Schreiner’s Media Landscape

September 8, 2010

Oil Shale Debate is Back with New Report on “Fossil Foolishness”; A Defining Issue in Utah’s Race for Governor

Filed under: America, Environment, Oil, Power Grid, Salt Lake, Solar, Utah, coal, conservation, geothermal, mining, pollution, renewable, water, wind — Ken Schreiner @ 7:43 am

Utah’s governor goes on a statewide fact-finding/discussion sort of campaign starting today to develop an energy policy or something. An admirable endeavor seeing as Utah’s energy policy has basically been oil/coal/natural gas since the invention of the internal combustion engine and the forced-air furnace. The only mistake Gov. Herbert seems to be making is assuming oil shale development is acceptable. It simply is not.

Yet another report is now out showing how oil shale development is bad for the environment, bad for consumers, a waste of water and, ironically, energy. But you can bet with the BP disaster, scarcer resources, and the lack of any national energy policy that, in the coming weeks, the pressure from fossil fuel makers on Utah’s governor to bow to their demands and piles of special interest money is going to be enough to squeeze oil from his skull.

Herbert would be best advised to open his mind to Utah’s major renewable resources of solar, geothermal, wind, and biomass and lead their development on a global scale, bypassing our myopic and unstable federal government. Renewable is where the rest of the world is going and the market for related products is being cornered by China, Germany, Japan and other countries who see the future clearly and are seizing it.

If Herbert can’t see it, then I suggest we get a new governor. Democrat Peter Corroon has been a long-time advocate of renewable energy and is adept at actually implementing it as Salt Lake County mayor at the Salt Palace and elsewhere. If energy is not a defining issue in this November’s election, I don’t know what is.

August 20, 2010

The McMansion: RIP

Filed under: America, conservation, sprawl — Ken Schreiner @ 5:47 pm

More articles are mourning the death of the so-called McMansion: a 3,200 sq. ft. or larger suburban home built in the 1990s and later. But while you can declare a concept dead, it’s not so easy with the zillions of over-sized, steroid-ridden monstrosities that will still be standing- many of them empty- for decades to come. Here’s an idea: entire subdivisions made up of bed-and-breakfasts.

August 19, 2010

Negative Gas Bill? Impossible Dream Comes True Thanks to Solar Hot Water!

Filed under: Environment, Power Grid, Schreiner Productions, Solar, Utah, conservation, pollution, renewable, water — Ken Schreiner @ 6:00 pm

Cubs win World Series. Bill O’Reilly gets a story right. Some things you just can’t believe will ever happen. Ever. What about a natural gas bill of- nothing? In fact, negative nothing. That’s what I got today from Questar. We installed a solar hot water system in our home earlier this year. Ever since, our gas bills have averaged around $4.00 less per month than before installation. But this past month’s was a whopper- as in a big, fat zero. Not only did we not use any natural gas all month (we barbecue, the furnace is off for the summer, and our water is heated by the sun), due to an accounting error, Questar’s corrections actually resulted in a credit of $2.18. They owe us.

Our solar hot water system makes all the difference and, while it’s not rocket science and is easily affordable, it’s unique in several ways. Most notably, it saves even more money and pollution (though natural gas is arguably clean by fossil fuel standards) by not only heating the water using the sun, but storing the saved hot water in a tank heated by electricity (nearly all water heaters are gas). Our home is solar electricity-powered so you see the savings there.

I can’t say that a zero gas bill is ever going to happen for us again. But I can tell you that solar power and solar hot water work and save you money. And the panels look great wherever you put them.

August 17, 2010

Moose Key to Understanding Arthritis?

Filed under: Children, Nature, conservation, forest, video, wildlife — Ken Schreiner @ 8:17 am

Since shooting two documentaries in Maine in 2004 about America’s über-ungulate, I remain in awe of their size, placidity, and ability to attract tourists and admirers from all over the world. The moose should be America’s national animal, not that creepy scavenger, the bald eagle. One of my favorite shots of all time is this one. I was standing in a swamp in Baxter State Park in northern Maine at around 6 a.m. when I captured this incredible scene: a mother moose with two new calves chasing off her one or two-year-old offspring. Yearlings often track down their mothers when they’re feeling lonely but if mom’s got her hooves full, this is what happens. It’s a jungle out there.

Now comes the news that one of the longest studies of animals anywhere is providing clues to solving the mystery of one of humanity’s greatest diseases. Moose on Isle Royale in Lake Superior have had varying degrees of arthritis over more than fifty years. Scientists believe it’s related to in-utero nutrition more than anything else. But that’s just the short version. Check out the whole NYT article here. Just another reason to love moose.

August 16, 2010

Digital Diddling vs. Natural Noodling; Studying How Nature and Technology Change Our Brains

Filed under: Children, Earth, Education, Environment, Internet, Nature, Sierra Club, Utah, conservation, dualism, media, music, sprawl, television — Ken Schreiner @ 8:34 am

“Music has charms to soothe the savage breast” is what playwright William Congreve wrote in 1697. But what do cell phones, computers, video games, and other techno-distractors do to us and can Nature reverse the ill effects of technomania or the “heartache and thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to” that Shakespeare’s Hamlet whined about?

For this answer, we turn from post-Enlightenment dramatists to 20th century folk comics. “Five neuroscientists are in a raft going down the San Juan River” the joke starts. But it’s not a joke- at least there’s no punch line yet. These brainiacs have come to Utah to literally float away from modern life for a while and hopefully find out how neurotic our Blackberrys, Xboxes, and iPods make us. Simultaneously, they hope to find out if getting away from these things and, more specifically, into un-technofied natural areas or wilderness heal the wounds.

Similar studies have been done on the negative effects of modernism and the positive effects of Nature on children like Richard Louv’s famous “Last Child in the Woods.” I can say from personal experience that getting away from my computers, phone, TV and other gadgetry not only calms me down but engages me in life on Earth on a level that’s impossible from in front of a glowing screen or the wheel of a dangerous, moving vehicle.

I wish the professors luck. More than that, I hope they have a great time here in Utah. I know I do.

August 15, 2010

Solar Power Growth in Utah Finally Paying Off? Major Developments Prove The Sun is Too Big to Fail

Filed under: Earth, Environment, Legislature, Obama, Power Grid, Salt Lake, Schreiner Productions, Solar, Utah, coal, conservation, mining, politics, renewable, video — Ken Schreiner @ 9:48 am

It’s been four years since we went solar. It started with Solarius Precarious (pic left), our 2 kWh, sun-tracking array in November 2006 (it went on-line in March 2007). We expanded our commitment in January 2010 with the installation of our solar hot water system (video below). During this time, we’ve felt strangely alone. Not only do the vast majority of people not share our beliefs, commitment, and investment. Many of them still consider us stupid, crazy, and perhaps even dangerous.

After a couple of years endlessly talking about and promoting solar energy- part of my role as director for the Utah Solar Energy Association which I left in 2009 after three years- I’ve pretty much stopped. In conversation or at parties, I still get the blank disinterested looks, the angry eco-terrorist-in-our-midst reactions, and more than anything, the I-just-don’t-get-it capitulation. It’s at that point I cease my ramblings and return to the subjects of other people’s kids, movies, celebrity scandals, and the other stuff most people seem to care about.

Throw in the lousy economy and a president who seems to have abandoned his commitment to clean energy and solar appears to be a dead issue. But a couple of developments the past few days have me encouraged again. First,

the Salt Lake Tribune ran this article today about the growth of Utah’s solar industry. There are woefully few articles about the subject here despite the fact that we are one of the best places in the world to have solar. FYI: I

was featured in one of the few in the Deseret News last year (pic from the article at right). Things have definitely improved in Utah from when I got here in 2006. But the change has been glacial, mostly because of the ruling

Republican Party’s blind allegiance to coal, the fossil fuel lobby, the bad economy, and lack of effective renewable energy industry lobbyists.

Second, my commitment, promotion, and knowledge of solar power may have scored my biggest renewable energy video gig. I can’t give out details yet. I’ll know more this week and report it here. All I can tell you is it’s big- really big. That’s why I’m so excited about solar again. Not just for me but for the entire planet. Things are indeed changing for the better. And it makes me want to talk about it again- even if I still get the blank looks and have to talk about other people’s kids first.

August 10, 2010

EPA Crackdown on Cement, Mercury Pollution; Finally a Solution?

Filed under: Climate Change, Earth, Environment, Nature, Obama, Salt Lake, Sierra Club, Utah, coal, conservation, dualism, mining, pollution, renewable, water — Ken Schreiner @ 8:13 am

Inexplicably, people have been scratching their heads for decades over where all the mercury pollution in our lakes, rivers, and other waterways is coming from. It’s been steadily increasing in our fish supply during this time and prompted occasional then permanent warnings about the dangers of eating fish because of the escalating amounts of mercury in them, regardless of species. Utah’s Great Salt Lake is a cesspool of mercury. It sits among a cement plant, a couple of smelters, and a coal-burning power plant, all known mercury polluters. Yet, researchers seem at a loss to determine the source of the pollution. All I do is read a little and I figured it out.

We’ve known the source of most of this mercury all this time and have done nothing- until now. The Environmental Protection Agency is finally going after cement manufacturers, the leading emitter of mercury and one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and possible human-induced climate change. This will not sit well with birthers, right-wingers, Andrew Breitbart groupies, and other Earth-happiness-and-peace haters who think restricting their right to destroy the planet is another sign of the apocalypse.

How about cancer, asthma, birth defects, and heart attacks? Better now? Of course.

August 4, 2010

Obesity Epidemic Grows, Outdoor Activity Shrinks; Nature is Not “Cool”- It’s Everything

Filed under: America, Children, Education, Environment, Nature, Oil, Sierra Club, Utah, conservation, dualism, media, pollution, sprawl, television — Ken Schreiner @ 8:39 am

“What’s the purpose in going hiking? You just go up a mountain and then down.”

Logan resident Evelin Cornejo, 17

Utah is one of the best places for outdoor and Nature recreation. It’s the major reason I moved here. As a probable result, Utah is fifth among states with the thinnest Americans (it sure isn’t because people refuse funeral potatoes or In-and-Out Burgers). Still, it’’s difficult to get young people here interested in recreating outside- even getting them outside.  So in an attempt to pry kids away from their computers, video games, and TVs, the federal government held a meeting of a bunch of them the other day to talk about how to make Nature “cooler”.

I despise the word “cool” to describe anything. It’s a hackneyed 1950s cliche with socialist (gasp!) origins, implying that the people who use it are the only true judges of what it is. Young people have never been and never will be the true judges of what is “cool” because they don’t know much about anything at that age. “Coolness” is about status, being accepted, and rebellion. It’s one of the reasons obesity in this country continues to increase alarmingly among young people and all age groups. If “cool” means the popular and socially correct thing, most Americans, including young people, apparently think being fat, out of shape, and unhealthy is “cool”.

I applaud the feds’ efforts to stop the worsening obesity epidemic by encouraging kids to get outdoors, exercise, stop eating junk food, etc. But trying to make them believe Nature is “cool” is encouraging them to lie to themselves. Nature is not “cool”, fashionable, a commodity like a soft drink, nor an institution like work, school or church. Nature is essential. More essential than all of us and all our “cool” stuff. What schools, parents, the corporate media, and society need to teach kids is that Nature is the source of EVERYTHING, that we are a part of it, and that we distance and detach ourselves from Nature’s dominion at our peril. We deny or destroy Nature, we deny or destroy ourselves.

That includes being fat, out of shape, and really, really, RE-HEE-EALLY stupid (apologies to Dr. Perry Cox). This is how we get oil spills, human sprawl, gridlock, depression, obesity, air and water pollution, asthma, cancer, and every other societal ill we mindlessly and endlessly inflict upon ourselves. And if we continue to try and make Nature SEEM “cool”, we demean it and lower it to the status of clothes, TV shows, Emma’s new boyfriend, and Justin’s iPhone.

That’s not “cool.”

August 2, 2010

Where’s the Wave of Support for Rewewables After BP’s Gulf Disaster?

Filed under: America, Children, Earth, Environment, Nature, Oil, Solar, Utah, coal, conservation, mining, pollution, renewable — Ken Schreiner @ 1:08 pm

As I rode my bike along Willow Creek near downtown Park City the other day, I noticed something new since I’d been there a year ago. There were about seven new homes, built not only to be affordable but also passively and actively solar. They all had at least 1kWh of solar PVs and enough solar thermal panels to provide hot water for a family of at least four. As a construction guy told me at a bar later on, it’s the first subdivision of its type in Park City. This from one of the most otherwise progressive towns in America. I mean, they have a dog park.

But instead of being happy, I was actually rather sad. Seeing these new homes, which fit my idea of what all new home and office and construction should be, I thought about the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. I tried to detect a change in my own attitude as well as the rest of America. It didn’t change me much because, frankly, I changed my mind about renewable energy about ten years ago. Sadly, it has had almost zero impact on the rest of America.

No one seems to understand that our dependence on fossil fuels- oil as well as coal- is finite. No one seems to care that the toll on our children is going to far outweigh the convenience we enjoy now because of our fossil fuel folly. No one seems to care about anything except not wanting to hear about it any more. Just as they don’t want to think about energy, power, pollution or any of that ever, they don’t want to hear any more about BP, oil spills, solar power, or the people of Earth having to change their habits or face a bleak and avoidable future.

We just don’t care. Do we?

July 30, 2010

Park City the Most Bike Friendly in America?

Filed under: Nature, Utah, conservation, sports, sprawl, wildlife — Ken Schreiner @ 2:41 pm

Sorry for the glowing post about riding the Rail Trail the other day. Abbie lost two tires and I lost one to numerous stickers and thorns we rode over in one small portion of the path. We didn’t hear the tires blow. They just ultimately went flat- Abbie’s before mine. I didn’t have nearly enough material to fix them all myself. So the good folks at Jans in Park City fixed them all in about 15 minutes at a cost of $30. They’re the best.

Which brings me to Park City being the best place in America if you’re a bicycle lover. There are more bike trails, more bike stores, more bicyclists, and more bike-friendly motorists in Park City than anywhere. Of course, you have to watch out for the tourists who drive around here. They’re not nearly as bike-friendly and don’t usually know where they’re going so you still need to be careful out there.

One of our favorite places to ride is around the Swaner Wetlands Preserve (pic left) on the north side near I-80. Lots of birds, animals, and new homes, stores, restaurants and other stuff popping up around the old Olympic Village from the 2002 Winter Games. Fortunately, Park City is at least slightly environmentally enlightened so the developments are not horribly damaging to the delicate wetland ecosystem. And whether you like street biking, mountain biking, or just tooling around, Park City is the perfect place to knock the rust off those wheels.

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