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
