On June 29th, a two-hour gubernatorial forum was held in downtown Boston’s historic Old South Meeting House.
All candidates for Governor were welcomed to make a statement, followed by a short Q&A by the audience and two panelists.
The first candidate to speak, Governor Deval Patrick, spoke about Cape Wind, and addressed a question about the alternative of purchasing clean energy from other places, if it were cheaper than producing our own. In response to this, he unwittingly quoted Chairman Mao, “I don’t know who said it, but, we’re going to have to let a thousand flowers bloom,” and concluded that we’ve still got a long way to go, and no avenue should be left unexplored. Other topics he discussed were the state of parks after cut funding, the Evergreen… [view entry]
On April 20th, 2010, in the open ocean 42 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana, a 560-million-dollar deep-water oil rig licensed to BP, experienced an explosion. Eleven workers were killed and 17 were injured in the explosion, with the other 98 on board exiting safely unharmed. After the initial explosion, the rig burned and two days later sank to the bottom of the ocean.
A few days after this shocking event made headlines, the resulting oil spill became apparent. Oil from the rig’s well immediately began to spew forth into the water column through a damaged well-head, forming a 5-mile long oil slick on the ocean’s surface in short time. Within two weeks, BP had tried and failed to use the well’s blowout protection, President Obama declared dedication of any… [view entry]
Since the beginning of April, 2010, Target has launched a massive nationwide recycling initiative in its 1,740 U.S. stores. The recycling stations will accept aluminum, glass and plastic beverage containers, plastic bags, MP3 players, cell phones and ink cartridges. Making it easier for some communities without curbside recycling to reduce the amount of material burned or buried, and for others to recycle some specialized goods.
“The launch of store recycling stations allows us to continue to partner with [our guests] to curb unnecessary waste in our stores and our communities,” said Shawn Gensch, vice president of brand marketing.
Target is developing all kinds of sustainability programs to improve its green image, including programs to green its supply chain, use less energy and produce less waste. Of course, one of the motivations of… [view entry]
The Environmental Working Group (EWG), is a non-profit organization who’s mission is to use the power of public information to protect public health and the environment. A wealth of knowledge is provided on Health and Toxics, Farming, Natural Resources and Energy choices.
The light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are becoming more and more common in traffic lights and are moving into streetlights.
LEDs produce three or four times more light per watt of electricity than standard incandescent lamps do, and they are more than 4 times as efficient as Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) bulbs, typically lasting up to 50,000 hours.
The Dialight Corporation, of Farmingdale, N.J., a subsidiary of a British company, has about one-third of the United States market for LED traffic signals, and is now looking forwards on another target: street lamps. Edinburgh and Pittsburgh are already trying this new lightning system. Even if LED street lamps doesn’t produce much more light per watt than a conventional lamp, it’s strength is to shine in only one direction whereas other lamps shine… [view entry]
Yesterday, December 7th, the EPA formally declared that greenhouse gases threaten public health and the environment. In its news release, the EPA stated that greenhouse gases are “the primary driver of climate change, which can lead to hotter, longer heat waves that threaten the health of the sick, poor or elderly; increases in ground-level ozone pollution linked to asthma and other respiratory illnesses; as well as other threats to the health and welfare of Americans.”
The EPA’s finding of “endangerment” opens the possibility for the EPA to limit the output of carbon dioxide and other pollutants produced by large-emitters such as power plants, oil refineries, chemical plants and metal smelters.
According to Jeff Holmstead, a former EPA air administrator under the George W. Bush administration, this is the first time… [view entry]
When you visit the New York times website on Sunday evening, the list of most emailed articles is usually topped by either the big news story of the day, a particularly relevant Frank Rich article or some pithy commentary from Maureen Dowd. This past Sunday it was a 4,000 word article on noted academic Freeman Dyson, who has been comfortably employed as a big brain for over 50 years at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, New Jersey.
Why the sudden interest in a man now is his mid 80s?
Dyson has always been considered a contrarian. As one of his colleagues observed, “… when consensus is forming like ice hardening on a lake, Dyson will do his best to chip away at the ice.”
While Dysons’s latest idea… [view entry]
Our Planet in 2220?
At the Cambridge headquarters of Energy 2.0 we’re well served with local scientific opinions-what with the big brains of Harvard at one end of town and the super-colliding intelligence of MIT at the other. Sometimes the smart folks from Tufts University in our neighboring town of Somerville get overlooked.
That might be changing with today’s Boston Globe article covering the controversial theory expounded by Tufts astrophysicist, Eric J. Chaisson. In a recent paper Chaisson has put forward the theory that even if we solve the environmental problems caused by greenhouse gas emissions, the rate at which we are generating radiant heat through the generation and use of non-renewable energy sources could result in catastrophic changes in the earth’s eco-systems and atmosphere… [view entry]
