Green Collar Technologies » technology

The Short Version of Obama vs. McCain: The Wired Scorecard

Server — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 21:09:28 +0000

Although we don’t do politics here we do provide educational resources for green collar workers. This post falls into the Educational Resources for Green Collar Technology Workers category. Aside from the obvious voter information context, the full article at Wired magazine has a synopis for tech workers relating the issues listed below.

Knowing these issues can help us all identity opportunities and threats to strengthening Hawai`i’s digital economies. These issues are important to anyone wishing to support a strong digital economy in Hawai`i.

I’ve shortened the Wired article into the following scorecard (link to full post at bottom):

Broadband - The Issue: The United States is becoming a tortoise in a world of hares. One of the world’s most Wired nations a decade ago, we now lag behind most of our peers.

Broadband Grade:
McCain: D
Obama: B

H1B issues - The Issue: Many people skilled in technology around the world want to work in the United States, but it’s tough to get in if you don’t have a family member already living here.

H1B Visas Grade:
McCain: B+
Obama: C

Investment in green tech - The Issue: Technology is the best, and only way, to get us out of our environmental mess. Government’s best bet at solving this problem isn’t to pick and fund specific winners.

Green Tech Grade:
McCain: B
Obama: A

Net neutrality - The Issue: The question here is whether the telecom companies can pick and choose what they send over their pipes.

Net Nuetrality Grade:
McCain: D
Obama: A

Spectrum - The Issue: Spectrum is the technological equivalent of the roads over which our technology travels. Right now, clunky companies that use oxcarts own many of the widest highways.

Spectrum Grade:
McCain: B
Obama: B

Read the full post at Wired.com:

Obama vs. McCain: The Wired Scorecard

Brent.fm post on TV Whitespaces includes video from Google.

Local comments below, national comments at Wired please.

Green Collar Economy – Van Jones

brent — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 08:14:48 +0000

Get this book, “The Green Collar Economy” by Van Jones and meet me in the park at noon. The Hawai`i Green Jobs Revolution is now!

I’m putting ”The Green Collar Economy” by Van Jones down just long enough to write this post. The Foreward hints at one of the many opportunities a Green Collar Economy might present in Hawai`i,

The United States has far greater domestic energy resources than Iceland or Sweden. We sit atop the second-largest fund of geothermal resources in the world.

The Introduction identifies a green collar problem we’re already experiencing,

One big problem is simply that green employers can’t find enough trained, green-collar workers to do all the jobs.

The book appears in stark contrast to the State Workforce Development Council’s 2008 report to the Governor. I’m sure the real answer is somewhere in between but Van Jones outlines several of our economic issues before they were at the levels we’re expericing now. The State Workforce Development Council’s 2008 report seems to hint at passing problems rather than identifying the much larger issues. Nothing against the council. As an outsider, I don’t even know who they are but something seems to be in need of re-evaluation.

This book will offer many perception shifts. From a Green Jobs perspective, it’s really nice to read,

And don’t think of green-collar workers as only laboring in the energy sector. Though the need for a clean-energy revolution will be the main driver in revamping the economy, we will also need welltrained, well-paid workers in a range of green industries: materials reuse and recycling, water management, local and organic food production, mass transportation, and more.

Although I believe the digital economy will continue to lead us for some time towards self sustainability in a global economy. I’d like to also read, “The Green Collar Technology Worker, How s/he are building a friction economy.” Maybe that book is already being written? Nah, it’s probably just a blog somewhere. Anyway, around here, we have an affinity for this greener economy and I’m so stoked to read the following quote,

The time has come for the nation to give greater support to the problem solvers—the clean-energy producers, green builders, eco-entrepreneurs, community educators, green-collar workers, and green consumers.

Does this mean a Green Economy or Green Collar Jobs are on the way to Hawai`i Island?

To answer that you just have to ask yourself, “Do you want a Greener Hawai`i?” If you do, it will be and If it is to be, it will require work.

Future Green Collar Workers will want to read this book. There will probably be a Green Jobs test in the future. Or maybe tomorrow.

Better than Synthetic Photosynthesis?

Server — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 23:52:46 +0000

Daniel Nocera, a chemistry professor at MIT, and Matthew Kanan, a postdoctoral fellow in Mr. Nocera’s lab, have developed a catalyst made from cobalt and phosphate that can split water into oxygen and hydrogen gas. When used in conjunction with a photovoltaic solar panel, their system can use water to store the sun’s energy.

This new method developed by MIT of splitting water molecules mimics the way photosynthesis works in plants.

“You’ve made your house into a fuel station,” Daniel Nocera, a chemistry professor at MIT said. “I’ve gotten rid of all the goddamn grids.”

My guess is that we’ll figure out the scalability issues of these imaginative efforts sooner than most can possibly conceive.

Look for cooler heads to prevail as breakthroughs like this continue to cheapen today’s best alternative energy sources.

Is there really a need to rush to “large-scale investments” in current, inefficient technologies?

Now that we’re focused on the solutions and working the problem can we be safe knowing that our efforts will bear fruit sooner than expected? If we ‘re able to get to the Moon in the sixties could we have breakthroughs of this magnitude in the next five years?

Will every windmill we build need to be taken down? This problem is obvious at South Point. The old wind farm remains long after the new wind farm goes into production.

Every single battery we use to store energy will also need to be recycled. Locally, there are two times a year when battery recycling is offered. Throwing your batteries in the landfill is illegal.

“Within two years, you’ll start seeing module designs,” Nocera said. “A lot of my MIT colleagues are raring to go and work on this and they are all engineers and they’re pretty damn good.”

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Additional Reading

MIT researchers attain solar ‘nirvana’

Cheap Catalyst Could Turn Sunlight, Water Into Fuel

Photo at top by defrost.ca