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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Efficiency

How to Make Your Home or Business More Eco-FriendlyFact: Mother Nature is suffering, no thanks to human’s abusive practices. Because of this, people are starting to look for ways to save the Earth and slowly jumping into the eco-friendly bandwagon. However, adopting green and eco-friendly practices is more than just turning off the lights and using solar panels.

Here are important things you should know about making your home or business eco-friendly before you (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

Climate Change and Sea-Level RiseHere’s an interactive map that enables users to see the sea-level rise associated with different scenarios.  Of course, such predictions contemplate the more distant future; it’s likely that only minor climate change-related damage will take place, due to rising oceans at least, over the next 50 years or so. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Eco-Friendly Halloween DecorationsThe disposable nature of our society is perhaps at its worst when the festive season rolls around. Halloween is the most pressing example of people buying a lot of expensive, environmentally harmful products, using them for a few days, and then discarding them, only to do it all over again next year. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainable Building

Going Green: A Concept That's Certainly Not "All Washed Up"Renna Roberts-Gore of Orlando, Florida writes:

I am “Going Green”!! I am a 43 year old Woman who is married and living in Orlando with my Husband and Son. I am a Veteran of the Navy and worked 18 years as a Paramedic. My dream though, is to leave a Legacy through Green Laundromats. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

The Biggest Waste of Money in Human HistoryQuora.com is a site in which questions, some profound, others trivial, are posed and then answered by people who claim to have some expertise in the subject at hand.  I’ve signed up to offer my two cents’ worth on matters pertaining to renewable energy, but I read discussions on other topics as time permits.

There are quite a number of interesting answers to the question in the title above, but most (correctly in my estimation) point to wars, especially the U.S.’ current struggle in the Middle East.  And of course, wasting money is one thing; wasting lives is another. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Wind Energy

<a href="http://s708.photobucket.com/user/craigshields/media/craigshields001/img_4353_zps7psgy8fl.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src=I often come across claims that wind shrouds serve to concentrate the wind’s power; I’ve seen dozens of variations on this theme over the years.  The bitter truth is that this doesn’t work, for reasons explained in the article linked above, of which this is an excerpt: (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Wind Energy

Wind Turbines Are a Danger to Birds and BatsA reader submits an idea for a wind turbine in which birds and bats are protected by forcing the wind to blow through a screen.  I respond:

The power output of a wind turbine is proportional to the cube of the wind’s velocity.  That’s the main reason the wind industry is still dangerous to birds and bats (though less so every year, as the technology continues to advance), i.e., anything that blocks the wind greatly impairs the output of the generator.

Again, the wind industry regards this as a very serious issue and is working hard to minimize the loss of life.  In the meanwhile, we need to keep in mind that birds are thousands of times more likely to fly into plate glass windows and high tension towers, get hit by cars, or be eaten by cats.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

Coal: Coming to the End of the LineIt’s a cruel irony that coal miners are fighting so hard to retain their disease-ridden way of life, given its deadly effects on its participants.  Yes, all 7.3 billion of us denizens of Earth will breathe more easily (literally) when coal becomes a thing of the past, but the people on whom this lethal occupation wreaks its effects most forcefully are the miners themselves.  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

“My Religion Is Kindness”The title here, of course, comes from the Dalai Lama.

And the pic here is something similar I noticed on 2GreenEnergy supporter Glenn Doty’s Facebook page.  Not a bad way to end the week.  Let me propose a toast as we head out for our Friday evening martinis: to people of kindness everywhere. 

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Energy Storage

An Introduction to BatteriesIn my last post, I covered the various types of energy storage.  Now it’s time to analyze in detail the possibilities that the batteries offer in this field.  We will discuss the various types of batteries, and note the characteristics of different battery types.

The working principle of a battery is a reversible chemical process called reduction-oxidation (or “redox”), a process in which one component is oxidized (loses electrons) and the other is reduced (gains electrons).  (more…)

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