From lithium cells to sand, water, and even gravity, there’s more than one way to store energy. Each battery type has its own strengths, weaknesses, and environmental impact. This lesson breaks down how the main technologies work, what they’re made from, and where they fit in the energy puzzle. 👉 Find it here.

@Lorna Willimott kindly shared a link with me to Matt Farrell, who blogs about emerging and maturing technologies. His blogs are beautifully crafted and scripted. They are interesting, positive and factual. I had recently seen a post about large areas of agricultural land being damaged as solar panel arrays were installed on the land. The land is degraded, and although the product—electricity—is needed, it comes at a significant cost to the land. The Idea that Mat discusses is raising the panels higher and opening gaps between the panels, allowing light to pass through—enough to be beneficial to shade-loving crops. The difference is that instead of covering fields, the panels are installed over, for example, raspberry bushes. These bushes are usually covered in plastic sheeting to protect them from excessive sun, severe weather (such as hail), and wind. Installing the solar panels over the top of the bushes handled all of these issues and reduced the amount of water needed by the crops by 50%. It also ended the use of the plastic sheeting, which had to be renewed frequently. In years of low sun, the crop yield was lower, but in other years, the yield was higher. On average, the yeidl was higher. The byproduct was electricity. The link to his YouTube page is here.

As I was thinking how to frame my question, I realized that one of my main roadblocks to doing more about climate change isn't practical, it's social. And social solutions are certainly not my forte. Anyway, here it is: How do I handle situations where my actions to lower MY carbon footprint impact my loved ones? Examples: I want to cut down car usage, but if my daughter walks to work (or even to a bus) she'll arrive sweaty in summer or cold and wet in winter, so I drive her more often than I'd like. I hate heating a swimming pool with natural gas, but my wife finds water exercises easier on her body. OK, and one about me: I want to switch to an electric car, but I love driving my 15 year-old stick-shift Mini Cooper. (And electric cars don't have stick-shift!) Maybe this isn't really a question. Just to say that Climate change action isn't easy. What do you think?

Part of this course isn’t just about climate facts and solutions — it’s about becoming the kind of person who can speak up, inspire others, and lead. To make that real, I promised to share my own journey of developing as a public speaker. And today, I’ve posted the very first video in that series: raw, unedited, and yes… a little cringeworthy. This is me, at the starting line. Not polished. Not perfect. Just honest. 👉 You’ll see exactly where I’m beginning, and you’ll be able to follow as I (hopefully!) improve lesson by lesson. My hope is that by watching me start messy, you’ll feel freer to start speaking up yourself. 🔗 You can find it here. Because the climate emergency doesn’t need perfect voices. It needs authentic ones — starting now.

There is good news all around us - sometimes it takes a bit of additional awareness. If you see good news about the environment, please share it here - I would love to research it and report on it in more detail. It could be solutions, good actions, clever ideas, changes of heart, new companies doing good things, previously detrimental companies having a change of heart, or someone saving a species from extinction... the small stuff.