A busy week science traveling in Vancouver at the annual SETAC conference, on which I’ll write more soon. Check out the cool grass-covered roof.
The conference may be the only time I see in person many old friends. This year an invite to a special “senior resource group” breakfast got me thinking about how old some of those friends have become. It also made me think how much times have changed. Check out Old Friends, Getting Older on Hot White Snow.
Meanwhile, the US and China signed a historic climate change agreement this week during President Obama’s Asian trip. With this pact, both of the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitting countries show a commitment to reducing carbon emissions, a much needed step in the fight against man-made climate change. Not surprisingly, the partisan misrepresentation of the agreement back home started before the ink was dry. Read why this is such a big deal on The Dake Page. You can also read this “Fact check” article that corrects the misperceptions.
Friends sent me the above photo of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity on display at Barnes and Noble. Apparently we’re now a science classic alongside Stephen Hawking and Ray Bradbury. This is noteworthy because sales have been so strong that the stores are making every effort to keep it available while copies of this printing last. The third printing will be out in February 2015. Meanwhile, my e-book continues to sell on Amazon – look for some exciting news about Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time to be annnounced shortly.
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Solar and wind energy, along with hydroelectric power, may seem like recent ideas, but Nikola Tesla had them in his sights a long, long time ago. As this post goes up on Science Traveler, the new 
Nikola Tesla believed that the thermo-dynamic process, i.e., the burning of fossil fuels, was “wasteful and barbarous.” He foresaw the limitations on supply and the inherent dangers to man and the environment (though even Tesla couldn’t anticipate the impacts of fossil fuels on climate change). “Whatever our resources of primary energy may be in the future,” Tesla argued, “we must, to be rational, obtain it without consumption of any material.” He believed that natural, renewable, sources of energy could “eliminate the need of coal, oil, gas or any other of the common fuels.” Two of the renewable energy sources that he investigated were hydrothermal and geothermal energy.
There are temperature differentials in the earth as well. In 1900 Tesla was already contemplating what today we call geothermal energy. In a somewhat long-winded and metaphysical treatise called “The Problem of Increasing Human Energy,” Tesla wrote that “it is a well-known fact that the interior portions of the globe are very hot, the temperature rising, as observations show, with the approach to the center at the rate of approximately 1 degree C. for every hundred feet of depth.”
Way back in May I was contacted by a producer for a TV series for the History Channel called “10 Things You Don’t Know About,” hosted by Henry Rollins. They were interested in doing a program on the rivalry between Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla. I spoke with the producer and provided my thoughts on what interesting facts they could include, and although I didn’t make it into the final program, it aired on September 7, 2014.
And while you’re at it, leave a review for Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Goodreads.
