From Guest Blogger Lana Hawkins: Five Key Trends That Will Shape the Future of Water
Water is the crucial component of our society’s, but also ecosystem’s survival. It is used in our homes and in sectors such as agriculture, energy production, and manufacturing. The pressures on water resources are raising and problems will become even more pronounced with the climate change. While supplies shrink, the demand shows no signs of slowing down. Hence, there is an overflowing plate of challenges and obstacles that we all face. It has never been more important to look to the future frontier and think in the long term. (more…)
The municipality of Viladamat (pictured) – a quaint village with a population of 440 – launched an innovative crowdlending project. Located in the province of Girona, in the north-east of Catalonia, Viladamat is the first municipality in the country to ever use crowdlending to finance a self-consumption solar installation. 
I can’t make it to Washington D.C. for Earth Day this year, but I’m looking forward to participating in one of the hundreds of satellite marches…this one in my home town of Santa Barbara.
Some people comment, “Why so vitriolic about Trump? If you don’t like him, fire him in 2020.”
With all the banter about arctic drilling, tar sands, shale oil, the construction of the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines, returning jobs in coal, and Exxon’s (coincidental?) request of the lifting of sanctions on Russia, it’s good to keep a few things stably in mind. 
Rust is an iron-oxide which means that it’s created when iron (or a compound containing it) is exposed to oxygen. This process is accelerated by the presence of water or moisture in general. Rust patches on your pans, bikes, garden furniture or cars are more than unpleasant to look at. They also damage the metal and the longer you leave it untended, the less you will be able to salvage. 
Those who may be fixated on kleptocracy that the U.S. federal government has become should be aware that certain of the states are excelling at lying and conducting corrupt business practices as well. 
What makes Trump so good at his game is that, like a master magician, he knows how to keep the audience focused precisely where they’ll be unable to see what’s really going on. Look what’s happened in the past few weeks. Environmentalists were up in arms about tapping Rex Tillerson to lead the State Department, then the approval of the pipelines, followed by the destruction of the EPA, then the appointment of Neil Gorsuch, and now the prospects of World War III. 
It’s finally starting to be warm out on a regular basis. That means spring is almost here, and lots of people are getting the itch to clean up. Since this is the time of year when everyone wants to clean anyway, you might as well make it work double time for you. Whenever possible, try to work smarter. In this case, that means lowering your energy bills! 
