Our World and Everything in It

The Great Lakes are getting attention again with the Great Lakes Compact and the latest addition of $54 million per year for two years to the Great Lakes Legacy Act. There are 42 Areas of Concern that are toxic hotspots relative to the Great Lakes Legacy Act, and another 93 that are on the Superfund list as a national priority. That’s a lot of toxic spots.

I thought it would be interesting to find the 42 hotspots and found a Google map of at least 31 of them. I clicked on quite a few for more information.  There is an awful lot of work to be done. I don’t think the $54 million will make a dent and well, it’s going to take quite a long time. I know when they were cleaning up the Black Lagoon in the Trenton Channel it took most of the summer. Then there is the problem of where to dump the toxic stuff. Of course the Black Lagoon stuff ended up near my house. http://www.blogsmonroe.com/world/?p=21.

I wasn’t too happy about it.

Check out the Google Map of hotspots: http://www.healthylakes.org/areas_of_concern/2008/06/24/unearthing-the-great-lakes-areas-of-concern.

Google announced it would spend millions of dollars annually in search of alternative energy sources like geothermal, solar, and wind power. And no they aren’t doing it for the money, or the power. Google is worth $208 billion and has no debt. Boy I wish I would have caught that wave. Anyway the guys at Google have at least $13 billion in loose change to play with and why not? They earnestly want to slow climate change with alternative sources as cheap as coal within 10 years.

Google also plans to cut or offset its greenhouse gas emission by 2008. Joining Google is Yahoo and News Corp. If this chain reaction keeps occurring, it will really add up. There are many corporations and businesses with a conscience that are really trying to contribute like Google. I’ve run across more and more articles about businesses looking to both cut emissions and find ways to incorporate alternative energy into their daily usage. I already blogged about business pushing the environmental movement. Many are doing so because of the high cost of fuel. It worked for me. A few changes and I lowered my gas and electric bill combined to $114, $115, and finally to $103 this summer. I didn’t suffer for it either.

Meanwhile Silicon Valley is filled with start up companies working on green energy. After watching a week of Eco Tech with batteries made from viruses, and hydrogen on demand pellets, I’m keeping my eye on what comes out of Silicon Valley. Not long ago investing in anything technical was very profitable. Like I said, I wish I caught the Google wave early. Now is a very good time to keep an eye on the stock market for signs of “green.” I can’t find too terribly many things wrong with going green along with the opportunity to watch some really great inventors come forward. It’s exciting to work toward such a noble goal, to slow global climate change. Whenever there is purpose, there is passion and that usually results in amazing innovation.