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UC Solar Decathlon
 

Thomas Edison's legacy

There's an interesting article in today's New York Times Magazine about Thomas Edison's contributions to renewable energy technologies. The article is accompanied by a picture of Edison with his electric car, the Baker, holding a battery proudly.

It discusses Mayor Bloomberg's recent announcement that he wanted to reduce New York City's greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent in the next 25 years.

What's kind of funny about Edison is that while he was "an unlikely green pioneer whose ideas about renewable power still resonate today," he also built one of the country's first central power stations in New York City and invented the incandescent light bulb (which we all know to be a "notoriously inefficient" source of light).

At any rate, the article ends with a scarily foretelling quote from Edison in 1931: "I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that."

There

  1. Blogger Professor Sonnenberg | June 3, 2007 at 10:19 PM |  

    Hi Emily!

    Thanks for posting this--I just knew you'd see that piece, too. Interesting stuff, and yet another sign of how pervasive an issue sustainability has become. Or maybe how pervasive an issue it has always been!