climate change

Fight Climate Change, Win $75,000

jplatt — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 09:00:00 -0500

Got an idea to fight climate change by reducing carbon emissions? The Forum for the Future wants to hear about it. They have teamed with the Financial Times for the new Climate Change Challenge competition, which seeks innovatitive, practical ideas that can be implemented quickly and create real change.

The $75,000 prize for the top idea has been sponsored by HP. The winner will be expected to use the prize money to help make their idea a reality.

What is the competition looking for? Any good idea that has already made it off the drawing board will do: "We want to find ideas that are below the radar – being developed by think-tanks, academic institutions or individual entrepreneurs – and identify those that can be taken to scale quickly and make a real difference. We will be scouring the world for the most exciting low-carbon ideas. These could be new technologies, systems or services, novel organisations or business models."

Forum for the Future will collect and review all the entries, and then pick 12 of the most promising ideas to a panel of judges, including Sir Richard Branson and other business and environmental leaders. Five of those ideas will then be published in the Financial Times this March for reader voting. The winning idea will be announced in April 2009.

Interested in entering? Don't delay. The deadline is January 30, 2009.

Top 10 Recycling Resources

Marcus — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0500

We all mean to recycle. The problem is that it’s sometimes quite difficult to actually get your recyclables to the proper facilities. If your apartment building or neighborhood doesn't have a recycling program in place, you're on your own. And even if it recycles ordinary stuff, there are always those difficult items -- like computers or big things -- that need special handling.

But fear not, friends. This handy list will help you ease those recycling woes and give your old stuff a new lease on life.

1. www.ForRecycling.info

Get motivated with this great site for general info on what happens in the process of recycling, what the benefits are, what materials can be recycled, and an extensive list of links for further information. A great overview.

2. www.Earth911.org

Earth 911’s most compelling feature is a recycling center search engine that allows you to search by location and material that you’re looking to recycle. Like ForRecycling, above, it also has general information and useful tips.

3. www.Resource-Recycling.com

Here's a huge database of links that covers pretty much everything recycling-related, from recycling and composting equipment sites to state and regional organizations and centers.

4. www.Recycle-Steel.org

Recycle Steel has everything you need to know about recycling- you guessed it- steel. There's info on how to responsibly dispose of anything from an old car to a toaster oven.

5. www.MyGreenElectronics.org

My Green Electronics provides information and resources for how to recycle those old, neglected electronics that you’re just not sure what to do with.

6. www.ShareTechnology.org

Share Technology focuses on recycling computers. Whether your computer’s still in usable shape, or only a few parts can be salvaged, this site will show you the most eco-friendly method to dispose of your Mac or PC.

7. www.rbrc.org

The Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation provides you with a wealth of information about the benefits of recycling rechargeable batteries and cell phones, and has information about where to drop these items off to ensure that they are re-used.

8. www.DressForSuccess.org

The mission statement of this non-profit that recycles women’s business clothing is to “promote the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support and the career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life.” That pretty much says it all.

9. www.OperationFairyDust.org

This site recycles formal and prom dresses for girls who would not otherwise have the economic resources to obtain them.

10. www.NewEyesForTheNeedy.org

Instead of throwing out those old eyeglasses when your prescription changes, donate them to New Eyes For The Needy -- you’ll be reducing the garbage problem and helping out someone who truly needs it.

Want to find out more about recycling?

Recycling Tips: Did You Know You Cannot Recycle Messy Pizza Boxes?

The Benefits of Recycling: Let’s Talk Trash

Recycling the Looking Glass: When Garbage and Art Collide

Recycled Record Snack Tray

The Benefits of Recycling Cardboard

The Art of Garbage

Reduce, Reuse… FREECYCLE

Recycle Those Electronics!

Back to Basics—RRR

Picking Up Garbage TVs and Recycling as Art

Students Recycle and Reduce Garbage: Take It Or Leave It

Knight Rider Recycled—Reborn With Green Twist!

Recycling Your Garbage: Where Does it All Go?

Sometimes the Greenest Technology is Elbow Grease

jplatt — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:01:18 -0400

It's fall foliage time here in Maine, and the skyline abounds with brilliant red and yellow leaves in every direction. So does the ground, where the leaves form a crunchy carpet that rustles beneath me with every step.

But unfortunately, the arrival of Autumn signals the arrival of something awful: the dreaded leaf blower.

Two or three times a day now, the roar of gas-powered leaf blowers shatter the silence that makes country living so special. Their operators wield them with abandon, attacking every leaf, pine needle and stray blade of grass as if their very lives depended upon it. More often than not, they end their assault by standing in the same spot for five minutes, futilely trying to force the last two or three leaves into a pile that refuses to stay controlled.

I ask you, what's wrong with a good old-fashioned rake and broom to combat this dreaded detritus? Is it really a time-saver to blow leaves all over the lawn, then hope they end up in a single pile? Is it worth emitting of greenhouse gases the equivalent of a 2,200-mile drive? What's wrong with a little outdoor exercise?

Sadly, the days of the rake seem to have gone by. And with gas prices somewhat lower right now, that might stay the case. But when it comes to getting rid of red, yellow and brown leaves, nothing is greener than the power of your own arms. Give it a try. Your muscles might thank you.

So will the planet.

What Will McCain and Obama Do About Nuclear Power?

jplatt — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 11:34:26 -0400

When it comes to the environment, few topics cause as much debate and friction as nuclear energy.

On the one hand, nuclear energy is relatively clean, creating no emissions and running at relatively low cost.

On the other hand, the byproducts of nuclear energy production take hundreds of years to become safe. They pose security questions, and no one seems to want the waste stored in the backyards.

Energy policies are obviously critical to this election, so it might come as a surprise to you that both candidates are actually pro-nuke.

Both McCain and Obama told ScienceDebate2008.com that nuclear power is critical to this country's ability to generate electricity without producing carbon emissions. Says Obama, "It is unlikely that we can meet our aggressive climate goals if we eliminate nuclear power as an option."

But Obama takes a hard-line look at nuclear security: "However," he says, "before an expansion of nuclear power is considered, key issues must be addressed including: security of nuclear fuel and waste, waste storage, and proliferation."

As for McCain, he tells ScienceDebate2008.com it's time to "recommit" to nuclear energy. He says he will "put the country on track" to build 45 new reactors in the next 20 years. Obviously, that's well past any term he would serve, but if he puts the investment in during his time in office, it's unlikely that any future administration would pull the plug.

So how about the issue of nuclear waste storage? Writing on his web site, Obama says he does "not believe that the current Yucca Mountain site is suitable." He promises to develop requirements for waste storage "using the most advanced dry-cask storage technology available." McCain has historically been pro-Yucca Mountain, but he has also called for the creation of an "international" site, although he has also suggested opening an international center overseas to store nuclear waste. (In other words, "Not in my backyard.")

So how do you feel about nuclear power? Will either candidates' position sway your vote? Let us know!

How to Talk to Your Kids about Global Warming

ProgressiveKid — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:58:22 -0400

A woman I know lives with her family in a house that backs up against a forest. The forest is being clear cut, a not so infrequent occurrence in this part of the country. One day, while the woman was on a business call in the house, her nine-year-old son rounded up his two younger brothers, and the three of them marched out onto the logging road and stood in front of an oncoming logging truck. The truck driver managed to stop in time. At the children’s request, the driver wrote down on a piece of paper the name of the logging company.

The four boys then returned home, and the oldest went to interrupt his mother’s phone call. He told his mother what they had done and said he would keep doing it until she and his father did something to stop what was happening to the planet. He explained to his mother that he and his brothers were the ones who would be living through most of the effects of climate change, but that they needed their parents to help them since they were just children.

The mother got the message. She turned to some friends, and together they formed a climate change response team at their kids’ school. The school now has a series of events and activities planned for the next school year. And they met with some other friends and acquaintances. All of us started Earth Kids Organized (EKO), a networking site and organizational model to help children, parents, and schools and other institutions across the planet communicate and work together to increase their power and effect.

Out of the Mouths of Kids

The point here is that kids know. They already, by age nine and younger, get what is happening, they want to do something about it, and they understand that they need help. But many of our climate change responses are adult centered and exclude kids from the action, which seems downright unfair given that our kids are the ones who are inheriting this situation.

Schools and libraries are logical places to base many kid-focused and kid-led efforts to respond swiftly and effectively to climate change. One elementary school is, at the request of the students, plowing over a grassy play area to make an organic fruit and vegetable garden. A middle school is working with a local organic farm to institute organic lunches one day a week. That same farm is working with local parents to institute organic farming camps for kids this summer. At another middle school library, students have formed one club to care for injured and homeless animals and another club to help the school compost. Two students at this school are making a documentary about the decline of a salmon stream.

Efforts like EKO are important because they expand the reach of children beyond the narrow confines of their own institutions and link children in a wider area, giving them a greater sense of hope and community. Families too need to feel that their efforts are not isolated and unique to their own homes. Joining other families in school- or community-based efforts can give everyone a sense of empowerment and even relief that people are responding appropriately to this crisis.

Five Kid-Sized Steps

Lowering your carbon emissions is important but it is just as important to involve your children in climate change conversation, research, and wider action. Consider taking the following steps at home and at school or the library with your children:

Read together about climate change. Look for Julie’s upcoming book A Hot Planet Needs Cool Kids (Green Goat Books, August 2007) as a good place to start. Be sure to talk about what you have read.
Create a culture of empathy toward all living things. Don’t kill spiders and flies. Relocate them outside if necessary using a bug vac. Don’t use toxic cleaning or lawn care products. Talk about and look for evidence of the animals, plants, and trees that share the space where you live. Turn your yard or school grounds into a Certified Wildlife Habitat.
Get involved in something bigger. Help your kids start or join a climate change response team at their school or other local insitution.
Get involved in something even bigger. Join EKO or another environmental group with a broad focus. The Internet is a great tool for this level of networking.
Socialize with similarly engaged people. Your kids need to feel like they’re not alone in their concerns for and work for the planet. Make sure that at least some of what you do in response to climate change is social. Picnics, potlucks, and informational fairs can make this uneasy business something that we and our children can live with better and more healthfully.

We’re not protecting our children from anything by keeping them out of the business of responding to global warming. They already know and they’re worried. The ways to ease their anxiety are (1) to show them that we are doing something about it and (2) to involve them. Besides, some of the most creative people I know are kids—maybe the answers to many of the planet’s problems rest in some smaller-sized hands.

By Sarah at ProgressiveKid

Mystery Unclogged Part II

citizengoat — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:43:45 -0400

by Sarah at ProgressiveKid

(Read Part I of this two-part series on our national wastewater problem.)

In Part I we examined the contents of our wastewater and how the most common wastewater treatment systems work. Now we will examine how well the systems work at keeping those problematic wastewater contents from being released into the environment.

The State of Our Infrastructure

In the American Society for Civil Engineers’ 2005 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, wastewater management in the United States was given a grade of D- (down from a D in 2001). Here is a summary:

Aging wastewater management systems discharge billions of gallons of untreated sewage into U.S. surface waters each year. The EPA estimates that the nation must invest $390 billion over the next 20 years to replace existing systems and build new ones to meet increasing demands. Yet, in 2005, Congress cut funding for wastewater management for the first time in eight years. The Bush administration has proposed a further 33% reduction, to $730 million, for FY06.

The Pharmaceutical Problem

Just this March the Associated Press released the results of its investigation on pharmaceuticals in the nation’s drinking water. The A.P. reported that the drinking water of at least 41 million Americans was found to contain, among other things, antibiotics, anticonvulsants, mood stabilizers, and sex hormones. The reason for this, of course, is that Americans dump their unused rugs down the drain.

Sources of Water Contamination

The Natural Resources Defense Council 2007 report Testing the Waters offers a comprehensive examination of all of the sources of water contamination across the country. Included in the report are the following statistics:

The EPA estimates that more than 10 trillion gallons of untreated stormwater make their way into our surface waters each year.
Combined sewer systems (CSSs), which carry raw sewage from residences and industrial sites and stormwater runoff from streets, discharge 850 billion gallons of raw sewage every year during overflows.
Although an EPA policy that aims to reduce these overflows has been in effect since 1994, nearly all combined sewer systems continue to overflow when it rains. As of 2004, only 59 percent of communities with CSSs had submitted their plans for controlling them.
Sanitary sewer systems (SSSs) carry only raw sewage from residences and businesses. The EPA has estimated that between 23,000 and 75,000 overflows of these systems occur annually, discharging a total of 3 to 10 billion gallons of sewage per year. In January 2001, the EPA proposed SSS regulations that would have required improvements to the systems. The Bush administration failed to act on these recommendations.
The American Housing Survey of 2001 reported that 6 percent of septic systems fail annually, resulting in improper treatment of 66 billion to 144 billion gallons of sewage.

Your Dreams Down the Drain

Peer down into the depths of one of your drains. You are looking at your future. Whatever goes down that drain is going to come back at you sooner or later in some way.

Some of what you flush gets broken down by bacteria. Some of it gets eliminated with chemicals. But a lot of it doesn’t.

Up to 70 percent of wastewater treated by primary treatment systems gets released. Nitrogen, phosphates, pathogens, and organic materials are washed away by flooding and heavy rain, washed away by underwater springs, absorbed into groundwater, or carried to bodies of water like lakes and oceans where they kill aquatic life. And, even though bacteria are helping us break down all of this waste, they are depleting the oxygen in our bodies of water.

We watch as our inconveniences wash away, but they don’t wash away far enough. In the world of climate change, one that combines increased rain and flooding with water shortages, what you flush is going to affect me and what I use in my washing machine is going to affect you. What each of us sees going down the drain is not only what we don’t want but potentially also a great deal of what we do.

Image by Chris Darling, 2005, Creative Commons license

Mystery Unclogged Part I

citizengoat — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:40:15 -0400

By Sarah at ProgressiveKid

Spoiler alert: If you have maintained any illusions that your drains are magical tubes that “disappear” inconveniences, I’m about to ruin them for you. Look away! Flush and run!

It is more pleasant not to think about what happens to the expired Children’s Motrin you pour down the drain, what the Liquid Plum’r really does, or where the Tide with Bleach Powder goes. But there are so many of us on the planet sharing a shrinking space that we all need to think about what we are dumping and where. If you change your own oil on your asphalt driveway, you have to consider where the spillage goes. If you are cleaning off the brushes you used to stain your floor, ask yourself where the petroleum-based distillates are going to end up. If you’re spraying an herbicide in your yard, take a second to think about where the herbicide will eventually settle. Knowing how to think about all these things requires a (a) basic awareness of the most common problematic contents of wastewater and (b) general understanding of our plumbing and wastewater treatment systems.

Wastewater Contents

Your wastewater includes nitrogen and phosphates. You will recognize these names from fertilizers. That’s because they encourage growth. Unfortunately, they also encourage the growth of algae. And when algae overgrows, it blocks sunlight which can degrade water quality and make it unsuitable for sustaining animal life.

Your wastewater also includes organic material. Bacteria decompose organic materials, and when they do, they consume oxygen. When there’s a lot of organic material, bacteria consume a lot of oxygen, which means that water is depleted of oxygen, which means that it can’t sustain animal life.

And your wastewater includes disease-causing microbes or pathogens.

Wastewater Treatment

If you’ve got drains in your home, the two most likely scenarios are that (1) you’re on a septic system or (2) you’re on a public sewer system.

1. Septic System

If you’re on a septic system and you don’t have any supporting graywater system*, then everything that goes down the drain goes to the same place. All the pipes lead away from your home to a concrete or steel tank buried or freestanding in your yard. Everything that comes into the tank separates into three layers:

The top layer or floating layer is scum (including oil and grease).
The middle layer, which is clear water, contains bacteria and nitrogen, phosphorous, and maybe some other fertilizers.
The bottom layer is sludge, or heavier and partly solid materials.

Baffles prevent scum and sludge from leaving the tank. Gases that form with decomposition are vented away from the tank usually through a vent pipe protruding from your roof.

What goes down your drains flows into the tank where the water that was already there is displaced into your drain field. The drain field is nothing more than perforated pipes buried in gravel trenches. It functions as a filter. Water is slowly absorbed into the ground through the holes in the pipes and through the gravel.

The system works using gravity unless you don’t have the option of using gravity and then you need the help of a pump to move the water from your house into the tank and/or from the tank into the drain field.

(*Graywater is water that doesn’t contain human waste products. It is the water that comes from laundry, footing drains, gutters, and possibly shower drains. Some homes include a graywater system that diverts this water from the septic system as a way of minimizing the work the septic systems needs to do, and some systems divert it as a way to reclaim it for certain uses, thereby conserving water.)

2. City Sewer System

The city sewer system takes via pipe all of the wastewater from an urban area and deposits it at a wastewater treatment facility where some or all (depending on the sophistication level of the system) of the following happens:

Primary Treatment: A screen filters out solids. Additional solids are filtered out by a series of pools where the water sits long enough for heavier material to sink to the bottom. This type of treatment might take care of between 30 and 50 percent of the solids and organic materials. The rest are treated with chlorine unless there are additional treatment steps in the system.
Secondary Treatment: The water flows from the pools into large aerated tanks where bacteria get to work on the remaining organic materials and nutrients. From there the water flows into settling tanks to separate out the bacteria. Secondary treatment might take care of up to 90 percent of solids and organic materials.
Tertiary Treatment: This stage might include filter beds for filtering out the remaining organic materials. But typically it involves flowing the water through a tank where chlorine is added to kill any leftover bacteria.

(You can read more about wastewater treatment systems here.)

In Part II of this two-part series on our national wastewater problem we will examine the effectiveness of these systems in cleaning our wastewater and consider the implications.

Image by tnarik (Eduardo), 2008, Creative Commons license

5 Green Reasons to Telecommute

jplatt — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:01:09 -0400

Back when I worked in an office, I often used to spend an hour every day driving to work, after which I would sit alone in my cubicle for eight hours before turning around and driving an hour back home.

Working from home hasn't changed much for me -- I still spend eight hours a day in front of a computer, and I rarely interact with anyone face-to-face, but my commute is now a ten-foot walk, I am more relaxed, and my work has improved.

In other words, I'm a happy worker, and my employers get the benefit of my happiness -- all of which comes from not having to commute.

Here are five green-tech reasons why any business should consider letting its employees telecommute at least a few days a week, if not all of the time:

1. Having employees work in remote locations cuts a business's on-site electricity needs. (Sure, the cost is passed on to the employee, but they're spending less on gas, and don't have huge infrastructure costs -- such as air conditioning and garbage disposal -- so it should more than even out.)

2. Working remotely encourages the growth and usage of online videoconferencing technologies, which efficiently allow people to meet without first having to travel half-way around the world. This saves both money and greenhouse gas emissions.

3. Traffic drives people crazy. Literally. According to a recent study, commuting takes a terrible toll on an employee's psychic health. Keep your employees healthy, happy and more productive by letting them work from home.

4. Companies can reduce their real-estate needs when employees telecommute. Sun saved $387 million over the last 6 years through its Open Work program, under which more than half of its work force telecommutes at least part-time. (Read more about Sun's Open Work Concept and its incredible results here.)

5. Some states offer incentives to companies or their employees to reduce air pollution. For example, Oregon offers employers tax credits for initiating transportation and telework projects, and employees can earn vouchers good at local stores for every 45 days they log using alternative transportation methods.

Now, not every employee can telecommute. Anyone who's actually needed on-site (nurses, construction workers, and a thousand others) won't be able to benefit from working from home. But there's still a solution: flex-time. When 90% of the populace works 9-5, we get traffic and rush hours and extra pollution. But if we shifted some jobs to 6-2 or 12-8, a lot of that traffic and pollution would go away. Something to think about...

A Two-Way Street

scleaver — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Rising food prices—up 4% last year, the largest increase since 1990—are affected by oil, global markets, speculation, biofuels, and…climate change. And, thanks to how we currently handle agriculture, food price increases and climate change are likely to continue together, if unchecked.

Scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography recently confirmed that global warming is affecting the hydrological cycle in the U.S. Between 1950 and 1999, as much as 60% of climate-related trends in river flow, winter air temperature, and snow were caused by us humans. As precipitation patterns and glacial melting changes, water availability will change, and that will affect agriculture—think the drought that’s already affected Australia and increased the price of wheat as a result.

As Shiney Varghese, senior policy analyst for the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy wrote, “[e]xisting irrigation and drainage infrastructure have been designed for stable climate conditions. They are very likely inadequate to cope with extreme climatic variations in precipitation and reduced water supply reliability and availability, as well as floods.” (Read the article at Alternet.org.) Irrigation uses up a lot of water and “accounts for 40% of global food production” (the other 60% of farms use rain water).

It’s a two-way street—climate change is affecting food production and food production is affecting climate change. As Varghese points out, “the two sectors in the world that use the most water, chemical intensive agriculture and fossil fuel-based energy production, are also the biggest contributors to global warming, which in turn further increases water stress in many regions.”

The solutions?

1. Protect local watersheds and wetlands for local agriculture systems, instead of huge, exporting industrial farms would help reduce the water sector’s contribution to climate change and improve resilience of local farming systems for food security and environmental concerns.

2. Change agricultural policies that are too water and energy-intensive. Opt instead for water management policies that are both sustainable and effective.

Photo from US Fish and Wildlife Service where you can learn more about irrigation farming.

Learn to Improve Your Car's Gasoline Efficiency

jplatt — Thu, 22 May 2008 11:56:56 -0400

With gas prices climbing higher and higher, it's ever-more important for everyone (individuals and companies) to get the most bang for their buck -- in other words, to get the best gas mileage from their vehicles.

Want a simple way to do that? Try installing the ScanGuage II from Linear Logic. This tiny device plugs into the onboard diagnostic connector in almost any car or truck and instantly starts calculating all kinds of critical data -- including your exact gas mileage. Knowing your MPG at any point in your trip allows you to adapt your driving methods to improve your overall efficiency. Bingo, you'll be using less gas, saving money, and putting fewer greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

ScanGuage II also tracks a lot of other cool information, such as how much fuel you have used and how much time you have been driving. It's only five inches across, making it easy to install just about anywhere in your vehicle.

I first saw tools like this in the dashboards of hybrid cars, but this is the first time I have seen an equivalent device that can be used in any car or truck at any time. ScanGuage costs just $169.95 (including shipping) -- a bargain at half the price if it teaches you to improve your fuel economy and reduce the number of trips you need to take to the pump.