Making a Difference - With ALL Odds Against You!

Check out this story about a guy in rural India. He attended a local college that teaches under-educated Indians to make a living. He became a solar engineer and brought solar power/light to his hometown that never had light after dark. Lights Out - literally.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/07/26/india.solar/index.html

Scientific Integrity Editorial Cartoon Contest

So the winner is in! The votes were cast and the cartoon above it the WINNER! Oh sorry background, the Union of Concerned Scientists hold a contest for Scientific Integrity cartoons, then they make a calendar out of the 12 finalists cartoons. Check out the finalist below:

http://www.ucsusa.org/scientific_integrity/science_idol/science-idol-finalist-bios.html

Political Tipping Point

I feel really blessed to have been born and raised during a time when the climate was in a tranquil state....especially after reading this article. The author of "The Last Generation: How Nature Will Take Her Revenge for Climate Change" - Fred Pearce (actually titled "With Speed and Violence" in the U.S.) is summed up here and definitely has some interesting points to make about what we know......and even more about what we don't know. It's definitely enough to scare you.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/07/18/last.generation/index.html#cnnSTCText

Oxygen Depleted Dead Zone??

Wow, this is a real eye opener....in a nutshell, pollutants from the Mississippi River (which is fed from sources throughout the U.S.) have been seeping into the Gulf of Mexico for so long that the area - estimated at over 8,500 square miles is completely oxygen deficient. Read the short article below:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/07/17/gulf.deadzone.ap/index.html

Greentips....Read All About It!

Read this month's Greentips Newletter at:

http://www.ucsusa.org/publications/greentips/

FEED - July 2007

The new issue of FEED is out, check out articles like.....

• Tyson goes antibiotic free for fresh grocery chicken
• The future of your food choices is being debated in Congress now!
• Global warming threatens wild relatives of food crops
• Ireland's government pledges to go GE-free
• Summer Reading: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/feed/feed-july-2007.html

Live Earth Concerts

So on 7/7/07 (this coming Saturday), several bands are playing concerts simutaneously throughout the globe. The even is meant to inspire people all over the world to "Answer a Call" to combat the climate crisis. There are several well known bands as well as the less known participating. Check out the schedule:

http://www.liveearth.msn.com/about/factsheet?GT1=10227

Unfortunately, there are not that many official venues (closest one to me is NYC - which is a bit of a jaunt). However, I do believe that there are other local concerts being held as well so check out you local listings to find out the haps in your area.

Green Films

As this article states, environmentalist have been making green films way before The Inconvient Truth. Surprisingly, many of them I have seen but didn't put them in the green category.

Check out the films mentioned in this article the next time your at the video store or put them in your Netflix Queue -

http://liveearth.msn.com/green/greenfilms

Solar Power

So one of the main comments I hear about solar power or lack of solar power is that it costs too much to install. Well I found this interesting article on "Shrinking the costs of solar power." http://tech.msn.com/guides/green/articlecnet.aspx?cp-documentid=4855315

Top 10 Greenest US Cities

Can you guess what they are?? I'll give you a clue....they are all urban cities. Just guess, I bet you can make 5/10!

Like this one (above) - I'll give you a clue, it's in the west and starts with a "B"?

Or this one....it's a little easier, just look at the skyline.

Check out the answers here:

http://cityguides.msn.com/green/greenarticle.aspx?cp-documentid=4848625&page=1

Energy Bill 2007

From the Union of Concerned Scientists:

Late last night the Union of Concerned Scientists and our allies won a major victory on fuel economy! Thanks in part to your numerous emails and phone calls, the Senate voted yesterday to substantially increase the corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standard of America's cars and trucks for the first time in over 30 years—setting a target of 35 miles per gallon by 2020.
At a press conference in the U.S. Capitol, UCS staff were invited to stand up with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other Senate leaders. UCS was explicitly recognized for our work in helping to get this critical legislation passed—work that we couldn’t have done without your help and support!

The next step will be to get these strong standards passed in the House and signed intolaw. We’ll need your help so look for more alerts in the months ahead. But fuel economy standards were only part of the Energy Bill that was passed yesterday. Unfortunately, we were less successful in another one of our main objectives—increasing our use of clean, renewable electricity from sources like the sun, energy crops, and wind. UCS and a national coalition were blocked from adding a national renewable energy standard to the Senate energy bill by a small group of senators. But Senate leadership has committed to letting the standard be introduced as an amendment. We still have a good shot for a vote at some point this year.

UCS supporters and activists like you have played a pivotal role in convincing 23 states and the District of Columbia to adopt renewable energy standards. A federal standard is still one of the most practical solutions to global warming, so we'll be turning to you once again in the coming months to voice your support for a federal renewable electricity standard—and for passing the fuel economy standard in the House. But for today, let's take time to celebrate this historic moment!

Carbon Offsetting

I found this interesting article about purchasing a pass to offset your personal carbon emissions. While I think this is a great idea, we cannot expect to buy ourselves out of this global situation. What about all the people who cannot afford to buy their weight in carbon emissions? I feel that the root problem and answer is education and changing the way we live, not using our checkbooks. I guess for some it is peace of mind, however I get my peace of mind by reducing the amount I drive and turning off the lights.

Anyway, this is an interesting article so check it out!

http://www.yogamates.com/index.php?mode=reach&act=news&news_id=213

Going Green from the beginning....

So I have several ladies in my life who are expecting.....YAY! So I've come across and/or been asked about environmental sites, products, etc for babies........Unfortunately I have not found a great site to buy all green products for you newborn or toddler. I did come across this site which is pretty neat:

http://www.babycenter.com/bigstory?intcmp=herostory_pregnancy

Interesting Facts about Bottled Water

Hey check out this issue of Greentips:

http://www.ucsusa.org/publications/greentips/

I am not a bottled water snob and have always had a Brita water filter in the fridge. Tastes good, is cold, reduces the amount of recyclables, and there is an endless amount. I do however have a case of bottled water in the car, just in case. I agree with this article and find it especially interesting how they point out the amount of energy that goes into processing bottled water, etc......

If you don't subscribe to the Greentips newsletter, I recommend you do. There is always great information provided.

Organic and Non-GMO Report

FEED (Food & Environment Electronic Digest) just put out a few interesting June newsletter:

One that particularly caught my attention was the about the Organic Food Handbook by Ken Roseboro. Check out their site...it's pretty interesting:
http://www.non-gmoreport.com/

To read FEED online:
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/feed/feed-june-2007.html

Greenland

As we all know the climate is changing, check out this article about the changes happening to the largest island in the world; Greenland. If it does melt, my home state of Nevada will be the new Cali coast......

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/06/06/greenland.warming.reut/index.html

Also check out this article from Science Daily:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070529135130.htm

Interesting Graph

Kilograms of greenhouse gas per person per kilometre -
Graph from www.greenhouse.gov.au/gwci/transport.html (Australia's Greenhouse Office website).

Fuel Efficient Cars

Found this article on fuel efficient vehicles. Although most of them are not necessarily hybrid or hydrogen run, they get high gas mileage, etc.....

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/autos/0706/gallery.kbb_fuel_savers/index.html

Read about Jerry Woodall

He is amazing too! The man that created the lasers in our CD players and several other devices that we use everyday! And he is on the global warming track too! He is working on generating hydrogen from water! This would make fuel-cell vehicles more practical. Listen to him:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10621223

Now this is what I'm talking about!

As stated - I love Science Fridays! Listen to this amazing scientist Klaus Lackner. He and his group have created a piece of equipment that acutally pulls Co2 from the air - sort of like a wind mill. I love this idea and hope that the science/innovative society start thinking along these lines, this is really the only way we are going to get out of this situation.

Listen to Klaus Lackner:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10621219

Related story:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7874053