Disqus - Latest Comments for jjprojects

Re: Why Tesla Developed its Heat Pump

John Johnston — Sun, 19 Mar 2023 19:22:18 -0000

I have them in my house, they work great and they are really efficient on electricity.

Re: Former President Trump says he’ll be arrested, as NY prosecutor eyes charges

John Johnston — Sun, 19 Mar 2023 19:13:48 -0000

I assume you're reffering to this, amongst other events? Adolf Hitler was arrested and imprisoned for trying to overthrow the German government in 19231. He was sentenced to five years in jail for leading the Beer Hall Putsch

Re: New electric ferry cuts emissions by 95% and costs by 80%, selling like hotcakes

John Johnston — Wed, 27 Mar 2019 21:20:13 -0000

Indeed, although hopefully these things can be minimised and changed as the tech and processes evolve. Everything has some sort of initial manufacturing impact, although the goal is definitely towards a circular economy where everything can be repurposed and recycled indefinitely with zero or very low waste and emissions. We are a long way from that now, especially burning fossil fuels in so many industrial processes.

Re: Seaplane operator Harbour Air to become world’s first all-electric airline

John Johnston — Wed, 27 Mar 2019 21:13:17 -0000

No, not pollution free. Of course almost everything manufactured and used by humans has some sort of environmental impact, some things a lot more than others. We do still have a long way to go until we get to the ideal circular economy, where everything can be recycled and repurposed to be used again, with close to zero waste. Not burning fossil fuels for transport seems a necessary step though, as soon as possible.

Re: South Pole Reaches Its Highest Temperature Ever Recorded

John Johnston — Sun, 30 Sep 2018 19:43:54 -0000

Did you see the causes section? The evidence is overwhelming and new data has been coming in year by year to further confirm. https://climate.nasa.gov/ca...
From your many previous Disqus comments, I can see you're not interested in finding out about the actual science, just creating false debate based on your political stance.

Re: South Pole Reaches Its Highest Temperature Ever Recorded

John Johnston — Sun, 30 Sep 2018 18:09:50 -0000

If you don't believe the evidence presented by NASA and other science sources they reference, I can't help you furtherL https://climate.nasa.gov/ev...

Re: South Pole Reaches Its Highest Temperature Ever Recorded

John Johnston — Sun, 30 Sep 2018 17:51:14 -0000

Dude, it's the south pole, it's supposed to one of the coldest places on earth, but I'm sure you know that well enough.

Re: South Pole Reaches Its Highest Temperature Ever Recorded

John Johnston — Sun, 30 Sep 2018 17:49:53 -0000

Google is your friend for finding the answer to this question, if you really want to know, rather than having a false debate, but I'm sure you know that...

Re: Making a living from creative talent

John Johnston — Tue, 17 Apr 2018 19:07:12 -0000

Also interesting to see this article about full-time artist Stephen Bambury in the NZ Herald today. Apart from all the legal troubles, his perspective on making a living, and on not compromising, is interesting. Should be said that abstract painting is generally more easily saleable than some other kinds of contemporary art http://www.nzherald.co.nz/l...

Re: Making a living from creative talent

John Johnston — Tue, 17 Apr 2018 18:34:02 -0000

I understand what you are both saying. The commercial reality is that in creative fields, it is far easier to earn money in certain areas than others. It's far easier to earn money as a designer or architect than as a visual artist or fiction writer. Within design, working in advertising and marketing is easier than some other areas. Yes, it is difficult to maintain a demanding creative, commercial job while doing some less-compromising work at the same time (say at night). Also, if you ask an agency account manager (commonly known as a "suit" in the industry rather than a "creative"), recruiter, and business non-fiction writer about making a living from creative work, you are probably going to get quite a different perspective than someone who has experience in a different area. Would be good to hear some different perspectives on The Big Idea at some stage. Notably, there are not many full-time artists in New Zealand. There are a lot of full-time designers.

Re: Sustainable Energy Transition Happening Faster Than Expected

John Johnston — Sat, 13 May 2017 00:48:09 -0000

Thanks David, No doubt resource use is a factor, especially when the world population has climbed from 7 billion to 7.5 billion in less than 6 years, but not the only one. Increasing efficiency of resource use is certainly going to be an issue in the 21st century – food, water, and energy in particular.

The "limits to growth" discussion is an interesting one, too. Obviously the human population cannot expand infinitely on a planet with finite resources. Then the optimistic "abundance" crowd point out that eventually humans will not have to be limited to one planet (planning for asteroid mining is already well underway), and problems like climate change will be resolved with abundant clean energy sooner than people currently realise (citing the exponential growth of technologies such as solar power and nanotechnology). Then we have the technological singularity crowd pointing out that AI will exceed human intelligence as soon as 2030, so we just don't know what will happen or be possible after that.

Re: US Solar Market Grows 95% in 2016, Breaks Records

John Johnston — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 21:03:45 -0000

It definitely seems that fossil fuel interests, along with certain politicians, trying to resuscitate the declining coal industry will not work. Renewable energy, and especially solar, is fast becoming the cheapest way of producing energy around the world. There are so many new jobs to go with that, too.

Re: Trump’s response to Obama’s climate speech is just as looney as you thought

John Johnston — Thu, 03 Dec 2015 15:12:27 -0000

"Our time is no different"? First time huge amounts of oil and coal have been dug up and burned, creating the atmospheric pollution you speak of - including huge amounts of CO2 that would otherwise not have been put there.

Re: Trump’s response to Obama’s climate speech is just as looney as you thought

John Johnston — Wed, 02 Dec 2015 14:51:40 -0000

Why is this still being brought up as an issue? He's nearing the end of his second term! That ship has sailed. If Trump ever got to be president, it will be dangerous for the world, and I think most Americans actually know this. Bush did enough damage, Trump would be a lot worse. His a rich, looney, right wing extremist. Not a good combo when it comes to political power.

Re: Trump’s response to Obama’s climate speech is just as looney as you thought

John Johnston — Tue, 01 Dec 2015 17:00:38 -0000

So debunked that representatives of the whole world are meeting to work out what to do about it. It's only the Republican party left that still denies it; out of touch with reality.

Re: Death Rate From Nuclear Power Vs Coal? This May Surprise You

John Johnston — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 18:39:40 -0000

It is worse, if when you consider that business as usual for coal, if it continues, will mean disastrous climate change that will profoundly impact billions of people. Thankfully, it's looking like the coal industry is starting to decline.

Re: Death Rate From Nuclear Power Vs Coal? This May Surprise You

John Johnston — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 23:14:17 -0000

You are not understanding how exponential growth works. Solar power growth has been exponential for a few decades, and it continues. There are small numbers early on, but the number doubles regularly (about every 2 years with solar). If you do the math on that over the next 2 decades, from your .4% number, you get big numbers, even without subsidies. Google "exponential growth of solar" to check that out. Btw, fossil fuels have had large subsidies for many, many decades, and that continues.

Re: Viability of Coal Company in Doubt After $258 Million Govt Bailout

John Johnston — Sun, 15 Mar 2015 17:32:04 -0000

Things do go in cycles in mining, sure, but the climate change situation is changing the coal industry for the long term - apart from the relative slowdown in the Chinese economy. Look at what many countries are now doing in relation to emissions reductions, including the US and Europe. Coal is a sunset industry, and it's crazy for governments to be acting as though it's not.

Re: Green bonds poised to be $1 trillion market by 2020

John Johnston — Thu, 12 Mar 2015 18:44:50 -0000

While it's great that a lot of much needed investment is going into renewable energy, let's not forgot (because it's not mentioned in the article at all, and not in very many I've seen on green bonds), that the bond market can crash. Green bonds would not be immune to this. Indeed, there have been plenty of warnings recently about the bond market.

If I understand correctly, the crash of 1987 had a quite a lot to do with bonds. Most of the people investing now are too young to remember and think bonds are very safe. If green bonds do reach a trillion dollars a year, would that constitute a bubble?

Or we could say, if a trillion dollars a year are invested, the renewable assets (solar panels, wind farms etc) just like real estate will still exist after a market crash, so that's good, but investors will lose out, which is not so good.

I think we just need to remember that, although there is huge incentive to develop renewables quickly because of climate change, we are still dealing with the realities of capitalism here. Also, as recent history (dotcom bubble, then sub-prime/housing bubble) has shown, we should be careful about what the investment banks are doing, especially when it's turning into "the fastest growing financial market in the world."

Re: Sean Plunket: Eleanor Catton a ‘traitor’ - Audio Player - Audio - RadioLIVE

John Johnston — Tue, 27 Jan 2015 17:20:41 -0000

Oh no, we shouldn't criticise the government in a democracy, that wouldn't be right, would it Sean? You've never criticised politicians have you Sean? You've never worked for a govt funded org, say Radio NZ, and criticised them at all? Right, Sean?

Re: Portable Cardboard Standing Desk

John Johnston — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 23:44:46 -0000

Yes, I think it would good to sit and stand for about half the time each, so this might be just the right thing to try that out.

Re: 10 Reasons To Be Hopeful About Overcoming Climate Change

John Johnston — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 20:59:19 -0000

Let's hope that's not the case. We can't give up hope just yet.

Re: Hillary Clinton Wants US to Become a Clean Energy Superpower

John Johnston — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 23:39:26 -0000

As a follow up, this article should probably be noted: How Hillary Clinton's State Department Sold Fracking to the World http://www.motherjones.com/...

Re: Elon Musk Announces Tesla Model 3: Half The Price Of Base Model S

John Johnston — Sun, 20 Jul 2014 19:42:38 -0000

Tesla has stuck pretty much to their stated plans so far, in all of their roll-outs. including ramping up to selling 20,000+ Model S cars in a year. I'd definitely call them out if they hadn't. No reason to believe this timeline won't happen. I'll definitely call them out if things go awry.

Re: Elon Musk Announces Tesla Model 3: Half The Price Of Base Model S

John Johnston — Sun, 20 Jul 2014 19:37:28 -0000

New technology always requires early adopters to get things rolling. It's a well trodden path to mainstream adoption. First the roadster, then the Model S, Model X, then the mass market model. And don't forget there's a huge barrier to entry in the auto industry. Only a billionaire can be a new entrant at this point, and the incumbents were not even looking like introducing electric cars.