April, 2011

EcoFacts — No Comments
22
Apr 11

Ecofacts Earth Day buzz and grist

For this special day, I was going to tell you about my Starbucks experience, since they are offering free coffee today if you bring your own mug, I thought a cool way of celebrating Earth Day. I was going to tell you how virtually no one was cashing in on the offer, everyone was sitting around or walking out with their unrecyclable cups. That in their Global Responsibility Report, Starbucks stated goal is to serve 25%(!!!) of their beverages in reusable cups by 2015, etc..

BUT, now that I’m happily speedy, I instead would rather offer you a bit of Grist’s Sin Gallery, in which people attempt to feel better by confessing:

“I use toilet paper from old growth forests, because it’s softer than recycled.”

“I dress my passenger seat in a jacket and hat and then use the carpool lane.”

“I take the long way home just to charge up my cell phone”

“I burn styrofoam in my backyard BBQ pit because I’m not sure what else to do with it.”

“I love bacon.”

“I drink a lot of bottled water from France and Fiji.”

“I occasionally eat at restaurants where I don’t know where the food comes from or how it was produced.”

“I refuse to read that new book or watch that new documentary about how jacked up our food supply is because I don’t want to know.”

“We buy Kraft Singles cheese instead of slicing our own.”

“The idea of eating sustainably every single meal tires me.”

“Instead of taking the empty toilet paper roll to the recycling bin, I’ll often just throw it in the trash.”

“I want to clip bike commuters who slow down traffic with my side mirrors.”

“I love horsepower more than I love the environment.”

(Dear Grist and their readers, please forgive this sin of mooching.)
http://www.earthconfessions.com/#gallery
from Grist, a beacon in the smog http://www.grist.org/

^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ~
Barbara Hirsch, recording engineer, eco-person

“Unless someone like you cares a whole lot,
nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

– The Lorax, Children’s book by Dr. Seuss

Past ecofacts can be found here:
http://greenproductsglobal.com/wordpress/

You can sign up to receive these weekly ecofacts here:
http://sustainability.ucsb.edu/

EcoFacts — 1 Comment
15
Apr 11

Ecofacts: Earth Time

Earth Day is on the 22nd, but in Santa Barbara, where the idea originated, it is this weekend, two days of booths, events, local food, music and all kinds of learning.
Good, ‘cause we sure need more of that. So earth is celebrated in our culture for one day or so in the year, but my guess is that this will be

E A R T H M I L L E N I U M

since in this one, we’ll all figure out how to live on it, or not. Whether it simply continues to serve us, or the agreement becomes mutual.

But clearly, human consciousness is changing. We have been such anthropocentric creatures, it’s all been there for our taking: the oceans as fisheries,
forests as timberlands, all of it, as our natural resources. Do other species have any inherent value other than for use by us? Can our population continue to grow
while Earth’s resources do not?

Meanwhile if you want to tip your hat to the earth quietly, here are a few possibilities:
Some day this week have a people powered day – choose not to drive, turn off the electronics and go for a walk, take a bike ride,
plant something or tend a garden. Read some Rachel Carson. Choose not to buy something. Tend a garden, or plant some seeds.
Bring out the nature side of your nature.
This year’s Earth Day theme is a People Powered campaign for a Billion Acts of Green.
Since there are over 6 billion of us, that should be easy.

^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ~
Barbara Hirsch, recording engineer, eco-person

“Unless someone like you cares a whole lot,
nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

– The Lorax, Children’s book by Dr. Seuss

Past ecofacts can be found here:
http://greenproductsglobal.com/wordpress/

You can sign up to receive these weekly ecofacts here:
http://sustainability.ucsb.edu/

EcoFacts — 1 Comment
8
Apr 11

Ecofacts: Bright Fuel

Here is a bright thought one can fetch in a dark time:
Last year, 2010, world solar electricity generation more than doubled.
No other energy sector grew considerably. In fact, coal use, (other end of the brightness spectrum)
barely grew at all, even having nearly doubled in China in the previous decade.

According to BP (and likely to their dismay) in 2009:
World primary energy consumption fell by 1.1% in 2009, the first decline since 1982.
Global coal consumption was flat in 2009, the weakest annual change since 1999
Global oil consumption declined by 1.2 million b/d or 1.7%, the largest decline since 1982
World natural gas consumption fell by 2.1%, the largest decline on record.

In the US, solar production has grown nearly 40% since 2007.
Globally, solar installations increased 83% in 2009, and then in 2010, 160%!

Falling costs and rising government incentives have helped to fuel this boom (e.g. US tax rebates of 30%).
In California, there are nearly 80,000 projects generating power, especially at peak use times.

Check out this map of sunny San Diego to get an idea of the number of
its solar installations:
http://sd.solarmap.org/solar/index.php

To see a depiction of the sun’s energy intensity on earth, visit: http://www.ez2c.de/ml/solar_land_area/

http://bnef.com/markets/renewable-energy/solar/
http://www.bp.com/productlanding.do?categoryId=6929&contentId=7044622

^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ~
Barbara Hirsch, recording engineer, eco-person

“Unless someone like you cares a whole lot,
nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

– The Lorax, Children’s book by Dr. Seuss

Past ecofacts can be found here:
http://greenproductsglobal.com/wordpress/

You can sign up to receive these weekly ecofacts here:
http://sustainability.ucsb.edu/

EcoFacts — No Comments
1
Apr 11

nuclear in our future

Last year, the U.S. Energy information Agency predicted that global nuclear energy generation will nearly double by 2035. If so, it won’t be the U.S. that leads the way.

China population: 1,341,000,000 percent of the work’s population 19.41%
India 1,210,193,422 17.51%
European Union 501,064,211 7.3%
U.S. 311,075,000 4.5 %

Energy use, per capita in 2008, in kilowatt hours:
China 18,608
India 6,280
EU 40,821
U.S. 87,216

Nuclear reactors operating under construction planned proposed
China 13 27 50 110
India 20 4 20 40
European Union 143 4 18* 26*
U.S. 104 1 9 22
average age of reactors in the world – 23 years, in the U.S. – 30 years.

“No new nuclear or coal plants may ever be needed in the United States, the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission” said in April, 2009.

“According to the most recent issue of the “Monthly Energy Review” by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), “nuclear electric power accounted for 11% of primary energy production and renewable energy accounted for 11% of primary energy production” (In a later issue, both nuclear and renewables were stated as over 8%.)

*my count, unreliable
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_by_country
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=will-the-us-need-new-coal
http://www.tomorrowisgreener.com/renewable-energy-almost-equals-nuclear-energy-in-usa/

^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ~ ^ ~
Barbara Hirsch, recording engineer, eco-person

“Unless someone like you cares a whole lot,
nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”
– The Lorax, Children’s book by Dr. Seuss

Past ecofacts can be found here:

http://greenproductsglobal.com/wordpress/

You can sign up to receive these weekly ecofacts here:

http://sustainability.ucsb.edu/