Obama: Billions for Clean Tech VC Investment Fund

Source: New York Times

Senator Barack Obama today proposed that the federal government spend $150 billion over 10 years to promote alternative energy and create several million jobs.

The investment plan was mentioned in a speech delivered in Michigan aimed at voters frustrated by the region’s disappearing manufacturing sector.

But his words reverberated in Silicon Valley, which has been lobbying hard for more federal investment in clean-technology projects.

As part of his plan, the Illinois Democrat pledged that, if president, he would invest $10 billion a year in creating what he called a “Clean Technologies Deployment Venture Capital Fund.” Such a fund, he said, would help finance companies involved in the alternative energy sector.

Just what that might mean is not entirely clear (more on that below). But even in the abstract, it was met with enthusiasm by some Northern California venture capitalists. MORE at headline.

Storm Observation: NASA Sat Captures Killer Cyclone Nargis

The first storm of the 2008 season in the Indian Ocean is a Category 3 or 4 killer event.

I hope that a mega hurricane does not make landfall in America in 2008. If it does happen, it will likely occur during the election frenzy, as the hurricane season runs into November. Such an occurrence would slam into the election dynamics, as only a major natural disaster can.

Source: Space Mart.com

Image from NASA's Terra satellite

The first cyclone of the 2008 season in the northern Indian Ocean was a devastating one for Myanmar (Burma). According to reports, Cyclone Nargis made landfall with sustained winds of 130 mph and gusts of 150-160 mph, which is the equivalent of a strong Category 3 or minimal Category 4 hurricane. News reports stated that over 100,000 people may have been killed, with tens of thousands more missing as of May 7.
The first cyclone of the 2008 season in the northern Indian Ocean was a devastating one for Myanmar (Burma). According to reports, Cyclone Nargis made landfall with sustained winds of 130 mph and gusts of 150-160 mph, which is the equivalent of a strong Category 3 or minimal Category 4 hurricane. News reports stated that over 100,000 people may have been killed, with tens of thousands more missing as of May 7.

Embracing Strengths: NASA Goes Green on Earth Day

NASA accelerated the environmental awareness of the 1970's with the Apollo Earthrise photo, taken from the moon, showing our beautiful Blue Marble in a sea of blackness.
NASA conducts a vast amount of earth monitoring research, which has enabled our collective awareness of global warming. Can NASA and her partners rise to the global warming mitigation challenge next? Stay tuned.

via: NASAwatch.com and NASA.gov

WASHINGTON -- NASA centers across America will roll out the green carpet April 22 to celebrate Earth Day and reporters are invited to hear first hand about the agency's contributions to understanding and protecting our environment.

NASA Earth research missions study all aspects of our planet, from its oceans, land surfaces and atmosphere, to its biosphere and cryosphere. NASA is a world leader in studying the cause and effects of climate change now and in the future.

Earth Day events at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. will include Panel discussions and presentations, including climate researcher James Hansen.

Inconvenient Science And Hurricane Projections

As I was getting ready to set a reminder to tag up with the hurricane shutter guy as we prep for storm season, lond distance, at our South Florida property, hurricane science hit the news cycle today. The findings do not change in any way how I am going to make every effort to prepare for storms, having been through several horrific storms in 2004 and 2005, including Katrina (the younger, in Florida) and Wilma. But the ambiguity of the findings and change in latest science musings may effect me, and millions of people living,working and planning in hurricane strike zones. Because the findings impact expectations and action.

Science is a process, first, and the product is not only new knowledge, but a necessary conversation about that knowledge.
Another piece of science that is extremely important is listening to data and experimental results, even when they do not fit with expectations.
Knowledge, and "good" science can prove to be elusive, often counter to intuition, and open to alternative explanation. Like our experience of our personal lives, reality is highly complex.

On the other hand, radical breakthroughs in science can be abrupt, pre-cognitive insights, from outside of the orderly science knowledge building process. Deceased Scientist and philosopher Thomas Kuhn and others scientists openly debated this over many decades.
Scientists can be highly disapproving of other scientists who step out of the knowledge dialog and into the public dialog. Likewise non-science folks anxious for answers have little time or patience for endless academic pondering, when action may be required.

What to do with all this ambiguity in the global warming arena?
Listen to it.
The paradox is that in the urgent need to address global warming, scientists, the public, policy makers, activists, journalists, bloggers and investors have to slow down and listen to what the science dialog is producing. People in the path of hurricanes, floods and fires have to make critical decisions with imperfect information. Regional economies can be dramatically altered, rightly or wrongly, depending on which beliefs have taken hold.

Thus it is very important and welcome to see that the science community is reviewing new hurricane data, as well as evaluating the public education made available by global warming communicator Al Gore.

Here are some summaries of what is new today a nutshell.

NYT Dot Earth reports on new hurricane modeling research published by Kerry Emanuel. Dot Earth's Andrew C. Revkin reports:

I queried Dr. Emanuel about (his new study)and he sent this note Friday night:

The models are telling us something quite different from what nature seems to be telling us. There are various interpretations possible, e.g. a) The big increase in hurricane power over the past 30 years or so may not have much to do with global warming, or b) The models are simply not faithfully reproducing what nature is doing. Hard to know which to believe yet.

Other climate scientists also published their views of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth.

After providing a succinct summary of the state of climate change science... Gerald North from Texas A&M University: "although there are some inaccuracies and exaggerations in the film, on the whole it represents mainstream scientific views on global warming."

So what am I supposed to do with all that detailed, distinctive, well researched and imperfect information? I am going to listen to it, appreciate it, and call the shutter guy ASAP.

Urgent Frontiers: Earth Systems Science Eyes Trouble in Both Hemispheres

Image Credit: NOAA. Shows arctic haze, suspected to be responsible for increasing the artic ice melt.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080407132120.html

Science Daily recently reported on a NOAA Airborne science campaign: The Arctic is changing before our eyes,” said A.R. Ravishankara, director of the chemistry division at NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo. “Capturing in detail the processes behind this large and surprisingly rapid transformation is a unique opportunity for understanding climate changes occurring elsewhere.”

Observations from instruments on the ground, balloons, and satellites show the Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the globe. Summer sea-ice extent has decreased by nearly 40 percent compared to the 1979–2000 average, and the ice is thinning.

Industry, transportation, and biomass burning in North America, Europe, and Asia are emitting trace gases and tiny airborne particles that are polluting the polar region, forming an “Arctic Haze” every winter and spring. Scientists suspect these pollutants are speeding up the polar melt.

NOAA is mounting an airborne campaign to assess the impact of arctic haze on the accelerating melt of arctic ice.
For further discussion regarding rapid recession of the arctic, I suggest readers see Al Gore's newest global warming presentation. Gore claims scientists are taken aback by the rapid loss of the north pole, and that the pole will be gone in 5 years. This in turn, according to Gore, will place increasing pressure upon the Greenland ice sheet. (Gore video from TED is at the headline).

Meanwhile, the 2008 hurricane projections promise a busy season- not as bad as 2005, but well above the norm. More importantly, accumulated evidence from the last several years show a higher probability of storm landfall.
Some key climate experts attribute this to normal Atlantic variability, and not to climate change, per se. Others are not so sure.
Earth systems science will be called up to continue to step up and attempt to determine if these northern and southern troubling, and potentially catastrophic, phenomena are related. The question is: will U.S. climate resources for this research be made available before, or after, the next American climate calamity reaches our shores?

Magificent Mash Up: Yuri's Night (And Afternoon) at Ames

Yuri's Night is now the viral party that is taking over the globe, and other virtual worlds. Space generation party planners have spawned over 189 or more parties on 7 continents. The grand daddy event kicks off at NASA Ames, and the bill for this spacepalooza is eye popping.
It has become a Microgravity Burning Man With Brains. And to boot, a space idea festival that probably needs to have 3 days of events instead of 12 glorious hours of space celebration, and a bit of everything else thrown in for good measure. Wear something spacey-pocket protectors might make a subtle but smashing retro fashion statement-who know,s you might win a prize.

NASA Ames Yuri's Night Party Profile
After a 2007 event that drew over 4,000 attendees and global attention, the NASA Ames Research Center in the San Francisco Bay Area is ready to hold a party even bigger and better than last year's. Over the course of 12 hours (1:30 PM - 2 AM), NASA Ames' Moffett Field will host dozens of speeches, presentations, artistic exhibitions and musical acts on four separate stages.

At its heart, Yuri's Night Bay Area is a giant party, and the all-star musical lineup is sure to satisfy any space enthusiast with a dancing urge. Prominent acts include indie synthpop band Freezepop, the 17-member percussionist Gamelan X, acclaimed electronic artist Amon Tobin and Telstar, featuring former Grateful Dead guitarist Phil Lesh. Over 25 different acts will be performing throughout the day, not including the ambient DJs playing round-the-clock in the relaxing Orbital Lounge. Bring your best space outfit to party in--the best outfit, as decided by the audience, will win a free flight in zero gravity (ERV: $4,000).

There's more to celebrating space than partying, though, and NASA Ames has a dazzling array of scientific and artistic installations. Notable displays include: the 2008 Tesla Roadster, the world's first high-performance production electric vehicle; the BD-5 Jet, the world's smallest jet airplane; Burning Man Earth, a 3D virtual representation of the annual outdoor festival; and many artistic displays and exhibits. Live performances include interdisciplinary dance company Capacitor, multimedia performance group Bad Unkl Sista and the mesmerizing LED displays of Flowtoys. Don't forget to catch Aeronautika at 6 PM, an hour-long aerobatic display with two Soviet-era aircraft and the venerable American Pitts Special biplane.MORE...go to headline.

Congressional Lead Gordon: From Sputnik to DARPA-Energy

Image credit: Defensetech.org


DARPA is being tapped as a go-to, small and agile agency to go to work on the strategic national need for clean energy. Will it be clean energy for dual use?

Source: Public release, House.gov/science
Gordon Marks 50 Years of Defense Innovation, Calls for Similar Dedication to Energy Advancement (Washington, DC) This year marks the 50th Anniversary of a small federal research program with a long list of blockbuster technologies to its credit. This week that golden anniversary is being marked in ceremonies in Washington, DC. The results of research conducted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, better known as DARPA, can be seen in everything from stealth technology for warplanes to Global Positioning Systems in vehicles, body armor for soldiers to semiconductors and even the mouse for household computers. However, DARPA may be best known for development of a computing network called ARPAnet, the precursor to today’s Internet. With such well-known technological successes under its belt, House Committee on Science and Technology Chairman Bart Gordon (D-TN) today remarked that Congress looked to DARPA as a model for research in other areas, most notably in the field of energy research with the recent authorization of an ARPA for energy, or “ARPA-E”... “I remember as a child looking on in both fear and wonder at the blinking red light of Sputnik as it flew overhead. Everyone knew then that the U.S. was on the cusp of a new era, and we wasted no time building up our technological defenses with such groundbreaking programs as DARPA,” added Gordon. “While the adversary may have changed over 50 years, the imperative to constantly evolve the U.S. science and technology enterprise has not. Given the geopolitical instabilities that threaten global energy supplies, the skyrocketing costs of energy to consumers, the looming threat of global climate change, and the resulting costs from the likely regulation of carbon dioxide emissions, there is a critical need for ground-breaking science-based energy solutions that can be deployed in the marketplace. The status quo in energy is simply unsustainable. I believe that to move away from the status quo, we must rethink the federal government’s approach to energy technology development and establish an ARPA-E.”

Strategic Intiatives: Can Gore's Climate Campaign Drive Social Change?

Organizers, communicators and climate advocates are looking at Gore's $300 million bet. He and the Alliance for Climate Change are bringing massive communications resources into play to motivate American's to move into political action in Washington. Practitioners know the key to success is to merge both grassroots organizing and communications into a integrated effort. This campaign has wrapped it's efforts around "urgency" and "solvability." The historical reference points in the campaign's U Tube clip, above, are broad spectrum: storming the beaches of Normandy, the civil rights movement, and the space program are all invoked.

Once people can see themselves in this new movement, urged on though affiliation, association and crisis, how will grassroots organizing be fired up? I will be discussing this living and high stakes societal case study as it progresses through the social and policy metabolism.

Modern Organizing

"Cathy Zoi, the Alliance for Climate Protection's chief executive, said the group will focus on individuals known in the advertising world as "influencers" who talk to a disproportionate number of people in their communities. While some ads will target inside-the-Beltway policymakers, the bulk of their efforts will focus on the general public."

"This is modern organizing," Zoi said, adding that the campaign aims to convince voters that "this is a solvable problem." (see Washington Post link, below.)

Ownership and Sustainability

Given that this a well-heeled billboard effort, the questions of ownership and sustainability arise.

People tend to stick with something that they own, and ownership begins with being able to creatively impact how policy and politics are done. Web 2.0 is one mode of participatory engagement through punditry. Another, and challenging path is through sustainable, local grassroots face to face contact and community building.
The ownership and sustainability aspects of successful organizing were explored and became understood by The United Farm Worker's founder, Cesar Chavez and his mentors Fred Ross and earlier organizer, Saul Alinsky. The pattern of communications merged with organization and ownership is found over and over again in the annals of profound social change.
It it fitting to also note that Chavez would have been 81 this week, the moment of a launch of this well funded effort in political and policy change by the Gore group.

As veterans of social movements know, the "thing" that changes in the end is not just the status quo or policy, but the inner and collective experience of persons who are empowered and connected not only to a larger purpose, but to each other, as change is made.

Can people be motivated top down, when all of the science issues, spokesperson issues, demographic issues and money issues have been handled up front, as happens in a good Presidential campaign? Or will the smoothness of it all seem manufactured?

Meanwhile, it is also important to see if this initiative begins to create a giant issues wedge, and hits the beaches of the POTUS campaigns, as it is surely designed to do. A question that Grist has in the mill, below, is will the wave and systems effect on political change here be as enormous as what is happened in Australia? Will other constituencies with unmet needs benefit, and will their causes rise with the climate boat? Certainly the 1960's multiple waves of change suggest that these waves of change could be happening again, in 2008. Society, enterprises and the public sector could like find the playing field rapidly changed for every endeavor, large and small.


Source: Grist.com

"If you read Juliet Eilperin's great rundown in the Washington Post, you know that today marks the launch of a massive PR effort from Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection.

Gore has concluded that U.S. politicians will continue to be timid on climate change until the public demands otherwise. "The simple algorithm is this: It's important to change the light bulbs, but it's much more important to change the laws," he said. "The options available to civilization worldwide to avert this terribly destructive pattern are beginning to slip away from us. The path for recovery runs right through Washington, D.C."

To that end, the Alliance is launching the "we" campaign, a $300 million, 3-year campaign to shift public opinion and create a sense of urgency commensurate with the problem, along with a sense of "solvability" -- that is, a sense that we can beat it. The campaign's goals are audacious: mobilizing 10 million volunteers through TV ads, print ads, and social networks.

Gore has famously put his money where his mouth is, putting all profits from An Inconvenient Truth, his salary from Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, and the cash from all the awards he's won toward the ACP campaign. Private donors will pony up the rest.

Cathy Zoi, CEO of the ACP (and leader of a similar effort which led to the political flip in Australia recently), spoke with a small group of bloggers today about the details and thinking behind the campaign.

Their research has found that there's only about 18% of people in the U.S. who are opposed to climate change action on ideological grounds (Romm's "deniers and delayers"). That leaves over 80% reachable. Around 9-10% are activists, people who get it and are engaged. Around 35% are taking some small actions, though their understanding is shaky. The rest are what Zoi called "fearful and confused" -- they don't really get what global warming is, what causes it, or how to address it, but they're acutely aware that it's a huge problem and it stresses them out...MORE, go to headline.

Massive NASA Related Job Cuts

source: businessweek.com

More than 8,000 NASA contractor jobs in the nation's manned space program could be eliminated after the space shuttle program is shut down in 2010, the agency said Tuesday.

The number of civil servants is expected to remain roughly the same, but dramatic job cuts are anticipated among private contractors as NASA transitions to the Constellation program, which is developing the next-generation vehicle and rockets to go to the moon and later to Mars.

Constellation isn't scheduled to begin flights until 2015.

The bleakest forecast was issued for the flagship Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Fla., where just 1,600 to 2,300 employees were expected to remain in 2011, a cut of up to 80 percent from its current 8,000 workers. The Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans was forecast to lose as many as 1,300 of its 1,900 jobs.

"Our greatest challenge over the next several years will be managing this extremely talented, experienced and geographically dispersed workforce as we transition from operating the space shuttle to utilizing the International Space Station," the report said.

Nationally, NASA said the number of full-time civil servants in its manned space program would fall to about 4,100 in 2011, a loss of about 600 jobs from this year. Including outside contractors, the number of jobs would fall to an estimated 12,500 to 13,800. About 21,000 are currently employed.

Florida Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp said the state was committed to trying to blunt the impact of the job losses with an aggressive effort to lure new contractors to the area that would work with future NASA flights, as well as private launches.

"We're obviously talking to a whole host of companies," said Kottkamp. "Everybody knows that Kennedy Space Center is the home of space exploration."

Green Collar Sector: The New Apollo

Image Credit: celsias.com



There is a saying in politics: jobs, jobs, jobs.

In this election cycle, all eyes are on "green collar" jobs. Creating more of these are at the top of the political and economic agenda.
The New York Times (below) recently tried to sort out the facts and fantasies regarding the much lauded new green jobs sector.

In the end, politicians and most middle class people like investment, but they love jobs. Constituents with jobs are more inclined to love their elected ones in return.

Green collar is a 3-way win...jobs, global warming mitigation and investment return for Wall Street.
There is a 4th element for green collar workers. NYT reports that workers take pride in their contribution to society and America.
The Candidates and America need to deliver on all 4 fronts right now. As the name Apollo Alliance intends, Green is the New Apollo Program for evolving the US job and economic base.





Source: New York Times online

"Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, said: “A green job has to do something useful for people, and it has to be helpful to, or at least not damaging to, the environment.”

It can be difficult to parse the difference between green- and blue-collar jobs. Dave Foster, executive director of the Blue Green Alliance, a partnership between the United Steelworkers and the Sierra Club, pointed to workers who mine iron ore in Minnesota and ship it to steel mills in Indiana. “Ten years ago, that steel was used for making low-efficiency automobiles, so those jobs were part of the dirty economy,” he said. “But now that steel is being used to build wind turbines. So now you can call them green jobs.”

But to Andrew W. Hannah, chief executive of Plextronics, a start-up in Pittsburgh, green-collar jobs often have little relation to their blue-collar counterparts. His company produces high-tech polymer inks that are used to make electronic circuitry for solar panels. Of the company’s 51 employees, 20 have Ph.D.’s in fields like physics, chemistry and material science.

It is hard to gauge the number of green-collar jobs nationwide. Welders at a wind-turbine factory are viewed as having green jobs, but what about the factory’s accountant or its janitors? Workers with Sustainable South Bronx, a nonprofit group that plants vegetation to keep the area cooler and reduce air-conditioning demands, would seem to fit the bill. But so would the employees of Tesla Motors, south of San Francisco, who are producing an all-electric Roadster that sells for $98,000.

In the most-often-cited estimate, a report commissioned by the American Solar Energy Society said that the nation had 8.5 million jobs in renewable energy or energy efficient industries. And Jerome Ringo, president of the Apollo Alliance, predicted that the nation could generate three million to five million more green jobs over the next 10 years." MORE...go to headline

Gore to Whip Up New Green Grassroots

Word is that the fundraising goal for Gore's campaign is $300M. That should create some reach into many demographics.

"After nine months of behind-the-scenes planning and wrangling, the Alliance for Climate Protection is now nearly ready for prime time. Gore spoke about the alliance in an exclusive interview with Muckraker. He said the group aims to raise big bucks for a single goal: "To move the United States past a tipping point on climate change, beyond which the majority of the people will demand of the political leaders in both parties that they compete to offer genuinely meaningful solutions to the crisis."

Practically speaking, this means launching a massive media and grassroots education campaign trumpeting the urgency of global warming and targeted at all manner of Americans -- "NASCAR fans, churchgoers, labor-union members, small businessmen, engineers, hunters, sportsmen, corporate leaders, you name it," said Gore -- with the assumption that "where public opinion goes, federal policy will follow."

With a leadership team that includes Brent Scowcroft, national-security adviser to presidents George H.W. Bush and Gerald Ford; Carol Browner, head of the U.S. EPA under Bill Clinton; and other heavies, the alliance could considerably pump up the volume of the green movement's barely audible public outreach on global warming. It plans to raise "tens of millions at least," said Browner. The group's official launch date is not confirmed, but will likely be in the coming weeks. The search for a CEO is under way, and board meetings have already commenced"...For more, see headline.

NASA's Hansen: Public Must Take The Lead On Fossil Fuels

Image: Credit: Dr. James Hansen.



Dr. James Hansen, the eminent climate scientist, offers his thinking directly on his Columbia.edu website.
I prefer to read his work directly, as he is quite precise in his thinking.
Hansen's experiences and research have led him to posit that the public must take the lead on the issue of fossil fuel replacement. His reasons are in his own words, at the end of this post.

The header link here will take you to Amazon, to the link for Mark Bowen's book, "Censoring Science: Inside the Political Attack on Dr. James Hansen and the Truth of Global Warming"
by Mark Bowen (Author)
Publishers Weekly sums up this important book as:
" It is portrait of NASA climate scientist James Hansen and his decades-long struggle to alert the public about global warming's perils and potential solutions ranges from deeply disturbing and frightening to inspiring. Disturbing, as Bowen (Thin Ice) gives convincing evidence that the Bush administration did its best to control NASA scientists' communication with the public in order to undermine belief in global warming and belittle its consequences. According to Bowen, the administration set up ideological political loyalists in positions formerly held by career professionals, gutted NASA's earth science budget, then denied these actions. Frightening, as Hansen concludes that climate is significantly more sensitive than two years ago and that our choice may be not between no change and a significant change, but between a significant change and disaster. Inspiring, in Bowen's portrayal of Hansen, who obeys the Feynman admonition in both science and policy—describe the evidence very carefully without regard to the way you feel it should be. Bowen's in-depth treatments of politics and science, although hard going at times, give his arguments substance. Hansen's conviction that tools exist right now to mitigate the worst effect—if only we will use them—is surprisingly hopeful."

Hansen's thoughts:
"In our draft (http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/2008/TargetCO2_20080317.pdf) “Target CO2” paper we show that 450 ppm CO2 is far into the dangerous zone, and we recommend a goal of phasing out coal emissions by 2030 (the practical difficulty of phasing out coal emissions in 20-25 years is acknowledged and discussed at the end of the paper). This keeps peak CO2 close to 400 ppm, again with some variation depending on the magnitude of true undiscovered oil reserves. People can help assure that maximum CO2 stays close to 400 ppm by vociferously opposing oil drilling in environmentally sensitive regions such as the Arctic and Antarctic, on public land, in off-shore regions where states and other governments can foil the desire of oil companies to extract every last drop of oil, etc. Of course the most effective way to assure that we do not act as desperate addicts, refusing to move to the cleaner world beyond fossil fuels, tearing up the land for every last bit of fossil fuels, is via a significant and gradually rising price on carbon emissions. The public must take the lead, because there are so many “well-oiled” officials in our governments, and not just in the United States. To summarize the present and prior discussions, important things that the public can do are: 1. Fight for a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants, 2. Oppose extraction of fossil fuels in public and environmentally sensitive regions, 3. Vote for politicians who take the Stewardship pledge ( http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/20070802_Stewardship.pdf ) -- do not vote for “well-oiled” politicians who accept funding from fossil fuel interests. The Earth’s history shows us that we cannot put all the carbon in fossil fuels back into the air without producing a very different planet from the one to which humanity is adapted. There is still time to phase off fossil fuels, but it requires sensible policies in the public interest. This will not be easy: the special interests are pouring huge amounts of funding into disinformation campaigns. More on this soon."

Space Workforce 2.0

There are many reasons to be thinking about workforce issues in space and high technology.
The ransition from the shuttle era to the next space access era, which is still under construction.
A robust arrival of proactive Gen Y folks to the space table.
The much talked about (is it really true?) retirement of the leading edge Boomers.
Last but not least, the retooling of the economic base from extractive+oil to green, clean and renewable energy.

These evolutions and profound revolutions are intersecting other issues, such as women, minority representation, and age/generational issues in the current and emerging space and high tech workforce.

Chuck Devine discussed these questions and more at Independent Broad Minded Centerist. Thanks to NASAwatch for posting his comments in the Gen Y thread there.

"In September 2007 Claudia Morrell, Executive Director of the Center for Women and Information Technology of the University of Maryland Baltimore County gave a talk to the committee leading the Aerospace Initiative of the Governor's Workforce Investment Board in the State of Maryland. During her talk she emphasized three reasons why young women were not pursuing careers in technology:

• They disliked the work-life balance common in technology fields.
  
• They thought the work was boring.
  
• They were familiar with managers in their 30s and 40s who were extraordinarily poor leaders who not only did harm to their groups but also to the careers and lives of young people coming into their fields.
  

She noted that when these issues were successfully addressed, that young women – as well as young men – were far more likely to choose work in technology.

These findings echo what I have heard in other forums as well. In July at a NewSpace meeting organized by Space Frontier Foundation Loretta Whitesides commented how the generation born after Apollo did not share the memories of older people involved in aerospace. NASA Administrator Michael Griffin might vividly remember John Glenn's orbital flight. Some one born after the last Apollo mission in 1972 will remember the Challenger tragedy instead. She also commented that they were looking for leadership that listened and was open to new ideas. The fact that NASA does not have that reputation any more is a major criticism.

Mary Lynne Dittmar has done extensive research in how the public thinks about NASA. She has delivered papers at conferences such as Space 2006, organized by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and written articles such as Sustaining exploration: communications, relevance, and value (Part 1) and Part 2. In her ...MORE, go to headline."

Remembering Virtual Arthur C. Clarke in Hollywood

"I have great faith in the power of optimism as a guiding principle, if only because it allows us to create a self fulfilling prophesy."
-Arthur C. Clarke, 90th Birthday Video Address


I was very fortunate to be a guest at a space/Hollywood Arthur C. Clarke Gala and dinner at the Playboy Mansion in 2001.
Jim Cameron and his brothers had arranged for a holographic dinner address by Sir Arthur. A transparent, but quite recognizable, real-time holographic projection shimmered above a podium on the stage. He spoke and joked with the assembled. Arthur had a live monitor on his end in Sri Lanka, and traded quips with the glitterati about their tux jackets, or how that last space movie was doing at the box office.

I recall glancing over at Morgan Freeman, who was sitting a few tables away from us. He appeared absolutely riveted. Just as enraptured at the rest of us, as we interacted with a virtual version of Sir Arthur.
It was such a Clarke moment. And it changed my view of the possible notions of selves, being, location.

The first time I encountered another version of the prolific Clarke was as a catholic school girl in a small cowboy town in my home state of Washington. The nuns took us to only two movies during my entire 8 years there. Understandably one was a happy little day off to see The Sound of Music. The unexpected field trip was a serious matter. It had been decided that we were to be allowed to see Space Odyssey 2001.

The urgency with which the good sisters loaded us into the bus and theater and shssssed us as 2001 started to roll in the dark movie house was remarkable to us.
It was clear to me that this unfathomable future was something the teachers thought it was their duty to inform us about. They also wanted to get some spin in play, as they had determined that the black obelisk could only be God himself. (I was not so sure, and wanted more data points. My vote on that question is still out.)
I had no idea then, that in Earth Year 2001, I would encounter the virtual version and creative genius behind this strange, life altering and magnificent space film, in a swank Hollywood setting.

So with a Clarkesque twist, allow me to suggest that Arthur has only moved to the next stage of the carbon cycle, and he is in fact not gone at all, but alive and well in all shapes and forms where ever we turn.

The "Fierce Urgency of Now" and Space

I am cross-posting from my post over at spacedemocrats.org

The Fierce Urgency of Now and Space

Many in space circles (including myself at times), express a view that the role of government space is to create, via a steady budget (and the NASA budget is, compared to real markets, reasonably steady), ideal market-like conditions that extend in time from past to the future. The Future being an idealized state when goals are realized. When we go back to the Moon, when we go to Mars, things will be great!

How many years have we habitually, happily-at first- thought this way? How many years have we idealized the future? How confidently we have co-branded NASA with the Future, a place and time where things will be fine.
How many career years have many been just as frustrated as when the future is slow to appear? The future is an idea, nothing more. The idealization of the future may even be a bit a religious notion in our country. Tomorrow, things will be better. Tomorrow, I will go home to Tara. Tomorrow, I will be happy. And so on.

What if, What if! we changed our perspective of our view of government space/time, and conducted the thought experiment: What should "government space" do Right Now? Now, what is the one most critical thing or activities we must do? Isn't this what JFK did? Didn't he address the "fierce urgency of now" (thanks, MLK Jr., and Obama.). Didn't Kennedy, who was not interested in space per se, find the most compelling public need of his moment and create a vibrant space effort to address the public need right now, throwing all other considerations, to a lessor priority? Did not the power of focusing on Now create the history changing Apollo "one of the most marvelous things we have ever done?" (Thanks, Mike Griffin).

To continue the time thought experiment, what if the role of government is not to create a faux, idealized version of a textbook market- like condition ( the universe has laws, but it is not orderly) or market stability for future endeavors, but to create the best possible outcome for the US, and the globe now?

And If do we focus on now, Is there any real question that the largest global challenge is global warming? We know we can make the case that space has so many of the answers for global warming, mitigation, monitoring, and species survival.
Doesn't the specter of species die-off and community die-off, now underway on the planet, enforce the urgency of now and the call of the present to us, the only moment we have, on space or on earth?
And isn't the most sure-footed path to a positive future in space running right through the beckoning fields of the challenges and needs of now?
Thanks to Eckhart
Tolle and others for inspiring this notion. Thanks for reading this musing!

Space And The Neighborhood: JPL, UCLA Team Focus On Climate Change and So Cal

Image Credit: Sandalsbiz.com


One important way to derive social value from space assets is use space capability at the state, regional and local level. NASA and Cal Tech's JPL and UCLA are doing just that, with a focus on understanding climate change in the Southern California region. Keeping So Cal livable will also keep the global regional leader in innovation, and a magnet for skilled workers who want the fabulous California lifestyle .

Source: UCLA Newsroom March 13, 2008

UCLA and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have formed a research institute to better understand and predict regional environmental and climate change and support future space missions.

The Joint Institute for Regional Earth System Science and Engineering will examine relationships between global climate change and Southern California weather and climate patterns and the environment. The effort combines UCLA's strength in climate modeling and remote sensing and JPL's strength in data collection from satellites.

"The effect of global climate change on local ecosystems, water resources and weather patterns is a critical research endeavor with profound implications on the lives of Southern Californians and on public policy," said UCLA Acting Chancellor Norman Abrams. "UCLA's partnership with JPL enables us to accomplish goals that neither of us could achieve on our own. We value collaborations such as this that make it possible for UCLA to ensure maximum benefit to society."

"Understanding the causes and effects of climate change is of paramount importance globally and locally," said JPL Director Charles Elachi. "This institute blends the unique strengths and resources of two world-class research organizations. The research results will pave the way for future Earth-observing missions and help improve the quality of life for all Southern Californians and nationwide."

ESA Tackles Massive Earth Data Challenge

Image Credit: ESA



Catching up on space benefit news. Here is notice of a high leverage space effort from Europe that addresses climate change and global warming.


Source: Science Daily

ScienceDaily (Mar. 10, 2008) — The amount of information being generated about our planet is increasing at an exponential rate, but it must be easily accessible in order to apply it to the global needs relating to the state of the Earth.

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GENESI-DR (Ground European Network for Earth Science Interoperations - Digital Repositories), an ESA-led, European Commission (EC)-funded two-year project, is taking the lead in providing reliable, easy, long-term access to Earth Science data via the Internet.

"We shall soon be receiving petabytes of data about our planet from space, so data access will be a major logistical problem. The EC has funded GENESI-DR as a flagship project in Europe to help meet this challenge," said Prof. Alan O'Neill, Director of the National Centre for Earth Observation at the University of Reading.

GENESI-DR will allow scientists from different Earth Science disciplines located across Europe to locate, access, combine and integrate historical and fresh Earth-related data from space, airbourne and in-situ sensors archived in large distributed repositories.

Currently, information about the state of the Earth, relevant services, analysis results, applications and tools are accessible in a very scattered and uncoordinated way.... for MORE, go to headline.

"Profitable Ideals": Where Are The Space Social Entrepreneurs?

Image Credit: socialvc.net

Kudos to whomever came up with the tag line, Profitable Ideals.

In an era of social entrepreneurship, and it's cousin discipline of corporate responsibility, one would expect to hear of both in innovative space circles.
We are behind in these two areas, as a whole. There are notable exceptions, which I have discussed in these pages by way of examples. What is needed now is a broader community sea change towards these ends. I will be discussing the power of the double bottom line-and space- in posts to come.

To see a new competition for emerging social entrepreneurs, see the Global Social Venture Competition at Berkeley, coming this April 2008. (go to headline for more info). And no, profitable ideals are not just for the next generation, they are good for everyone who wants to succeed in space. Social venture business modeling may be the only way to succeed quickly in the nascent market of space commerce.

Marburger: Exploration Is for National and International Interests

White House Science advisor John Marburger has argued for this before.
Hopefully the idea of purposeful exploration will be on the table for action in the next White House.

Source: NASAwatch

"...the purpose of sustained human exploration is not "to go to Mars and beyond." The purpose of sustained human exploration is, as the second point states "to serve national and international interests." And I think of those interests as much broader than simply going somewhere and coming back. Our current space exploration policy says "The fundamental goal of this vision is to advance U.S. scientific, security, and economic interests through a robust space exploration program." Exploration that is not in support of something else strikes me as somehow selfish and unsatisfying, and not consistent with the fact that we are using public funds for this enterprise, no matter how small a fraction of the total budget they may be."

Generation Y Rocks NASA and The Vote

Every generation sparks interest, and so has Generation Y, the boomer's children, a generation that straddles the change of millenniums. One Gen Y website getting a lot of traffic is OpenNASA

Of course, as in any generation, there are huge differences, distinctions, gradations and many shades of gray. As a trailing edge boomer, I have spent my life looking at the leading edge of the Boom, with whom I don't always identify, and wondered "what the heck are they thinking?" I also laughed at mainstream media and wondered who they are talking about,when they write sweeping nostrums about the boomer generation.

Still, Gen Y is alive and well and coming to the fore in and around NASA. Some folks, like me, who have been around space for awhile, are glad to see them show up. Gen Y Space Ones strike me as smart, socially aware, self aware, direct, highly capable, hard working, savvy, independent and communal, strategic, communicative and fun- what's not to love??



In the election, Gen Y is rocking the status quo. Sound familiar progressive boomers, and future-looking elders?
I think it was Gertrude Stein who said " we are all the same age inside."

I am looking forward to the changes they bring to government, which sorely needs some new ideas and generational and regenerative energy to bring those ideas to fruition.

For an article on the Gen Y generation and the election, see below from the Washington Post, from January.

Source: Washington Post.com

"Waiting to hear Barack Obama speak under the twinkling chandeliers of the old Palace Theatre in Manchester, N.H., Nina Fuentes, 21, explained her draw to the presidential process: "They say young people are apathetic. Well, he's bringing us into the process. He's offering inspiration and hope that we can make a difference. . . . What I like is that his success is coming from grass roots, from the bottom up."

"Obama," says Fuentes, a college senior who brought a group of high-schoolers from Illinois to witness the primary, "empowers us into thinking we can make a difference."

You can see it in their faces, their body language, an excitement for reasons they are almost too young to articulate. The same thrill was there nearly half a century ago with John F. Kennedy..." more, return to header.

Hill Beat: House Says NASA Is Cash Strapped

Last year, a $1 Billion add to the NASA Budget succeeded in the Senate, but failed in the House, and was rejected by the White House, as well.

As the appropriations process opens up in Washington, a house funding leader tells NASA they are cash strapped.


source: NASAwatch.com and others

Some House members want to increase NASA's budget, Daily Press

"House budget writers signaled Wednesday they will try to increase NASA's budget for next year, warning that President Bush's spending request would leave the aerospace agency unable to fully conduct its missions. Democratic and Republican leaders of a key House panel told NASA Administrator Michael Griffin they were uneasy with a budget that they said fails even to keep up with inflation. "You're cash-strapped," said Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA. "The budget is categorized as staying the course. It doesn't seem adequate anymore."

The White House Race: Space And Jobs in America

Space politics watchers will want to note the comment of Hillary Clinton, below these musings, regarding her experience with NASA.
As a girl, she applied to be an astronaut, and at that time, NASA was not accepting females. She is pretty good-natured about that experience, but still, she makes note of it often. But what is also interesting here? She was looking for a job, albeit the job of astronaut. The ultimate in upward mobility, in a sense.

Today, after winning three states yesterday (two of them space states, OH and TX),Hillary is focusing her messages. One of them revolves around her female base, and explicitly seeks to assure that every little girl in America should believe she can grow up to be what ever she wants to be. Of course that is assumed to related to having a dream job, business, or profession, and/or the ability to stay at home, which usually means someone in the family has a job.

America did not have any multi-cultural faces in the early space program, either. Even today, the space community does not have adequate representation of either women or minorities at every level.
Either a Clinton or Obama White House can reasonably be expected to change the opportunity quotient for both women and minorities towards much more inclusion. And how will they do it? The mass lever they will seek is to grab on to is job creation.
Look at the top tier of things Obama says he will do to create high tech jobs:

Obama will encourage the deployment of the most modern communications infrastructure to reduce the costs of health care, help solve our energy crisis, create new jobs, and fuel our economic growth.

• Support Job Creation: Barack Obama believes we need to double federal funding for basic research and make the research and development tax credit permanent to help create high-paying, secure jobs. Obama will also make long-term investments in education, training, and workforce development so that Americans can leverage our strengths - our ingenuity and entrepreneurialism - to create new high-wage jobs and prosper in a world economy.
• Invest in U.S. Manufacturing: The Obama comprehensive energy independence and climate change plan will invest in America's highly-skilled manufacturing workforce and manufacturing centers to ensure that American workers have the skills and tools they need to pioneer the first wave of green technologies that will be in high demand throughout the world. Obama will also provide assistance to the domestic auto industry to ensure that new fuel-efficient vehicles are built by American workers.
• Create New Job Training Programs for Clean Technologies: The Obama plan will increase funding for federal workforce training programs and direct these programs to incorporate green technologies training, such as advanced manufacturing and weatherization training, into their efforts to help Americans find and retain stable, high-paying jobs. Obama will also create an energy-focused youth jobs program to invest in disconnected and disadvantaged youth.
• Boost the Renewable Energy Sector and Create New Jobs: The Obama plan will create new federal policies, and expand existing ones, that have been proven to create new American jobs. Obama will create a federal Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) that will require 25 percent of American electricity be derived from renewable sources by 2025, which has the potential to create hundreds of thousands of new jobs on its own. Obama will also extend the Production Tax Credit, a credit used successfully by American farmers and investors to increase renewable energy production and create new local jobs.

Hmm, no space jobs there, unless NASA and industry embrace renewable energy creation.

There is a legacy in NASA for making headway and creating hope for the underfunded and under represented. The Apollo program had a second agenda, enabled by Lyndon Johnson, and that was to empower the southern states, and create quality jobs there. Today the majority of space centers are in the old south and central Florida. Thus the possibility of upward mobility became reality in these communities.

Today a lot of advocates argue that entrepreneurial space will create jobs for Americans. This a great and important quest, but in reality-based terms, to get new space to be where aviation was 100 years ago, or so, as a robust industry, will take 10 or 20 years, according to some new space leaders.
Hmm, not a lot of near term jobs there, any time soon.

Jobs and space are being talked today about only in terms of cuts- cuts in Florida, in particular. Senator Nelson of Florida calls it a crisis.

The question is: what is The Plan to create new jobs in the space arena, right now?
I mean jobs for the many talents all genders, races, ages, sexual preference, and physical ability, of the space community at large-I fear we do not have it, for whatever reason. And we forget that about 2/3rd of space jobs are not technical-they involve every business skill under the sun. Skills Americans have or can get.
If NASA becomes known as the place where jobs go to die, then it is highly unlikely that either beltway or main street will have much incentive to support public space investment.

Meanwhile, in Space News, I see that someone has a plan to keep the current space jobs in place. Senator Barbara Mikulski, recently promised to "work her earrings off" to keep the NASA budget alive. Mikulski led the charge for a $1Billion dollar increase to the NASA budget, which passed the Senate, put not the House, and was not acceptable to the White House.


Source: Aero-News.Net

A sidebar to the stories in the general media about Tuesday's Texas presidential primary and state caucus is the attention the campaigning has drawn to NASA. The policies of the next president are important to Texas voters, and the topic is one of the few on which the candidates have relatively distinct differences.

On Monday, the Houston Chronicle summarized the positions of the various campaigns for its readers, and here, in a nutshell, is what they've been saying in their stump speeches.

On the Democrat side, Hillary Clinton recently told the Chronicle that, as a young girl, she wanted to become an astronaut, but received a letter back from NASA at the time saying, "...they weren't taking any girls."

Clinton adds she wants to pursue an ambitious space agenda, she recently voted in favor of a Senate bill to add a billion dollars to NASA's budget in 2008, and claims former US Senator John Glenn as an advisor. Glenn was the first American to orbit the earth in 1962, and the oldest person ever to fly in space in 1998, when he flew aboard the shuttle Discovery.

In contrast, Barack Obama has worked to clarify his policy on the space agency, after he originally said he wanted to delay NASA's Constellation program by five years to divert money to education programs, then said he wanted to reduce the five-year span currently planned between the retirement of the shuttle fleet in 2010, and the first flights of Orion in 2015.

Obama now says he wants to develop Orion on or ahead of schedule, but delay sending humans to Mars or back to the moon to save money. The Clinton campaign is trying to paint that position as inconsistent....

Arizona Senator John McCain, the probable Republican nominee for President, says NASA needs to do a better job prioritizing its expenditures, but calls investment in manned spaceflight very important. He admitted to the Chronicle that he has been, "...very enamored of Mars... since I was a child."

UN COPUS Notes: Space, Space Benefits Meeting

Outer Space Scientific and Technical Subcommittee Concludes its 45th Session in Vienna

VIENNA, 22 February (UN Information Service) - The newly established space-system-based disaster management programme (UN-SPIDER) was in thefocus of the 45th session of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), which took place in Vienna, Austria, from 11 to 22 February 2008. Possible dangers from near-Earth objects, space debris mitigation and a safety framework for nuclear power sources in outer space were also key agenda items.

Other topics of discussion included a review of the implementation of the recommendations of the Third United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNISPACE III), recent developments in Global Navigation Satellite Systems, the use of the geostationary orbit, the International Heliophysical Year and matters related to remote sensing of the Earth by satellites, including applications for developing countries and monitoring of the Earth's environment.

A symposium on "Space Industry in Emerging Space Nations" was held on 12 February and addressed the role of the space manufacturing sector (satellites and their components, launchers, ground-support equipment) and the space service sector in emerging space nations. Symbolizing its commitment to the ideals of international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space, a hand-over ceremony of a UN flag, to be carried by the Republic of Korea's first astronaut, Ko San, during his historic flight to the International Space Station in April 2008, was held on 21 February.

Space-System-Based Disaster Management Support

The Subcommittee heard report on the implementation of the UN-SPIDER programme for the period 2008-2009 as well as other initiatives and long-term perspectives of various Member States and space agencies in the area of disaster management. The new UN-SPIDER programme, which is implemented by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), opened its first office in Bonn, Germany, last October and will be opening an office in Beijing, China, as well as a liaison office in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2008.

Near-Earth objects

The Subcommittee endorsed the new multi-year work plan 2009-2011, under which the Working Group on Near-Earth Objects (NEO) will review policies and procedures on the NEO threat at the international level in order to draft an agreement on international procedures by 2012. Within the framework of the International Year of Astronomy 2009, the Working Group will also try to raise awareness of the NEO threat. The Subcommittee continues to consider NEOs due to their scientific value as remnant debris from the inner solar system formation processes, their richness in various natural resources as well as their potential danger of collision with the Earth.

Use of Nuclear Power Sources in Outer Space

The Joint Expert Group, established by the Subcommittee and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last year met during this session of the Subcommittee for further consideration of the draft safety framework for nuclear power source (NPS) applications in outer space, which is planned to be published by 2010. Member States also reviewed this document at meetings of the Working Group on the Use of NPS in Outer Space. The Subcommittee noted that the updated text would be sent by UNOOSA to Member States for their additional comments. The Subcommittee will continue to consider this issue under the multi-year work plan 2007-2010.

Space Debris

The Subcommittee considered information received from Member States on national research on space debris, the safety of space objects with nuclear power sources on board and problems relating to their collision with space debris, and noted with satisfaction that space debris mitigation guidelines were endorsed by the General Assembly at its most recent session. The Subcommittee further noted on-going activities of Member States and international organizations aimed at the mitigation of space debris, and agreed to be informed periodically about future revisions of the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC) Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines. The Subcommittee was also informed that the space debris generated by the engagement of an inoperable satellite "USA 193" by the United States, had already entered the atmosphere or would do so within 48 hours since the successful interception of this inoperable satellite on 20 February.

Recent developments in global navigation satellite systems

Under this new regular agenda item, the Subcommittee considered latest developments in the field of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) and the benefits that the use of GNSS brings to the world's economies and societies. The Subcommittee also heard a report on the activities of the International Committee on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (ICG), established in 2006, which is an informal body to promote cooperation in civil satellite-based positioning, navigation, timing and value-added services, as well as the compatibility and interoperability of global navigation satellite systems.

International Heliophysical Year

This year was the last in the multi-year work plan on the International Heliophysical Year, which is an international programme of scientific collaboration to understand the Sun and its influence on the space environment and planets, and, as such, of great interest to Member States. The Subcommittee therefore decided to consider results of the world-wide IHY campaign as well as summary reports by Member States, scientific organizations and the IHY secretariat on the progress of their scientific campaigns again in 2009.

United Nations Programme on Space Applications

Member States also reviewed the activities of the United Nations Programme on Space Applications in 2007 and the activities planned for 2008. Within the Programme on Space Applications, UNOOSA plans to organize several workshops in 2008, aimed at disseminating knowledge of how to bring the benefits of space technology to everyone. This year, the topics of workshops include: the use of space technology for monitoring the impact of climate change on agricultural development and food security; water resource management; environmental protection and disease surveillance; tele-epidemiology; and public health improvement by using space technology to provide medical services.

Membership

The Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, like COPUOS, its parent committee, has the following 69 Member States: Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Benin, Brazil, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Canada, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela and Viet Nam.

The following intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations have permanent observer status with COPUOS: African Organization of Cartography and Remote Sensing, Association of Space Explorers, Committee on Earth Observation Satellites, Committee on Space Research, Regional Centre for Remote Sensing of the North African States, Eurisy, European Space Agency, European Space Policy Institute, International Academy of Astronautics, International Astronautical Federation, International Astronomical Union, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, International Law Association, International Mobile Satellite Organization, Intersputnik International Organization of Space Communications, International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, International Space University, National Space Society, Space Generation Advisory Council, The Planetary Society and World