Thursday, December 9, 2010
Monday, October 4, 2010
Military to Cut Fossil Fuel Use In Half by 2020
Who would have thunk? According to Ray Mabus, the Navy Secretary said he wants 50 percent of the power for the Navy and Marines to come from renewable energy sources by 2020. That figure includes energy for bases as well as fuel for cars...
The military this year has pushed rapidly forward. After a decade of waging wars in remote corners of the globe where fuel is not readily available, senior commanders have come to see overdependence on fossil fuel as a big liability, and renewable technologies — which have become more reliable and less expensive over the past few years — as providing a potential answer.
The 150 Marines of Company I, Third Battalion, Fifth Marines, will be the first to take renewable technology into a battle zone, where the new equipment will replace diesel and kerosene-based fuels that would ordinarily generate power to run their encampment.
NYT
Friday, June 18, 2010
The New Organic Big Business
The organic business has been undergoing rapid consolidation. Looks like the small producers are getting pushed out. Cornucopia
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Green and Gorgeous: By Reducing Emissions Energy Secretary Steven Chu Says U.S. Can Achieve Net Savings of US$680 Billion by 2020
Energy Secretary Steven Chu wrote an op-ed in this behemoth World Economic Forum report.
For the next few decades, energy efficiency is one of the lowest cost options for reducing US carbon emissions. Many studies have concluded that energy efficiency can save both energy and money. For example, a recent McKinsey report calculated the potential savings assuming a 7% discount rate, no price on carbon and using only “net present value positive” investments. It found the potential to reduce consumer demand by about 23% by 2020 and reduce GHG emissions by 1.1 gigatons each year — at a net savings of US$ 680 billion.
[JR: McKinsey report is here: "McKinsey must-read: U.S. can meet entire 2020 emissions target with efficiency and cogeneration while lowering the nation’s energy bill $700 billion!"]
Likewise, the National Academies found in 2009 that accelerated deployment of cost-effective technologies in buildings could reduce energy use by 25-30% in 2030. IHS CERA Report
For the next few decades, energy efficiency is one of the lowest cost options for reducing US carbon emissions. Many studies have concluded that energy efficiency can save both energy and money. For example, a recent McKinsey report calculated the potential savings assuming a 7% discount rate, no price on carbon and using only “net present value positive” investments. It found the potential to reduce consumer demand by about 23% by 2020 and reduce GHG emissions by 1.1 gigatons each year — at a net savings of US$ 680 billion.
[JR: McKinsey report is here: "McKinsey must-read: U.S. can meet entire 2020 emissions target with efficiency and cogeneration while lowering the nation’s energy bill $700 billion!"]
Likewise, the National Academies found in 2009 that accelerated deployment of cost-effective technologies in buildings could reduce energy use by 25-30% in 2030. IHS CERA Report
Friday, March 19, 2010
Green and Gorgeous: NOAA Reports World's Warmest January and Second Warmest February
Last month, NOAA reported the world experienced the warmest January in both satellite records. And NOAA just reported that it was the second warmest February on record in both satellite records. Now the UAH satellite data shows record-smashing temperatures in the first half of March:
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Friday, March 12, 2010
Green and Gorgeous: Battle of the Bulge - Where Federal Subsidies for Food Production Goes
Cost of food - how federal subsidies for food production play a role... and the federal nutrition recommendation. FlowData
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Green and Gorgeous: According to Stephen Colbert Free Range Chickens Make Love
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Jonathan Safran Foer | ||||
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It's not about being green to be green "free range means that the chickens get up in the morning and they run over fields, fields of flowers. And at the end of the day they make love, and from this lovemaking an egg emerges." - Stephen Colbert
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Green and Gorgeous: Disasters Such as Haiti's Earthquake Might Change How Architecture is Practiced
In relation to the greening of architectural practice, some areas of architectural practice and as an extension design will have to shift from a indivdual doctor to patient or architect to private client model to that of a public health model to be able to meet with increasing natural disasters around the world using approaches of public health responses to outbreak with limited resources and time for response. Design Observer
