It can seem at times that humanity is in a desperate race to use up all of the earth’s natural resources. Whether it be oil, trees, or food, we’re using more than we are recycling. It’s a shame, but it can sometimes be hard to know how to do your part to at least curb your own resource usage. (more…)
Ever wondered where your recycled goods go? We see them off on the first part of their journey by sorting them into recycling bins, but what becomes of them after that?
Obviously different materials will end up in very different areas, numbering likely into the thousands. Today, we are going to narrow that focus and just look at glass. It has a long history of domestic usage, being discovered in tombs dating back to ancient Egyptian times. Recycling it is something of a new invention, having only come into prominence in the last 100 years. But if you thought all your glass bottles just became glass bottles again, you would be sorely mistaken. (more…)
Every time you throw food in the garbage, you’re basically tossing money right into the trash can. According to recent estimates by the USDA, about a third of the food produced in the U.S. each year goes to waste. That’s a whopping $161.6 billion worth of wastage, or about $522 for each person every year! (more…)
I happen to share my birthday (July 3rd) with Franz Kafka. According to the Writer’s Almanac:
He found love and happiness in the last year of his life, with a woman named Dora Diamant. Even though Kafka was suffering excruciating pain from tuberculosis, Diamant later said, “Everything was done with laughter,” and “Kafka was always cheerful. He liked to play; he was a born playmate, always ready for some fun.”
Seriously? (more…)
Yesterday’s ground-breaking landing in Hawaii (pictured left) of the solar PV-powered aircraft “Solar Impulse” after its trip across the Pacific is a time for celebration. The triumph goes far beyond the astonishing accomplishments of materials science and solar photovoltaics themselves; it’s an announcement of the beauty that is to come, the promise of what will happen when the world derives its energy from its nearest star, which showers upon us 6000 times more power than all seven billion of us consume. (more…)
A friend writes: Happy 4th of July! I was at a coffee shop yesterday, and they had all these European magazines. I came across an article: THIS ‘TREE’ GENERATES ENOUGH ELECTRICITY TO HEAT YOUR APARTMENT. I thought you’d enjoy it.
Thanks for thinking of me. Yes, I’ve seen this. Obviously, it’s designed as a novelty, rather than as a serious attempt to build a cost-effective way of generating electricity, but it’s a pretty cool idea nonetheless. Historically, I haven’t gotten too excited about stuff like this, but maybe I should be a little more jaunty to my approach to the subject.
In response to my post Energy Policy: Taking a Stand Against Fossil Fuels, frequent 2GreenEnergy commenter Cameron Atwood writes:
Change is always obstructed, no matter how needed or wise, but the forces are growing, aligning and massing – technology, money power, profit motive, people power, self-preservation, sustainability and morality – all with compatible ends in view… with the common core focus on moving from fossil sunlight to modern sunlight. This represents hope for the continuity and evolution of civilization, as opposed to the deadly and crises-laden devolution into deprivation, chaos and conflict that will attend further delay. (more…)
It is no secret that companies contribute on a massive scale to overall carbon emissions through their operations whether local, national or global. But the question for a long time has been what to do about it and how to encourage enterprises towards practices that help reduce the scale of their carbon footprints.
Well, within the European Union (EU) at least, one important policy in this context relates to energy audits, through which companies can gain a better and more accurate sense of how they use or misuse non-renewable energy resources. The hope and expectation is that by investing in these so-called ‘green’ audits, businesses will become more willing and able to reduce their energy use and save money in the long term. (more…)
In my recent post called “Setback to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency” I noted:
Environmentalists everywhere were saddened that the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a blow to the Environmental Protection Agency with its recent ruling invalidating the EPA’s regulation of mercury and other toxic chemicals that are emitted from power plants. But at the same time, as much as I hate to say it, the ruling is a validation of common sense…..The EPA’s position was that it could do its thing without regard to the costs incurred by the power plants. Really? How smart was that? (more…)
Most of us suffer under the delusion that we, as individuals, are powerless to make much difference on a planet that’s home to more than seven billion people—not to mention some enormous corporate interests that are intent on preserving our current murderous practices vis-à-vis our environment. That’s why it’s a good idea to celebrate the lives of people who, fortunately for us all, simply didn’t fall into that psychological trap.
It’s the birthday of French author George Sand (pictured with Frederic Chopin), thus a good opportunity to consider how single individuals can change the course of history. According to the Writer’s Almanac: (more…)
