Essays & Other Articles
This section archives articles and essays on topics that don’t quite fit into the other categories on energy. They include articles on high-mileage vehicles, chain-reaction accidents, our neighbors, Tule fog, and . . . well . . . other subjects.
Beating swords into plowshares or wind turbines & solar panels: We could have done it
By
Paul Gipe
Yes, the United States could be generating 100% of its electricity from renewable energy if we had used the money spent on our ill-advised wars in the Middle East to build wind and solar systems, as well as battery storage, here at home. That’s the startling conclusion of a simple calculation my colleague Robert Freehling and I made after the latest reports on the economic cost of our wars in the Middle East.
NR 44-4612: One of the Ones that Didn’t Make it Home
By
Paul Gipe
On the glacial plain just north of the High Tatras Mountains that separates Poland from Slovakia is the village of Koniówka. Unlike the surrounding foothills with their ski slopes and second-home villas for the wealthy of Poland and Russia, Koniówka is remarkable for only two things. It’s flat and everywhere else is not, and on 13 September 1944 an American B-17 Flying Fortress crashed nearby.
Never a Dull Moment–Shooting on the Bike Path at 6.25 am
By
Paul Gipe
Yep, can’t make this stuff up. No one would believe you.
Unearthly: The Little Lake Earthquakes in the Back Country
By
Paul Gipe
It was the sound you noticed first, an unearthly rumble that grew louder but never quite reaching a crescendo as it neared you. Then the ground beneath your feet moved. The solid earth we stood on moved. The ground that we take for granted as solid as anything can ever be–moved. Then the movement and the sound died away. It was exhilarating, but also unsettling. If the earth can move like that, what can we rely on as solid, unmovable?
Copes is No More: The Darkness Descends as the Last of the Independent Grocers Bites the Dust
By
Paul Gipe
We’d seen the signs before we left. For the past several months we watched the inventory disappear. Then they took out some rows of shelving, but the inventory continued to shrink. All signs we’d seen before at Green Frog.
Justice in America: If You’re Going to Steal–Steal Big
By
Paul Gipe
Charles Keating died recently. His death marked a milestone in American political history. His crimes and those of my nephew illustrates one of the truisms in America often attributed to Al Capone. “If you’re going to steal, steal big.”
