The support for climate legislation has seemed to take a turn for the better. Here is a letter from 60 big companies (including Google, The Big Three automakers, Pepsico, Duke Energy and Honeywell) and environmental groups to President Obama that calls for climate legislation to be passed.
Dear Mr. President and Members of the U.S. Senate: We are a broad and diverse group of businesses and organizations that believe America must take control of its energy and economic future while enhancing our national security. We are writing to urge you to move forward this year on comprehensive energy and climate legislation that preserves and creates American jobs while protecting our environment.
The time to act is now. The U.S. needs a comprehensive energy and climate policy that will get us back on track by creating American jobs in the new, low-carbon economy.
The United States has an opportunity to lower greenhouse gas emissions and become the world's leader in a burgeoning clean energy economy. We face a critical moment that will determine whether we will be able to unleash homegrown American innovation or remain stuck in the economic status quo. Much as the transcontinental railroad ushered in an unprecedented era of expansion, innovation and economic growth, the transition to a diversified clean energy economy offers extraordinary opportunities for environmental and economic rewards. Americans need and deserve a comprehensive energy and climate policy and we urge you to take action without delay.
We are businesses with revenues of over $1.2 trillion and more than 1 million employees; as well as environmental, faith-based and labor organizations representing millions of Americans, all saying that we must secure America's clean energy future.
It's time for Democrats and Republicans to unite behind bipartisan, national energy and climate legislation that increases our security, limits emissions, and protects our environment while preserving and creating American jobs.
Ten years ago, it was hard to imagine that big corporations would call for such a major green step in legislation. Today, the problem is real and it has great potential to create massive changes that the world will have to adapt to, costing the human population trillions of dollars and changing the ecological world forever. The effects of climate change are already being seen here in the US. We are seeing the effects from smaller snow packs, disappearing glaciers, and 50/100 year floods happening on the same river in the same decade. This change is happening faster than we think and it needs action. It is great to see some support from an area on constituents that have traditionally been opposed to green legislation.
I found the comparison of options between "American innovation" and "economic status quo" to be quite powerful. This shows that the change will take effort and change, but the ability to make these changes are what makes America become so appealing. We have the power to create change to prevent a climate catastrophe. If inaction is taken, America will become second to other nations that choose to lead the way in stopping climate change and become a part of that "economic status quo". This is going to be a monumental movement meaning huge changes in lifestyles that are needed to prevent disaster, but if action is take out correctly, America will be the great innovator that can lead the world once again.
As much as I don't like Notre Dame, here is a great video from Notre Dame's commencement by Brian Williams with his confidence that America has the power to change. It is both moving and comical.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
Bottled Water is Scary
If I had not scared you away from bottled water already because of BPA, here is another reason to avoid it. In a recent study carried out by at Montreal's C-crest Laboratories in Canada, over 70% of bottled water from leading brands of bottled water had bacteria levels that were beyond the level considered to be acceptable. In some cases the water had 100 times more bacteria than was permitted. These levels are set by the NGO United States Pharmacopeia.
Read more one the article at The Montreal Gazette
Bottled water contributes to an amount of plastic swirling in the Pacific Gyre the size of Texas. Bottled water should be limited to emergency circumstances and should not be consumed on a day to day basis because of the potential trouble posed to our health from pharmaceuticals and BPA in the water and the amount of waste that is created with each plastic bottle.
Read more one the article at The Montreal Gazette
Bottled water contributes to an amount of plastic swirling in the Pacific Gyre the size of Texas. Bottled water should be limited to emergency circumstances and should not be consumed on a day to day basis because of the potential trouble posed to our health from pharmaceuticals and BPA in the water and the amount of waste that is created with each plastic bottle.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Benefits of Going Vegetarian and Some Tips For Those Who Love Meat
I love meat just as much as the next guy. But I hate to say that going to a vegetarian diet is good for the environment and apparently a lot better for your health. Here is an article from Grist.com that points out that industrial meats are laced with toxic chemicals and antibiotics. By limiting intake of meats and dairy, pesticides and other toxic chemicals in the body dropped dramatically when urine samples were studied. One of the chemicals of concern are phalates which are considered the "other BPA" because of their prevalence in common consumer products and their effects on the body. We will leave phalates for another day.
A few tips to reduce exposure to chemicals and help the environment without having to go vegetarian:
Eat organic-Not nearly as many chemicals used and less exposure to pesticides
Limit red meat and processed foods-These foods have a much higher fat content which dissolve many of these chemicals. Not to mention, studies have shown that reducing these meats helps to reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease.
Try to buy meat with minimal packaging-The plastic that wraps around meats can seep in endocrine disruptors and chemicals that cause hormone changes. This will also help you go green.
Eat more fish-Although some fish have high levels of some chemicals (mercury, PCBs) fish have high levels of Omega-3 fatty acids that boost your heart health and other functions of the body
A vegetarian diet is a good idea, but is not ideal for all of us. Simply limiting your meat intake is a good idea for reducing exposure to chemicals and reducing you carbon footprint.
A few tips to reduce exposure to chemicals and help the environment without having to go vegetarian:
Eat organic-Not nearly as many chemicals used and less exposure to pesticides
Limit red meat and processed foods-These foods have a much higher fat content which dissolve many of these chemicals. Not to mention, studies have shown that reducing these meats helps to reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease.
Try to buy meat with minimal packaging-The plastic that wraps around meats can seep in endocrine disruptors and chemicals that cause hormone changes. This will also help you go green.
Eat more fish-Although some fish have high levels of some chemicals (mercury, PCBs) fish have high levels of Omega-3 fatty acids that boost your heart health and other functions of the body
A vegetarian diet is a good idea, but is not ideal for all of us. Simply limiting your meat intake is a good idea for reducing exposure to chemicals and reducing you carbon footprint.
More on BPA
I came across this in depth article on BPA in the New Yorker. Check it out New Yorker BPA article
Search Amazon.com for bpa free water bottles
Search Amazon.com for bpa free water bottles
Monday, May 24, 2010
Our Choice: Al Gore's (Almost) Impeccable Plan for the Future
My first green book review as promised.
Al Gore’s new book Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis lays down a beautiful background to the climate problem at hand, an in depth look at the sources of the problem, and a multifaceted approach to solving the problem, all in 18 chapters.
Our Choice uses a wide variety of images to help visualize the problem as it is occurring today. It supplements these pictures with further graphs and figures demonstrating the future risks at hand if action is not taken. This book offers a wealth of knowledge for the layman, making it easy to understand the scope and complexity of the climate problem while keeping the strain off their eyes. Our Choice steps beyond the common view of global warming as energy consumption, fossil fuels, and forests in the carbon cycle to the connection that the carbon cycle has with everything around us such as soil, consumer consumption, and human population. He goes beyond the problems created by weather and displacement of people to the simple economics that are in jeopardy with climate change. Gore does not simply create a guide to what to do and what not to do for the environment, but lets the reader decide for himself based on the vast amounts of information provided and visions from across the world that show the need for an active plan for the future. The book offers endless alternatives to the problems we have created. With each alternative, it seems as though Gore is able to create a pro and con, but is able to tie the pros together to create a foreseeable, sustainable future. He goes onto link climate change as an obligation from one human to every other human on the planet in a way that is opinionated, but not forceful. Climate change becomes less of a debate and more of a moral challenge right in front of the reader’s eyes.
Gore also creates a plan for the future. Our Choice not only supports the need for conservation, renewable resources, population control, etc. with monetary numbers, he provides the concepts for how each of these tasks should be done. One example, is the new updated power grid that are needed on both the micro and macro scale. A major problem that is pointed out is that renewable energy is only usable at the time. Our Choice supplies the idea for how to gather energy in the varying weather conditions that many renewable energy sources depend on while storing them in lithium or cadmium ion batteries throughout the community for later use. In addition smart meters (that are already in existence) are placed around the grid along with efficient appliances such as LEED lights and cogeneration systems that produces power and heat simultaneously create a highly efficient use of energy. Modern technology that is available today is applied to solve the aging and decaying grid systems currently in place. This is an ingenious plan, but here comes about Gore’s one flaw.
Gore’s plan fails to bring about how the materials are attained to create these solutions. Our Choice always talks about how expensive it will be for our future if we do not change. It fails to see the pollution and the bottle neck for refining the materials and raising the money needed to put smart gird and renewable energy in place. For example, lithium, cadmium, and other metals used for the creation of solar panels, batteries, and wind turbines that Gore’s smart grid are based on are often “rare earth metals”. The metal itself is not “rare” as the title implies. Instead they are often embedded in large mixtures of elements throughout the earth’s crust. 95 percent of today’s “rare earth metals” come from China. To extract and purify these elements requires a process that uses toxic chemicals, acids, sulfates, and ammonia. These combine to create harmful air emissions and vast amounts of wastewater containing sulfur, fluorine, acid, and radioactive materials. The air emissions further exacerbate global warming. The wastewater ends up in the ground water around the extraction and is often unfit for small farmers to irrigate their crops or give to their animals leaving them hopeless and starving. Like many of the problems associated with global warming, this is one that society does not see because it is across the world. People using “green energy” fail to see the not-so-green side as a result.
Another economical problem arises as well. Mark Smith, CEO, Molycorp Minerals points out that “if the purpose is to lower our dependence on foreign oil, and all we're doing is asking that we put hybrid cars on the road that need Chinese rare earth materials, aren't we changing, you know, inter-trading one dependence for another?” China only has 50 percent of the amount of rare earth in the world, yet produces 95 percent. In the coming future, the growing demand for rare earth will turn oil shocks into rare earth shocks as we transition from oil to this new “green” energy source.
In a time of political turmoil along the climate front, Al Gore is able to create an accessible and practical view of the problems faced by global warming while bringing it to the forefront for the layman with his new book Our Choice. His solutions are often practical, wide in scope, and integrated to help create the mindset that this can be done. He offers solutions from local farming to conservation to new forms of energy and smart girds. He shows what needs to be done politically to defeat this problem. While he reiterates the point that the energy is available and it will be economically beneficial in the future, he fails to see the one thing that holds back the green revolution that he envisions, materials. He creates a great overview and does point out that technology will help to overcome these flaws, but the time frame that he puts forth as being realistic to get carbon emissions down to 1990 levels (2050) just seems a little farfetched with the strain in rare earth metals that will be seen in the future and the damage they will cause.
Al Gore’s new book Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis lays down a beautiful background to the climate problem at hand, an in depth look at the sources of the problem, and a multifaceted approach to solving the problem, all in 18 chapters.
Our Choice uses a wide variety of images to help visualize the problem as it is occurring today. It supplements these pictures with further graphs and figures demonstrating the future risks at hand if action is not taken. This book offers a wealth of knowledge for the layman, making it easy to understand the scope and complexity of the climate problem while keeping the strain off their eyes. Our Choice steps beyond the common view of global warming as energy consumption, fossil fuels, and forests in the carbon cycle to the connection that the carbon cycle has with everything around us such as soil, consumer consumption, and human population. He goes beyond the problems created by weather and displacement of people to the simple economics that are in jeopardy with climate change. Gore does not simply create a guide to what to do and what not to do for the environment, but lets the reader decide for himself based on the vast amounts of information provided and visions from across the world that show the need for an active plan for the future. The book offers endless alternatives to the problems we have created. With each alternative, it seems as though Gore is able to create a pro and con, but is able to tie the pros together to create a foreseeable, sustainable future. He goes onto link climate change as an obligation from one human to every other human on the planet in a way that is opinionated, but not forceful. Climate change becomes less of a debate and more of a moral challenge right in front of the reader’s eyes.
Gore also creates a plan for the future. Our Choice not only supports the need for conservation, renewable resources, population control, etc. with monetary numbers, he provides the concepts for how each of these tasks should be done. One example, is the new updated power grid that are needed on both the micro and macro scale. A major problem that is pointed out is that renewable energy is only usable at the time. Our Choice supplies the idea for how to gather energy in the varying weather conditions that many renewable energy sources depend on while storing them in lithium or cadmium ion batteries throughout the community for later use. In addition smart meters (that are already in existence) are placed around the grid along with efficient appliances such as LEED lights and cogeneration systems that produces power and heat simultaneously create a highly efficient use of energy. Modern technology that is available today is applied to solve the aging and decaying grid systems currently in place. This is an ingenious plan, but here comes about Gore’s one flaw.
Gore’s plan fails to bring about how the materials are attained to create these solutions. Our Choice always talks about how expensive it will be for our future if we do not change. It fails to see the pollution and the bottle neck for refining the materials and raising the money needed to put smart gird and renewable energy in place. For example, lithium, cadmium, and other metals used for the creation of solar panels, batteries, and wind turbines that Gore’s smart grid are based on are often “rare earth metals”. The metal itself is not “rare” as the title implies. Instead they are often embedded in large mixtures of elements throughout the earth’s crust. 95 percent of today’s “rare earth metals” come from China. To extract and purify these elements requires a process that uses toxic chemicals, acids, sulfates, and ammonia. These combine to create harmful air emissions and vast amounts of wastewater containing sulfur, fluorine, acid, and radioactive materials. The air emissions further exacerbate global warming. The wastewater ends up in the ground water around the extraction and is often unfit for small farmers to irrigate their crops or give to their animals leaving them hopeless and starving. Like many of the problems associated with global warming, this is one that society does not see because it is across the world. People using “green energy” fail to see the not-so-green side as a result.
Another economical problem arises as well. Mark Smith, CEO, Molycorp Minerals points out that “if the purpose is to lower our dependence on foreign oil, and all we're doing is asking that we put hybrid cars on the road that need Chinese rare earth materials, aren't we changing, you know, inter-trading one dependence for another?” China only has 50 percent of the amount of rare earth in the world, yet produces 95 percent. In the coming future, the growing demand for rare earth will turn oil shocks into rare earth shocks as we transition from oil to this new “green” energy source.
In a time of political turmoil along the climate front, Al Gore is able to create an accessible and practical view of the problems faced by global warming while bringing it to the forefront for the layman with his new book Our Choice. His solutions are often practical, wide in scope, and integrated to help create the mindset that this can be done. He offers solutions from local farming to conservation to new forms of energy and smart girds. He shows what needs to be done politically to defeat this problem. While he reiterates the point that the energy is available and it will be economically beneficial in the future, he fails to see the one thing that holds back the green revolution that he envisions, materials. He creates a great overview and does point out that technology will help to overcome these flaws, but the time frame that he puts forth as being realistic to get carbon emissions down to 1990 levels (2050) just seems a little farfetched with the strain in rare earth metals that will be seen in the future and the damage they will cause.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
A Great Week for Land Conservation
Wetlands are critical ecosystems. They are nutrient sinks that help to keep excess nitrogen and phosphorus from entering bodies of water. Large amounts nitrogen and phosphorus from agriculture and livestock contribute to dead zones(bodies of water with extrememly low levels of dissolved oxygen) that cannot support life. These zones have been proliferating in the past century due to large loses of wetlands and large increases in the use of fertilizers and lawn care products world wide.
As everyone knows forests are carbon sinks that help protect against global warming and can also help protect against excess runoff. Deforestation accounts for 20% of man-made green house gas emissions. They are also critical for biodiversity as they are the home for many different species.
Last week was a pretty memorable week. Funding to protect 75,000 acres of wetland in 22 states was just approved in the US. And the neighbors to the north just decided to protect 70 million acres of forest. These land conservation moves are critical to reduce green house gas emissions and water run off to help protect against climate change and the proliferation of dead zones in aquatic ecosystems.
As everyone knows forests are carbon sinks that help protect against global warming and can also help protect against excess runoff. Deforestation accounts for 20% of man-made green house gas emissions. They are also critical for biodiversity as they are the home for many different species.
Last week was a pretty memorable week. Funding to protect 75,000 acres of wetland in 22 states was just approved in the US. And the neighbors to the north just decided to protect 70 million acres of forest. These land conservation moves are critical to reduce green house gas emissions and water run off to help protect against climate change and the proliferation of dead zones in aquatic ecosystems.
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