UP|The Treehugger's Lounge

Proof of human caused global warming?

the99 — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 05:19:01 +0000

It's called the IPCC report. International panel on climate change says that humans are the main source of global warming, hands down.

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Proof of human caused global warming?

Richlord11 — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 20:08:56 +0000

Really interesting thread and also proof in video. Probably humans are one of the biggest impulses of global warming. Basically, we look at the air polution-maybe it´s the soundest problem in the world! As far as I know, large cities themselves pose a risk to natural balance, as it is almost impossible to control the amount waste produced by factories and households and to keep all the pollutants away from people. In my hometown air pollutants in Toronto largely contribute to about 1,700 premature deaths and 6,000 hospital admissions each year. Additionally, about 12,000 cases of childhood bronchitis and 72,000 days of asthma symptoms are believed to be caused by exposure to the air in Toronto. We need to stop these circumstances!

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Ban taxis that aren't hybrids?

Icetera — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 17:26:21 +0000

If the taxi companies are forced to invest in new vehicles all at once, they will have to increase fares considerably in order to pay for the investment. How many residents will this push over the edge as the cost of living in NYC is already so high? How many may move out of the city to where they would be driving personal automobiles, hence negating the carbon reductions? How about the impact of potential loss of employment as a result to taxi and local businesses? Personally, I do not support such restrictions but if done so they really need a reasonable time-frame or they will ultimately cause more harm than good.

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EU To Ban Cars In Cities 2050

Icetera — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 17:10:59 +0000

Unless alternative fueled vehicles become the cheaper alternative to businesses and residents moving out of the city (thankfully there is forty years to work with), this sounds like a formula for furthering urban sprawl. At least this idea would push the pollution outside of the city centers to where the power plants used to power the "alternative fueled" vehicles would be located.

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Residential wind turbines

Neo — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 09:49:09 +0000

rworkman09, on 05 September 2011 - 12:07 PM, said:

I just left my job at a solar company, so I'm fairly familiar with the green industry.

I worked trade shows often and saw these Honeywell turbines a few times. They're about 8-10 feet in diameter.

Thanks for posting the size of these things! At that size they definitely wouldn't be hidden from view. I'm sure my neighbors would love it if I stuck one on our roof.

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Residential wind turbines

rworkman09 — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 18:07:03 +0000

Neo, on 12 February 2010 - 09:55 AM, said:

From what I gathered I don't believe it is that big. Obviously turbines are going to need downsizing to be useful for residential.

I just left my job at a solar company, so I'm fairly familiar with the green industry.

I worked trade shows often and saw these Honeywell turbines a few times. They're about 8-10 feet in diameter.

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Going green!

nashbill — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 20:50:32 +0000

Dedicated a few days ago. TN 3rd 1MW solar farm. It is quite impressive. I of course am biased, because I work here. Here is the report from the Tennessean.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110725/NEWS11/307250019/Smyrna-solar-farm-will-learning-lab-?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|News|s

It seems very expensive. But our plant manager said we built a Ferrari when a Volkswagon would do. The dual voltage 600V and 1000V cost an additional $2,000,000. USA uses 600V and most of the rest of the world uses 1000V. It also is designed to allow portions to be used for experimenting and lab use, to allow us to understand how to use it most effectively. I am not an electrical engineer, so I am not the right person to try to explain. Our company, which is global and we export product from here. As you can see I am very proud of the company for putting out this much money (with help of the government). We need to use the energy we currently consume more effectively and make use of alternate energy sources. The more this is used and the more companies joining in to make the parts needed will drive down costs by more competition. I know that a lot of folks don't like the government give aways, but I think in many instances, it does help alot. Manufacturers like Nissan and ours will perhaps make the Smyrna area a good area for start-ups to join in.

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EU To Ban Cars In Cities 2050

Spartan — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 03:06:26 +0000

Sounds pretty ridiculous to me. We've built an entire global economy mostly around the car. To have a 'government' force people to not use them is absurd.

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EU To Ban Cars In Cities 2050

lime light power — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 19:19:05 +0000

Neo, on 31 March 2011 - 06:12 AM, said:

Unless government steps up like this and demands alternatives, it simply won't happen so kudos to them for stepping up to the plate!

What ticked me off was the shear ignorance of the people who were responding in the comment section to the original telegraph article. If this is the mentality of the "general public" in Europe or otherwise then we're in trouble.

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EU To Ban Cars In Cities 2050

Neo — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 12:12:53 +0000

Unless government steps up like this and demands alternatives, it simply won't happen so kudos to them for stepping up to the plate!

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EU To Ban Cars In Cities 2050

lime light power — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 23:15:31 +0000

The European Union has come up with a pretty interesting idea... in an effort to slash carbon emissions the EU is considering banning conventionally fueled autos from cities by the year 2050. What does everyone think? This is a pretty fantastic idea, a step in the right direction for a clean energy future and hopefully will see fruition... provided link to our little opinion piece on it...

EU Ton Ban Conventionally Fueled Vehicles By 2050

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Going green!

lime light power — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 12:23:52 +0000

Neo, on 01 October 2007 - 07:25 AM, said:

I wanted to back this up a little more with the following from Consumerist.com:

"For drivers in everyday situations, a manual transmission is not likely to provide any difference in fuel economy over an automatic transmission. The reason is that to achieve the optimum fuel efficiency a driver has to execute shifts at precise engine rpms (revolutions per minute). Given the challenges of city driving conditions, most drivers won't be able to realize greater fuel economy with a manual gearbox."

Maybe a year or so ago I was at the Miami Beach auto show and was chatting with the Porsche rep. We were talking about this exact topic and basically he said, these days the computer shifts better than any human possibly can. Almost every major high performance vehicle manufacturer has racing paddle shift for the extra oooumph when you need it, but leaving it in automatic for the daily driver is going to give you the best performance from your auto...

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Ban taxis that aren't hybrids?

lime light power — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 11:57:51 +0000

I was pretty disappointed by the NY ruling. Born and raised in NYC, I happen to prefer the subway, it's much, much quicker to get around town.Suburban George3 commented that most taxi's in the south are second hand cop cruisers, but NYC and other bigger metropolitan cities in NE seem to swap in brand new vehicles for their fleets from time to time. I have seen Prius cabs in NYC and other hybrids - so obviously it's happening but should probably be a mandate rather than a choice. I'm assuming (hoping) that as the auto industry ramps up production to the numbers we need, we will eventually see all non-hybrids go the way of the dodo...

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Do you purchase green energy/carbon credits?

lime light power — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 16:01:01 +0000

For those who may be skeptical, carbon credits are an excellent way to help promote renewable energy. It is, however, a nascent product (relatively speaking), with some pros and cons... Buying from an organization that has a top notch third party auditor is a must and while this may or may not come as a surprise, buying from your utility in no way guarantees that you're cash is going to renewable sources. Florida Power and Light had a green energy voluntary add on option to their monthly customers which ran for a few years and then it was discovered that almost 80% of the revenue taken in by the program went to administrative costs, rather than to any clean energy generation - thus, it's worth doing a little research and maybe even buying from an newer independent organization rather than from your utility. Just my two cents, with a little experience.

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The Strata

lime light power — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 13:04:45 +0000

Great find Neo... hadn't heard about this project. Happy to see there are images of it actually under construction and that it's not just another half baked idea for building integrated renewable energy. Not sure if you guys have seen this one, or not - but here's a link to the Bahrain World Trade Center completed in 2008 with three integrated turbines...

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Residential wind turbines

lime light power — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 12:57:08 +0000

Neo, on 20 January 2010 - 07:46 AM, said:

Honeywell introduced a $5,995 wind turbine at this year's CES that you can purchase and install on your house. It will supposedly generate ~25% of the electricity that the average home uses. Obviously this has benefits over solar since it will generate electricity in good and bad weather and takes up a lot less space. It even works with low wind speeds (as little as 2mph).

Hey Neo,

Very nice post and good find. I came across these turbines myself some time ago when they were first announced, but they kind of slipped my mind. Something to note: the company has licensed Honeywell's name, so it is not a Honeywell product. Many new energy economy companies are doing this to give their product an air of legitimacy - not to say the product doesn't work, but building integrated wind has had very mixed results and many companies try to avoid releasing any energy production stats post install. I myself am very interested in learning more about the technology and will continue to do some research. I may even try and track down their install in NYC and see if I can talk to someone about it. From what I've read, if a company gives you production data on their spec sheet, you should take 25% to 33% of that as the actual production number. If I come across more on that I will post it.

Thanks for reminding me of earth tron - it's back on my radar.

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Food, Inc.

ilovemycity — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 04:30:47 +0000

I've really been wanting to see this movie! After reading this I am definitely going to order it from Netflix next time, I hate fast food!!! I'll take the risk and watch it, even if it means becoming vegetarian! Really, is it that bad though?....guess I'll find out

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Residential wind turbines

Neo — Mon, 03 May 2010 10:32:40 +0000

dpbaker, on 01 May 2010 - 10:46 AM, said:

And now I hear that the gov. has given the green light on the Massachusetts wind farm - true?? (Sorry, don't mean to get off topic....)

The green light for the Cape Cod wind farm is very exciting and is true. Hopefully the project goes well and other states jump onboard. I would love for my state (North Carolina) to install wind farms off the coast.

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EPA proposing stricter smog standards

dpbaker — Sat, 01 May 2010 16:50:59 +0000

I certainly think changes need to be made, but slowly enough to not supply a negative jolt to the economy. I think the government does have some business in this, but I don't like government agencies getting to dictatorial, like the EPA. Or like CARB here in California - freakin' overbloated bureaucracy that does more harm than good. These environmental groups and agencies do need to be limited in their power.

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Residential wind turbines

dpbaker — Sat, 01 May 2010 16:46:27 +0000

And now I hear that the gov. has given the green light on the Massachusetts wind farm - true?? (Sorry, don't mean to get off topic....)

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The Strata

dpbaker — Sat, 01 May 2010 16:45:05 +0000

SWEET!! I like it!! This is akin to the way solar towers generate their power. Sure wish the government (U.S.) would take more interest in spending bucks on solar towers. They'd be great in certain parts of the southwest U.S.!! I hope this tech. proves successful for the building you've shown, thanks!

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Food, Inc.

dpbaker — Sat, 01 May 2010 16:42:57 +0000

I haven't seen the movie - but I've heard the horror stories!! It does sound like a must-see though based on what I've heard from people. I rarely, rarely do fast food (well, depending on the definition - is pizza fast food???), haven't been to a McDonalds for nearly 10 years, and I don't regret it! Haven't had beef since 2000. I do miss that, but have survived nicely without. I'll get around to seeing this at some point, but I'm almost afraid too - like I don't have enough to worry about already!!

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Proof of human caused global warming?

NCMike1990 — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 19:52:52 +0000

The NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) has always done great work with analyzing global temperature data and publishing papers related to climate change. The global temperature maps and graphs are updated every month as the new data comes in. They show global temperature anomaly maps, graphs and other data from the link below.

http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/

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The Strata

Neo — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:29:36 +0000

Something green is growing in south London, and it happens to harness the power of the wind to give its inhabitants electricity. The Strata isn't only going to be the first skyscraper in the world with built-in wind turbines, it's also going to be the tallest residential tower in central London. The wind turbines are at the very top of the tower and will produce ~8% of the building's power needs.

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The Bloom Box

Neo — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:50:54 +0000

Their website was made open to the public earlier today and in reading through the information it appears that it isn't initially available to residential customers. The costs are also missing, though that's expected since each installation would obviously be a custom job, especially since residential installs aren't current available.

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Food, Inc.

Neo — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:27:19 +0000

There is some good news on USDA Organic beef. New rules were released last week for USDA Organic participants that states:

Cows must be out on pasture throughout the grazing season (for at least 120 days)
A minimum of 30% nutrition must come from fresh grass (dry weight)

This takes affect one year from now (February/March 2011). IMO this isn't enough, but it is definitely a good start. I've been a little hesitant (but still do it) to buy USDA Organic beef since there were no rules stating that 100% of the diet couldn't be grain fed. I would still prefer 100% grass fed and which the USDA Organic label forced that, but I'll definitely take 30% and a more humane environment for the cows.

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The Bloom Box

Neo — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 14:19:23 +0000

The company has been crazy secretive about their product up until the last couple of weeks and tomorrow will reveal all. The Bloom Box is a fuel cell that can use almost any fuel (bio gas, natural gas, fossil fuels, etc.) along with beach sand and oxygen to produce an amazing amount of power in a very small unit. 60 Minutes ran a segment on the company, but tomorrow Bloom Energy will reveal their product to the world.

The company hopes to have it in homes within 5-10 years at an unbelievably low cost (I believe they said $2k for an average sized home). Google was their first customer to test the device and a prestigious list of companies followed, including eBay, Staples, and FedEx.

Here's a 60 Minutes recap of the segment:

Fuel cells have obviously been one of the holy grails of alternative energy, but no one has managed to get their costs down enough to be affordable thus other solutions like wind and solar have had more room to grow. I'm a bit skeptical of this device as it is being made out to be world changing. I can't help but remember when the Segway was said to be revolutionary and it obviously ended up being a dud, unless your a mall cop or tourist in a big city.

What's your take on The Bloom Box?

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What makes a city 'green' ?

suburban george3 — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 02:41:55 +0000

I think there are different shades of green... certainly several west coast locales come to mind as being at the forefront, but steps forward to being a more responsible city goes a long way.

My city has a great recycling program, curbside for most products with centers for hazardous household waste. They even provide postage paid envelope/bags to recycle cell phones, ink-jet cartridges, and rechargable batteries. The city also is pursing energy savings at all city owned properties by upgrading to more energy efficient lighting, adopting efficient design standards in new buildings, putting hybrid/more efficient vehicles in the city fleet, and replacing 20 aging diesel buses with new hybrid diesel/electric buses which get 2X better fuel efficiency.

I also think you have to look at green space provided and put aside as well as how we treat urban watersheds...

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Food, Inc.

Neo — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 12:47:04 +0000

For an update on how my wife and I have changed our habits, we now purchase USDA Organic if it is an option (including meats) and we have increased our dining out percentages in favor of those who purchase grass fed meats and organic produce (i.e. Chipotle). We do buy our meats from the supermarket, but it isn't for lack of trying to find grass fed beef from local sources. I couldn't find anyone locally who offers grass fed beef and chicken, so we have settled on second best by purchasing USDA organic meats.

Interestingly enough, Costco has started selling USDA Organic chicken and ground beef, so our last purchases for meats came from there. Super Target also sells USDA Organic beef (I haven't seen chicken there though). I look forward to the day when places like Target, Costco, and the local supermarkets have grass fed meats available.

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Food, Inc.

Nitro — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 17:33:29 +0000

I just rented this from the big blue movie ticket over the weekend. Very eye opening. I was amazed to hear some of the lengths that companies like Monsanto will go through to protect their genetically modified patents. The whole soy bean part of the movie was very troubling to me.

My wife was sickened by what she saw, I think it might be awhile before she eats meat again. I think this will change the way we eat at the house a little. Over the last couple of years we have been much more conscious about what we eat. We've frequented the farmer's markets, we've switched more more organic foods, we've tried to buy from more local sources, and we've planted a garden. Small shifts but hopefully meaningful. However, we still buy most of our meat from the supermarket. I think this will probably continue to some extent but we will be searching for more local sources for our meat.

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