A book award, a disturbing article on decline of oil and gas, and a poem.

This is an odd mix of topics. The first gave me joy, the second filled me with satisfaction that comes from hard work, and the third moved me to tears. All in one day.

1. Book award.
I submitted my new book, The Shale Controversy, to the 2021 NMPW Communications Contest, in the non-fiction book section, and it won third place. The NM stands for New Mexico.

I wasn’t very excited about this until I read the Judge’s comments, which captured exactly the reason I wrote the book. I jumped up and down a little bit in joy.

Not everyone is going to pick up a book about shale, but I found this to be a very informative and surprisingly easy to follow and comprehend. The author’s use of graphics was beneficial but not over-used. Dr Palmer took a complex topic and presented his material in layman terms for a general audience, even adding suggested topics and chapters for those not inclined to read this book from beginning to end. Since fracking is a hot topic, this would provide a better understanding of what is involved and the pros and cons of shale-oil and shale-gas.
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2. The decline of oil and gas production.
Yesterday I posted a new article to Forbes.com:

Greening Of Electrical And Transport Sectors – What The Numbers Mean For The Future Of Oil And Gas.
The decline in oil and gas production – will it be slow or rapid? A gradual adjustment or a painful disruption?
Some answers can be found by putting numbers on the US greening of electricity and transportation, two of the largest users of oil and gas. The analysis is simplified but insightful.

Why did I feel satisfaction? Because I worked on this for about five days, not knowing where it would lead.
Then Bingo! I could show from the numbers that the goals for electricity and transport going green in the USA would lead to at least a 25% decline in oil and gas production by 2035 or soon after. This would be pretty serious.

To read more about this, click HERE.
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3. A poem written after 9/11.
9/11 occurred in 2001 when the planes hit the World Trade Center in New York, and almost 3,000 people died. It was a tragic time, so sudden, so devastating, so emotional.

Amid the chaos, a poem was scrawled on one of the makeshift bulletin boards set up around the West Village to seek information about lost loved ones:
The little airplanes of the heart
With their brave little propellers.
What can they do
Against the winds of darkness?
Even as butterflies are beaten back by hurricanes
Yet do not die.

It was written by a man called Lawrence Ferlinghetti, a poet and publisher, who died this year at the age of 101.

The picture of anxious crying faces in 2001 searching for lost loved ones in New York moved me to tears.

Unfortunately, it happened all over again in 2020, but with ten times the numbers, during the pandemic.

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BLOG TOPICS: I write content (in-depth) blogs about a mix of topics: Science and Energy, and Inspiration and Hope, and Health and Hiking.
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The Gray Nomad ….. Appreciate your own feelings.
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Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?
And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’
In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.
[Gospel of Luke, chapter 15.]