Category: Climate Change (Page 1 of 3)

This is a bad idea.

July 12, 2026 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

FCC Approves Reflect Orbital’s Space Mirror Satellite That Astronomers Hate

Despite a flood of objections, the FCC has approved a startup’s plan to launch a controversial satellite that’ll use a giant mirror to reflect sunlight to Earth after dark.

This technology is designed to heat up the planet by adding energy. If anyone ever cared about global warming, they should be talking about this.

I’m not very smart. I got a B- in Electrodynamics. There are people way smarter, but this should be obvious to anyone.

Sparky recalls the old wisdom.

March 18, 2026 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

During our morning fellowship, Sparky told me that under the ancient gods, it never snowed after St. Patrick’s Day. That’s why we drink green beer.

He’s not wrong.

The ethanol mandate is a dumb idea nobody will touch.

February 28, 2026 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

City Journal: A Simple Policy to Reduce Food Prices

Using food to make fuel is such a stupid idea, politicians won’t even consider changing the rule.

EPA rules effectively require that automotive gasoline sold in the U.S. contain 10 percent ethanol…The amount of energy contained in a gallon of ethanol, it turns out, is only slightly higher than the fossil-fuel energy needed to grow and process the corn that produces that ethanol.

Epstein files show there is a global conspiracy.

February 26, 2026 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

Human trafficking and under-age women are what landed Jeffrey Epstein in prison, but he was doing much more than that.

WSJ: The quest for electric airplanes.

August 29, 2024 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

WSJ: Quest for electric planes.

Why must we entertain and finance blatantly stupid ideas? Nothing is going to make Greta Thunberg happy, so let’s stop trying. No government money or mandates should encourage the dumb ideas.

City Journal: Green Tech is a Fantasy.

April 19, 2024 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

City Journal: Politics and Physics Collide

The legislature and unelected regulators enjoy magical thinking because the time frames are long, they will never be held responsible and perhaps engineers can meet the goals. Automakers have long been burdened with fleet economy standards that must be met. The Laws of Thermodynamics are problems for engineers, not legislators. Cars became lighter and less safe while also becoming more complex and expensive.

The idea that the United States can quickly “transition” away from hydrocarbons—the energy sources primarily used today—to a future dominated by so-called green technologies has become one of the central political divides of our time.

WaPo: Bunnies should be your next pet.

February 21, 2024 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

WaPo: Rabbits are Better Pets

Cats and dogs have an outsize carbon footprint, mostly because of their carnivorous diet. If the pet food industry, which mainly feeds dogs and cats, were a country, it would rank as the 60th-highest greenhouse gas emitter, equivalent to the Philippines.

When I was an RA at Ohio State my senior year, me and a few other RA’s got a bunny. We named him Travis. I don’t recall how or why we got a pet rabbit. Lisa, an RA in Barrett, was very sweet and loved animals, so it was probably her idea. Scott and I liked spontaneous dumb ideas, so we were in, and Barb liked being in on the secret.

WaPo: What Scientists Know About Aliens.

November 26, 2023 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

WaPo: What We Know About Aliens

It came from space, hurtling at tremendous speed: a mystery object, reddish, rocky, shaped like a cigar. Its velocity was so extreme it had to have come from somewhere far away, in the interstellar realm. The astronomers in Hawaii who spotted it in 2017 named it ‘Oumuamua, Hawaiian for “a messenger from afar arriving first.”

Don’t forget the unexplainable Wow! signal detected by Ohio State in 1977.

WSJ: Everything is broken, but it might get better.

September 29, 2023 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

WSJ: Moral order is Crumbling

One would have to be incredibly naive or distracted to think that society is functioning properly. Very little of the federal government is operating in the best interests of the American people. On the local level, several cities have stopped enforcing laws and have gone quite feral.

Beaming energy from space. Death ray or utopian solution?

August 8, 2023 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

SciTechDaily: CalTech satellite beams energy from space.

A space solar power prototype, SSPD-1, has achieved wireless power transfer in space and transmitted power to Earth. The prototype, including MAPLE, a flexible lightweight microwave transmitter, validates the feasibility of space solar power, which can provide abundant and reliable power globally without ground-based transmission infrastructure.

This is one of those dangerous ideas that sound wonderful until you understand it.