President Obama at MIT this Friday!

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obama2President Obama will be speaking in Cambridge at MIT in Kresge Auditorium this Friday.  While attendance is by invitation only, MIT will have a live webcast available to the public.  The president will deliver the address in Kresge Auditorium on clean energy and will be joined by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick.

President Barak Obama has been an advocate of clean energy solutions to the climate change challenge, calling for the US to, “make the investments that would allow us to become the world’s leading exporter of renewable energy”.  The White House website has an Energy & Environment page dedicated to the accomplishments they have achieved up to date including efficiency investments in the American Recovery and Investment Act and increasing fuel efficiency standards.    These have been great steps forward in moving us towards a clean energy future, but much more needs to be done to address the climate change crisis.

While Copenhagen is only a couple of months away, it is unclear if President Obama will attend this pivotal meeting.  Todd Stern, US Special Envoy for Climate Change, said that President Obama would go to Copenhagen only if sufficient progress was being made in the negotiations.  During a United Nations speech Obama expressed his concern for having developing nations commit to carbon emission reductions as well.

“Yes, the developed nations that caused much of the damage to our climate over the last century still have a responsibility to lead, and that includes the United States. And we will continue to do so — by investing in renewable energy, promoting greater efficiency, and slashing our emissions to reach the targets we set for 2020 and our long-term goal for 2050,” Obama said. “But those rapidly-growing developing nations that will produce nearly all the growth in global carbon emissions in the decades ahead must do their part as well.

While most of us will not have the opportunity to meet with the President this Friday, we can view the live (or archived) web-cast and get informed on the clean energy solutions for our nation.  In addition, this Saturday over 4,000 community action events are happening across the globe as part of the International Day of Climate Action.  You can get involved by finding an event happening in your community or organize one yourself.  This is an excellent opportunity to send a collective message to our national leaders that there is no time to wait!

Greening Government

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us_flag_green On Monday, as another step in leading by example, the Obama administration initiated a government-wide suggestion box for ideas to green the executive branch. For two weeks federal employees will have the opportunity to submit and vote on ideas which will then be referred to committee.

The existing suggestions are available for perusal on GreenGov at right, below the video. They include (many copies) of the usual suspects, like occupation sensors for lights or double-sided printing, as well as gems such as:

Replace grass lawns that require mowing with wild flowers that do not. This will save on pollution from lawn mowers. —Kris, Bethesda

Good idea. That should also cut down on run-off and water used for irrigation, as well as providing useful habitat for wildlife Kris.

There are also disappointing revelations like:

Many employees have mini refrigerators to keep their lunch cold. Each one uses around $30 per year worth of electricity. We could encourage people to share and eliminate the extra ones by charging a fee of $20 per year for a refrigerator permit. —Carl, NIH

Why aren’t there communal (high-efficiency) fridges in the first place? They’re a standard fixture in most offices…

Green investments not so rosy? Not so fast.

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Soros_talk_in_Malaysia by Jeff OoiA few months ago, we noted that T. Boone Pickens announced he would be scaling back his plans for renewable energy. Fortunately, the renewable energy sector continues to draw interest from major investors. Last week George Soros announced plans to invest $1_000 million in renewable energy, as well as create a $100 million group to monitor the sector and furnish policy advice over the next ten years.

Jackfrost nipping at your nose

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snowflake Although you could be forgiven for wondering if we even had a summer, it’s clear winter’s just around the corner. Here are some ideas to help you prepare:

  • Eat spicy food
  • Drink warm beverages
  • Use body heat instead of central heating: cuddle
  • Wear socks/slippers: warm tootsies = warm feelings

For other, more pragmatic tips, see the CEA website.

iPhone Carbon Watch: Apple Leads Electronics Industry Again

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My iPhone is a pretty much constant presence in my life, from checking my email first thing in the morning to watching my nephews play with the DoodleBuddy app. But until last week, I never seriously considered its impact on the environment.

That changed when Apple published greenhouse gas emissions from its operations and products for the first time. The report, available at www.apple.com/environment, goes farther than other consumer tech companies have by accounting for product usage.

Apple iPhone emissions

It turns out that my iPhone produces greenhouse gases equivalent to about 55kg of carbon dioxide over the full course of its lifecycle, from sourcing to recycling. My use of my iPhone produces about 27kg of carbon dioxide.

To put that in perspective, 55kg of CO2 is equivalent to burning 22 gallons of gasoline in a car or 8 propane cylinders on a backyard grill. If I planted 5 tree seedlings in my backyard tomorrow, it would take them 10 years to sequester the amount of carbon my iPhone produces.

OK, so what? Twenty-two gallons of gas and 10 trees ain’t such a bad trade given that the iPhone is… well… downright awesome.

Truly. The iPhone is one of the most successful consumer tech products in history. Apple has sold 21M iPhone units since Q3 2007, shattering sales records.

All those iPhones have produced a lot of carbon emissions, equivalent to 1.16b kg to be exact, or roughly the same amount as a coal-fired power plant in one year of operation.

NY Times rising consumption

Source: New York Times

Bottom line: there isn’t enough land enough in the world to offset America’s greenhouse gas emissions from electronics by planting trees.

To halt our rising carbon emissions, America needs more than offsets. We need renewable energy alternatives at scale and stringent energy efficiency standards, especially for our electronics, “which now represent 15% of household power demand, and that is expected to triple over the next decade,” according to the New York Times and International Energy Agency.

Many are working hard to accomplish this goal. California recently proposed to ban the sale of high energy televisions. Flat-screen TVs and video game consoles can use more energy than refrigerators in some American homes today, due to a lack of mandatory efficiency standards. Massachusetts has followed suit by hearing testimony on TV efficiency.

Apple, in the same report cited above, announced that all of their desktop and laptop products now come with EnergyStar certification, an industry first. Going further, Apple also boldly withdrew from the US Chamber of Commerce, stating “Apple supports regulating greenhouse gas emissions, and it is frustrating to find the Chamber at odds with us in this effort.”

That’s a proactive step forward and a first for a major consumer brand. Other electronics manufacturers should follow Apple’s leadership.

Alex Patriquin is Founder and CEO of Digital Verdure, a digital media and sustainability company based in Cambridge, MA. Read more at his blog, DigitalVerdure.com.

Living Green Made Easy

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GreenCatalogThe counter culture revolution germinated the civil rights and the peace movements, but also inspired the first Whole Earth Catalog (1968) that offered ways to live an environmentally conscious life.  In its latest publication, the Whole Green Catalog, provides a wide range of products and living green tips for the eco-conscious or curious.  The Whole Green Catalog is chock full of the usual green resources on housing, transportation, cleaning products, and healthy eating but also delves into greening your art and the latest in eco-technology.  The catalog is published by Rodale, an eco-publishers that believes in “healthy living on a healthy planet”.

This is an excellent resource to have at home for easy reference, but I also recommend checking out some online resources to green living:

Whole-Earth Catalog

National Green Pages

Let’s Go Green

Green Home

Leading by Example

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Modern SisyphusEven though we face an increasingly steep uphill battle on the way to Copenhagen, there have been some rays of hope buried amongst recent headlines. For instance, yesterday, the administration initiated efforts to reduce energy use by the nation’s largest consumer: the federal government.

In a similar vein, two weeks ago, the G20 (the ever-expanding group of finance ministers formerly known as the G8, G7, and “The Group of Six“) vowed to phase out fossil fuel subsidies .

Losing Support

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The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is losing popularity among U.S. corporations — fast.   The Washington Post recently reported that Apple is revoking its membership in protest over the Chamber’s stance on global climate change, specifically its stance against congressional legislation that would reduce CO2 emissions.  Other companies to recently pull out include Pacific Gas and Electric, PNM Resources, and Exelon.   Nike resigned from the Chamber’s Board, but not its membership.  Given Apple’s popularity as a computer giant, the news marks hightened attention to private sector influence over climate change policy and emission regulation.

Thomas J. Donohue, the Chamber’s president, commented that while the group supports federal climate change legislation, the cap-and-trade legislation passed by the House of Representatives was flawed since it does not require other polluting countries to act.   Mother Jones Magazine offered a different take and reported on the Chamber’s past record of investing millions of dollars lobbying congress to oppose the Markey-Waxman bill and threatened to sue the EPA if they continued to regulate CO2 as a pollutant.  Over the next few months, it will be interesting to watch if other companies follow suit and what impact that will have on the Chamber, as well as domestic climate legislation.

Making the Case

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enviro-goreThe New York times had an interesting op-ed last Monday by Paul Krugman, Cassandras of Climate Change. It contains a few quotable bits, but they’re large and the piece is short, so I’ll leave it to you dear reader to follow the link.

Krugman mentions Mr. Gore, and his film The Inconvenient Truth, which never quite seemed to live up to the hype… but I do have high hopes for The Age of Stupid, if it ever makes it into general distribution that is. To be honest though, what’s really been driving home a sense of urgency for me recently is PBS, specifically five year old re-runs of Scientific American Frontiers!

A recently aired segment in “Forever Wild?“, which I previously mentioned in passing, makes an excellent case for not mucking with the atmosphere. “Hot Times in Alaska” examines a number of disturbing changes well-underway that even those familiar with the global warming might not be aware of. And a third episode, “Hot Planet – Cold Comfort,” looks at the merits of another movie, The Day After Tomorrow.

All three episodes can be viewed for free online, and are worth reviewing in your spare time, or passing on to others who still don’t quite understand what all the fuss is about. “Hot Times” also happens to be showing Friday night at 9 on GBH Kids.