Saturday, July 4, 2009

Georgia Manufactured Home Gets LEED Platinum, Skips Costly Green Gizmos

Georgia Manufactured Home Gets LEED Platinum, Skips Costly Green Gizmos
Written by Frank Robbins | July 1, 2009 |

read more: LEED, Residential, Single-family

When you think of manufactured homes, you might think of the ranch house with vinyl siding that you gingerly pass on the interstate as it travels on the back of a wide-load truck. You might also think about a LEED Platinum home and imagine a roof spotted with photovoltaic panels, windmill in the front yard, and geothermal dug deep into the ground. The newest offering from New World Home turns both of these ideas on their heads.

This home in Cobb County Georgia is the first LEED Platinum factory-built home in Georgia and the first in Georgia to obtain Platinum certification without the aid of renewable energy sources (cf. RainShine House). Moreover, the home earned EarthCraft Gold certification, as well the the National Green Building Certification Gold, which is administered by he NAHB Research Center. The house has:

Spray foam insulated walls and rafter;
FSC wood from sustainably harvest forests;
Pre-cast, insulated concrete foundation;
Energy Star rated doors, windows, roof, ceiling fans, and appliances;
Low-flow WaterSense fixtures and tankless water heaters;
Gutters that collect 100% of rainwater for irrigation;
Low or no VOC paints, adhesives, and finishes; and
Non-added formaldehyde cabinets, floors, and trim.


New World Home calls the design platform New Old Green Modular (NOGM or "Nogum," if you want to say it out loud). The platform incorporates a holistic approach to historically inspired green homes, whose models are named after famous ecologists. The process results in homes that are manufactured, transported, erected, and finished in less than 100 days. This allows New World Home to have a supply model similar to Dell Computer's where the house is built on-demand. This is different than traditional models where developers build spec homes and have to pay carrying costs waiting for the homes to sell. It's a model that's catching on in this economy.

By building in a factory setting, connections can be tighter and the thermal breaks can be minimized. Outdoor contaminants such as mold and mildew can be avoided during the building process and construction waste is easily diverted and reused. Even the foundation is factory-made, which uses 50% less concrete and carries a 25-year warranty against water damage.

Co-Founder and President of the Product Division, Mark Jupiter, describes his rationale for not adding power generation or geothermal to his designs: "We wanted to prove a point that using a standard supply chain: Owens Corning for the windows, standard foam insulation, a standard HVAC system ... that we could produce a home that uses 50 percent less energy and thousands of gallons less water."

Its a good looking home too, pictures are included with the article.

1) Portland, Ore.

1) Portland, Ore.
The city of microbrewery mania and home to megastore Powell's Books — one of the few remaining independent booksellers in the country — is No. 1 in sustainability. Declared the most bikeable city in the United States for its 200 miles of dedicated bike lanes, Portland certainly makes forgoing gas-powered travel easy. And for lessons in DIY sustainable food sources, classes are available for container gardening and cheese making, or beekeeping and chicken keeping.

2) San Francisco, Calif.

2) San Francisco, Calif.
Declared by Mayor Gavin Newsom to be America's solar energy leader, this vibrant city of cultural tolerance was a 1960s icon and epicenter for the Summer of Love. But in addition to peace, love and solar power, there's also an innovative recycling program with an artist-in-residence at the recycling facility. The artist uses his work to inspire residents to recycle and conserve. San Francisco is also the first U.S. city to ban plastic grocery bags, a concept that supports its effort to divert 75 percent of landfill waste by 2010.

Green people here in Miami look toward San Francisco for new ideas and proof that this Green stuff can not only be conceptualized, but done.

3) Boston, Mass.

3) Boston, Mass.
It's hard to think of this city without also thinking of tea — as a commodity, not a drink. Boston ranks high among the urban green elite. Sustainability efforts include a "Green by 2015" goal to replace traditional taxi cabs with hybrid vehicles, recycle trash to power homes, use more solar panels, and use more electric motorbikes for transportation. The city's first annual Down2Earth conference was held in 2008. It's designed to educate residents about how to live the most sustainable lifestyle.

4) Oakland, Calif.

4) Oakland, Calif.
Residents of this port city have access to an abundance of fresh, organic food, much of which is locally sourced. It's also home to the nation's cleanest tap water, hydrogen-powered public transit and the country's oldest wildlife refuge. Oakland also plans to have zero waste and be oil-independent by 2020, and already gets 17 percent of its energy from renewable sources.

5) Eugene, Ore.

5) Eugene, Ore.
Known as the Emerald City for its natural green beauty, this baby boomer haven and second largest city in the state has been doing the "green" thing since the 1960s. In 2008, after only one year of service, the Emerald Express, a hybrid public transit system, won a Sustainable Transport award. Cycling is the preferred mode of transportation, made possible by the 30 miles of off-street bike paths and 29 dedicated bike routes, which total a whopping 150 miles of smog-free travel throughout the metro area.

6) Cambridge, Mass.

6) Cambridge, Mass.
In 2008, Prevention Magazine named Cambridge "the best walking city." Thoreau's Walden Pond can be found in nearby Concord, and education powerhouses Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University are located here. In 2002, city officials implemented a major climate protection plan and today most city vehicles are fueled by B20 biodiesel or electricity. All new construction or major renovations must meet LEED standards. And a project called "Compost that Stuff" collects and processes organic waste from residents, restaurants,

There was an aggravating beer commercial that wouldnt move to allow the rest of the sentence to be captured.

7) Berkeley, Calif.

7) Berkeley, Calif.
A great place to find an abundance of organic and vegetarian restaurants is also on the cutting edge of sustainability. Berkeley is recognized as a leader in the incubation of clean technology for wind power, solar power, biofuels and hydropower.

8) Seattle, Wash.

8) Seattle, Wash.
The unofficial coffee klatch capitol of the country is also sustainable-living savvy. More than 20 public buildings in Seattle are LEED-certified or under construction for LEED certification. Through an incentive program, residents are encouraged to install solar panels on their homes for energy conservation. Sustainable Ballard, a green neighborhood group and sustainability festival host, offers ongoing workshops about how to live in harmony with the environment

10 greenest American cities - Austin

10) Austin, Texas
Carbon neutral by 2020 — it's an ambitious goal, but Austin Energy is the nation's top seller of renewable energy among 850 utility-sponsored programs, which makes its goal to power the city solely on clean energy within reach. As the gateway to the scenic Texas Hill Country, acreage in Austin that's devoted to green space includes 206 parks, 12 preserves, 26 greenbelts and more than 50 miles of trails.

10 greenest American cities - Jetson

Although the EPA has not established official criteria for ranking the greenness of a city, there are several key areas to measure for effectiveness in carbon footprint reduction. These include air and water quality, efficient recycling and management of waste, percentage of LEED-certified buildings, acres of land devoted to greenspace, use of renewable energy sources, and easy access to products and services that make green lifestyle choices (organic products, buying local, clean transportation methods) easy. MNN's editorial team rounded up our top 10. — Text by Angela Black

# 9 greenest city in Amaerica

9) Chicago, Ill.
The Windy City has embraced land sustainability far longer than you may think. In 1909, pioneering city planner Daniel Hudson Burnham created a long-range plan for the lakefront that balanced urban growth, and created a permanent greenbelt around the metropolitan area. This greening of the city continues through the Chicago Green Roof Program. More than 2.5 million square feet of city roofs support plant life — including Willis Tower (formerly called Sears Tower) and the city hall building. Also, about 500,000 new trees have been planted

no global water shortage

While water is increasingly becoming a hot commodity around the globe, there is no global water shortage. Human demand for water has tripled in the past 50 years, by some estimates. Yet Earth has essentially as much water now as ever — about 360 quintillion gallons.

Rather, human populations put ever more pressure on local and regional water resources, which in some cases — such as the American Southwest — are dwindling with climate change. The water still exists, it just gets dumped elsewhere.

This is more reason for water conservation (rain barrels, etc.) in those areas that are less likely to receive enough water to sustain the population there, human and otherwise.

NY Times article

By MIREYA NAVARRO
Published: July 3, 2009
Wearing a purple sweatsuit and leaning on a cane, Gloria Allen, 82, was hobbling down a hallway in a public housing project in Morningside Heights, knocking on doors and shouting, “Recycling education!”

There was no answer at the next apartment, but as soon as she detected movement inside, Ms. Allen, a retired printing-company worker, began her pitch.

“Please come out, baby,” she purred. “Please come out so we can educate you on how to recycle.”

The typical neighborhood environmentalist is often pictured as young and affluent, the kind of person who can afford a hybrid car and screen-printed hemp fabrics. But at General Grant Houses, a sprawling public housing development off West 125th Street in Manhattan, the eco-conscious are mainly people like Ms. Allen and Sarah Martin, who as leaders of the residents’ association fret as much about backed-up pipes as they do about recycling.

Proselytizing on the issue in housing projects is an enormous challenge but crucial, environmentalists say, given the incentive to cut back on energy and garbage disposal costs and a housing authority’s power to impose recycling rules building by building.

In New York, the incentive may be greatest of all. Only 17 percent of the city’s household waste makes it into recycling bins, and New York has the largest public housing system in the country, with 2,600 buildings, 174,000 apartments and more than 400,000 residents in five boroughs.

Yet the effort initiated by Ms. Allen and Ms. Martin originated as a grass-roots crusade of their own.

Margarita Lopez, the city housing agency’s environmental coordinator, said that residents who step up and organize the efforts defy cynical clichés about public housing. “There are people who think we’re not able to do this, who look at public housing as second-class citizens,” she said. “People would be surprised about how in tune the residents are.”

Polls show that concern about the environment is sometimes broadest in low-income communities because residents bear the brunt of problems like air pollution.

Ms. Allen and Ms. Martin say they see recycling as a way to address the health and quality-of-life issues associated with trash, including the emissions from abundant garbage-truck pickups.

“If we could reduce the amount of garbage in our community, it would reduce the diesel in the air,” said Ms. Martin, 72, a former medical assistant and school food preparation manager who wears hoop earrings under a baseball cap.

So she and Ms. Allen, who each live alone but have 6 children, 14 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren between them, have taken time from their full plate of tenant complaints to introduce, or reintroduce, the development’s 4,500 denizens to recycling, building by building.

While recycling is required by law, it had failed to take root at General Grant because the bins were not conveniently located and residents found it easy to ignore recycling signs, the women say.

Education is crucial, they insist, so they recruit volunteers and train them in which kinds of metal, glass and plastic items can be recycled. Then they guide them from door to door, distributing color-coded bags as they impart the fundamentals to neighbors who can be welcoming, indifferent or hostile.

“It’s not easy,” Ms. Martin said. “It’s not like you slap a flier on a door and say: ‘Recycle. It’s the law.’ It takes time, patience and energy.”

Some residents refuse to budge when Ms. Allen and Ms. Martin knock. And some object to their campaign. During one of their rounds, they were berated by a neighbor who insisted that recycling bins would attract vermin and should not be placed in front of the buildings.

“People are going to put garbage in there,” the neighbor warned.

But many readily embrace the effort. “This saves public housing work and money and it contributes to the general hygiene,” said Jose Morales, 51, an unemployed plumber and widower with two children who correctly chose a green recycling bag when Ms. Allen tested him with a flattened cereal box.

On other environmental fronts, efforts are under way by the city housing authority to make the apartment units more energy-efficient, using federal stimulus money to replace old boilers, water heaters and appliances. More than two dozen resident “green committees” have also been formed to help with projects like planting trees and recruiting workers for green jobs.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Herald Action Line

Posted on Wednesday, 07.01.09

Good reasons to go green

Switching the bulbs in a home from conventional incandescent to compact fluorescent light bulbs could save about $270 in one year. JACK ORTON / MCT FILE, 2008
Photo Thinking of going green? Here are some reasons to practice an environmentally friendly lifestyle, from the U.S. Government's Federal Citizen Information Center.

• Too much trash: The average American throws out 550 pounds of paper, 318 pounds of food, and 90 pounds of glass per year. About 80 percent of that garbage ends up in landfills.

• The Greenhouse Effect: Our atmosphere is constantly changing. Some of our favorite activities create gases that pollute the atmosphere. As those gases build up, the atmosphere keeps in too much heat.

• Air pollution: There are many factors that contribute to poor air quality, including pollution generated by power plants and cars.

• Damage to the ozone layer: A thin layer of ozone exists above the Earth and forms a protective shield. One of the biggest culprits destroying the ozone layer is a family of chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons, used in the manufacture of plastic products, foam packing materials, and other items.

• Water pollution and excessive water consumption: Most people get their water from underground sources. Rainwater and melted snow running off parking lots, rooftops, streets, and farms carry with them harmful substances. During a storm, the pollutants are washed into rivers and streams.

• Save money: Switching all the bulbs in a home from conventional incandescent to compact fluorescent light bulbs could save about $270 in one year.

Obesity may speed the spread of prostate cancer

Obesity may speed the spread of prostate cancer. In a study of more than 500 men who had their prostates removed, PSA levels began to rise--which means that the disease was progressing in about 30 percent of the obese men versus 20 percent of the men who weighed less.

Among men with rising PSAs, levels started to climb only 1 1/2 years after surgery in those who had gained the most weight (more than 3 pounds per year) since the age of 25. In contrast, PSAs didn't start to climb until roughly 2 years after surgery in those who had gained 1 to 3 pounds per year since age 25, and not until 3 1/2 years after surgery in those who had gained less than 1 pound per year.

What to do: If you're a man who needs one more reason to avoid gaining weight as you age, you've got it.

Clinical Cancer Research 11: 6889, 2005.

Inactivity - regerences

* For tips on strength training, a useful guide (for women and men) is Strong Women Stay Young, by Miriam E. Nelson (Bantam, 2000).

(1) Journal of the American Medical Association 289: 1785, 2003.

(2) New England Journal of Medicine 346: 393, 2002.

(3) Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 35: 1823, 2003.

(4) Archives of Internal Medicine 159: 2290, 1999.

(5) American Journal of Epidemiology 161: 639, 2005.

(6) Lancet Neurology 4: 705, 2005.

(7) Cell 120: 701, 2005.

(8) Journal of the American Medical Association 285: 1447, 2001

(9) Stroke 34: 2475, 2003.

(10) Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 53: 204, 2005.

Give me strength: why you need to lift weights

(11) Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 49: 1428, 2001.

(12) Journal of the American Medical Association 272: 1909, 1994.

(13) American Journal of Epidemiology 156: 328, 2002.

(14) American Journal of Preventive Medicine 28: 1, 2005.

(15) Journal of Applied Physiology 99:1613, 2005.

Inactivity - page 5

Both the men and the women laid down belly fat. "We studied postmenopausal women, so they were gaining visceral fat aggressively," he notes. Before you know it, your slacks are snug.

"People don't realize that inactivity is not a steady state," says Slentz. "They think it would be nice to start exercising, but if they think about it for six months, they've gained another pound. or two and an 8 percent increase in visceral fat."

How much activity is enough to stop gaining? It depends on who you are.

"If you're trying not to become overweight or obese, it looks like 45 to 60 minutes a day," says Harvard's I-Min Lee. But the story is different for people who used to be chubby.

"Individuals who are overweight and have lost weight need more physical activity to maintain the weight loss than people who don't want to gain weight, because if you've already become overweight, you're in an at-risk group," she notes. "Those people probably need 60 to 90 minutes a day to avoid regaining weight."

If that sounds about as realistic as going to medical school in your spare time, don't despair. "That's based on formerly obese individuals who lost 30 to 50 pounds and kept it off," says Blair. "You don't need 90 minutes a day to keep five pounds off."

What's more, it's not as though half an hour a day doesn't count. "Just 30 minutes a day is sufficient to reduce the risk of many chronic diseases," says Lee.

10 Immune System

Regular exercise may boost the immune system ... unless you overdo it. One indicator: how often people get colds.

"In moderate amounts, physical activity reduces the risk of upper respiratory tract infection," says Lee.

In studies that use older or middle-aged individuals, 30 to 45 minutes of walking about five days a week is moderate, she adds.

But the tables are turned if you go to extremes.

"Marathon runners have a higher risk of colds after a race, because immune function goes down after a prolonged intense bout of exercise," says Lee.

The picture is similar for inflammation, which can be a sign of weakened immune function.

"It's very complicated, but it looks like regular exercise can decrease inflammation," says the University of Maryland's Ben Hurley.

On the other hand, playing a hard game of basketball or soccer once a month can boost inflammation if that's all you do.

"The weekend athlete who does something strenuous once in a while can do more harm than good to a lot of systems," says Hurley. "You have to perform vigorous activity at least two or three times a week to avoid making things worse."

The Bottom Line

* To lower your risk of heart disease, diabetes, and colon cancer, shoot for at least 30 minutes a day of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise like brisk walking, cycling, jogging, or swimming.

* To keep off substantial amounts of lost weight, shoot for 60 to 90 minutes a day of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise.

* To build muscle and prevent bone loss, do strength training exercises at least twice a week using weights you can lift no less than 8--but no more than 15--times.

Inactivity - page 5

That means that strength training preserves bone better than walking or running.

"Load is more important than repetitions, so a small number of repetitions with a heavy load stimulates bone formation more than walking or jogging, where you can do thousands of repetitions but the load isn't very much," explains Hurley.

How much is enough? "A good rule of thumb is that you shouldn't be able to do more than 15 repetitions," says Hurley. "On the other hand, if you can't do 8 reps, it's probably too much of a load."

8 Mental Health

"People who are active are less likely to develop depression," says researcher Steven Blair.

In a study of nearly 2,000 residents of Alameda County, California, people who were more active were nearly 20 percent less likely to be diagnosed with depression over the next five years than less active residents. (13)

What's more, says Blair, "physical activity helps if you're already depressed."

To see if it was exercise, not socializing, that lifted spirits, the Cooper Institute's Andrea Dunn and colleagues "had young adults with mild to moderate major depressive disorder do aerobic exercise by themselves in a room," explains Blair. "As a placebo, they had similar people just do light stretches."

Sure enough, exercisers reported greater reductions in the symptoms of depression, and those who cycled or ran on a treadmill for 180 minutes a week--about 30 minutes a day--felt better than those who cycled or ran only 80 minutes a week. (14)

At least in that small study, says Blair, "the drop in depressive symptoms in people who exercised 180 minutes a week was as good as what you'd get with antidepressant drugs or cognitive behavioral therapy."

9 Weight

It's no surprise that couch potatoes start looking like potatoes.

For example, the risk of obesity is 68 percent higher in women who watch TV for 20 to 40 hours a week and twice as high in women who watch more than 40 hours a week than in those who watch no TV. (1) Likewise, each hour a day of brisk walking cuts the risk of obesity by 24 percent.

"If you don't exercise, you're going to go to pot," says Blair. "You're going to gain weight and lose fitness."

It's especially easy to gain visceral fat--the inner layer of abdominal fat that's linked to a higher risk of heart disease and diabetes.

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, and elsewhere assigned 175 middle-aged overweight men and women to walk or jog 11 miles a week, jog 17 miles a week, or continue their usual lifestyle. (15)

After about six months, the 17-miles-a-week joggers lost almost 11 pounds of fat. Those who either walked or jogged for 11 miles a week lost about 4 1/2 pounds of fat (the walkers) or 6 pounds of fat (the joggers). Most telling: the non-exercisers gained roughly 2 1/2 pounds of fat.

"In most people who are overweight, it's a slow but steady gain of one to five pounds over the course of a year," says Duke University exercise physiologist Cris Slentz, who coauthored the study.

page 4 - Inactivity

You can't easily get tested to see if you have the gene variations that make blood pressure respond to regular exercise. But that shouldn't keep you off your feet, says Hurley.

"You may not respond with lower blood pressure, but you may improve more than others in other areas such as insulin sensitivity," he explains. "We've never seen a case where someone doesn't have the right genotype for any benefit."

6 Muscles

It happens earlier in women than in men, but in both genders muscle starts to wither away if it's not used.

"Muscle atrophy for people with average activity levels starts at age 40 for women and in the late 50s for men," says Hurley. The muscle wasting probably starts even earlier, he adds, but so slowly that it isn't easy to detect.

"For every decade after about age 50, you lose some 6 percent of your muscle mass, which comes with a 10 to 15 percent loss of your strength," says Hurley.

But anyone can build muscle back up with strength training exercises. (11) "After two months of training, we see a 40 percent increase in strength," says Hurley.

"The earlier you start, the better," he adds. "But even people over 100 years old can partially reverse some of the loss that occurs with aging."

The trick is to not just use the muscle, but to overload it. "You have to make it work harder than it's accustomed to," explains Hurley.

"If you overload it in a gradual, progressive way, you can make the muscles bigger and stronger by making each muscle fiber thicker."

If you think of strong muscles as a luxury, think again. They can ward off the frailty that makes older people lose their independence, either because they can't take care of themselves or because they fall and fracture a hip.

"Regular exercise is the best way to stay out of a nursing home," says the Cooper Institute's Steven Blair.

7 Bones

Fragile bones--osteoporosis--cause more than 1.5 million fractures each year in the U.S. But bone starts to disintegrate decades before it cracks.

"Bone is like any other part of your body," says Harvard's I-Min Lee. "If you stress it, it responds."

If you don't, the ongoing balance between bone buildup and breakdown shifts towards a net loss. But strength training can make a difference.

"The research doesn't consistently show that you can increase bone, but you can prevent loss," says Hurley.

The best studies randomly assign people to strength training or a non-training "control" group. (12) "In postmenopausal women, the control group loses almost 1 percent of their bone mineral density in a year," notes Hurley. "But the group that trains either stays the same or has a slight increase."

Whether you actually gain bone or hold on to it may depend on how much you stress, or overload, the bone.

"We reported a 3 percent increase in density in the femoral neck bone at the top of the thigh, we think because the leg press--an exercise that strengthens the major leg muscles--has the greatest load," says Hurley. "We didn't see an increase where the load wasn't very big."

page 3 -While you wait: the cost of inactivity

While you wait: the cost of inactivity
Nutrition Action Healthletter, Dec, 2005 by Bonnie Liebman

Why? In stimulated mice, an enzyme that degrades amyloid deposits is more active. (7) "So there may be a specific anti-Alzheimer's effect of physical activity and social stimulation," he explains.

4 The Heart

Every year, 1.2 million Americans have a heart attack. It's no surprise that couch potatoes have a higher risk.

"Exercise affects the function of the heart muscle, but it also affects the blood vessels, from the large aortic artery to the veins and the small capillaries," says Tufts University's Miriam Nelson.

Researchers have long known that regular exercise can boost HDL ("good") cholesterol, which is the cholesterol that's on its way out of the arteries. But in recent years, they've learned that physical activity also makes the lining of blood vessels--the endothelium--more flexible.

"If partially blocked arteries are more elastic, they can relax better and send more blood to the heart muscles," explains Harvard's I-Min Lee. "It's like pumping blood through a rubber hose instead of a concrete pipe."

And you don't have to be an athlete to protect your heart.

In a study that tracked nearly 40,000 women for five years, those who walked briskly for at least an hour a week were half as likely to be diagnosed with heart disease as those who did no regular walking. (8) The risk was even lower for women who jogged or did other vigorous activity.

Scientists have good reason to believe that regular exercise protects the heart. "We know that physical activity has beneficial effects on risk factors for heart disease like lipids, blood pressure, and insulin sensitivity," explains Lee.

What's more, researchers have tested the impact of exercise training on people who already have heart disease.

"If they are assigned to an exercise program, they have a lower risk of dying and of dying from heart disease," says Lee.

5 Stroke

People who are active are 25 percent less likely to have a stroke than their sedentary counterparts.

(9) How can exercise keep strokes at bay?

"By lowering blood pressure, raising HDL cholesterol, and reducing the risk of blood clots," says Lee.

In the U.S., most strokes occur when a blood clot gets stuck in a partially clogged artery that feeds the brain. "Physical activity has the same effect on arteries to the brain as on arteries to the heart," she adds.

The evidence is less solid that regular exercise wards off less-common hemorrhagic strokes, which occur when a blood vessel in the brain bursts. However, if exercise prevents hemorrhagic stroke, says Lee, "it's probably by lowering blood pressure."

High blood pressure, or hypertension, is the biggest risk factor for any stroke. And researchers are now finding that a regular spin on the bike or walk on the treadmill doesn't lower blood pressure in everyone.

"It's a mixed bag," says the University of Maryland's Ben Hurley. "Regular aerobic exercise reduces blood pressure in aboperformers in 75 percent of people."

In others, blood pressure doesn't budge. (10) "Our group found that blood pressure improved in people with one gene profile, but not in others."

Inactivity - page 2

That may be because most studies aren't long or large enough to see the link, he adds. "It's a modest effect, but it does look like it's there, mostly for postmenopausal women."

And it looks like women can protect their breasts at the same time they're maintaining other body parts.

"We're not clear how much physical activity you need to reduce the risk of breast cancer," says Lee. "But it's in the same ballpark as for colon cancer--between 30 and 60 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a day."

As for some other cancers, she adds, "there's some suggestive evidence, but it's not as conclusive."

3 The Brain

It's bad enough that inactivity can turn your muscles to Jell-O. Can it do the same to your brain?

"The evidence is fairly solid that people who are more physically active are at lower risk for cognitive decline and dementia," says Constantine Lyketsos, director of the division of geriatric psychiatry and neuropsychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.

For example, among more than 3,000 older men and women in the Cardiovascular Health Cognition Study, those who reported engaging in at least four activities (like walking, household chores, gardening, and jogging) during the previous two weeks were half as likely to be diagnosed with dementia five years later than those who took part in no more than one activity. (5)

However, exercise had no link with either Alzheimer's or other dementias in people in the study who had the [epsilon]4 version of the apolipoprotein (ApoE) gene. In contrast, a Finnish study found that exercise protected ApoE [epsilon]4 carriers more than people without the gene. (6) (About 20 percent of people have at least one copy of the [epsilon]4 version of the gene.)

"People with the gene seem to get Alzheimer's about 8 to 10 years earlier than non-carriers," explains Lyketsos, who coauthored the Cardiovascular Health Cognition Study. That usually means it starts in their 70s rather than their 80s.

With or without ApoE [epsilon]4, he acknowledges, the evidence on exercise isn't conclusive. "It's always possible that people are reducing their physical activity because they're in the early stages of dementia."

But clues from animal studies are compelling.

"There's a fairly strong neurobiological basis to suggest that the more physically active you are, the less likely you are to develop dementia," says Lyketsos.

For example, the brains of physically active mice have more nerves, more connections between nerves, fewer clogged arteries, more oxygen flow, and better ability to utilize glucose, he explains.

"All are probably factors in helping prevent cognitive decline and dementia."

Recent studies used mice that are prone to acquire the amyloid plaques that are found in the brains of Alzheimer's patients.

"At least one study suggests that if you take these mice out of their traditional cages, where there's little to do, and put them into stimulating cages with more colors, objects, brighter areas, and little mouse treadmills, you find fewer amyloid deposits in the brain," says Lyketsos.

Nutrition Action article - Inactivity- page 1

Planning to exercise more? Been planning on it for a while?

It's easy to put off, at least today, at least this week, at least until you (choose one) get new sneakers, get past the holidays, get some free time, get a new job, get the kids off to college, whatever.

But as the years slip by, your body isn't just frozen in time, waiting to get moving. It's fading.

"If muscle isn't stimulated, your body senses that you don't need it," explains Miriam Nelson of Tufts University in Boston. "Metabolically, it's expensive to keep up so you start to lose it."

Muscle is just the beginning, she adds. "Inactivity affects the brain, heart, blood vessels, bones, liver, gut, sleep, anxiety, depression, self-esteem, your ability to use glucose, and more."

More Articles of Interest

Give me strength: why you need to lift weights
Glycemic index & weight

"From the top of your head to the bottom of your toes, being physically active is the stimulus that gets most organs in the body to work at their best," says Tufts University exercise expert Miriam Nelson.

"If you're not active, it affects all body systems, literally down to the cellular level, where your ability to transfer oxygen from the bloodstream to cells is diminished and the number of power-producing mitochondria in your cells is less."

"If you can't get as much oxygen out of your blood, you can't walk up a flight of stairs as easily as you get older." And that's just one system that suffers if you're sedentary.

The good news: it's never too late to start moving. "Well into your 90s, all of these systems can be stimulated," notes Nelson. "It's quite remarkable."

Here are 10 ways inactivity can take a toll on your body.

1 Diabetes

"The one thing that seems to deteriorate quickest with inactivity is insulin sensitivity," says Ben Hurley, a professor of kinesiology at the University of Maryland at College Park (and husband of Nutrition Action's Jayne Hurley). Fortunately, "it also responds most consistently when you train."

Type 2 diabetes--by far the most common kind--occurs when the body be comes insensitive, or resistant, to insulin in the blood. When insulin stops working, blood sugar levels rise and diabetes sets in.

Regular exercise reverses the damage.

"It increases insulin sensitivity and makes the cells better at taking in glucose and processing it," explains I-Min Lee, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.

In a study of more than 50,000 nurses, every two hours a day of TV-watching was linked to a 14 percent increase in the risk of diabetes. (1) Every two hours of sitting at work was linked to a 7 percent increase. In contrast, every hour of brisk walking per day was linked to a 34 percent lower risk.

What's more, when researchers told people with high-but-not-yet-diabetic blood sugar levels to do aerobic exercise for at least 2 1/2 hours a week and lose at least 7 percent of their body weight, their risk of diabetes was 58 percent lower than similar people who didn't exercise or lose weight. (2)

"The data are striking," says Hurley. And it's not just an issue for adults. "Type 2 diabetes used to be a disease of middle age," he adds. "But now we're seeing it in young people. It's a sedentary disease."

Hurley sounds like researcher Steven Blair talking about the metabolic syndrome, which raises the risk of both diabetes and heart disease. Doctors diagnose the syndrome when people have a large waist, low HDL ("good") cholesterol, and elevated (though not necessarily high) blood pressure, blood sugar, and triglycerides.

"The metabolic syndrome is misnamed," says Blair, who is president of the Cooper Institute in Dallas, Texas. "It ought to be called the inactivity syndrome."

2 Cancer

"The evidence is fairly clear now that men and women who are physically active have a 30 to 40 percent lower risk of colon cancer compared to individuals who are not active," says Harvard's I-Min Lee, who examined dozens of studies. (3)

Experts have several theories that might explain how physical activity protects the colon. "It increases transit in the intestine, which makes food flow through fast," says Lee. "So any carcinogens in the intestine have less contact with the cells that line the intestine."

Another possibility is that regular exercise shores up the immune system. "That would protect the body from any cancer, including colon," she adds,

Hormone-like substances called prosta glandins might also play a role. "Activity can decrease prostaglandin E2 levels in the intestinal cells," says Lee. "Prostaglandin E2 is associated with a higher risk of colon cancer," she notes, probably because it makes colon cells proliferate faster and slows intestinal motility.

Then there's the obvious: "Physical activity prevents weight gain, and the overweight have a higher risk of colon cancer," says Lee.

How much movement is enough? "We don't have precise data, but it looks like you need 30 to 60 minutes a day of moderate-intensity physical activity."

Regular exercise also appears to lower the risk of breast cancer by about 20 percent. (4) "But the research has been somewhat inconsistent," says Walter Willett, chair of the nutrition department at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Atlanta and Miami Among Cities Declaring Green Initiatives

Published on April 22nd, 2009
Atlanta and Miami Among Cities Declaring Green Initiatives
by Lori Brown

The cities of Atlanta and Miami are two of the most recent cities to announce their green initiatives –Atlanta for zero-waste and Miami for energy efficiency. Both Atlanta and Miami hope to serve as model cities for their respective programs, inspiring other cities to expand their green efforts.

Downtown Atlanta announced its plan to become the Southeast’s first Zero Waste Zone in February of this year, with plans to expand the program across the state in the near future. The project’s first stop was the downtown Atlanta convention district, where hundreds of thousands tons of waste are sent to landfills. Here’s an outline of some measures put in place to accomplish a zero waste initiative:

The Hyatt Regency Atlanta, where 423,433 meals were served in 2008, now diverts an estimated 928,000 pounds of residual food product from the landfill to be composted. All plates are wiped clean of food, including meat products and placed in compost containers. The spent grease from frying is even captured and refined into bio-fuel.
The city now has commercially available biodiesel fuel, being sold for $2.29 a gallon, for any vehicle that runs on diesel. The fuel is made from locally collected fryer oils, meaning it doesn’t travel far from the source to the pump.
The food waste is collected and blended with wood and yard waste, creating a high-quality organic compost available for sale to local farmers, landscapers and gardeners.
According to the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, Georgians dispose of more than 17 million tons of solid waste per year. Recoverable products, including paper, organics and plastics, make up 82 percent of the recyclable materials disposed of in the landfills. With the Zero Waste Zone project, these reusable products will be recycled.

300 Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles will be added to the Florida Power & Light Company fleet, powered using 50 new charging stations. Photo: Austinenergy.com
A bit further South, the mayor of Miami announced this week an energy initiative to invest in Smart Grid technology and renewable energy over the next two years. The initiative, called “Energy Smart Miami,” is expected to create 800 to 1,000 jobs to implement a wide range of technologies to improve electricity delivery and electricity management.

The initiative will use federal economic stimulus funds to help implement the $200 million energy efficiency investment. Program highlights will include:

The installation of Smart Meters to more than 1 million homes and most businesses in Miami-Dade County. The Smart Meters will allow customers to monitor energy use.
The addition of solar panels to local universities and schools to help meet their energy needs with renewable, non-polluting technologies.
The implementation of a Smart-Grid Automation and Communication system to connect Smart Meters, high-efficiency transformers, digitized substations, power generation and other equipment.

Both Atlanta and Miami are serving as model cities for their respective programs. Carol Browner, who serves as President Obama’s point person on energy and climate change said of Miami’s program, “I commend Mayor Diaz for creating a plan that will put these recovery dollars to work and make Miami a Smart Grid model for cities across our country.”

Its good to see Miami is finally getting with the Green program. I have to give the Mayor credit.

Composting worms its way into workplaces

Composting worms its way into workplaces
Monday, April 20th, 2009

By Lori Kurtzman • lkurtzman[at]enquirer[dot]com • April 20, 2009

In the break room of Emersion Design in Norwood, beneath the coffee maker, inside an 18-gallon Rubbermaid container, hundreds of worms feast on coffee grounds and the leftover scraps of workday lunches. Emersion started this - it’s called vermicomposting - about a year ago to cut down on waste.

“We had this brilliant idea that we didn’t need to throw away all of our organic stuff,” said Nikki Marksberry, who works in marketing at the architecture and engineering firm. “So I just went to a local pet store and bought food (worms) intended to be for reptiles.”

As growing concern for the environment is pushing many to find more ways to “think green,” some are going beyond recycling cans and reusable grocery bags. Ensuring their food scraps won’t end up perfectly preserved in a landfill - you can find whole carrots at the dump - a growing number of area residents are investing in compost systems, ranging from large outdoor bins to small, worm-led operations like the one at Emersion.

Attendance has doubled in composting classes held at the Civic Garden Center of Greater Cincinnati. Eco-friendly Over-the-Rhine general store Park + Vine has twice sold out of its supply of Happy Farmer indoor kitchen composters. The Hamilton County Department of Environmental Services’ annual sale of outdoor compost bins was such a smash in the fall that even the organizers were shocked.

“For the first time ever, we sold out,” said department spokeswoman Sarah Dowers.

Customers snapped up all 1,500 Earth Machine bins, which retail for $100 and which the county sells for $35. “People were actually upset there were not more to be bought,” Dowers said.

The composting craze even wormed its way to the Wyoming Youth Services Bureau’s annual benefit breakfast last month. Some 900 people tore through thousands of pancakes and gallons of syrup and the amount of landfill-bound trash they generated filled just three garbage bags.

“It was such a good feeling,” said Heidi Spicer, who worked as the event’s “eco-organizer.”

Spicer took table scraps back to her Wyoming home, where she and her husband compost food, leaves and grass and use the resulting organic material to enrich the soil in their fruit and vegetable gardens.

“It’s really simple,” Spicer said.

That’s the refrain from a lot of composters, no matter how they’re doing it. Spicer - who also collects rainwater in an 1,100-gallon tank - has a large system of bins spread throughout her back yard. Jenny Kessler, a University of Cincinnati student who said her roommates “lovingly call me the ‘Green Nazi,’ ” has the compact Happy Farmer and said it’s easy, too.

And at Emersion, the worms do the really hard work. Marksberry loads coffee grounds and decomposing fruit and vegetable waste into the bin weekly.

“You cover it with moist, shredded paper and that’s it,” Marksberry said. “The worms do their thing.”

Every six months or so, when it’s time to unload the bin, Marksberry hauls it home. She dumps the compost - which her fiancé will use in his organic garden - onto her driveway, and picks out the worms. The neighbor kids help

New Times article

Public Food Composting Pilot Project on Virginia Key
By Jackie Sayet in Coming Attractions, Locavore Express

Thursday, Jun. 4 2009 @ 7:30AM
The City of Miami
Fertile ground

We can't seem to get enough of the vermicomposting wormies here on Short Order... If you've got food waste to share or an urban garden that needs soiil, The only thing that might turn your stomach is that there may be a Bush involved. And no, we're not talking the lowercase variety.

Beginning July 1, a summer pilot program will make public food composting a reality on Virginia Key at the site where the City of Miami currently offers residents free mulch and compost from yard trash. The address is 3851 Rickenbacker Causeway.

According to Lanette Sobel of Fertile Earth, a non-profit working with the city, South Dade Soil and Water Conservation District, Florida Atlantic University, and others, the test could become Florida's first public food residuals composting program churning out tons of the stuff to delight urban gardeners and small farmers alike in Miami-Dade.

The plan appears straight forward. Organics from hotels (echem, Ritz Carlton) and restaurants (Sir Pizza?) that agree to participate are collected and deposited at the facility. The local community will also have the opportunity to bring food waste to the site, Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., where it will be inspected to make sure it meets criteria. If a person is associated with an urban gardening project, they will receive something in exchange for food residuals, most likely either finished compost or maybe gift certificates to an organic farmers market. An experienced technician then loads the "in-vessel" composting machine. The goodies brew for about 3-5 days, then cure for another 10, and there you have it -- finished compost ready for bulk wholesale to the local agricultural community, or bagged and sold to consumers through a retail distributor like Whole Foods Market.

It's all very exciting, but you may not feel so enthused after a quick visit to the website of BW Organics, the composting machine company with whom Fertile Earth is in talks to procure an in-vessel unit for the project. To promote the wide range of uses for its machines, it's conducting research "to process 25% mortality and 75% chicken litter to be tested and used as a cattle feed supplement." That's not exactly what I wanted to read after watching an advance copy of "Food, Inc." the soon-to-be-released film documenting the horrors of the American food industry, like our systemic dependence on corn and cows being unnaturally fed this rather than grass -- not to mention the idea of dead chickens. But really... Why focus on making the chickens' pen less fatal when we can recycle the ones that die from disease from overcrowding? Oh yeah. Money! Not sure if I'd want to get in compost with that.

Miami's Green Thumb

July 2, 2009

Miami's Green Thumb
Jackie Sayet's blog about Miami's flourishing urban garden movement.
Miami's greening thumb

Miami's greening thumb

It's cropping up on the White House lawn and taking root here in our own backyard. A few days before First Lady Michelle Obama and Assistant White House Chef Sam Kass broke ground on an organic "kitchen garden" with children from a D.C. school, about one hundred of us locals interested in urban gardening sat mesmerized at a public information session with Will Allen of Growing Power. Brought in by area food activist Jo Anne Bander with help from Human Services Coalition President Daniella Levine, the former pro basketball player and University of Miami alum spoke about his love affair with composting worms, aquaponic farming systems and how his Milwaukee-based non-profit distributes 4,000 healthy afterschool snacks of sprouts to area public schools. Yes, you read correctly. Kids are eating sprouts, not mac and cheese, as an afterschool snack in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Everyone from parents to baby-sitters knows that children don't like to be told what to do without knowing why. And that "because I said so" doesn't fly as a reason. I don't pretend to be a child psychologist or nutritionist, but in my experience, the same goes for why they turn their noses up at good-for-you foods. I've seen kids eat and very much enjoy healthy foods when they feel a sense of agency and are involved in the process to the table, especially in a hands-on fashion.

Growing Power began as a youth-serving organization in 1993, when Allen, a farmer with land, began offering teens the opportunity to work at his store and renovate the greenhouses on the property to cultivate food for the surrounding neighborhoods. The program has now grown into a community outreach effort spanning the U.S. and the globe to Africa, Eastern Europe and South America. Its mission revolves around thinking locally and acting globally. Not concerning himself with the big commercial outfits of commodity farmers, Allen focuses on small-scale urban farming techniques to educate people from diverse backgrounds on how to cultivate their own sustainable food sources, and thus improve the environments in which they live. The grass roots movement is steadily gaining momentum in popular culture, as more affluent people look to adopt environmentally-sound lifestyles and cut household expenses to contend with challenging economic conditions.

Allen has been recognized for his accomplishments to date with an 2008 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, providing him with $500,000 in grant money to continue his work over the next five years. A good thing, since action on a mainstream level will take time. And although awareness is very high (just Google "Will Allen Urban Garden" or "Growing Power"), growingpower.org has logged a healthy but modest 81,761 visitors since August 2008, traffic that is a far cry from what You Tube video sensations attract on a weekly basis.

Corporate America is listening and acting now, following the lead of Will Allen, the White House and influential crusaders of the food community like organic gardening advocate and chef Alice Waters. Reader's Digest has just launched a contest called Good Food Gardens, in partnership with Share Our Strength and the Food Network, awarding the creation of five new edible gardens in schools and communities to eligible nonprofits, schools with a valid NCES code or local government entities that serve children and youth. See if your organization qualifies and enter here.

I connected with Jo Anne Bander via email today about Will Allen's presentation last week, and the progress being made on the urban gardening front in Miami. She writes, "Over 125 individuals attended, including individuals with personal interests and representatives of organizations already doing the work, such as Miami-Dade Earth Ethics Institute, the Miami Beach Botanical Garden, Roots in the City and Urban Empowerment in Coconut Grove. There were also individuals present who control land available for urban gardens and good citizen groups. There were individuals from government and quasi-governmental bodies and Mayor Cindy Lerner of Pinecrest. There were educators and backyard gardeners. Most significantly, people who could not attend but heard about the gathering have been contacting us and asking to be kept in the loop."

"There is a significant school garden program already underway, with strong support within Dade County Public Schools. The Education Fund is developing and managing one such initiative, Plant a Thousand Gardens/Collaborative Nutrition Initiative, which launched with a significant grant from Health Foundation of South Florida and has grown with assistance from other funders. They are working with 10 Title I schools."

"Daniella and I, as conveners, see our role as building a big umbrella under which many related and interested groups can work together to increase urban gardening as a means to make healthy food accessible to both children and adults and reduce the Miami-Dade obesity epidemic in both populations-an effective and appropriate means to improve health in our community. School gardens will be an important effort, but only one among many."

To collect the contact information of people who may be interested in learning more or getting involved in the movement, the organizers have developed a short survey here that they are requesting be filled out by March 27. Feel free to forward to others who may be interested in having a conversation about next steps, or who want to be part of the "assets mapping" for urban gardening in Miami

MDC Students Bring Gardens and Worms to Public Schools

Miami Dade College Students Bring Gardens and Worms to Public Schools
Submitted by Real Food Challenge on Mon, 09/29/2008 - 19:08.

in spotlight student garden

September 27, 2008

Miami, FL-- On a sweltering hot Saturday, twenty people gathered behind a junior high school. Three students shoveled soil and compost into a new garden bed, while others removed basil, pepper and tomato plants from their pots to place in the fresh soil. Others held boards of wood while a teacher from Miami Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS) nailed the boards together.

Teachers and future educators came together to plant a garden and share ideas about how to bring healthy eating and an awareness of the origins of food to their students. The workshop, part of the Real Food Now! Month of Action, was sponsored by the Earth Ethics Institute at Miami Dade College (MDC) and is the continuation of a long-standing partnership between MDC and MDCPS. "This was my first time planting--now I can plant my own herb garden! And it'll be easy to integrate into my lesson plans," said MDC student Marilyn Morejon.

For the past four years, the Earth Ethics Institute's Organic Gardens Program has been working with MDCPS teachers to support their efforts to bring real food to the classroom. Each year teachers plant gardens with their students, selecting culturally appropriate foods that students might be accustomed to eating at home, as well as introducing new herbs and vegetables. The garden is then incorporated into all aspects of the curriculum--students measure and chart plant growth, interview family members and record family recipes to share with classmates, and learn about the nutrient cycle through the practice of daily composting. MDCPS teachers look forward to getting started on their gardens. As teacher Elizabeth Hernandez said, "I'm really excited to make worm bins with my students!"

This year, MDC student leaders with Future Educators of America are also getting involved. Students who plan to teach a wide range of subjects from science to social studies have chosen to do their service learning in the garden. They meet MDCPS teachers and their classes throughout the semester to help build gardens, germinate seeds, plant, weed, and harvest. Together with teachers, MDC students are empowering kids to grow their own real food!

Better To Have Hair On Your Feet Than Your Head

Better To Have Hair On Your Feet Than Your Head

A lack of hair on your feet may be a sign of circulatory problems, explains Andrew Manganaro, MD, Chief Medical Officer at Life Line Screening:

When I was a resident surgeon, many years ago, one of my professors, himself a world renowned vascular surgeon, once said, "It is better to have hair on your feet than on your head."

A receding hairline on your head may not be your favorite look, but lack of hair on your feet is much more dangerous. It is could be a sign that your feet are not getting adequate blood flow.

The good news is that this can be checked with a simple screening that measures the blood pressure in your feet called an Ankle-Brachial Index. This screening can let you know if you are at risk for Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD) or other circulatory problems.

Are your feet giving you a warning sign?
Find out today.

The Wall Street Journal's Melinda Beck also reports on the value of feet in evaluating circulatory health in her June 23rd article "What Your Body is Telling You." She writes, "Circulatory problems can manifest as numbness and tingling in the feet... When circulation is compromised, even a minor scratch or sore on the feet can become infected easily."

People with diabetes are at increased risk and should conduct regular checks of their feet for scratches. Life Line Screening offers several packages that include screenings for diabetes and PAD.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

ChargePoint Networked Charging Stations in Oregon

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Hillsboro, Oregon Going, Going, Gone Electric

Written by Joanna Schroeder

Published on July 1st, 2009Posted in Electric Cars (EVs), Electric Grid, Hybrid-electric EVs

“Our city is progressive and aggressive in implementing sustainable solutions to environmental and economic challenges.”

–David Robinson, director of Facilities and Fleet, City of Hillsboro, Oregon

Hillsboro, Oregon, the 5th largest city in the state and known as “Silicon Forest” is joining the growing electric community with the announcement that it will be the first in the state to install public ChargePoint Networked Charging Stations for both plug-in hybrids and all-electric vehicles. The city will install 16 charging stations downtown, one as part of its “green” intermodal transit facility due to be constructed this year.

It’s not surprising that this announcement comes from the environmentally progressive Northwest. Robinson noted that the community has a, “large forward-thinking population ready to embrace electric vehicle technology,” and that the City is committed to providing the facilities that its community needs.

» See also: The CitiCar Capital Of The USA (And Perhaps The World): Browntown, Wisconsin
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The technology is manufactured by Coulomb Technologies, Inc. who currently have ChargePoint Networked Charging Stations in San Francisco and Walnut Creek, California, Wisconsin and Amsterdam. The charging stations can be used for municipalities, utilities, green office buildings, and parking garages, all ideal locations for consumers with cars that can re-charged.

So how does it work? A consumer with a plug-in hybrid or all-electric car subscribes to the ChargePoint Network and receives a ChargePoint Smart Card that allows him to charge his car at any charging station around the world. This is the same concept as a person who has a Shell gasoline credit card. She can use the credit card at any station throughout the world to fill up.

Also, to continue the analogy to a traditional gas station which provides the driver other benefits besides gas such as car washes, food, beverages, and lottery tickets, and provides the owner with revenue (more on food and beverages than gas) the ChargePoint Network charging stations also provide benefits to both the owner (such as the city of Hillsboro) as well as to the consumer.

Owner benefits include:

Revenue stream to pay for electricity, capital equipment and maintenance.
Authenticated access to eliminate energy theft.
Authorized energizing for safety.
Remote monitoring and diagnostics.
Smart Grid integration for utility load management with future V2G capabilities.
Consumer benefits include:

Ability to charge at any ChargePoint charging station around the world.
Ability to locate ChargePoint charging stations at www.mychargepoint.net.
The ability for drivers to find unoccupied charging stations via web-enabled cell phones.
Notification by SMS text or email when charging is complete.
It looks like the country is on the move to installing much needed electric infrastructure to charge the growing number of plug-in electric cars on the road. Now I just need to find someone to give me an electric car so that I can utilize these growing resources….

The Nature Conservancy

Did you know:

- the average American household produces more than 200 pounds of garbage every year?
and that just applies to food, not the packaging.

- every 30 seconds Americans consume 106,000 aluminum cans

- they use 410,000 paper cups every 15 minutes

- 2 million plastic bottles and 15 million sheets of office paper every FIVE minutes

- 1.4 million paper bags are used every hour

- and 60,000 plastic bags every FIVE SECONDS

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Should You Wash Your Car Naturally with Rain?

Should You Wash Your Car Naturally with Rain?

It's free, wet, and plentiful in some areas, but is it a viable, green substitute for Washing Your Vehicle?

By Eric Leech
Denver, CO, USA | Thu May 28 15:30:00 EDT 2009

While some folks never think much about it, a clean vehicle is actually a happier vehicle. Years of neglect on the outside surface of paint can eventually do its share of damage, slashing the overall worth of a vehicle in no time. While it is true that washing your vehicle's exterior too often can be wasteful, never washing it for the sake of the environment can be financially costly in terms of both paint damage and resale value.

To a lesser degree, a clean vehicle has also been said to offer slightly better aerodynamics. Does it offer enough of a gain to make it worth the extra effort in keeping the vehicle sparkling clean? Well, probably not, but that is exactly why today we are going to explore a much more sustainable method for keeping your vehicle reasonably clean without visiting a car wash... it's called rain! Rain water has been said to do wonders for your hair, so perhaps it can do wonders for your car too.

The Positive Side of a Rain Wash

Can rain wash a vehicle? Why yes indeed it can. The force of a good rainstorm has been known to rinse off stubborn pollen, stuck on bugs, and even bring a bit of shine back to that old, weathered paint. However, you're not going to be able to get off heavy road grime from the rain alone, so if you want to combine the best of both worlds, you can hand wash your car during a good sprinkle for maximum benefit.

Use a good biodegradable car wash product that is phosphate-free, or you can mix up your own brew using a few teaspoons of Seventh Generation Natural Dish Liquid. Start by putting on a swimsuit, give your vehicle a good rub down with the soap and a sponge, then let the rain do the rinsing-off for you. Have the bucket, solution, and sponge waiting by the door to make the most of a quick burst of Mother Nature's generosity.

The Negative Side of a Rain Wash

If you live in an area of heavy smog and pollution, acid rain is something that you are probably well acquainted with. Just as much as acid rain can damage the earth, it can also damage your vehicle's paint over time. Once this type of rainwater gets on your vehicle, the acid concentrates itself on the paint as it dries. It is then reactivated every time the vehicle becomes wet, causing only further damage.

In areas of high pollution, it is best to keep your vehicle out of the elements as much as possible. This is one time when a dirty vehicle is actually better off just staying that way. If you live in an area of high pollution, take your vehicle to the nearest eco-friendly car wash whenever it needs cleaned. If you are practical with your car washing schedule, you can minimize water usage, while also maximizing the life of your vehicle's paint.

Green Glossary: Bagasse

Green Glossary: Bagasse
By Mickey Z.
Astoria, NY, USA | Tue Jun 30 15:20:00 EDT 2009

Michael Pettigrew

READ MORE ABOUT:
Alternative Fuels | Green Glossary

Sugarcane, according to HowStuffWorks is "the source of a number of other products in addition to sugar. Among these products are molasses, which is made by boiling sugarcane juice; and rum, which is distilled from fermented molasses or fermented sugarcane juice. Other products are made from bagasse, the woody residue left after the juice is extracted from the cane."

The gang at GreenEcoServices call bagasse a "sweet find" and explain that it's a "byproduct of sugarcane processing is a type of biomass, an organic, non-petroleum fuel source." Bagasse, they say, is "the fibrous material left over after sugarcane stalks are pressed to release their juice. Rather than tossing this material away, workers can burn it, providing the fuel to run the mill itself, or creating energy to sell to a local utility company. It's a clean, efficient process, and entirely free of waste, since the ash left over after burning can then be used in the sugarcane fields to enrich the soil. Alternatively, bagasse fiber can be used as a sturdy, substitute for cardboard or polystyrene—in food containers, for example. It's yet another reason to feel good about your sugar fix."

Bagasse is "often used as a primary fuel source for sugar mills; when burned in quantity, it produces sufficient heat energy to supply all the needs of a typical sugar mill, with energy to spare. To this end, a secondary use for this waste product is in cogeneration, the use of a fuel source to provide both heat energy, used in the mill, and electricity, which is typically sold on to the consumer electricity grid. The resulting CO2 emissions are equal to the amount of CO2 that the sugarcane plant absorbed from the atmosphere during its growing phase, which makes the process of cogeneration greenhouse gas-neutral."

Betraying the Planet

Op-Ed Columnist
Betraying the Planet

By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: June 28, 2009
So the House passed the Waxman-Markey climate-change bill. In political terms, it was a remarkable achievement.

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
Paul Krugman

But 212 representatives voted no. A handful of these no votes came from representatives who considered the bill too weak, but most rejected the bill because they rejected the whole notion that we have to do something about greenhouse gases.

And as I watched the deniers make their arguments, I couldn’t help thinking that I was watching a form of treason — treason against the planet.

To fully appreciate the irresponsibility and immorality of climate-change denial, you need to know about the grim turn taken by the latest climate research.

The fact is that the planet is changing faster than even pessimists expected: ice caps are shrinking, arid zones spreading, at a terrifying rate. And according to a number of recent studies, catastrophe — a rise in temperature so large as to be almost unthinkable — can no longer be considered a mere possibility. It is, instead, the most likely outcome if we continue along our present course.

Thus researchers at M.I.T., who were previously predicting a temperature rise of a little more than 4 degrees by the end of this century, are now predicting a rise of more than 9 degrees. Why? Global greenhouse gas emissions are rising faster than expected; some mitigating factors, like absorption of carbon dioxide by the oceans, are turning out to be weaker than hoped; and there’s growing evidence that climate change is self-reinforcing — that, for example, rising temperatures will cause some arctic tundra to defrost, releasing even more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Temperature increases on the scale predicted by the M.I.T. researchers and others would create huge disruptions in our lives and our economy. As a recent authoritative U.S. government report points out, by the end of this century New Hampshire may well have the climate of North Carolina today, Illinois may have the climate of East Texas, and across the country extreme, deadly heat waves — the kind that traditionally occur only once in a generation — may become annual or biannual events.

In other words, we’re facing a clear and present danger to our way of life, perhaps even to civilization itself. How can anyone justify failing to act?

Well, sometimes even the most authoritative analyses get things wrong. And if dissenting opinion-makers and politicians based their dissent on hard work and hard thinking — if they had carefully studied the issue, consulted with experts and concluded that the overwhelming scientific consensus was misguided — they could at least claim to be acting responsibly.

But if you watched the debate on Friday, you didn’t see people who’ve thought hard about a crucial issue, and are trying to do the right thing. What you saw, instead, were people who show no sign of being interested in the truth. They don’t like the political and policy implications of climate change, so they’ve decided not to believe in it — and they’ll grab any argument, no matter how disreputable, that feeds their denial.

Indeed, if there was a defining moment in Friday’s debate, it was the declaration by Representative Paul Broun of Georgia that climate change is nothing but a “hoax” that has been “perpetrated out of the scientific community.” I’d call this a crazy conspiracy theory, but doing so would actually be unfair to crazy conspiracy theorists. After all, to believe that global warming is a hoax you have to believe in a vast cabal consisting of thousands of scientists — a cabal so powerful that it has managed to create false records on everything from global temperatures to Arctic sea ice.

Yet Mr. Broun’s declaration was met with applause.

Given this contempt for hard science, I’m almost reluctant to mention the deniers’ dishonesty on matters economic. But in addition to rejecting climate science, the opponents of the climate bill made a point of misrepresenting the results of studies of the bill’s economic impact, which all suggest that the cost will be relatively low.

Still, is it fair to call climate denial a form of treason? Isn’t it politics as usual?

Yes, it is — and that’s why it’s unforgivable.

Do you remember the days when Bush administration officials claimed that terrorism posed an “existential threat” to America, a threat in whose face normal rules no longer applied? That was hyperbole — but the existential threat from climate change is all too real.

Yet the deniers are choosing, willfully, to ignore that threat, placing future generations of Americans in grave danger, simply because it’s in their political interest to pretend that there’s nothing to worry about. If that’s not betrayal, I don’t know what is.