The authorship of this piece is unknown to me- I came across it in my Facebook feed. “There has been a lot of discussion over the past few days about our Prime Minister’s speech at the World Economic Forum. I believe he delivered remarks that will be remembered and referenced for years to come, and […]
Category: General Interest
The Circular Economy is a Thermodynamic Myth
TL&DR Summary: all real systems have energy and matter inputs, and generate waste streams of both matter and “entropy” (i.e. the entropy of the universe always increases). A “circular economy” is a thermodynamic impossibility. We should instead talk about optimal recycle, where the environmental impacts of matter waste are balanced against energy input and its […]
ER-6 Battery Pack Replacement
I converted a 1975 Triumph Spitfire to a fully electric vehicle in 2014. The project is described here, including the specifications of the motor, inverter and other components. And a word of warning: this project changed my life infinitely for the better. Be careful what you get up to in your spare time! https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/e-fire-triumph-spitfire-ev-paul-martin After […]
Chemical Recycling of Plastics
People hate plastics, or at least often say they do. In fact they are happy to have their lives saved by single use medical plastics, and they reward the convenience of plastics at the cash register whenever they’re offered, unless somebody gets in the way with regulations, but they still claim to hate them. Why […]
The Ocean Cleanup is as Dumb as DAC- and that’s saying something
photo credit: Ocean Cleanup UPDATED: 7 Aug 2025, to fix typos and to repeat myself about real solutions, because commenters simply will not click on the links to other articles where I deal with these solutions in depth To some, this one is a really sacred cow for some reason. And frankly I find the […]
The ER-6: An Electrifying Conversion
UPDATED: 05/12/24 Those of you new to my articles may not know the beautiful and sad story of my previous conversion, my beloved Triumph E-Fire. Its told here in detail, from prehistory to its sad end…https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/e-fire-triumph-spitfire-ev-paul-martin/ This is the story of a resurrection- an electrifying conversion! In spring of 2019 I bought a 1973 Triumph […]
Home Heating-Electrification?
UPDATE 17/08/2024: major updated costs and analysis Warning: this article contains a lot of numbers. Numbers that tell a story. If you don’t like numbers, stop reading and spare yourself arithmetic anxiety. It should not be news to you that people in Canada need to heat their homes. Some of us also need air conditioning […]
Yes, Virginia, Solar Really is THAT Cheap!
TL&DR Summary: yes, it really is that cheap. It’s not bullshit. It’s real. And it’s going to power the world. Well, not the whole world- but a very significant part of the world. Those of you who read my articles will know that I have a small farm east of Toronto. We’ve built a couple […]
The Refinery of the Future
photo credit: Google Gemini TL&DR: we will continue to refine petroleum to make the chemicals and materials we need in a decarbonized future. We’ll just do it without the burning. It will be complex, expensive, and will take a new kind of refinery which looks quite different than today’s refinery. You’ve no doubt heard the […]
The Primary Energy Fallacy
The Primary Energy Fallacy- or, Committest Thou NOT the 2nd Sin of Thermodynamics! TL&DR Summary: if anybody starts talking to you about “primary energy” in a discussion about decarbonization, please punch them in the mouth. Energy is like currency- there’s an exchange rate between heat (chemical energy) and work (electricity)- they are not worth the […]