I have written here several times about the fact that the U.S. crossed a tipping point in 2006 regarding global warming.  It is now a subject that a majority of Americans have awareness of and are concerned about.  As with most large issues that are complex, it often takes time for the citizens to understand and to then take action.  If it can be made personal or emotional the process is accelerated.  Global warming is no different.

Three or four years ago, when I was discussing global warming, the enormity of the problem and the developing urgency to act, I found that many people, even intelligent and socially aware people did not fully see the problem.  Since it was not readily apparent in their lives it was more of an abstract concept to be discussed and debated. Is it real?  What can I do? How serious is it really?  Is humanity at cause? This was a most common point of view if one was not a committed environmentalist.  Back then I came upon a rationale that always created alarm.  Regardless of the person to whom I was speaking I started to ask if they were a parent, and if so, how old were their kids.  If the age of the kids was under 15 I basically said that the reason to be concerned about global warming was that there was a significant possibility that their grandchildren might not live out their natural life, or if they did so, their later …

In this seventh installment of our on-going series of interviews with some of the leading thinkers and scientists on the subject of energy, we interview Dr. Feng Hsu.

Facing and solving the multiple issues concerning energy is the single most pressing problem that we face as a species. There is a lot of media coverage about energy, alternative energy and global warming, but what has been missing is the knowledge and point of view of scientists, at least in the main stream media. If you have missed the first five interviews, please scroll down the right side of the page and click on ‘Scientists – Interviews’.

Perhaps the single greatest solution for eliminating the global dependency on fossil fuels is Space Solar Power. This has not received nearly the coverage it should in the ever growing discussion about global warming and alternative energy. This interview with Dr. Hsu is a great introduction to SSP, and from one of the greatest authorities on the subject. Please plan to set aside some time to read this entire interview and you will learn about what might well be the solution to the global energy crisis.

Dr. Feng Hsu is Senior Aerospace Engineer for NASA and a former research fellow of Nuclear Energy Dept. (now Energy Sciences Technology) at BNL (Brookhaven National Laboratory, http://www.BNL.gov). Dr. Hsu is a renowned world expert with decades of experiences in the field of Risk and Safety assessment and mission assurance management for complex engineering systems, such as …

In this fifth installment of our on-going series of interviews with some of the leading thinkers and scientists on the subject of energy, we interview Martin Hoffert.

Facing and solving the multiple issues concerning energy is the single most pressing problem that we face as a species. There is a lot of media coverage about energy, alternative energy and global warming, but what has been missing is the knowledge and point of view of scientists, at least in the main stream media. If you have missed the first four interviews, please scroll down the right side of the page and click on ‘Scientists – Interviews’.

Martin I. Hoffert is Professor Emeritus of Physics and former Chair of the Department of Applied Science at New York University. He is a member of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and was elected fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). I met Marty at the Foundation for the Future’s Energy Conference a couple of months ago and was struck by his passionate outspokenness on the energy issues confronting the world today. Whether it was due to his emeritus stature, which allows him to speak without an institutional filter or just his nature, he was one of the most passionate and delightfully opinionated scientists at the conference. Enjoy the following interview with Marty.

Please note that at the end of the interview there are two links from YouTube that feature Marty. …

A newspapers function is to report the news.  It is also to sell newspapers.  As a result we the readers usually are subjected to endless articles about national and local politics, the disaster in Iraq, the latest news of the celebrity or celebrity couple of the moment, and most recently all aspects of the global warming issue.  At least the last topic is getting attention, as the survival of our species could be in the balance. 

From time to time there is an article in the newspaper that can shift the reader’s consciousness to an entirely different place than the obsessing about the human condition.  There was such an article the other day in the New York Times that did that for me.  Under the headline “Astronomers Report One for the Record Books” was the story about the human ‘discovery’ of the brightest and most powerful stellar explosion ever recorded.  Of course ever recorded means by humans, not necessarily the largest ever, but since it is a newspaper for humans, we’ll let that one go.

Last September, a graduate student from the University of Texas was using a small telescope at the McDonald Observatory in Texas.  The graduate student, Robert Quimby was “trolling for supernovas” late one night when he discovered this explosion in a galaxy 240 million light years away in the constellation Perseus.  [Now I have never trolled for supernovas let alone deep sea fish, but Quimby obviously must now be considered to be a master at supernova trolling].  The …