Gulf Oil Disaster

Posted on May 3, 2010 by Tara Holmes

By now, news of the catastrophic BP off-shore oil rig explosion in the Gulf, and now massive resulting oil leak, has circulated national and international press. Referred to as one of the worst environmental disasters on record, with an oil spill predicted to be double that of the Exxon Valdez in 1989: at a rate of 25,000 barrels a day, a total of 2.2 million gallons of oil spilled, if the well isn’t tapped; a process experts say can take up to three months. Ironically, this event couldn’t have occurred at a more inopportune time for the President, who just a month ago announced a halt on the longstanding off-shore drilling moratorium along the US Eastern seaboard in order to expand off-shore oil and natural gas exploration. Sadly, this type of horrific environmental disaster has happened time and time again, and will continue to happen as long as we continue to rely on fossil fuels for the majority of our energy supply. The more important question to ask is: when is enough enough?

Paul Krugman correlates the recent BP disaster to the start of the environmental movement in the 1970s, when pollution was physically visible much more so than it is today. While existing EPA regulations, a result of the 1970s environmental movement, helped to cap much of the visible pollution of that time, today Americans are, ironically, less aware of environmental damage because we rarely see it. Climate change is a perfect example. Clearly there are visible products of climate change: weather shifts, species eradication and impacts on habitat, but in reality, how often do we actually stop and see these impacts? The implications are so long-term it’s often hard to comprehend.

As for BP, the oil spill happened and we cannot undo the subsequent damage. We can, however, learn from this event and wake up this time around. We have the chance to shift to a clean energy future; we have the technology, the brain power and the interested institutes and Universities. We now need strong, unfaltering leadership. No longer can we rely on such dirty and dangerous methods of energy production – the damage surely out weights any benefit.

China Cleans Up

Posted on April 30, 2010 by LGlick

Vacuum Solar Tubes China China exceeded U.S. investment in clean energy for the first time last year with deployments totaling $34.6 billion. The country still has a long way to go to clean up it’s emissions—China surpassed the US as the global leader in C02 emissions several years ago—but they’re moving quickly to clean up their act.

Technology Review posted a slide show today profiling some of the new technology they’re committing to including offshore wind, utility-scale solar power, DC transmission lines, massive nuclear deployments, and coal with carbon capture and sequestration.

I was happy to see vacuum tube solar hot water included in Tech Review’s lineup. Not the most cutting edge technology, but one in ten Chinese people now use these highly efficient heaters for domestic hot water.

Unwelcome Earth Day gift

Posted on April 22, 2010 by JPierce

After good news last week that the Senate would be unveiling its version of a climate bill at the end of the month—even though “Senate compromises frighten, infuriate some enviro groups“—there are indications that Congress may punt on the legislation this year to tackle immigration. Happy 40th Earth Day!

Weekend Updates:
Republican Senator Graham withdrew support from the bill, and Senator Kerry subsequently delayed the bill which was scheduled for release on Monday. However, the senior Massachusetts Senator says the bill is not dead, Senator Lieberman reports that Graham may yet again get behind the legislation he helped craft if Reid paves the way for the more advanced climate bill rather than open yet another can of worms. Tuesday evening Reid he is willing to tackle climate first, but not to the satisfaction of Graham. Given these issues, some have suggested that it might be time to instead focus on the Bingham bill, however it’s likely to experience hiccups of its own.

Is trash to energy part of the solution?

Posted on April 22, 2010 by J Lundee

When it comes to environmental discussion, waste management is an environmental concern that many feel needs to be addressed. Many also feel that clean energy innovations are needed to ensure a greener earth. Yet, what many fail to realize is that the solution to the garbage and clean energy problem may be garbage itself.

Denmark has installed a number of garbage plants that take trash and make it into energy. These plants are at the forefront of waste/energy technology. How they operate is that the waste taken into the plant is incinerated which creates heat that generates steam for a turbine that goes on to run generators that create electricity and even heat. Statistics have shown that plants like the ones in Denmark, while creating new forms of energy, also help to cut down on waste caused emissions. 0.56 metric tons of CO₂ is emitted from these conversion plants, which is considerably smaller than the 3.35 metric tons of CO₂ that is emitted from landfills. Denmark has shown that there are other answers to waste problem than the common practice of landfills, but some countries like the United States are still hesitate to make the change.

There are over 13,000 active and inactive landfills in the United States alone. These landfills make up 54% of the nation’s waste management, which compared to the 4% in Denmark shows the differences in the way garbage is taken care of between the two countries. The negatives of landfills are that they take up space, have been known to leak toxins, and have almost six times the emission rate than that of trash energy plants. So what is stopping the United States from embracing the change? Well, it may be coming from an unlikely opponent: environmentalists.

Some environmentalists feel that incinerators, even ones that help to create energy, are counterproductive to the cause. In their opinion, incinerators promote a waste culture instead of a culture based around recycling. Yet, many American organizations like the Clinton Global Initiative (an international aid and philanthropy organization started by former President Clinton and adviser Doug Band back in 2005) see carbon emissions as the true environmental problem regardless of where it comes from. This is why CGI has worked tirelessly to create green initiatives that cut down on CO₂ emissions.

What the waste conversion plants in Denmark have shown is that there are plenty of solutions to environment worries around the world waiting to be utilized. The United States may not be eager to join just yet, but the victory is that the world is thinking of ways to create cleaner energy even if it’s from a trashy source.

Mass Save experiencing difficulties

Posted on April 22, 2010 by JPierce

Due to the overwhelming demand for the Great Mass Appliance Exchange, Mass Save’s web server and phone lines were down earlier today. If you experience any difficulties requesting a rebate authorization, please be patient as Mass Save adjusts its services to meet the load.

UPDATE: According to the Boston Globe, and the rebate-only website, the available funds have already been reserved.

And the cow goes…

Posted on April 18, 2010 by JPierce

Food Inc.

If you’ve not yet seen the critically acclaimed documentary that some liken to a modern “The Jungle,” PBS will be airing “Food, Inc.” on POV over the course of the next week, starting Wednesday at 9.

Food, Inc. will be accompanied by Notes on Milk, a short variation of the 2007 feature documentary Milk in the Land: Ballad of an American Drink. Ariana Gerstein and Monteith McCollum, whose Hybrid aired on POV in 2002, take a quirky and poetic look at some lesser-known aspects of America’s favorite drink: the industry’s spiritual underpinnings, politics and the struggle of independent farmers. More info»

And for an introduction to our agricultural system there’s Dirt!

The Economics of Climate Change

Posted on April 18, 2010 by Anthony Butler

Looking past the exciting technical, legislative and community advancements made to address climate change over the last few years, lies the reality of whether we as a society will make the necessary changes in energy use, lifestyle choices and investment decisions in time to avoid the most catastrophic global warming scenarios.

In last weekend’s New York Times, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman examined the question that could fatally delay the steps necessary to reduce the impact of climate change. It’s the question that many of the people running our government and global corporations are now pondering, “Is it good for business?”

Even when people accept the reality of climate change, there is some legitimate debate on how fast and how hard the truly negative effects of global warming will visit us. So Krugman quickly takes the argument past the philosophical diatribe conducted by climate deniers and examines first how business plans for any other crisis. He identifies the best and worse case economic effects on GDP if we make drastic cuts in CO2 emissions. As it turns out, the very worst that could happen is a 3% drop in GDP that would likely soon be made up through the manufacture and marketing of the technical solutions and products necessary to live in a low-carbon emissions world.

Krugman then makes an attempt to predict the impact on the world economy if the effects of global warming produce the disastrous changes in climate and weather patterns that scientists predict will come true by the middle of the century. Suffice to say, a 3% decline in GDP would be the least of our troubles.

Like me, it might take you a couple of days to get through the article and ponder the consequences of Krugman’s predictions. It’s well worth your time-both for how well it shines a light on the decision-making processes of our legislative and business leaders, and because the facts may come in handy for debating colleagues who believe ‘the business of America is business’.

Green GDP

Posted on April 17, 2010 by Tara Holmes

In a recent Earth Magazine article, and just in time for the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day, an interesting argument was made regarding so-called “Green GDP.” Garrett Groves and Michael Webber point out that in the United States, as well as in many developed nations, current economic measurements of GDP are intended to assess national income and wealth exchange using a pre-World War II model created by Simon Kuznets, a Nobel prize winning economist. Within this model, there is little room for the quantifiable benefits of preservation or conservation of natural resources, or for decreasing carbon emissions. This model also fails to account for waste and pollution. Instead, our economic system measures “success” purely through monetary growth, development and exploitation of the Earth’s natural resources.

Clearly, given climate change and our ever-increasing global demand for energy and natural resources, there is a serious and urgent need to re-evaluate economic definitions of prosperity and gain. To do this, a new indicator would need to be developed, one that reflected both economic prosperity and ecological health. Many international conferences have addressed this exact question, starting with the Rio 1992 Earth Summit. This discussion continues through talks in Kyoto, Johannesburg, Montreal, Copenhagen and soon, Cancun.

Unfortunately, there has been much political debate and little focused action with regard to a unified economic environmental measurement. Some economics argue that to do so would require privatizing the “commons”—or shared public goods such as atmosphere, ocean, and fresh water. A similar argument was famously discussed by Garrett Hardin in 1968. Others argue that the developing carbon “market” will be pivotal in defining further environmental economic measurements of its kind. One thing is certain: environmental economics must play a key role in public policy if we want to sustain a healthy planet for generations to come.

Simple savings with smart strips

Posted on April 16, 2010 by JPierce

Too lazy or forgetful to turn off your subwoofer when you shut down your stereo? Or maybe you take the time to do so, but wish a magic elf would power down your computer’s monitor and external hard drive for you instead? You’re in luck, local water & energy efficient device supplier EFI is offering smart power strips at approximately 40% off retail (with the included free shipping), in partnership with Mass Save. With these power strips you can save the energy these dormant devices would otherwise use since all of the peripherals plugged into white sockets will automatically be turned on or off when you do the same to the device plugged into the blue socket; avoid the reds, they’re always on. Ain’t science super? Offer ends May 30.

(Of course you’d still be better off using the power switch for the whole strip, but these are often located in inconvenient places, and some energy savings beats no energy savings.)

Guess “who’s” turning 40?

Posted on April 9, 2010 by JPierce

Given our area’s notoriously schizophrenic weather you could forgive some for celebrating Earth Day a little early or late, but what if you want to observe this round-number anniversary the day of? Otherwise it can be a bit like trying to get excited about trick-or-treating on November 1^st.

Here’s a special Earth Day view of our local events calendar to make it easier to find something to celebrate with. Some highlights include:

Great Mass Appliance Exchange begins
Our Is solar right for my house? seminar

Also of interest, PBS’ American Experience will be airing a two-hour special on the history of Earth Day on Monday April 19 at 9. It should be in heavy rotation for the remainder of the week. On April 27 at 10 PM, Independent Lens is showing “Garbage Dreams” by Mai Iskander.

Welcome to the world’s largest garbage village located on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt. The Zaballeen (Arabic for “garbage people”) recycle 80 percent of the trash they collect—far more than other recycling initiatives. But now multinational corporations threatens their livelihood. Follow three teenage boys born into the business who are forced to make choices that will impact the survival of their community.

Warm Home Cool Planet

Sustainability begins at home