My lovely long weekend is about to end so here’s a quick set of things I’ve been meaning to tell you about:
Increase science knowledge among students in Florida with this Donors Choose project.
Easily calculate public domain works in the U.S. with the American Library Association’s "Is it in Copyright?" digital slider tool.
What if America as a nation had risen to the challenge President Carter laid out for us on July 15, 1979? Solid steps to energy independence, funding from windfall profits taxes, $10 billion invested in public transportation,
"We often think of conservation only in terms of sacrifice. In fact, it
is the most painless and immediate way of rebuilding our nation’s
strength. Every gallon of oil each one of us saves is a new form of
production. It gives us more freedom, more confidence, that much more
control over our own lives."
He said "there are no short-term solutions to our long-range problems" and he was right. Those problems didn’t go away between now and then; they just got worse and more time-critical.
Lest you think that’s all just hypothetical, compare the U.S. approach to foreign oil use to Japan’s:
In Japan, on the other hand, the government and private companies have
stayed on course since the First Oil Shock. Despite the doubling of
Japan’s gross domestic product during the 1970s and 1980s, its annual
overall levels of energy consumption have remained unchanged.
Today, Japan uses only half as much energy for every dollar’s worth of
economic activity as the European Union or the United States. In
addition, national and local authorities have continually enforced
strict energy-conservation standards for new buildings.It is, again, Japan that has made significant progress when it comes
to renewable sources of energy. By 2006, for instance, it was
responsible for producing almost half of total global solar power, well
ahead of the U.S., even though it was an American, Russell Ohl, who
invented the silicon solar cell, the building block of solar
photovoltaic panels, which convert sunshine into electricity.
Does it take behavior change? Yes. However,
Whoever said anybody has a right to give up?
–Marian Wright Edelman
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