Tag / carbon in the atmosphere

by Nathan Coumbe

Solar panels and parking lots

In the spirit of yesterday’s post, I wanted to share one of my “genius ideas” to get the ball rolling. (Whether this is genius or not is up for debate). 

In my city, like many around the United States, there are huge swaths of land that have been completely paved over for parking. Miles and miles of parking lots with no cover whatsoever. 

Here are the problems I’ve identified with this:

  • They make the area miserably hot (especially your car)
  • You have to walk a LONG way in the heat or pouring rain to get inside whatever building you’re aiming for
  • They serve no purpose other than just “being there” for parking

So my “genius idea” was this:

What if we put “coverings” over all the parking lots in the area? ALL of them. And THEN, put solar panels on top of all the coverings?

The benefits, in my mind, are outrageous!

  • Covered, shaded areas that keep you dry and cool
  • A beneficial, second-order effect of creating clean energy from something that was once basically useless open area
  • That clean energy could then be used to power the buildings nearby, cutting down on carbon emissions and fossil fuel usage and potentially saving them tons of money on their energy bills

My wonderful wife also came up with the idea that you could power giant fans hanging from all the coverings with the solar power to keep things breezy and cool as well. 

Now, I currently don’t have the means to make this happen. And as much as I would love for this to be my million dollar idea, I don’t yet see how to make it happen. 

But I’m sharing it with you so that you might start thinking about your own genius idea. AND so that someone with more knowledge, means, and abilities than me could make this into a feasible project. 

Have you starting ideating yet? Have you come up with your million-dollar idea?

by Nathan Coumbe

We aren’t trying to save the planet…

There are those of us working hard to stop and (hopefully) reverse climate change.

You know—that exponential increase in carbon in the air? You might prefer to call it atmosphere cancer instead (h/t Seth Godin). 

Well, here’s the thing:

We aren’t trying to save the planet. 

Planet Earth doesn’t need our help. It can take care of itself.

Mother Nature is a powerful force. The Earth (and life itself) was here long before we were… And it will be here long after we’re gone.

We aren’t working to save the planet.

We’re trying to save humanity. 

The next generation, all future generations of the human species, are in danger from the changes coming from atmospheric carbon build-up. 

  • Famine
  • Flooding
  • Droughts
  • Extreme weather
  • Massive population displacement.

Those are the dangers we’re facing and fighting.

So maybe the problem is one of semantics (the meaning of our words). 

Maybe we need to stop talking about “saving the planet.” Because nobody really seems to care.

But people do care about themselves and their own survival. It’s human nature. And the words we use matter, especially when we’re trying to change minds (or the world). 

So, just remember, when someone talks about saving the environment, what they really mean is this:

“I’m trying to save the human race.”

Make sure to check out all the awesome work the volunteers are doing over at The Carbon Almanac to keep the world habitable for future generations.

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by Nathan Coumbe

“Googling” is an underrated skill

If you spend any time coding, you’ll quickly discover that you don’t know, can’t remember, or never learned something you need to make your project work. 

Enter Google (or whatever search engine you prefer*). 

All you have to do is type in a few words related to the problem you’re trying to solve and voila! You’ve got your solution. 

Seth Godin says in his great talk, “Stop Stealing Dreams,” that there’s no longer any need to memorize stuff. And this is exactly why—if you need something, you can just look it up.

I would agree with him, but I’d also take that idea a step farther.

As you look things up and implement them in your projects (and not just coding projects either), they will eventually become muscle memory.

The important thing is implementation—put what you look up to use immediately so that it slowly becomes a part of your vocabulary. 

I think there are two points to this post:

  1. Learn how to get good at looking up the answers to your problems rather than staying stuck
  2. Memorizing things for the sake of memorizing is pointless—but memorization will come naturally as you IMPLEMENT what you look up

*Instead of using Google, I’d highly recommend you check out Ecosia as your new search engine. Here’s why:

  • Your search results are THE SAME as what you’d get on Google
  • Your information isn’t constantly sold to the highest bidder
  • You aren’t inundated with useless ads from the highest bidder instead of quality search results
  • Using Ecosia makes your searches CARBON NEGATIVE
  • For every 45 searches you make, Ecosia plants a new tree in a place where it’s needed (that’s every 11 days for the average person)

While you’re developing your “Googling” skills, consider switching to Ecosia today.

by Nathan Coumbe

A Carbon Almanac for kids

We launched our eBook for children!

All the generous volunteers over at The Carbon Almanac have been working extremely hard to put together an easy-to-read and beautiful almanac for children.

It’s meant to help spread the facts about climate change and give them an opportunity to contribute to the work of making things better.

Also, we’re planting TEN TREES for every one that’s cut down to print our books and we want YOUR kids to name them for us. 

Get your free eBook and check out all the details here.

by Nathan Coumbe

The Carbon Almanac (your chance to make a difference)

I’ve been volunteering for a fantastic project: The Carbon Almanac.

We’re on a mission to spread the SCIENCE behind what’s happening to our planet—without bias, without news media spins, without politicians arguing over what’s true or what needs to be done.

This is real, it’s serious, and it’s happening now. And all the proof you need (as well as the difference you can make) is in this book.

Buy a copy (or 10). Give it to people you care about. Send copies to your elected officials. Hand them out at work.

Help us make a difference so that we all have a safe, healthy place to live in the next century.

Learn more here.