It has been an amazing adventure to write SLB, read the comments and receive various feedback. The first post was on March 16, 2008. Today there are more than 300 posts.
The simple statistics, visitors from 148 countries, by more than 80,000 unique visitors viewing the blog more than 149,000 times. Topics on SLB include nuclear power, climate change, renewable energy, oil, gas, and coal as energy, fresh water, legal cases, some aspects of the law, and various aspects of engineering. SLB has had articles copied and published on other blogs, with two of those translated into German and published on German sites.
The most widely-read articles include those on climate change and the Truth About Nuclear Power series of 30 articles. Also in the top is the article where temperature trends for more than 80 cities in the US are displayed. The lack of warming in smaller towns is obvious, as is the pronounced warming in big cities.
It is quite satisfying to have written the 30 articles on Truth About Nuclear Power, and see so many of the points made there continue to occur in the real world. As examples, long construction times and delays occur in almost every nuclear plant project, at Vogtle and Sumner in the US, and Olkiluoto in Finland, and Flamanville in France. Cost over-runs also occur just as TANP states. Nuclear plant subsidies also occur for floundering plants, just as TANP states. The horrific meltdowns in Fukushima and cleanup efforts are a grim reminder of the frailty of nuclear plant designs and the power of Nature. The multiple near-misses each year continue, with another ten serious safety issues having occurred in 2015, in the US reactors alone. Small modular reactors continue to be a dream, as are all the other futuristic forms of nuclear power. One Chinese plant with pebble bed uranium is supposed to start up in a year of two and it will be watched and written about on SLB.
The climate change issue has been, and continues to be, much fun to watch and write about. The False-Alarmists really have themselves boxed in, with their computer models failing badly when compared to measured temperatures. My speeches on the topic mention this, and the utter failure of every calamitous outcome predicted by the false-alarmists. Rising seas, melting polar ice, disappearing glaciers, snow vanished from the Earth, warming temperatures, increased hurricanes and stronger hurricanes, increased tornadoes and stronger tornadoes, the list of failed predictions goes on and on.
It is also rewarding to observe the rise of the renewable energy forms, solar and wind in particular, and various storage technologies. Knowing that coal production is very limited and will be exhausted within 20 years in the US, and 50 to 60 years world-wide, it is vital that the renewable energy be developed and matured rapidly.
On the legal side, it is always a pleasure to assist clients with their legal issues. It is also rewarding to make the effort and help shape the outcome of various US policies on the environment, energy, climate change regulations, and especially to hold various persons and entities accountable for their wrong-doing.
There has been much written over the years on possibility of vast wars over oil, and over food, and over water. What is not written about, as far as I know, is the looming catastrophe when electricity stops flowing as the coal resources expire. The US’ policies must be made with this in mind, as it is one of the most important of all the issues at hand.
One last comment on the reception SLB articles receive from some readers. Apparently, they read only that I am an attorney, then immediately pre-judge and stereotype that information as just another know-nothing legal beagle. The fact is, I am somewhat unusual in having a chemical engineering degree and three decades of world-wide experience both with operating companies and consulting. The law degree and attorney license is in addition to those credentials. Therefore, I have a very sound basis for the technical and economic arguments that I make. see link to biographical sketch.
My best to all who read SLB. As always, comments are welcome and are moderated by me.
Roger E. Sowell, Esq.
Marina del Rey, California
copyrignt © 2016 by Roger Sowell, all rights reserved.
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