Kevin Chiu

Awareness of global warming may rise after the Nobel Peace Prize awarded Friday to former Vice President Al Gore and a United Nations science panel for their work on the issue.

- The Wall Street Journal

I’m thinking of world hacks right now. Seth, the marketing guru, had a neat one.

I want a hack that will get rid of air pollution and fix our energy problem. What energy problem you ask? The problem that people don’t appreciate how much energy it takes to maintain their lifestyles — causing energy consumption to grow to consume any reasonable supply.

If people had to gather the energy themselves, it would be different. I’m thinking DIY solar power for the masses, or community solar etc. We need to make it trendy for normal people, not just environmentally conscious vegans. We may need to take a shortcut through some basic human need to get this to work, since global altruism doesn’t seem to be a common trait.

(Nuclear would have been cool too, but DIY nuclear doesn’t seem as accessible.)

I’m open to new hacks and suggestions.

Yay: To clean air, aid climate, China looks to end polluters’ perks.

I think central china could host some pretty huge solar farms. With the right technology, products, and education, solar power might be able to displace coal as the main source of energy.

I drove behind a biodiesel Volkswagen Jetta today.

It smelled like a French Fry on Fire.

The only thing preventing me from hopping onto a plane and making a long-term excursion to China is the extreme pollution problem they have.

And oddly, that’s the huge motivation to go as well — to bring the rampant environmental disaster under control.