Planet Earth Needs You

  The Data Center will be the straw that breaks the back of the effort to stop climate change. They will consume massive amounts of energy, resources and degrade local environments. It will start with their construction and escalate with its operations. Data centers may well be needed in the future but building them at this critical time is not possible, when the reduction in greenhouse gases is necessary for the survival of all life as we know it today. What follows are the reasons it is not possible at this time.   Hundreds of data centers are under construction and hundreds more are being planned. Huge amounts of greenhouse gases will be produced in the making of the steel and concrete for the buildings. Significant amounts of materials and energy will be used to make the massive number of computers and thus will produce more greenhouse gases. During the construction, transportation of men and materials will burn lots of fuel and add to the carbon footprint of the project. ...

By Michael Coppola When it comes to the climate emergency there are two allegories that exemplify what has gone on in the USA for the past hundred years or so. For the citizens it is that of the frog slowly being cooked in the pot of water and for the political leaders it’s Nero fiddling while Rome burns. If one looks at the headlines in the media, we see the Epstein scandal; the war crimes in Gaza and Ukraine; the death of democracy; the tariff policy of a deranged president. Rarely does one see even a footnote mention of the climate crisis even after the reporting of wildfires; hurricanes and massive flooding destroying neighborhoods. If we do not stop the politicians from fiddling and the citizens don't begin to feel the heat, business will continue as usual and we will lose the last opportunity to save ourselves. The science tells us that we have less than 5 years to dramatically reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. Currently we are increasing our emissions. The ...

  By Nancy Williams and Michael Coppola Greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase in the United States.  If we want to keep the increase in global temperature from rising to the level that will make it very difficult to survive, shouldn't we be spending taxpayer money on the most cost-effective solutions; the ones that are already available and can be implemented the fastest?  We have to question the government spending $808,000,000 in grant money on a technology that will not be commercially available for almost a decade and will contribute little to the reduction in GHG emissions. The Federal government is offering that $808 million as a grant to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) for the development of a nuclear reactor known as a Small Modular Reactor (SMR). There are several types of SMR's that are being investigated today. Some are designs that were rejected in the 1970's. The type that the TVA is betting our tax money on is a modified design of the reactors b...