I heard it in the news yesterday, according to a recent study by University of Illinois at Chicage, the number of visitors to National Parks have sharply decreased. Apparently the trend went from something like 1.2 trips per person per year in 1987 to 0.9 in 2003, a drop of about 25 percent.

One hypothesis blames the rise in video games and Internet usage. Apparently, an average American spends an estimated 327 hours more per year with video games and Internet media now than in 1987. Although there is no conclusive evidence, the numbers are overwhelming to say the least. With that note, I switch my computer off.

Here the news on NPR.

 

Tags: Urban, News, Activism, Conserve, Environment, Parks, Technology, Internet, Video Games

Price of oil is sky rocketing, the fed are raising interest rates, and people are feeling the pinch everywhere, not just at the gas stations, making it even harder to fight the looming recession.

One good thing out of all this might be that people will use less gasoline, and that would render our environment cleaner.

So bring it on.

Photo courtesy: CNN.

Tags: Non-profit, Oil, US, Cars, corporation, pollution, EPA, Environment, Sustainability, GETM, D.C. Watch

The G8 is clear on one thing though, they all agree to disagree on every environmental issue in question. For example, on “Diversifying Energy Mix”, all except Germany were ‘for’ more nuclear power. Funny how the word “proliferation” falls on deaf ear when the countries involved are the world richest. The Kyoto protocol was briefly touched, the US is still playing hard to get while clearly passing the blame on to China and India.

Granteds that short meeting during the weekend seldom produce usable and rational treaties, especially when they are all so much more consumed with topics like the Middle East and North Korea.

You can find the Global Energy Security document here.

 

Tags: News, Nuclear, Global Warming, Bush, Money, Hybrid, Activism, Carbon, Sustainability, Economics, politics, Air Pollution, Energy, G8, Kyoto

 

The details are to be release this week on walmartfacts.com, Wal-Mart’s official website.

 

Tags: Urban, News, Activism, Conserve, Sustainability, Economics, Wal-Mart, Textile, Green

“as other sources are being controlled?” Oge, here is a short-list of sources you probably overlooked before you decided to go after lawn movers-

• Coal fired power plants
• Cars and SUVs
• Container ships
• Incinerators
• Oil refineries

EPA, like our current administration, seems more interested in going after the small fishes while the large culprits go about doing as they please. Divergence tactics? Incompetent? Ignorance? Maybe, I don’t know, but definitely blog worthy.

Source: Associated Press by Erica Werner

 

Tags: Urban, News, EPA, Bush, Activism, Carbon, weather, Economics, politics, Air Pollution, lawn mover

In an unprecedented move, the nation’s top climate scientists gave 5 stars for Al Gore’s documentary on global warming, making it an historic first for scientific topping Ebert and Roeper who gave the movie a B-.
William Schlesinger, dean of the Nicholas School of Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University said, “excellent, he got all the important material and got it right.” Robert Corell, chairman of the worldwide Arctic Climate Impact Assessment group of scientists read the book and saw a presentation said, “I sat there and I’m amazed at how thorough and accurate,” he continued, “After the presentation I said, `Al, I’m absolutely blown away. There’s a lot of details you could get wrong.’ … I could find no error.”

One exception amid the back patting was Brian Soden, a University of Miami professor of meteorology and oceanography, who said, “I thought the use of imagery from Hurricane Katrina was inappropriate and unnecessary in this regard, as there are plenty of disturbing impacts associated with global warming for which there is much greater scientific consensus.”

Contrary to the academic praises, Dave White a columnist for movies.com said “OK, here’s my beef with Al Gore, and then I’ll talk about the film’s message: He’s a hypocrite. During the Clinton administration, the causes of global warming were chugging right along with help from the government. Global warming didn’t stop when the first Bush left the White House and start up again when the second Bush stole the place back for the Republicans. Gore himself gave the Tellico Dam project a waiver from the Endangered Species Act. George W. Bush might be a nightmare for the EPA, but the Democrats weren’t their wet dream by a long shot.”

Somehow, by the end of it all, I personally believe the debate should not be “whether the film was right or left wrong,” but rather “how to combat global warming,” after all the effects are felt by one and all, irrespective of how dramatized or underplayed it is in movies.

 

Tags: Urban, News, Al Gore, Global Warming, Bush, Global Cooling, Activism, Conserve, Carbon, weather, Environment, politics, greenhouse, Movie, inconvinient truth

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Supreme Court agreed will hear arguments from attorneys for the Sierra Club and the White House as to whether or not the Bush administration must regulate carbon dioxide to combat global warming. The decision means the court will address whether the administration’s decision to rely on voluntary measures to combat climate change are legal under federal clean air laws.

David Bookbinder, an attorney for the Sierra Club said “This is the whole ball of wax. This will determine whether the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is to regulate greenhouse gases from cars and whether EPA can regulate carbon dioxide from power plants.” In response, John Felmy, chief economist of the American Petroleum Institute (API) said,  “Fundamentally, we don’t think carbon dioxide is a pollutant, and so we don’t think these attempts are a good idea.”

Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant, excess carbon dioxide is. It’s like drinking, when consumed in limited amount it helps your heart; when binged, it’ll hits your liver, kidney and your head. Obviously API will have issues if CO2 were labeled a pollutant, after all, their bottom line relies on sale of automobiles which fuel consumption of petroleum products.

My doubt however is not how clever the two groups lawyers are, but rather how the Supreme Court, who’s members are political appointees, would rule against the very people who put them in place (read Bush). I remember in 2001, when the Republicans were taken to the Supreme Court, they won an election with less popular votes than the Democrats. Need I say more?

As the primary trade association of that industry, API represents more than 400 members involved in all aspects of the oil and natural gas industry.

Photo Courtesy: CMU.edu

 

Tags: Urban, News, Global Warming, EPA, Sierra Club, Oil, Bush, Hybrid, Activism, Carbon, weather, Sustainability, Environment, Economics, politics, API, greenhouse, Supreme Court

Two very interesting headlines this week. One study concluded that the Earth-Solar Cycle usually results in additional carbon dioxide generation, and combined with anthropogenic CO2, the effects could be devastating. 

If that is not scary enough, another report suggests that vast reserves of carbon trapped in the Siberian permafrost might be released with increasing warming. If it did happen, over 75 times the anthropogenic CO2 might get dumped into our atmosphere. Brace for a hot future, literally.

Photo Courtesy: Reuters & frw.ruu.nl

 

Tags: Urban, News, Global Warming, Oil, Solar Cycle, Permafrost, Carbon, CO2, Earth

Such are the questions I face daily, not from outside, but from within, and there are no good answers. Nonetheless, it would not be unwise to theorize that most people lead their lives by inherited ideologies, things that they grow up with or ones they grown onto.

As a student in upstate New York, I was sure my professional life would be dedicated to serving the common good of mankind, but years later, I am not too sure if I even came close. One thing is for sure, the time I put into thinking about what I did not do has increased, while the actual time I dedicated to doing it has shortened considerably. With my hectic schedule, the best I could do is to scribble a few lines each day.

One might ask, what then are the alternatives for the corporate types? Is activism necessarily a full-time job? Are there avenues to pursue your passion in parallel with your career? The answers are yes, no and maybe, in that order.

Yes, there are alternatives for those stuck in a office, for starters, practicing a eco-friendly lifestyle in itself is the best way to lead. Set examples at work, take initiatives which involves improvement to workplace using eco-friendly products and concepts. Recycle everything, paper, plastic, metals, electronics, whatever. Turn your light off at day and use natural light whenever possible. Avoid keeping your laptops plugged into the electrical socket when the battery is completely charged. Use less electronics, unless you have to. Print less, use PDF whenever possible. Email, instead of snail mail or fax. Ride a bus, train, or car pool. Pack your lunch, avoid the vending machine, processed food, soda etc.

No, activism is not a full0time job, it’s a lifestyle, and the rule more than often is “less is more.” Less consumption of energy and resources & less waste usually results in more savings for today and for our future.

Maybe, it all depends on what you really think is important and where you live. For those residing in the US, heres a directory of advocacy groups in America, with many focused on environmental issues. Search your phone directory or do a simple search on the internet/Wikipedia, you are bound to find a group/chapter that you may want to volunteer with.

Finally, for those that were not following this story in inner-city Los Angles, where movie star Daryl Hannah was arrested with dozens of protestors, who were trying to stop a landowner from building over a community garden. She was caught sitting on top of a tree!!! Actor…ism?

Photo Courtesy: Yahoo News & Packaginggraphics.net

 

Tags: Urban, Tips/Tools, Engineered, Activism, Engineer, Conserve, Actress

Should suitability be scarified to protect aesthetic values? If so, at what point will it be too late to reverse the effects of consuming non-renewable resources? Groups opposed to the idea of technologies like wind farms on the pretext of losing tourist revenue are ignoring the potentially ill effect of long-term dependency on non-renewable resources like coal and oil for generating power. Off course there is another segment, which claims that wind farms might potentially harm migrating avian population, this in a purely economic standpoint is insignificant, but unlike economy, the ecosystem is a zero-sum game, one gains at the cost of others, the question is, are we to sacrifice birds for our children, or sacrifice our children for birds?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read the latest debate on the Great Lakes Wind Mills

Tilting at Turbines: Talk Swirls of Great Lakes Offshore Windmills

 

ALGOMA, Wis. — A little red lighthouse. Boardwalks. The blue-green waters of Lake Michigan stretching to the horizon.

 

It’s just another pretty-as-a-postcard view on the shores of this sleepy town of 5,700 a half-hour east of Green Bay. But how long the unspoiled vista in Algoma and in other communities along the Great Lakes will last is anybody’s guess.

 

Government and industry officials are set to meet in Madison and Toledo, Ohio, this month to talk about the prospects for installing giant electricity-generating windmills out in the Great Lakes.

 

Advocates say offshore wind turbines would be an efficient means of producing power. Opponents fear the windmills would harm the lakes’ natural beauty and hurt tourism and fishing.

 

“I’ll fight this every way I can,” said Algoma Alderman Ken Taylor, chairman of the city’s marina committee. “The beautiful view we have would be destroyed. … How many are going to come here if we have these things off our coastline?”

 

The rows of windmills would tower as high as 400 feet and float or stand in relatively shallow water.

 

Winds over water are generally stronger, less turbulent and more consistent than those on land, said Walt Musial, senior engineer and offshore programs leader for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy contractor.

 

Major population and industrial centers such as Cleveland, Chicago, Gary, Ind., and Milwaukee are situated on the Great Lakes’ shores, reducing the need for long-distance transmission.

 

“Offshore machines can make about twice as much as onshore,” said Musial, who will make a presentation at a June 14 conference at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “It’s a potentially big resource for renewable energy. You want to generate the electricity close to where people are going to use it.”

 

The UW-Madison conference will look at such things as efforts to gather wind data on the Great Lakes, technological barriers to offshore wind farms, and the political policies needed to spur their development.

 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Environmental Protection Agency are among the agencies sponsoring the June 27-29 session in Toledo. Discussions are set on how to protect birds, bats and fish from the windmills.

 

European countries such as Denmark and Britain have developed wind farms in the North and Baltic seas. A Houston energy company plans to build a 170-turbine farm in the Gulf of Mexico off Texas’ Padre Island. An additional 50 turbines are planned off Galveston, Texas. East Coast offshore projects have been proposed off Long Island and Cape Cod.

 

But the idea has been slow to catch on around the Great Lakes. Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin regulators said they have yet to be approached by any energy companies with proposals for offshore windmills in the Great Lakes.

 

Some utilities consider the technology unproven and say the financial risks and the bureaucratic hurdles are too high.

 

Rob Benninghoff, director of renewable and special projects for Wisconsin Public Service Corp., which supplies power to much of northeastern Wisconsin, including the Green Bay area, said the utility is reluctant for now to pour ratepayers’ money into what would be a difficult approval process.

 

“I see it as a high-risk proposition,” Benninghoff said. “I don’t know of anyone who’s got any plans to do anything in Lake Michigan or the bay or anything. Not to say it won’t move in that direction ultimately.”

 

Besides having to shoulder the construction costs — the Padre Island project, for example, is expected to cost $1 billion to $2 billion — developers also would have to get federal and state permits.

 

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has jurisdiction over structures in the lakes. Developers also would have to lease tracts of lake bottom from the states, and state utility regulators would have to sign off.

 

Hanging over every proposal would be concerns about fish, lake bottoms and migratory birds. And then there are worries about the view.

 

“That’s the No. 1 problem we face today in getting this industry started,” Musial said. “Visual pollution is preventing the country from embracing them.”

 

Source: Associated Press By Todd Richmond 

Footnote: The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is the nation’s primary laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency R&D. Established in 1974, NREL began operating in 1977 as the Solar Energy Research Institute. It was designated a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in September 1991 and its name changed to NREL. NREL is the principal research laboratory for the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy which provides the majority of its funding. Other funding comes from DOE’s Office of Science and Office of Electricity Transmission and Distribution. NREL is managed for DOE by Midwest Research Institute and Battelle.

Photo Courtesy: Friends of Earth

 

Tags: alternative fuel, fuel, oil, ethanol, sustainable, global warming, wind, wind farm, wind mills, NREL