Published on
December 4, 2008 at 5:44pm
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The average American emits 136 pounds of carbon dioxide each day. About 36
pounds come from driving, flying and other travel. Another 22 pounds come from heating,
cooling, and powering our homes, The final 78 pounds comes from producing, transporting,
and disposing of of all the stuff we buy, and from shared services like schools and street
lights. 136 pounds would fill 5,000 balloons- imagine releasing that every day.
As the holidays near, Brighter Planet is getting into the spirit
of giving. Yesterday they launched the One Day campaign. They're
donating a day's worth of their premium offsets to those willing
to conserve during the holidays. Because of my past help with our 350 Challenge,
they've automatically donated 136 pounds of offsets in my name.
To help spread the word, Brighter Planet is giving away 25 one day carbon
credit gifts, first come, first serve. Just follow the link below!
Published on
December 3, 2008 at 6:48am
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Why Should I Switch to LED holiday Lights? (from HolidayLED’s.com)
Added safety - Lamps always remain cool to the touch. Because holiday lighting is often used in close proximately to combustible materials (dry evergreen trees) this feature can greatly reduce the risk of holiday fires.
Solid-state reliability. No longer will you have to worry about one lamp ruing your whole string.
Longevity - L.E.D. lamps are rated for up to 200,000 hours of use while standard incandescent lights typically last for only 2,000 hours.
No glass bulbs to break. LED lights are encased in an nearly indestructible epoxy casing.
No filaments to burn out. Unlike incandescent bulbs there is not filament to burn out so they last much longer and won’t be damage or ruined if you drop them or step on them.
Extreme energy efficiency, uses only 10% of the electricity required to power traditional incandescent. For a typical household this will mean a cost savings of $20.00 or more during the standard 30 day holiday season.
Nearly indestructible, solid epoxy lenses. High-quality LED lights can withstand the force of a tractor trailer without breaking.
Rust proof, Zinc-coated lamp contacts. The lamp components will not rust when used outdoors or in moist environments.
Uses standard house current (120 VAC, 60 Hz). No need for an electrician or expensive power converters.
No transformer required. Allows for simple installation and use.
Will LED holiday lights look the same as my standard incandescent lights (from HolidayLED’s.com)
Most people find that the LED lights are more brilliant than their old incandescent lights, but the color and overall appearance is generally very similar to standard incandescent string lights.
Can LED Christmas lights be attached to my old incandescent string lights? (from HolidayLED’s.com)
LED string lights contain a tiny fuse which is built into the string. Because incandescent lights draw so much more power than LED strings it is likely that the incandescent lights will blow the fuse in the LED string. We do not recommend that you use your LED strings with old incandescent strings for this reason.
Published on
December 2, 2008 at 9:54pm
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Does natural gas sound too good to be true? Abundant supplies in the US and Canada, straight from underground fossil fuel deposits. And cheap transportation through pipelines being built right now and already in place. T. Boone Pickens and others have been lobbying hard to use these supplies for transportation, in place of gasoline from the middle east and other unfriendly places. They argue that it is cleaner than gas or coal. It does contain less sulfur and other chemicals that when burned in coal produce acid precipitation. What's not to like is that when it burns it produces carbon dioxide and water, just like other fossil fuels. Burning natural gas in automobiles would also require and enormous infrastructure of "natural gas refueling stations". Read more from the Earth Policy Institute at this link:
Published on
November 27, 2008 at 10:54pm
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Al Gore's Nobel peace Prize-winning production 'An Inconvenient Truth' was certainly a paradigm-changing moment in the world psyche of climate change, however at the same time Al Gore and climate change are a paradox. Every citizen of the planet, now and in the future owe him gratitude for putting that together. The science is good, the message is clear and the production was engaging. Al Gore is one of the great heroes of this century to be sure. So why are there millions of Americans and millions of others worldwide who don't buy climate change?
But the impact of 'An Inconvenient Truth' was weakened because of Al Gore's political agenda woven into the good science and all-American appeal of the production. I can't even count the number of people I have seen sigh or roll their eyes when the video is mentioned. As a teacher, I have watched it four or five times in various settings.
Each time I watch it I am more aware of the political bias blended into the film. I watched in horror as then President H.W. Bush decried Gore as "Captain Ozone" but I didn't need to be reminded of it again in the film. I didn't need to be reminded of republican politicians who failed to see what to me and others was obvious. Those of us who have studied climatology and read the independent research and computer modeling for 20 years know what the science says. And we know that "scientific theory" is held to a much higher standard than religious or personal theories. Al Gore weakened the film's power by saturating the science with his own political frustrations. His goal in making the film could have been to bring the science to the world instead of also tying inaction to his opponents. To be fair, even under President Clinton, the U.S. refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol to limit global warming.
As I watched the film for the third and fourth time I tried to imagine what it must be like to watch it as a republican, to have my nose rubbed in past missteps and then be expected to swallow the evidence of global warming. My imagination told me that many possible converts were repelled by the political bias in the film and cannot see through their thickened protective armor. Now, we are about to open a door into a new era that will demand 'all hands on deck' to work together for data-based decision-making and it is no time to cling to partisan beliefs. As a result of Al Gore's divisive tone, many of our leaders may fail to see the powerful scientific data and what I believe was the most powerful argument of all. As Sinclair said "It is difficult to get a man to see something that his livelihood depends on him not seeing."
