QUICK NEWS, June 7: Paris And Art In A Time Of Climate Change; Reds And Blues Agree On Wind In Iowa; Sun Does The Big Apple
Paris And Art In A Time Of Climate Change The Louvre's closure proves art cannot survive climate change; The flooding in Paris is a stark warning of the danger posed by climate change to everything human civilisation has achieved – no matter how priceless
Jonathan Jones, 6 June 2016 (UK Guardian)
“One of the oldest human illusions is that culture is a conquest of, or an escape from, nature. It is an illusion we need to abandon fast…[As the Seine rose in Paris in recent days, no less a museum than the Louvre had to close its doors (along with the Musee d’Orsay) so staff could protect artistic masterpieces. This] is a stark warning that civilisation can only survive in harmony with nature. If we destroy our planet, we destroy not just our current way of life but the human heritage itself…If any museum sums up the best of human creativity through millennia, it is the Louvre…[Now that it has been forced] to take emergency measures against another of those weather events in which only the most foolhardy or corrupt refuse to see human-induced climate change, we can glimpse how our destructive side will wreck our best hopes if we don’t change…The most apocalyptic masterpiece in the Louvre is Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa…Civilisation has died. Bare survival is all they have. Is that enough?” click here for more
Roger Real Drouin, June 6, 2016 (Yale 360)
“…[Amid the variability in crop prices, [wind turbines offer a steady annual income for Iowa farmers with long-term leases allowing them to be built on their land]. Such lease payments can net $5,000 to $10,000 a year per tower, an amount that typically increases by a small percentage annually...[Across Iowa, the wind industry] employs roughly 7,000 people, supports 11 facilities that manufacture turbine-related components, and has attracted more than $10 billion in capital investment. The state that leads the U.S. in both corn and pork production also has the distinction of leading the nation in percentage of its energy produced from wind, now at 31 percent…Facebook, Google, and Microsoft are among the companies that identified use of wind energy as one of the reasons to locate new facilities in Iowa…[Thanks to far-sighted planning by Republican and Democratic Iowa leaders, the state could meet all of its electricity needs from wind power by 2030] and have enough left over to export to other states…In the next three to five years, an additional $8 billion to $10 billion in investment in wind farms and manufacturing is expected in Iowa…” click here for more
Sun Does The Big Apple Why Isn't Solar Energy Spreading Faster In NYC?
Miranda Katz, May 31, 2016 (Gothamist)
“In 2014, New York City set an ambitious goal: to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050…Some 66% of city rooftops are capable of harnessing solar power, and the number of solar companies in the city has skyrocketed over the past decade, from just five to over 50…[The] past two years have seen something of a boom, with the number of installations now adding up to about 75 megawatts—but much of that growth has been in the public sector, and there's still a long ways to get to the city’s] goal of 350 megawatts…[The holdup], it appears, is that installing solar energy in NYC is a nightmarishly bureaucratic process that involves jumping through hoops with the Department of Buildings [DOB], the FDNY, and Con Edison, not to mention the legwork involved if one would like to simultaneously apply for a property tax abatement, which would reduce taxes on a solarized property and is one of the primary incentives for doing so…[Solar advocates calling for more and faster change in permitting processes]…” click here for more
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