Greening up with RMSS

FOGS update:

the rocky mountain sustainability summit (RMSS) occured here at CU

last thursday and friday.  one of the more interesting events was the

"green products expo" that hosted a variety of really interesting

technologies and services geared towards energy efficiency and

sustainability.  there were a few companies in particular worth

mentioning.

first was eco-products (www.ecoproducts.com).  this boulder-based

company specializes in manufacturing cleaning, office, and food

service supplies, outdoor furniture, and more.  i thought their new

compostable utensils made from corn starch were really neat:  these

things biodegrade in 45 days!  and if you were really hungry, you

could eat the fork!  they also make another line of biodegradable

utensils made from corn oil and limestone.  other cool products of

theirs are food containers made from sugar cane and biodegradable

yard waste bags.  buy up!  if you know someone with a business, tell

them to check these guys out.

another great innovation is moving through the solar power world.  as

many of you know, solar has been getting cheaper and there are many

government incentives to purchase solar energy systems for your

home.  another boulder company, namaste solar electric

(www.namastesolar.com), now sells a new, higher efficiency solar

array, yielding more power per square foot than conventional solar

systems.  this is accomplished through a new method of growing

photovoltaic (PV) crystals.  many of you may have noticed that solar

panels have the appearance of what in geology we'd call a breccia

(angular interlocking crystals).  That is due to the manner in which

silicon crystals (taken from sand) are grown and then thinly sliced

into sheets and mounted to a panel.  namaste has developed a way to

grow very large PV crystals, thus eliminating the speckled appearance

of traditional solar panels and yielding more power/area than any

other PV system out there.  now solar consumers have even greater

choice: go for more bang for your buck with the cheaper traditional

systems, or maximize your power output for a given area with the new

technology.  www.sunpowercorp.com/solarcells/  for more info on the

new PV cells offering 50% more power/sq. ft.

and then i found out something i wish i had heard months ago before i

spent $ on the "terrapass"- terrapass is a for-profit venture, which

is fine, but driveneutral.org is non-profit.  what does this mean?

ulitmately it means that you can spend half as much money on

offsetting your car's emissions and put more dollars toward actual

carbon neutralization.  driveneutral.org is a san fransisco-based

organization that, for a price of around $50 (yeah, even for an suv)

will offset your CO2 emissions for 12 months via investments in

renewables and carbon sequestration.  check em out...

oh, speaking of terrapass, they made an appearance at the oscars last

night.  instead of the typical $100k goody bags given to the

hollywood a-list, they received terrapasses.  sounds like the IRS

caught wind of the kind of money going under the radar at the event

and wanted to tax the vacations, jewelry, and cars being offered to

the hollywood stars.  the terrapasses given out are valued at

offsetting 100,000 lbs of CO2.  now my question is: is that even

enough to offset the lavish lifestyles of these people?  maybe for a

few months.  i generate close to 20,000 lbs/yr just driving my truck

and i get 21 mpg.  hollywood stars tend to drive less fuel efficient

cars, fly in way more airplanes, and consume a heck of a lot more

energy to keep their multi-million-dollar homes (and hot tubs and

pools) at just the right temperature.  100,000 lbs is a great

gesture, but does it cover it all?  i doubt it.  though, i'm so much

happier to hear that oscar guests are getting gifts that offset their

consumption, not gifts to fuel it.  terrapass even put a little

handbook for reducing your footprint in with the gift.  it's attached

to this email.  oh yeah, and congrats to al gore, huh?

finally, more innovations for the home: geothermal heating and

cooling.  a company called econar (www.econar.com) has a great

website explaining how geothermal can help your home.  by pumping air

into your heater/ac unit that comes from underground , far less

energy is required to maintain comfortable living temperatures(this

is a very simplistic explanation).  the subterranean temperature of

any given area (up to a certain depth) is equal to the year-round

average temperature of the surface.  out here in colorado that is

around 52 degrees F, or 11 C.  it should come as no surprise that

heating air from 52 to 70 is a lot easier than going from 10 to 70.

equally, it is easier to cool your home with incoming air from

underground, rather than straining your a/c unit by cooling 90 degree

outside air.

oooh, and one more thing:  does anyone remember hearing the story

that came out in "the guardian" (in the UK) a few weeks ago about how

conservative thinktanks (i'm not sure which) are offering $10k

rewards for any scientist willing to submit journal articles refuting

the latest IPCC report?  reminds me of an article i read called

"balance as bias: global warming and the US prestige press," which

explained the bias in global warming coverage by the media.  in a

nutshell, the scientific community is done debating climate change -

it's happening and we're contributing - but the media sources want to

paint an even picture of both sides of the argument anyway.  the

authors (boykoff & boykoff 2003) argue that balanced coverage does

not imply accurate coverage, and furthermore, this current situation

is one of informational bias.  they also identify the fact that our

US government spends 3 times more money on climate science than any

other nation on earth (as much as japan and the EU combined), yet

consistently ignores the outcomes of this research.  "it's for

economic reasons" some say.  while i haven't read the stern review

report on the economics of climate change, from what i understand

some great british minds including sir nicholas stern, former chief

economist to the world bank and current head of britain's government

economic service, have concluded that the economic costs of inaction

will far outweigh the upfront costs of meeting the climate crisis

head on.

man, this was the first big newsletter in a while...

hope you enjoyed it

-jimmy