Notaitons On Our World (Week End Edition): On The Battle for Paradise

Welcome to Earth Day Week-End.   Our Community, Laguna Niguel, is celebrating Earth Day by working at one of the secret gems here in our Community: Niguel Botannical Perserve.   It is a reminder to us all that we have one Earth.  

The need to protect it and insure that lives are saved is the responsibility of each and everyone of us.      As we deemed this weekly "The Battle For Paradise", there needs to be a realization that our entire Earth is Paradise.     

We wanted to share some thoughts on it as we hope to build upon this on the rays of hope out Puerto Rico: 



This is also we hereby present this courtesy of Peter Diamandis about the true possibilities to go beyond Fossil Fuels and think about how to be smart.    There is no choice:

Every five days, the Sun provides the Earth with as much energy as all proven supplies of oil, coal and natural gas. If humanity could capture just one part of 6,000 in available solar energy, we’d be able to meet 100 percent of our energy needs. We’re about to enter an age of energy abundance. This year, Peter brought Ramez Naam to Abundance 360 to explore how converging exponential technologies will reshape the energy industry in the years and decades ahead. Naam spent 13 years as a Microsoft executive, and now heads the Energy track at Singularity University. He is a brilliant speaker, an acclaimed science fiction writer and one of Peter’s dear friends. Before we dive in, here is some context: As the video notes, the poorest countries in the world are also the sunniest, which means that the entire planet will benefit from the coming energy revolution. Plummeting Solar Costs Energy is a $6 trillion per year industry, and it’s ripe for disruption. In his A360 remarks, Naam explained how the price of solar will further plummet while efficiency and accessibility will dramatically improve. Some evidence of disruption Naam highlighted: Peabody, the largest private sector coal company on Earth, went bankrupt in 2014, about three years after its peak. In 2017, China canceled plans for 151 coal power plants -- some $80 billion of planned projects that will no longer happen. India canceled almost $9 billion of coal plants in a single month (June 2017). Shell Oil predicts that peak oil demand will arrive sometime between 2021 and 2029. Over the past 40 years, the cost of solar panel materials has dropped 250x as a result of innovations in materials science. Naam noted some major price milestones over the past year: Where: Tucson, Arizona. Cost: 4.3 cents/kWh. Where: Chile. Cost: 2.91 cents/kWh. Where: Mexico. Cost: 2.7 cents/kWh. Where: Abu Dhabi. Cost: 2.42 cents/kWh. The 2.42 cents/kWh deal signed in Abu Dhabi is the lowest unsubsidized cost per kWh ever signed anywhere in the world. And with the anticipated convergences of machine learning, quantum computing and materials science, exponential improvements in solar panel materials will only accelerate. “It's like a digital shift in price, but in the most important physical infrastructure piece we have, which is energy,” explained Naam. “So now we're hitting crossover, the point at which, in the sunniest parts of the world, solar is simply the cheapest energy you can buy, period, unsubsidized.” The digitization of solar technology improvements is clear. The materials science of solar is a close cousin to that of computation: both rely on semiconductor and thin film technologies at their core. With an exponential price decline in solar material cost, what other innovations must happen to truly approach dematerialized solar? Currently, the amount of solar installed each year increases by 35 to 40 percent. Considering this growth, we’ll see secondary and tertiary accelerants to the already exponential nature of solar. Two-thirds of the cost of solar comes from soft costs -- land, panel framing, solar trackers, maintenance, and so on. (Effectively everything besides the panels themselves.) While robotic and automated solar trackers have been part of solar construction for some time, robotic labor and maintenance are about to disrupt the industry. One megawatt of solar power is estimated to require 8 acres of land. U.S. solar capacity is on the order of 3,000 megawatts (only 0.65 percent of U.S. power produced), about 24,000 acres of solar-covered land. Extrapolating the 8-acre-per-megawatt estimate to a time when solar dominates 10 percent of U.S. energy, and we’ll need over 1.6 million acres of solar installations. 1.6 million acres is a lot of land to cover and maintain -- for humans. Solar farm robots will range from autonomous solar-panel-installing trucks to robotic solar panel technicians and surveillance drones and sensors detecting broken panels. Removing the added cost of labor associated with laying acres of solar panels will be a secondary accelerant to lowering the cost of solar. A tertiary accelerant happens when we can use renewable energy overnight and during inclement weather. Energy Storage Shakeup The utility of renewable energy generators is ultimately linked to our ability to store the harnessed energy. Exponential advances in renewable technologies will converge with exponential advances in storage technology. We’re in the middle of an energy storage shakeup. “Storage is the new solar,” says Naam. “This is where we’re seeing the rapid price plunge that’s now changing everything.” To contextualize how rapidly storage technologies are improving, lithium-ion battery costs have dropped 5x over the past eight years. Battery prices are decreasing at nearly the same rate as solar prices decreased, but a decade later. Taking Action Naam described four ways that entrepreneurs can take action: Watch the exposure of your supply chain to fossil fuel disruption Get efficient and cut your energy costs in production (for example, by tapping into services like Sparkfund) Get flexible and think about energy-intensive investments Invest in the future. Peter often says that we are living in the most opportunity-filled time in human history. An abundance of energy enables an entirely new era of innovation, with untold implications on everyday life and the global standard of living. As a leader, how will you prepare for this change?  Some already are as exemplified by this that we hope to see: Scientists in Japan 🇯🇵 found an enzyme that quickly eats plastic waste - it normally takes 400 years for a plastic bottle to decompose https://t.co/3trnucJNgs pic.twitter.com/Hx3xSmzP8r — Vala Afshar (@ValaAfshar) April 17, 2018

Notations On Our World (Special Friday Edition): On the @Comey Memos

As we are pleased to present another of the interviews of the Comey Book Tour, we wanted to report that the Comey Memos are out and it has been the talk of the town throughout the forthnight.   .   The House GOP leadership asked for it and it was almost immediately leaked--by the House GOP leadership.   There were critcisms as to why no previous memos existed--his explanation is simple:  He was disturbed by the role President Trump had undertaken.   It is interesting how they are detailed and reinforces all that he has noted in the level of consistency: 

Ex FBI Director James Comey s Memos by Anonymous qhCEBvau on Scribd

Notations On Our World (Special Edition): On the National WalkOut Tomorrow along w/A Series of Gunfortunate Events

Trevor Noah, once again, reflected upon a current event--this about the pending school walkout tomorrow to protest gun violence.    The Principal of our Hometown High School sent out guidance to the Aliso Niguel Community that is worth noting as it is critical to note that the challenge continues to persist due to the inaction by the Congress of the United States:

Dear Wolverine Families, 

As you may be aware, some national organizers are again calling for a student walkout – during school hours tomorrow, Friday, April 20th.  This walkout is reportedly intended to call attention to school violence and issues of gun control.  According to the information we have, students are first being asked to leave class at approximately 10:00 for thirteen minutes (in memory of the 13 students who died in the Columbine High School shooting in 1999), and then to also leave campus for the remainder of the day and attend various community protest events.  We ask for your support in reminding students that they should NOT ever leave campus without first following proper attendance callout procedures.  Our district communications office in March previously sent all CUSD families and staff a letter outlining important information and key points, which will again serve as the foundation for what we will do at ANHS if we have students who choose to participate in this walkout.

While we deeply value each and every one of our student's voices, we are not sponsoring nor endorsing participation in this or any demonstration. However, our student's safety will always be our highest priority and we have a plan to ensure we are doing everything we can to keep our students safe in the event they choose to walk out. Below you will find guidelines that we will be following at ANHS, many of which were outlined in the previous communication from me and our district office.

• We will direct any students who choose to walk out to a supervised location on campus; students should NOT leave campus for any reason.
• Students do who leave campus without first following proper attendance callout procedures will be marked truant and subject to disciplinary consequences.
• If a student chooses to walk out of class they will not be prohibited or blocked from doing so in any way.
• Students will not be forced or pressured to participate in the walkout by any teacher or school employee.
• We ask that all students, regardless of whether they choose to participate or not, are respectful of each other's choices and views and continue to help make ANHS a safe, supportive, and accepting community for all students.

As always, thank you for your support of our students and school. 
Sincerely,

Deni Christensen - Principal

Excerpt from previous District Communications sent in March:

While CUSD supports the rights of our students to express their beliefs under the state and federal First Amendment rights, as a District we are not sponsoring or advocating any participation in demonstrations. Supporting the remarks by the California State PTA, “care must be taken to ensure that orderly operation of the school is not disrupted and the physical safety of students is not threatened.” We have all agreed that our focus will remain on instruction and learning and to keep students safe in classrooms.  

If students walk out of their classrooms or the school, we will supervise and will work with our campuses to strongly encourage that these activities take place in the safest locations possible. Because this is a highly publicized known day to strangers, we continue to reinforce that the safest place to be is in the classroom. ​We do not encourage students to congregate in open areas putting themselves at risk and we expect our students to follow the guidance of our principals and staff to ensure safety. In accordance with state law, we will not discipline students who choose to assemble, provided they adhere to District and school guidelines including, but not limited to:
 

• All activities must be peaceful and respectful.
• At no time may students leave the campus.
• Additionally, a student may be marked truant if they do not return to the classroom or if they leave the campus. 

We continue to encourage parents to have a conversation with their students and to make their own expectations clear about participating in student demonstrations and these non-school sponsored activities. Principals and school staff who have been approached by students should continue to talk with them about this matter and maintain open lines of communication with parents.

To further support a safe campus environment, outside groups, parents/guardians, and other individuals who do not have official school business will not be allowed on campus to participate in the walkouts. As part of our normal operations, anyone visiting school campuses for school-related matters or for volunteer work must check in with the front office.  

We are committed to the safety of all of our students and desire to assure staff, families, and students that our site staff will work tirelessly to create a positive, supportive learning environment on all of our campuses in the event of any student demonstrations.

Our priority is student learning and safety. What we expect this month from our students will ensure that our students understand future expectations, as many other walkouts are being planned nationally.