – it alone already pulled me into a discussion about carbon emissions a little earlier today.
I read just about everything online these days, but I’m still a loyal subscriber to both Wired and Dwell. They offer something really special with every issue that is really hard to replicate online. Wired’s articles and ‘infographics’ have really elevated to a superb level recently, and Dwell’s recent re-design has made the thing so readable that it’s really a joy to go over every word of their articles.
Keep it up, guys.
3 comments
Hi Adam! My name is Ana, I live in Sao Paulo, Brazil and I am a Wired subscriber. I just received my edition with the cover you put your blog however, even with my english knowledge I am still wondering what “Screw the Spotted Owl” means! Hope you can explain to me! Thank you!
While I agree with the tree farm landfill, nuclear power and chinese windmill arguments, I couldn’t believe that it took more energy to heat the same space as to cool it. Further investigation reveals that they were comparing A/C cooling to ELECTRIC heating. Nobody uses electric heat up north anymore. It is too expensive. From a thermodynamic perspective, electric heat is highly irreversible. Compare using waste heat from a nuclear power plant in a cogeneration scheme to heat an urban apartment building and you will see that heating is much more efficient (and carbon zero) than suburban AC powered by coal fired power plants. Even distrubuted cogeneration (using waste heat from a small engine/generator to heat an apartment building) is more carbon responsible than a heat pump by itself. When it comes to technology, it’s all in the way that you use it.
Alex Steffen conveniently excludes the math which he used to reach his conclusions. Is it true that in our culture of ignorance very few people consider the facts?
You eco-freaks say spotted owls need old growth timber but thats bull kaka since there were a pair that nested in a K-MART sign
Leave a Comment