Grand Challenges for Engineering
While everyone was distracted by yet another school shooting last week, the National Academy of Engineering put out a list of 14 Grand Challenges for Engineering facing us today. Engineering is a bit of a misnomer; most of these challenges require a healthy contribution from scientists and others as well.

You can even vote for your favorite from this intriguing list on their Web site. I suppose I'm biased because I've read extensively about the subject, but I chose "Provide access to clean water" as the most important. The two most popular so far, "Make solar energy economical" and "Provide energy from fusion," were my second and third choices. To me, the bottom line is that water is essential to human existence whereas energy is not (although, theoretically, finding a way to generate cheap, abundant energy would make water solutions such as desalination plants more feasible).

Alas, most Americans still have their heads in the sand regarding water issues. A report from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography last week said that there's a 50-50 chance Lake Mead will be dry in 13 years, putting the millions of people in Las Vegas and southern California in jeopardy. And they used "conservative estimates of the situation," so things might be even worse. Of course, drought conditions continue in the traditionally moist Southeast, too. My cousin who lives near Atlanta claims the water is "fine" -- she's one of the many Americans who won't believe there's a problem until the kitchen tap literally runs dry. Check out this map, updated weekly, to see how much of the United States is short of water. Even if your state is fine now, what will happen when the Southwest dries up? Will California, Nevada, and Arizona try to get your water? Then realize that the United States is much better off than many populous nations in Africa and Asia, and you will begin to see the imminent global water crisis.

Most of the other engineering challenges pale in comparison to clean water and cheap energy. Secure cyberspace? Advance personalized learning? Enhance virtual reality? Those would be nice, sure, but our continued existence doesn't depend on them.

Labels: energy, water

- posted by David Johnsen @ 9:23 PM 2 comments

 
Who Blogs for the Bastard Polluters?
Today the EPA helpfully suggests seven ways Bastard Polluters could help the environment without changing their plans to dump toxins into Chicago's drinking water. Buried in the article is this disturbing nugget:

BP, which has taken out full-page newspaper advertisements and paid Internet bloggers to defend the permit, says it needs to discharge more pollution...

As a public relations tactic, paying bloggers to say nice things about your deadly discharge ranks lower than refinery sludge. I'd like to know who these spineless, pathetic, corporate-butt-kissing bloggers are, and not so I can shake their dirty hands.

I know pay-for-posting isn't new. But shilling for a product to generate "buzz" is relatively harmless; advocating the rape of our lake is entirely different. If BP wants to spread bullshit in its own blog, that's fine. But integrity-deficient "independent" bloggers who take cash to kiss ass deserve to rot in Hell.

Labels: blogging, energy, Indiana, water

- posted by David Johnsen @ 5:19 PM 3 comments

 
Lyrics of the Day
Today we continue toward the exciting conclusion of DBT Suicide Week!

Since most of the band hails from northern Alabama, the Tennesee Valley Authority (TVA) is a topic of several Drive-By Truckers songs. The TVA brought many changes to that region, not all of them good. In "Uncle Frank" from the DBT's second album Pizza Deliverance, Mike Cooley explores the dark side of the TVA's impact. Uncle Frank lost his land when it was submerged by a new dam, and the promises of economic development were greater than the reality.

The cars never came to town and the roads never got built
and the price of all that power kept on going straight uphill
The banks around the hollow sold for lakefront property
where doctors, lawyers, and musicians teach their kids to waterski.

Uncle Frank couldn’t read or write
so there was no note or letter found when he died.
Just a rope around his neck and the kitchen table turned on its side

This song interests me because I read about the TVA recently in Water Wars by Diane Raines Ward. In its early days, the TVA served as a model for water development. It lessened the flooding along the Tennessee River, which in turn helped combat malaria and other maladies. It provided cheap, clean hydroelectricity for a region where many homes didn't even have power and those that did had been powered by dirty coal plants. It provided jobs during the Great Depression in a region sorely in need of economic development. Its hydropower fueled some of the aluminum plants -- as well as Oak Ridge National Laboratory -- that helped the U.S. win World War II. While some critics complained about too much government control, the TVA showed how important it is to manage a river as a whole system. TVA consultants were sought by developing nations wishing to control their water resources in a similar manner.

But by the time those countries came calling, the TVA was already heading downhill. Instead of staying true to their charter, they decided their business should be power generation rather than river management. Consequently, the TVA started building nuclear power plants and even coal plants (keep in mind part of their original mission was to replace coal plants). The nuclear plants crippled the TVA with debt, so "the price of all that power kept on going straight uphill." Now the TVA is an example of a good idea gone wrong, or at least a good idea that lost its focus. Of course, "Uncle Frank" is looking at the TVA from a "micro" point of view. While overall it did a lot of good, the lives of some people were deeply affected and even ruined in the name of Progress.

Labels: energy, lyrics, water

- posted by David Johnsen @ 11:18 AM 2 comments

 
Bastard of the Day
It has to be EPA administrator Stephen Johnson, who claims that Indiana's BP butt-kissing is good for the Great Lakes. This article is so full of bullshit that it defies critical analysis (although Jennifer tries). It's no surprise that the Bush administration is against the environment in general (which is why Christie Todd Whitman quit the EPA), especially when it's sucking up to the oil industry. But like Senator Dick Durbin said, that doesn't make it acceptable.

An overwhelming majority of the U.S. House approved a resolution asking Indiana to reconsider its decision to let Bastard Polluters dump extra toxins into my drinking water, but the state doesn't care. I've had enough of their crap lately (the Illinoisans-pay-full-boat-on-the-toll-road debacle is another example). It's bad enough they gave us Dan Quayle. Let's declare those Hoosier bastards a "rogue state" and attack. Or better yet, let's make Indianapolis draw its drinking water out of Lake Michigan, preferably within 50 feet of the BP refinery's drainpipe. Then we'll see whether it really poses no threat to people.

Labels: bastards, Indiana, US politics, water

- posted by David Johnsen @ 12:48 PM 1 comments

 
Bastard of the Day
Today's winner is BP, which of course stands for Bastard Polluters. The state of Indiana has granted them permission to dump more ammonia and industrial sludge into Lake Michigan as part of a refinery expansion program. That's my drinking water, you bastards!

You can read the article for all of BP's public relations garbage about "minimal environmental impact," blah blah blah. But the state's explanation is even worse:

In response to public protests, state officials justified the additional pollution by concluding the project will create more jobs and "increase the diversity and security of oil supplies to the Midwestern United States." A rarely invoked state law trumps anti-pollution rules if a company offers "important social or economic benefits."

How many jobs? Eighty. That's all. So Indiana gave BP an exemption to pollute the drinking water of millions in the name of creating 80 jobs. Thanks a lot, you Hoosier bastards.

Labels: bastards, Indiana, water

- posted by David Johnsen @ 1:42 PM 0 comments