Ontario turns out the lights on inefficient bulbs

This is a sign of the times. If the people will not do something good voluntarily, force it on them. I have to say I agree.

Ontario will ban the sale of inefficient incandescent light bulbs by 2012, a move that follows in the footsteps of Australia, the province said Wednesday.

The government estimates that replacing the 87 million incandescent bulbs in use across Ontario with more efficient bulbs would save six million megawatt hours every year — enough to power 600,000 homes.

This is the exact kind of intervention needed to overcome the economic stranglehold most corporations have over our society. Imagine if local governments banned other things for the good of their people:
* plastic bags
* VOC paint
* toxic household cleaners

or thinking bigger:
* chain stores (ie: Wal-Mart)
* non-hybrid or biodiesel cars

Imagine the possibilities!

FULL STORY

Greenopia launches this week

Greenopia launches this week in San Francisco<

Designed as a type of Zagat Guide for Green, Greenopia was a huge hit when it launched in LA last year. The San Francisco guide is 3 times the thickness (which I take great pride in).

They interviewed me for the site. During the interview, everyone in the office thought it sounded more like an eHarmony questionaire... especially the question about "What type of tree would I be?"

Read the interview here:
Greenopia Interview

Embodied Energy in a bottle of water

Pablo Paster writes a great look at the lifecycle cost of a bottle of water. This is a great look at how one would roughly look at the energy embodied in our products.

The biggest impact comes from the plastic bottle. Since plastic is made from oil, it requires energy (oil) to produce it. Since our water standards are so high in this country, the quality of these bottled waters is not much better than what comes out of our tap.

The costs of various liquids...

Great article on the cost of gasoline alongside other liquids.

Compared with Snapple, whiteout, and Pepto Bismol ($123.20/gallon), gasoline is surprisingly inexpensive.

"$21.19 for WATER - and the buyers don't even know the source. No wonder Evian spelled backwards is Naive."

Of course, the writer fails to mention the TRUE COSTS of gasoline, and the enormous subsidies our government provides for it.

Environmental Leadership

The Power of Green
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
What does America need to regain its global stature?
Environmental leadership.

We will need to find a way to reknit America at home, reconnect America abroad and restore America to its natural place in the global order — as the beacon of progress, hope and inspiration. I have an idea how. It’s called “green.”

After World War II, Eisenhower responded to the threat of Communism with massive spending on an interstate highway system to tie America together, in large part so that we could better move weapons. That highway system, though, helped to enshrine America’s car culture, to get America addicted to cheap fossil fuels, particularly oil. Many in the world followed our model.

Friedman calls for a similar vision, placing the US as a new type of role model.

FULL STORY

RIP: Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

"If flying-saucer creatures or angels or whatever were to come here in a hundred years, say, and find us gone like the dinosaurs, what might be a good message for humanity to leave for them, maybe carved in great big letters on a Grand Canyon wall?

Here is this old poop's suggestion:
WE PROBABLY COULD HAVE SAVED OURSELVES,
BUT WERE TOO DAMNED LAZY TO TRY VERY HARD..."

-- Kurt Vonnegut
November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007

Reusable vs. styrofoam cups?

How many uses does it take for a reusable cup to surpass a disposable paper or styrofoam cup in terms of energy usage?

You would need to use a single ceramic cup more than 1000 times in order for it to be more energy efficient than using the same number of dispoable styrofoam cups.

Of course, this doesn't take into account anything outside of the manufacturing or washing processes...like the cost of shipping all these foam cups and what happens to them after you're done with them.

Part of how sustainability is not really a balck and white issue... ever.

Full Story