How We Are Hungry

After a few blog posts, it is time to explain the name and theme of this blog. How We Are Hungry is a tribute to my favorite book by Dave Eggers. Though I don't think Eggers meant for the title to mean what I use it to stand for, perhaps he won't be offended at this tribute. This blog will be about our hunger, and the things we hunger for. It will be devoted to, in roughly equal parts, the things I am hungry for (triathlons, music, efficiency, food, cycling), and the things many others are hungry for (electricity, luxury, entropy).

As past readers may have discovered, this blog will be primarily concerned with energy: alternative energy, technology, and energy conservation and efficiency. It will address the climate change "debate". Such blogs can hopefully increase the awareness of the problems resulting from future climate change as well as some easy things we can all do to help in mitigation. I will highlight the degree of consensus among scientists that global warming: is happening, is caused by humans, and will harm us in the future. Such publicity is important as the public perceives there to be disagreement on this issue, and criterion for political action include

1. awareness
2. consensus: if the situation is complicated, voters need to at least believe that the experts agree
3. efficacy: a feeling that by acting, we can improve things

So, I hope to keep writing about these issues, and I hope you'll keep reading up on them. After all, it is hard to open a newspaper these days without seeing stories about energy. We clearly reached a tipping point in the last year, energy is no longer a fringe issue. Let's keep up the momentum.