Inescapable trade-offs?

Because the three-dimensional world has had me in a headlock (and a heat-wave), I’m tardy in passing on the news that ScienceBlogs is hosting a new blog, Next Generation Energy, that is slated to run from July 9 to October 9. On this blog, Seed editors, ScienceBlogs bloggers, and outside experts will be discussing future energy policy and alternative energy solutions.
Among other things, the folks at Next Generation Energy will have a weekly question they’ll try to answer from their various perspectives. This week’s question asks for predictions about the viable non-oil (and non-corn-ethanol) energy sources that might in the pipeline (figuratively, if not literally). It looks like there’s a potential for some really engaging discussions here.
And this brings us to the trade-offs.

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Connections.

Because it strikes me as somehow related to my last post, and because Memorial Day is the Monday after next, I’m recycling a post I wrote last year for WAAGNFNP:
On Memorial Day, because I really needed to do something beside grade papers for awhile, I decided to go to the nursery to buy some plants. First, though, because the kids (who had the day off from school) were actually entertaining themselves pretty well, I poured myself another coffee and decided to actually read some of the articles in The Nation issue on climate change.

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Ethical considerations in encouraging conservation.

After what has felt to me like a cooler than usual April and beginning of May, we seem finally to be changing seasons here. (OK, changing seasons with a vengeance — apparently our temperatures yesterday were record highs.)
Of course, in this part of California, we have two seasons: the green season and the gold season (which some insist on calling the brown season). The winter, and the winter rains, are over. Now it’s time for things to dry out.
This, as Michael O’Hare notes, means that water districts are trying to work out what to do about anticipated water shortages. He writes:

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