Here’s a good article on the Keystone XL pipeline – undoubtedly an ecological disaster of unprecedented scale– the equivalent of adding 51 coal-fired power plants, or adding 37 million more cars onto our roads. The only reason for approving the project is that it’s inevitable. But isn’t that the rationale for selling heroin to teenagers? If I don’t do it, someone else will?
Taking steps to make your construction site more green can have more benefits than expected.
Aside from the obvious environmental benefits that accompany going green you can see a substantial reduction in cost through increased efficiency and recycling or reusing common construction materials.
Here are 5 ways that your construction site can go more green: (more…)
It is great that you are doing your part to save the environment, but you can do more by convincing others to contribute to the cause?
There are many people who are still not making a conscious effort to adopt a green lifestyle, probably because they think that it is costly and troublesome to do so. Some people are even skeptical about the effectiveness of environmental efforts.
Here are a number of things that individuals, groups, organizations and businesses can do to convince even doubters to go green. (more…)
Though summer might be rounding out its last few weeks of insufferable heat, it’s still a perfect time to examine how energy consumption stacks up in the hottest months of the year. Check out this infographic to see how the dog days of summer compare to the energy consumption in every season. It should come as no surprise that cooling costs cause a spike in the average energy bill, leaving consumers to pay dearly for the sweet relief of a little air conditioning. But, extreme heat isn’t the only thing threatening the pocketbooks of Americans. Read on to find out what the data revealed! (more…)
Plato (pictured here with Athena, goddess of wisdom, looking over him) is supposed to have said: The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men. This, of course, is why it makes our skin crawl when we see people so remarkably uninvolved in the world around them.
There was never an “easy” time in human history, where civilization was on a kind of auto-pilot and the public welfare made progress on its own; the success of humankind as a wise, kind, and ultimately thriving species has always been in doubt. But the stakes are so much higher now than in any time in history, with the possibility of nuclear weapons in the hands of rogue states, the steady march of climate change and ocean acidification, the curtailment of civil liberties, and the dozens of other threats to our survival – all of which have greatly upped the ante.
I hope you’ll join me in urging people – especially young people — to get involved. Our civilization faces huge challenges, and they won’t take care of themselves.
There are a number of reasons that I wanted to share this video on Boulder, Colorado and its citizens’ attempts to internalize (“municipalize” as they say) the generation of its electrical energy. First, it’s the style of video whose quality I believe I can make with resources within a few orders of magnitude of my own. It’s not Steven Spielberg; it’s not Ken Burns; it’s something I feel that a few friends and I can produce – and I’d really like to do projects like this at a certain point.
I hope you’ll agree that with a modest budget, these people have told a story of amazing warmth, passion … and drama. (more…)
I have to admit that tension really is brewing between the power utilities and the solar industry – at least the part of it that promotes distributed (e.g., rooftop) generation (DG). Yet it’s hard for me to understand all this bad blood. The utilities are doing exactly what we asked them to do: generate and distribute low-cost electricity in a super-reliable fashion – and DG undeniably represents a threat to that objective. How surprised can we be that a powerful force is antipathetic to a live and growing challenge?
Maybe it’s time to reframe our utilities’ mission. When we had this conversation in the early 20th Century, we didn’t care where the power came from. Now we do. We didn’t need or want incentives to consume less electricity. Again, now we do. Let’s be wise enough to build those concerns into a new generation of laws by which our utilities are regulated — and the tensions will disappear instantly.
Taxis seem to be among the worst possible applications for electric vehicles, since they’re constantly on the go, with no defined routes, thus range and charging times represent huge issues. (The exception here, of course, is taxis that are based at airports, and can charge, perhaps inductively, while in queue – though this requires an investment in infrastructure that exists nowhere on Earth at this time.) Apparently, none of this mattered to the government of Bogata, Columbia in their decision to bring in the BYD e6 as a replacement for internal combustion engines. (more…)
Linked below is a strange little article sent to me by frequent commenter Tim Kingston, who notes: “Thought this might interest you. The energy universe can be complex. Sometimes there no easy choices.” The article’s point is that the world of electricity without nuclear is, in a word, expensive.
Thanks, Tim. What you say is true: the world of energy requires us to make tough choices. But the concept that nuclear is inexpensive is completely erroneous.
The actual cost of building these plants is almost never anywhere near the projected budget. Readers may want to Google “nuclear plant cost overrun,” and read a few of the 312,000 articles they’ll find on the subject. Here’s one that refers to a certain nuclear project as “satanic,” based on the actual amount of the overrun ($6.66 billion). The Florida utility, FPL Group, now estimates the cost of building a new nuclear power plant at over $9 billion, nearly double their previous estimate.
We need to also keep in mind that the nuclear industry and its lobbies have carefully confused us about the costs of shipping and storing nuclear waste, which remains dangerous for as long as one million years.
There is an assumption that buying a green, low emissions or even an electric car produces the lightest carbon footprint. But studies reveal that the manufacture of all cars, even green or electric ones makes up a huge chunk of their total emissions and that keeping and caring for the same car for decades instead of buying new is often the more sustainable route.
Hybrid, electric or old car?
I recently contacted the Environmental Transport Agency who told me that: (more…)
