But even more importantly, it seems that anytime there is a new invention there is also a propensity to improve on the original at an accelerated rate. In other words, it takes forever to get a new product to market, but once it hits, other products like it seem to appear immediately, and both competition and supply drive the price down while improvements on the original to make it smaller, stronger, faster, and/or better happens far more quickly than getting the original to market.

I have complete faith that in the not too distant future we will have miniscule batteries powering larger cars to go farther and faster. I can see where a solar recharging unit is not out of the question if we can find more efficient conductors for solar–buy the car, buy the solar charger with it. If solar panels get smaller and stronger than it’s quite conceivable that they could exist anywhere to renew the car batteries. I stake small solar panels in the ground in the summer to run water fountains in my yard. And I know I’ve read conversations on blogs that suggested the dock for the power to the car should accept DC just for that purpose. There is wasted energy expended converting DC to AC to begin with. If the car accepted DC, the current from the solar panel would be immediate with more power for a quicker charge. Even if solar didn’t supply all the power needed it would surely help defray the cost of the electricity.

And what about the environmental costs of using electricity to replenish the batteries? As it stands now, it is a wasted effort environmentally because most electricity is generated from coal. Until utility companies capture coal burning emissions, battery powered cars may be short on fumes per se, but plugging them into an A/C outlet is still serving up a cocktail of bad juju into the air with a mercury chaser to boot.

We’d better consider solar rechargers at some point. The power produced would be free—of many things.

Read the whole article: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100107/AUTO01/1070450/First-Volt-battery-pack-rolls-off-line.

# 10 Offshoring Reversal

There will be more interest in not only buying American but buying local as fuel costs make shipping products thousands of miles less cost effective as producing it ourselves.

# 9 The Sustainability of Preservation

Saving a building is in essence saving the environment as one headline of this article
stated: “The greenest brick is the one that’s already in the wall.” There is a trend to develop a viable method to “factor in the true value of preservation, both within the U.S. Building Council and elsewhere, because how can we say that we’re being green if we keep throwing buildings away?”

Another headline here is that GE targets net zero energy homes by 2015. These homes will sport photovoltaic sources, and windto produce energy. There will be efficient lighting, and on demand appliances, a place for energy storage, water filtration systems, a heat pump water heater utilizing the geothermal heat pumps that also contribute energy to the home. All is controlled through a master energy manager control panel and monitored with a smart meter for the home’s input/output to a smart grid.

#8 Gizmo Green Gets Exposed

This trend stems from the realization that going green is expensive and what with the economy the way it is, greening up homes to lower utility costs probably won’t happen as quickly as returning to passive heating and cooling methods.

If you’ve kept up with my blogs, I’ve blogged more than once that even on the coldest days in the winter if the sun is out in full, I shut off my main heat, open my blinds to 12 ft. of southern exposed windows, as well as, my front door. The sun warms the entire front of my house! That’s passive heating. In the summer we utilize 2 overhead fans, awnings, and shades to keep cool without a/c. Block the sun, and you will usually block the heat. True passive cooling would only use natural breezes, but my overhead fans use far less power than a/c.

#7 The Meltdown Vacuum

Because the construction industry and all related industries took a hit during this economy, overdevelopment of strip malls and subdivisions has stopped. What the arrested economy and construction business really did was bolster the courage of do it yourself homeowners. The advent of more and more do it yourself cable shows for home improvement wannabes unleashed a grassroots construction industry that is expected to keep growing.

#6 A Return to Gardening

Gardening is a real no brainer for anyone who cooks every night and wants to be economical and healthy. Usually people who would have a garden are also people who eat crops du jour “of the day.” Whatever is ripe is what is eaten that evening. By eating seasonal crops and buying locally when weather doesn’t permit a garden, we get a greater variety of natural vitamins and minerals, and many times without the pesticide problem. It’s cheaper, healthier, and easier to have a garden no matter how small. Believe me, I hate paying $3 for a bunch of fresh basil for a recipe when in the summer… Home gardening looks to increase everywhere even in urban landscapes.

#5 The ReCoding of a City

This trend reverses urban sprawl where going just about anywhere, to a convenience store, or the doctor’s office requires riding in a vehicle. The zoning code that works to reverse urban sprawl and concentrate people in cityscapes again is called the “Smart Code.” As the article states: “2010 looks like it might be the year that’s the tipping point with cities choosing this very smart way to reverse the tide of sprawl and make green cities possible.”

#4 The Return of Durability

Another no-brainer for me. In this post-melt-down economy people will return to buying better and more durable products to avoid tossing and buying new again because they simply can’t afford it. The article says: “High consumption is unsustainable.” Could our bulging trash dumps be an indicator?

#3 The Emergence of the Live-Work

We will either be working from home via the Internet or walking to work because the office is in the neighborhood once again, at least close enough to get there without the use of a car.

#2 The Big Convergence

There are three major components that mark this era happening right now, “the Meltdown, Peak Oil, and Climate Change.” This economic downturn ruined people. It was truly an economic meltdown. We know that oil has indeed peaked in production and is a finite source that will not last forever. And finally, climate change reality may be taking a back seat to economic suffering now but the “convergence” of all three of these things has created quite a movement, and an opportunity to return to what Mouzon calls “a Golden Age… something that would have been impossible in our previous sprawling, over-consuming, debt-ridden condition.”

#1 The New City

This is the top trend. It’s really a return to the old urban neighborhood where you walked to work, shops, school, clinics, and church. Entertainment and restaurants are within easy reach too. The only twist is that the rooftops of urban buildings will more than likely sport solar panels and wind turbines while grass and trees replace tarry surfaces. And anywhere there is available space to contain earth material a garden will grow.

Read the whole article: http://www.originalgreen.org/OG/Blog/Entries/2009/12/29_the_Green_Top_10_for_2010.html.

While neither president was compelled to disclose their final positions going into Copenhagen’s Climate Change Summit next month nor did they declare any numerical emissions targets, they publicly agreed that the outcome at Copenhagen “should include emission reductions targets of developed countries and nationally appropriate mitigation actions of developing countries.” Of course they acknowledged that responsibilities will be different for every country and based on respective capabilities of those countries.

What peaked my attention in all of this is that the U.S. and China both agreed that whatever happens in Copenhagen the “outcome should also substantially scale up financial assistance to developing countries; promote technology development, dissemination and transfer; pay particular attention to the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable to adapt to climate change[].” So the U.S. and China agree with financial assistance to developing countries the subject of a recent blog of mine about Third World countries demanding climate reparations in the form of financial assistance from developed countries. http://www.blogsmonroe.com/world/2009/11/u-s-out-of-step-with-climate-debt-issues/.

I’m not sure whether President Obama or President Hu of China agrees with the concept of these climate reparations per se but they did agree on the financial assistance to poorer countries. I’m just wondering how Obama is going to break this news to climate skeptics divided again along party lines when these skeptics won’t even admit man is creating the climate problem. As I said, many in the U.S. are in a misstep with the rest of the world concerning climate change.
Meanwhile, the two presidents hashed out quite a cooperative between the U.S. and China on many fronts. The article listed six initial elements:

1) Establishment of the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center

2) The launch of the U.S.-China Electric Vehicles Initiative

3) The launch of a new U.S.-China Energy Efficiency Action Plan

4) The pledge to promote cooperation on cleaner uses of coal, including large-scale carbon capture and storage demonstration projects

5) The launch of a new U.S.-China Shale Gas Resource Initiative

6) U.S.-China Energy Cooperation Program

There is more launching going on with that list then at Cape Kennedy, which is all well and good since so many arguments that keep the U.S. from moving forward on climate initiatives center around pointing the finger at China’s pollution. But considering Americans are contrary, and big polluting industries are gearing up for a fight against cleaning up our act, it’s going to be a big upward struggle to get moving—China or no China.

Read the details: http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/nov2009/2009-11-17-01.asp.

Helix wind turbines are helical shaped (think long twisted wind catchers) scoops that catch the wind in either direction as low as 8 mph, sustained winds to 80 mph, and gusts of up to 125 mph. They are low maintenance and preliminary tests show that output is as stated, which many times is not the case with wind turbines.

The best thing to come if all goes well with the test turbines is that they are ready to crop up across the country quite easily. After all the mobile cell towers are already there. The Helix turbines will hopefully illiminate the use of any fossil fuel to operate the mobile cell towers. This looks like it may also illiminate “dead zones” in rural and remote areas of the country too because mobile towers will be stand alone, generating their own power. The article went on to say that the turbines will pay for themselves within 6 months.

Watch the turbine in motion:

I saw the car on Good Morning America today and was happy to see how quickly algae is being adopted as a viable fuel. I recently wrote about the U.S. military’s testing algae as jet fuel but figured it would be a long while before we saw anything like this. http://www.blogsmonroe.com/world/2009/08/u-s-navy-jets-to-use-biofuels/.

Many people know about algae, but so many more do not and will be totally surprised by it. I was recently shopping for a 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid and asked if the one I was test-driving could use biofuel, which is available for this model. The sales person said no that the biofuel business is pretty much dying out blah, blah, blah. I said corn for sure but what about algae? I got that look from him. Even I wondered why I blurted out that particular and peculiar type of fuel as an example. I hadn’t heard much about it lately except the blog about the military’s interest in it. But then algae as fuel appeared on a segment of Good Morning America today. http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/JustOneThing/algaeus-car-fueled-algae/story?id=8666116.

According to GMA’s website, “Josh Tickell is the creator of the Veggie Van Organization and director of “Fuel,” which was honored as best documentary at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.” He also created the “Algaeus,” the Prius that just crossed America on green crude. With very little modification, “he added a nickel metal hydride battery and a plug [],” the Algaeus got 147 miles per gallon in the city, and 52 mpg with a mix of algae and gas. The biggest thing is that the car only refueled 6 times during the 10-day trip. The Algaeus is capable of running on approximately 25 gallons of gas coast to coast.

So where do we get all this algae? Algae growth occurs naturally in bogs and swamps. Uh um, we could be tapping the methane emitted there too. There are also algae farms already in business. Sapphire Farms in New Mexico is one of them. Check out their website: http://www.sapphireenergy.com/. People have asked me about green investments. Look around. If we unleash new technology instead of stifling it there will be plenty of new investment opportunities, more jobs, more avenues to explore, like algae farms. Who knew?

Yu’s style of transformation was drastic but Baoding let industrial pollution go on for so long that drastic measures were necessary. Yu saw thousands of dead fish floating in Baoding’s largest lake. Yu took action and closed down “several hundred factories whose pollution was to blame. The city lost 2% in annual economic growth. That’s a high price to pay. In the U.S. this would be political suicide. Our fossil fuel industry would destroy the guy. But Yu learned a lesson that we should grasp quickly: “Polluting first and cleaning up later is very expensive…So we [Baoding] chose renewable energy to replace traditional industry.”

The ABC news info went on to say, “In three years, Yu has transformed Baoding from an automobile and textile town into the fastest-growing hub of solar, wind, and biomass energy-equipment makers in China. Baoding now has the highest growth rate of any city in Hebei Province. Its “Electricity Valley” industrial cluster – consciously modeled on Silicon Valley – has quadrupled its business.” Uh, oh.

Heaven forbid this story gets around in the U.S. that environmentalists and the Obama Administration are on the right track attempting to turnover polluting industry in America to clean renewables and at the same time create thousands of jobs for a big profit in a short time, (I’m being facetious). Of course there will be much dissing over here about what Yu accomplished over there blah, blah, blah. It’s not like Yu didn’t come up against opposition in the form of COMMUNIST PARTY LEADERS, yet he prevailed. We can’t get past the argument about being responsible for pollution that affects our climate. Those that pollute win the argument here. What’s wrong with this picture? It shows the power of polluting industry doesn’t it?

On that note, be prepared for new “Tea Party” like grass roots protests across America waging war against environmentally sound progress. The protests are backed by the fossil fuel industry as the heat is on against cleaner air, water, and new industry that might disrupt the status quo. They are called “Energy Citizens” rallies. http://current.com/items/90713635_big-oil-trade-groups-plans-to-recruit-employees-to-attend-anti-clean-energy-rallies.htm. All the while China quietly continues to build on a money making turnaround. The big fear here should be that they emerge as the new green powered super power, and ideal model for other countries? Uh, oh—again.

Watch the following video of the flip side of China with the Dirtiest City on Earth:

You can see the pollution in hot spots like this all over the earth, but naysayers till maintain human pollution doesn’t affect atmospheric conditions, suuuuuuuuure. The video speaks volumes. People that argue against cleaning up our act relative to pollution cannot claim to be friends of the earth.

The 25 years between 67 and 91 saw a lot of oil go into our oceans. Luckily, the past 20 years has seen a decrease in tanker spills worldwide. The Exxon Valdez was so horrible; the attention caused a marked improvement in reducing accident rates for oil tankers. Unfortunately, the concern wasn’t so much for the environment or wildlife as it was for the financial liabilities from a spill. A shame, since we know quite well that oil companies do indeed recover financially. We know what big oil’s net earnings are these days. The irony is that wildlife and the environment doesn’t seem to recover quickly at all, or ever for that matter.

Thirteen hundred miles of Alaskan coastline was spoiled from the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
Communities and fisheries were ruined. Four thousand otters died and at least one population of orca whales has yet to recover. Local livelihoods were destroyed, and many wildlife and fish populations are still depleted, while Alaska’s economy lost millions, according to the same newsletter.

It’s good to know we learned from that spill. Tanker spillage is drastically down but we haven’t licked the problem altogether. The same environmental research information from a consulting firm that reported tanker oil spills are way down, also said that pipelines have taken up the slack. It stated: “Since 1985, U.S. pipelines have spilled more oil than tankers and barges combined. Since 1991, pipelines have annually spilled 37 times as much as tankers. The change in the proportion U.S. pipeline spillage is largely due to the fact that since 1990, pipelines transport more oil across more miles than water carriers.” And that infrastructure is old and getting older. Luckily, we’re spilling less and less over the past two decades, but as the report went on to say:

While the statistics show encouraging downward trends, there is no room for complacency. An ill-timed oil spill that occurs in a sensitive location, regardless of spill size, can cause devastating damage to natural environments, property, and business, and, occasionally, to human lives. Aging pipeline and facility infrastructures,
as well as aging vessel fleets, may be ticking time bombs, especially as they become subjected to increasing oil throughput and transport in future years. Increased international attention to tanker safety has had a positive influence that is sorely needed in other vessel categories and for non-vessel sources, particularly pipelines.

Oil is a leaky business both on land and sea. We’re faced with more oil exploration in the sensitive areas spoken about here. In 2007, Bush lifted a longstanding executive ban on off shore oil leasing in Bristol Bay, Alaska. According to WWF’s newsletter, Bristol Bay is known as America’s fish basket that contributes $2.2 billion to the economy annually. It is near the Bering Sea, “which produces nearly half of America’s wild seafood.” Do you like seafood? Consider Gulf shrimp also, since the recent Senate version of the energy bill includes more oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. We’re messing with our food supply when we go for the crude. We endanger wild life, and the economy of the regions at risk for “oil spillage.” Right now the U.S. Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia vacated Bush’s plans for oil leasing in Bristol Bay. Help keep it that way. Contact your representatives and tell them to limit oil drilling, especially in areas that have long been protected FOR GOOD REASON. Besides, we only have 3% of the world’s oil supply, and use 25%. This horse is not going to win the race this time. The math dictates we must find replacements for our energy needs or forever be dependent on nations that, well, just don’t like us.

http://www.environmental-research.com/publications/pdf/spill_statistics/paper4.pdf

Microsoft Hohm came about in response to Google’s partnership with utility companies in 6 states, Canada, and India for what was termed “smart meter” software that does the same in home energy monitoring. The article on Physorg.com stated: “The Google PowerMeter can tell residents which devices or appliances in their homes are being electricity hogs and which are being frugal with energy. The software program receives information from smart meters and sends a detailed report to a home computer on how the power is being divvied up.”

Microsoft is doing likewise and “partnering with four West Coast utility companies on Microsoft Hohm: Puget Sound Energy, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, Seattle City Light and Xcel Energy.” Soon customers for these utility companies will be able to automatically upload their energy usage data into the Microsoft Hohm application where it goes to work offering suggestions on lowering usage. It won’t be long until all utility companies are enlisted to do the same across America and more and more software applications are created to help Americans find where they can save on energy.

Read more: http://www.physorg.com/news165084939.html.

It said consumers who are customers of a Microsoft Hohm utility partner company will be able “in the near future” to automatically upload their energy usage data into the application.
”

That’s a real “we can” attitude. Among Apollo Alliance’s partners “focused on generating green collar jobs” are the nation’s union halls. The union program is called Earth Week in the Union Halls. It launched Saturday, April 18th with the goal of creating support from unions on a national level for clean energy investments and green collar job training.

The weeklong event of the participating 70 union halls nationwide will host the movie “The Greening of Southie” that I blogged about recently with video of the trailer. The DVD documents the trials of renovating an old Boston building into a green Boston building by union construction crews.

The Apollo Alliance website has quite a long article titled “How to Find a Green Job” that states:

The New Apollo Program is a comprehensive economic investment strategy to build America’s 21st century clean energy economy and dramatically cut energy bills for families and businesses. It will generate and invest $500 billion over the next ten years and create more than five million high quality green-collar jobs. It will accelerate the development of the nation’s vast clean energy resources and move us toward energy security, climate stability, and economic prosperity. And it will transform America into the global leader of the new green economy.

I’m impressed. And I know there are at least two big-time alliances like Apollo working toward the same goal. The article goes on to say that Americans are at a crossroads. Do we keep going with our outdated fossil fuel ideas that will ultimately come to an end some time in the future while putting us at greater and greater risk for severe climate conditions, or do we seize this time as an opportunity for change for the better. We will be healthier as a result of the earth becoming a healthier place. It’s really up to us.

We’re not doing so well now anyway. People are looking for new jobs and are willing to relocate. Many have little to nothing left because of the economic crunch while others have been victims of devastation from increasingly violent weather conditions already. Still others are looking ahead for their children’s health and well-being. What better time to change? And that’s what America decided in the last election. We just need to move forward and keep moving forward—no looking back.

The Apollo article and website might be helpful for many. There is much more to read at:

http://www.apolloalliance.org/index.php?s=ervin

I received an e-mail from Environmental Defense. Environmental Defense, the United Steel Workers union, and Blue Green Alliance is launching a new ad campaign that says “Carbon Caps = Hard Hats.” A group of unemployed steel workers is featured, as well as, the mayor of Braddock, PA, a town that was better known as the “Jewel of the Monongahela Valley” when it was a thriving steel producer. But the Monongahela Valley has lost 250,000 jobs according to Mayor John Fetterman, and needs a boost.

The mayor and the steelworkers know that carbon caps will force green industries to grow and are hoping to cash in on the wind. It takes 250 tons of steel to make a wind turbine. I did not know that! And the steelworkers in Braddock are ready to rock on producing as many turbines as possible.

It sounds like a plan to me. But so many people just don’t have the foresight to see that a new green industry will spur our economy. And others fight it because they are tied to our old polluting economy. But, Mayor Fetterman knows that wind energy is “the next big business built from steel.” And if big business from green energy can spur steel jobs in the Monongahela Valley, it can happen in Michigan, Ohio, and other blue-collar states too.

Capping carbon will be the catalyst for green industry. A good sense move because it literally tackles two problems with one solution—global warming, and new jobs. Once we go green, I bet we find that we’ve also solved a variety of health problems that are related to the fossil fuel industry from the air we breathe, to the water we drink that affects every living thing worldwide. It’ll be a domino effect, but for the good for a change.

Michigan already sees it can benefit by being the next world producer of lithium batteries, a strong competitor in the solar energy market, and creating wind farms instead of coalburners.  It just takes a mindset that looks to the future instead of clinging to fossilized ideas.