It is impossible for me to write a post today without saying anything about the insurrection/coup attempt at the Capital Building on Wednesday. Debbie and I have been talking and worrying for a very long time about if there would be violence in the streets if Trump lost the election. While we did not foresee the assault on our nation’s Capital Building, with ALL…
Happy New Year. I hope that you all had a safe, restful and pleasant holiday season. While we face distressing situations right in front of us let’s have confidence that 2021 will see improved outcomes than we’ve experienced last year. I thought rather than starting out 2021 with the BIG picture I’d start with the SMALL picture. As I’ve written about in the…
I hope you had a wonderful holiday however you may celebrate. And let’s hope that we survive until noon on January 20th and that after that 2021 is a better year than this one. As we end 2020 I am astounded and delighted by the change that has occurred since the 2018 midterm election. The change in the public’s…
The time has come,’ the Walrus said, To talk of many things: Of shoes — and ships — and sealing-wax — Of cabbages — and kings — And why the sea is boiling hot — And whether pigs have wings.’ This week is a continuation of last weeks post about the end of the fossil fuel industry. This week is specifically focused on…
“This rather old saying, ‘chickens have come home to roost’, is normally used to mean that the bad things that someone has done in the past have come back to bite or haunt the individual. In other words, you are telling someone that he has to face the consequences of the deeds done in the past — though he may…
I listened to a webinar this week about the future of the energy industry. It reminded me of a panel discussion I attended at the University of Chicago’s Annual Economic Outlook luncheon in 2012 when a Toyota executive was predicting that the majority of vehicles in 2050 would still be burning gas even if many of them might be hybrids. My view then was that…
The Federal Reserve is finally proclaiming the obvious and what I’ve been warning you of for years. “The Fed said storms, floods, droughts and wildfires are among the “acute hazards” that could upend stable economic conditions.” While this article is primarily about the threat of climate change to commercial and residential real estate and their underlying assets (mortgages and mortgage backed securities)…
You know that I’ve been warning for a very long time that investments in fossil fuel assets are going to lose their value and do so much sooner and faster than “conventional” wisdom. Of course, there were some that didn’t even agree that fossil fuel investments were even risky. I posited that major oil companies’ investments in enormous development projects…
Today’s message is that small, sometimes nearly invisible things matter in a BIG way. Previously I’ve alerted you to NSR (New Source Review: https://franklytalking.com/altering-nsr-can-kill-you-concerned/) and how what might be an obscure adjustment to a regulation can have an enormous impact on your personal health and that of the planet. In addition, I wrote about the CRA (Congressional Review Act: https://franklytalking.com/what-the-hell-is-cra-and-why-should-you-care/) and how its…
Last week I wrote about the multitude of articles showing how our country is waking up to the climate crisis and beginning to react. None too soon because the consequences are becoming not only worse but converging. Or, as the following article describes, cascading. The article from the NYT is a bit long and honestly, scary and depressing as…