#ramez naam

[tomesofthetrade]

“We think of ourselves as individuals, but all we have accomplished, and all that we will accomplish, is the result of groups of humans cooperating.”

- Nexus

[solarpunks]

Welcome to the Terrordome

The authors write:

Exhibit 2 is the chart the solar industry has been working towards for 60 years. Solar is now – in the right conditions – cheaper than oil and Asian LNG on an MMBTU basis. Yes, we are using utility- scale solar costs in developing markets with lots of sun. But that describes the growth markets for global energy today. For these markets solar is just cheap, clean, convenient, reliable energy. And since it is a technology, it will get even cheaper over time. Fossil fuel extraction costs will keep rising. There is a massive global market for cheap energy and that market is oblivious to policy changes at the NDRC, MITI, the EU or the CPUC.

(via Solar Price Terrordome Chart - Business Insider)

This graph has the best name!

But solar costs have fallen further in the last 5 years since this graph was created. As have the costs of batteries and both will continue to do so.

Here are two short videos from Ramez Naam on the The Future of Energy at Singularity University last year:

The Price of Solar Power Will Continue to Fall | The Future of Energy

(via The Price of Solar Power Will Continue to Fall | The Future of Energy | Singularity University)

The Price of Batteries Will Keep Dropping | The Future of Energy

(via The Price of Batteries Will Keep Dropping | The Future of Energy | Singularity University)

We must remember however the impact that these important battery technologies will have on the environment, people and cultures:

SUMMER 2015_LITHIUM DREAMS 

Unknown Fields travel through the energy landscapes of the Bolivian Salt Lakes and the Atacama Desert to see where the city stores its electricity. Here the ground is charged with potential, for buried beneath the mirror of the world’s largest salt flat, the Salar De Uyuni, is a grey gold called lithium, the key ingredient in batteries, a substance in every one of our pockets, in every gleaming device, and every electric car. With their flock of camera drones Unknown Fields have captured the technicolor lithium mine evaporation pools as they stretch across the ancient salt flats. This grey rush territory is also a landscape of Incan mythology and sacred mountains, where a traditional indigenous narrative describes this shimmering white expanse being created from the mixing of the tears and breast milk of a weeping mother volcano who has just lost her lover.

(via SUMMER 2015_LITHIUM DREAMS | UNKNOWN FIELDS)

This is the Salar De Uyuni...

Salar De Uyuni Salt Flat

(via Salar De Uyuni, Bolivia’s Blissfully Beautiful Salt Flat, Is Our Travel Tuesday | Huffington Post)

It is also home to the Salar de Uyuni mine.....

Salar de Uyuni mine

one of the largest lithium mines in Bolivia.[1] The mine is located in southern Bolivia in Potosí Department.[1] The Salar de Olaroz mine has reserves amounting to 3 billion tonnes of lithium ore grading 0.3% lithium thus resulting 9 million tonnes of lithium.[1]

(via Salar de Uyuni mine | Wikipedia)

and looks a bit like this:

LIithium Evaporative Pools

(via LIithium Evaporative Pools | liam young)

I guess the solarpunk question i have is:

Give the above damage to our environment, do we instead get it from space?

[purplemango-art-blog]

Some thoughts on the book I’m currently reading (about half done) spliced with a photo of an old-ass tree.

(I love gel pens but they’re shit for writing on top of gluestick.)

[tomesofthetrade]

“To understand a thing is to gain the power to change it.”

- Nexus

[tomesofthetrade]

Walked to the river for some reading before we get hit with a heatwave for the next week 🥵

[crepuscule-pourpre]

[caribeandthebooks]

Nexus by Ramez Naam

Genres: Science Fiction, Thriller, Adult Fiction

Setting: N/A

Description: Mankind gets an upgrade. In the near future, the experimental nano-drug Nexus can link humans together, mind to mind. There are some who want to improve it. There are some who want to eradicate it. And there are others who just want to exploit it…Read more on Goodreads/Storygraph

Content Warning information can be found via the above Storygraph link.

[fundstueck-des-tages]

Gute Nachrichten im Express-Durchlauf: wie stark veränderte sich der Energiepreis in den letzten Jahren - und wie stark potenziert das andere Variablen wie “driving on demand”, Elektroautos, fahrerlose mobile? 

Hochspannend! hat tip: Martin