Sustainability eMagazine
If you have never done so, you want to visit the EarthJustice site about coal ash: http://earthjustice.org/our_work/campaigns/coal-ash-contaminates-our-lives
And what you want to do, is visit this site every time you see one of these sweet and pretty ads about "Clean Coal".
Admittedly, the EarthJustice takes the other side of this far, very far-from-clean, source of energy. However, coal produces half of the electric power in the US. Well, all right, now only about 34%. But that "cheap" energy has a lot to do with the high quality of life that we all enjoy. It also does not get credit for the hidden costs it presents to the environment and to personal health.
Back to the dirty little secret of Coal Ash. Remember the Ash trashing by TVA in 2008. The damage is into the billions of dollars and climbing. And it has not been cleaned up. All those heavy metals in the ash down a couple rivers. Sadly, that's a gift that keeps on giving.
Heavy metals include lead, mercury, arsenic and more. Sulfur, lots of sulfur. They can have traces of radiation. We, in the US, tend to want to clean most of these by-products from this soot from the smoke. Other countries like India and China, not so much so.
And we have these ash build-ups all over the world.... And the mountains are growing.
Here's just one source on the running costs and litigation at ABC News.
Of course is the worst fossil fuel, by far, in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
We don't need to burn that dirty coal, better simply to ship it to China and India and let them burn it there. No harm done in that.
Friday, August 24, 2012
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Hain up about 20% on great earnings?
Hain Celestial (HAIN) was way up today on great earnings... That's right, the high end and heathy food company. Shouldn't they be getting crushed on the high prices from the great drought of 2012?
Healthy eating is "not a fad, not a trend", according to CEO Simon. Consumption of the category is up 14%, vs about 1% on the main stream food categories.
Of course the super fast growth of Whole Foods doesn't hurt, but HAIN is growing like mad in Walmart, Costco,and ... wait for it ... Amazon!
Organic chips, Sleepy Time tea and a book, why not?
97% are GMO free.
Healthy eating is "not a fad, not a trend", according to CEO Simon. Consumption of the category is up 14%, vs about 1% on the main stream food categories.
Of course the super fast growth of Whole Foods doesn't hurt, but HAIN is growing like mad in Walmart, Costco,and ... wait for it ... Amazon!
Organic chips, Sleepy Time tea and a book, why not?
97% are GMO free.
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Happiness Happens Month... Diversity... Innovation..
Happiness Happens Month
This month is Happiness Happens Month. http://sohp.com/society-celebrations/happiness-happens-month/
Sponsored by the Secret Society of Happy People. www.SOHP.com
The idea is that everybody complains about stuff, but we should have a day (Aug 8) and a month (August) where people don’t complain. Nobody talks about being sick or discriminated against or …
Well, you get the picture.
BUT, don’t tell anybody, it’s a secret.
Oh, and another secret, It’s rumored that this society has partnered with the National Cannabis Day (April 20) folks, which could be a key ingredient in their perpetual happiness for an entire month each year.:-)
Maybe they’ll expand it to the entire year! HHY.
Shhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Don’t tell anyone.
***
If every cause has a day, and some causes even have a month and some special causes even have a year, then when are we going to have more than and EarthDay and a Water Day?
Embrace diversity.
This month is Happiness Happens Month. http://sohp.com/society-celebrations/happiness-happens-month/
Sponsored by the Secret Society of Happy People. www.SOHP.com
The idea is that everybody complains about stuff, but we should have a day (Aug 8) and a month (August) where people don’t complain. Nobody talks about being sick or discriminated against or …
Well, you get the picture.
BUT, don’t tell anybody, it’s a secret.
Oh, and another secret, It’s rumored that this society has partnered with the National Cannabis Day (April 20) folks, which could be a key ingredient in their perpetual happiness for an entire month each year.:-)
Maybe they’ll expand it to the entire year! HHY.
Shhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Don’t tell anyone.
***
If every cause has a day, and some causes even have a month and some special causes even have a year, then when are we going to have more than and EarthDay and a Water Day?
Embrace diversity.
Friday, August 17, 2012
AP IMPACT: CO2 emissions in US drop to 20-year low - Yahoo! News
AP IMPACT: CO2 emissions in US drop to 20-year low - Yahoo! News:
CO2 from the US is down. WOW!. See the full EIA report on CO2 Emissions.
The last time we had that was in 2009, we all assumed that was mainly because of the economic slowdown. But apparently, even then, part of it was because of the switching to NatGas.
"[T]he U.S. Energy Information Agency, a part of the Energy Department, said this month that energy related U.S. CO2 emissions for the first four months of this year fell to about 1992 levels. Energy emissions make up about 98 percent of the total."
So the big reasons for the CO2 emissions reduction is primarily because of the switch to NatGas from coal in energy generation! ... The slowing of economic growth down to 1.8% is another reason.
What's amazing about this is that the switch to natgas is primarily driven by market forces. The power industry has been wining endlessly about the big food of the EPA on the juggler veins of the power industry... and of course the US economy. Yet, the move happened way ahead of schedule.
Low prices of nat gas make it, well, irresponsible, not to switch to clean gas away from dirty coal.
Health benefits (fewer deaths and injuries in mining). Massive improvement in air and water quality. No coal ash to deal with.
This would all be a good thing, if it weren't for the massive increase in coal consumption from China and India. Where, exactly, is the benefit of us cutting back on coal when we simply ship it to China and they burn it. And they don't worry about scrubbing it as much as we.
China now burns half the coal in the world, and rising quickly.
Sorry for looking good news in the eye and sounding skeptical. We sometimes simply need a little good news here and there and just to enjoy it.
Ahhhh, NatGas, A cleaner addiction to a unsustainable problem.
'via Blog this'
CO2 from the US is down. WOW!. See the full EIA report on CO2 Emissions.
The last time we had that was in 2009, we all assumed that was mainly because of the economic slowdown. But apparently, even then, part of it was because of the switching to NatGas.
"[T]he U.S. Energy Information Agency, a part of the Energy Department, said this month that energy related U.S. CO2 emissions for the first four months of this year fell to about 1992 levels. Energy emissions make up about 98 percent of the total."
So the big reasons for the CO2 emissions reduction is primarily because of the switch to NatGas from coal in energy generation! ... The slowing of economic growth down to 1.8% is another reason.
What's amazing about this is that the switch to natgas is primarily driven by market forces. The power industry has been wining endlessly about the big food of the EPA on the juggler veins of the power industry... and of course the US economy. Yet, the move happened way ahead of schedule.
Low prices of nat gas make it, well, irresponsible, not to switch to clean gas away from dirty coal.
Health benefits (fewer deaths and injuries in mining). Massive improvement in air and water quality. No coal ash to deal with.
This would all be a good thing, if it weren't for the massive increase in coal consumption from China and India. Where, exactly, is the benefit of us cutting back on coal when we simply ship it to China and they burn it. And they don't worry about scrubbing it as much as we.
China now burns half the coal in the world, and rising quickly.
Sorry for looking good news in the eye and sounding skeptical. We sometimes simply need a little good news here and there and just to enjoy it.
Ahhhh, NatGas, A cleaner addiction to a unsustainable problem.
'via Blog this'
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Social Irresponsibility: Healthcare: Guess What Mitt Romney Once Called 'The Ultimate Conservative Idea'… - Business Insider
Guess What Mitt Romney Once Called 'The Ultimate Conservative Idea'… - Business Insider:
This is a source of interest and entertainment.
Romney is the governor who set up "RomneyCare" in Massachusetts. Apparently, it has been rather successful, incidentally.
The first thing he wants to do as president is kill off the healthcare enacted during Obama's reign, what is unfondly referred to as "ObamaCare".
Hmmm...
'via Blog this'
This is a source of interest and entertainment.
Romney is the governor who set up "RomneyCare" in Massachusetts. Apparently, it has been rather successful, incidentally.
The first thing he wants to do as president is kill off the healthcare enacted during Obama's reign, what is unfondly referred to as "ObamaCare".
Hmmm...
'via Blog this'
Thursday, August 9, 2012
NASA GISS: Research Links Extreme Summer Heat Events to Global Warming. (It's perception, Toto)
NASA GISS: Research News: Research Links Extreme Summer Heat Events to Global Warming:
Op Ed: We must stop rolling the dice on Global Warming. (1 page)
Full Paper/Presentation: Perception of climate change. (5.8 mb, PDF)
James Hansen (& Soto & Ruedy, 2012) from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Exploration just completed a big study on world temperature change. This research uses simple, straight forward stats, and our friendly bell-shaped curve from elementary statistics. (It doesn't use the complicated weather modeling with the spaghetti lines that almost no one really understands.)
This is the same Hansen who first really started warning us that the climate has changed in the 1980s...
"Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas any more."
The graphics are powerful. Watch the the bell-shaped curve of temperatures move distinctly and precipitously to the right, compared to a "normal" 10-year period 30 years ago. And because of more extreme weather, the bell curve has flattened out.
If you are a denier of global warming, you will be very sad about this report.
If you haven't made up your mind about global warming, you shocked by this revelation. And very sad about this report.
If you've been a siren about global warming, this will make you want to cry. But it will also provide some of the most powerful materials ever, to go sound the alarm.
Now your next conversation with God, or a mere mortal, for that matter, might go like this.
"I'm sorry Sir, the patient is getting sick, and running a fever... and the fever is rising... Yes, there's about 7.1 billion people who are inadvertently, but consistently, poisoning the patient.. No, I'm sorry they don't seem to want to stop doing what they're doing... Why not? ... Well, its a mater of perception!"
Before reading this report consider this. Hansen et al. include the scorcher of a year in 2011 (think Texas and Oklahoma drought), but do not include the record-setting 2012 mega-scorcher.
Related Links:
Reference
Hansen, J., Mki. Sato, and R. Ruedy, 2012a: Perception of climate change. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., doi:10.1073/pnas.1205276109. Early draft posted as "Public perception of climate change and the new climate dice", arXiv.org:1204.1286.
'via Blog this'
Op Ed: We must stop rolling the dice on Global Warming. (1 page)
Full Paper/Presentation: Perception of climate change. (5.8 mb, PDF)
James Hansen (& Soto & Ruedy, 2012) from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Exploration just completed a big study on world temperature change. This research uses simple, straight forward stats, and our friendly bell-shaped curve from elementary statistics. (It doesn't use the complicated weather modeling with the spaghetti lines that almost no one really understands.)
This is the same Hansen who first really started warning us that the climate has changed in the 1980s...
"Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas any more."
The graphics are powerful. Watch the the bell-shaped curve of temperatures move distinctly and precipitously to the right, compared to a "normal" 10-year period 30 years ago. And because of more extreme weather, the bell curve has flattened out.
If you are a denier of global warming, you will be very sad about this report.
If you haven't made up your mind about global warming, you shocked by this revelation. And very sad about this report.
If you've been a siren about global warming, this will make you want to cry. But it will also provide some of the most powerful materials ever, to go sound the alarm.
Now your next conversation with God, or a mere mortal, for that matter, might go like this.
"I'm sorry Sir, the patient is getting sick, and running a fever... and the fever is rising... Yes, there's about 7.1 billion people who are inadvertently, but consistently, poisoning the patient.. No, I'm sorry they don't seem to want to stop doing what they're doing... Why not? ... Well, its a mater of perception!"
Before reading this report consider this. Hansen et al. include the scorcher of a year in 2011 (think Texas and Oklahoma drought), but do not include the record-setting 2012 mega-scorcher.
Related Links:
+ GISS Science Brief: The New Climate Dice: Public Perception of Climate Change
+ NASA What on Earth blog: The New Climate Dice
+ GISS Science Brief: A Common Sense Climate Index: Is Climate Changing Noticeably?
Reference
Hansen, J., Mki. Sato, and R. Ruedy, 2012a: Perception of climate change. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., doi:10.1073/pnas.1205276109. Early draft posted as "Public perception of climate change and the new climate dice", arXiv.org:1204.1286.
'via Blog this'
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Advocacy: Sustainability a 3 part harmony series
Advocacy: Sustainability:
Check out this 3 part series on Sustainability.
Part 1 talks about "What if they are right?"
Part 2 addresses "How we liver our lives?"
Part 3 takes on "A plan for the interim period?"
Basically, what are we gonna do right here, right now.
These are pretty long articles so sit back with a good late' and let it rip.
'via Blog this'
Check out this 3 part series on Sustainability.
Part 1 talks about "What if they are right?"
Part 2 addresses "How we liver our lives?"
Part 3 takes on "A plan for the interim period?"
Basically, what are we gonna do right here, right now.
These are pretty long articles so sit back with a good late' and let it rip.
'via Blog this'
Friday, August 3, 2012
"Humans Are Almost Entirely The Cause Of Climate Change" Richard Muller Former Climate Change Denier - YouTube
"Humans Are Almost Entirely The Cause Of Climate Change" Richard Muller Former Climate Change Denier - YouTube:
This is a very interesting video/news from MoxNews.
The Exxon Valdez has an oil spill, has a name change, has a name change, has a shipwreck, has a name change, and is now being dismantled/retired. The wreck, by any other name, is still Valdez.
NatGas +/- . . . Not so sure about the Frac'ng story... But hang in there til the end. It is well worth the wait. If it has equal likes and dislikes, then it is probably pretty good!
Richard A. Muller, the last hold out of global warming, has now come out with a book. Once you remove the noise, the level of CO2 matches perfectly with global warming. It is important to know that humans are the cause, probably the primary cause, of global warming. This is good, kind of. "If we cause it, then there's something we can do about it." He didn't think solar variations, volcanic eruptions, el nino, etc., had longer term impacts. "The carbon dioxide curve was right on."
Muller won the MacArthur Genius Grant 30 years ago. He was the last major skeptic on Global Warming. He just completed major research on global warming funded by the Koch Foundation, a ?conservative? group by the Charles G. Koch family, the oil billionair family. Anyone knowing about the funding source, would have been surprised about the results.
He found last year that Global Warming is real.
He now has determined that human activity seems to be the predominant cause. The rise in CO2 matches perfectly with the rise in temperatures. Correlation is not causation, but the correlation is very strong.
Global economic shock to cut back on CO2 emissions? Energy efficiency. And switch away from coal. He suggests NatGas as immediate switch away from coal. NatGas produces 1/3 the level of CO2 as coal. (I'm not so sure about 1/3, I think it is 33% less CO2 than coal per energy equivolent.)
The big thing is that the controversy of Global warming is dead. It's a fact. It appears to be perfectly correlated with human factors that generate greenhouse gases (eCO2). So the next debate (or controversy, maybe) is what are we gonna do about it.???
New version of his book:
'via Blog this'
This is a very interesting video/news from MoxNews.
The Exxon Valdez has an oil spill, has a name change, has a name change, has a shipwreck, has a name change, and is now being dismantled/retired. The wreck, by any other name, is still Valdez.
NatGas +/- . . . Not so sure about the Frac'ng story... But hang in there til the end. It is well worth the wait. If it has equal likes and dislikes, then it is probably pretty good!
Richard A. Muller, the last hold out of global warming, has now come out with a book. Once you remove the noise, the level of CO2 matches perfectly with global warming. It is important to know that humans are the cause, probably the primary cause, of global warming. This is good, kind of. "If we cause it, then there's something we can do about it." He didn't think solar variations, volcanic eruptions, el nino, etc., had longer term impacts. "The carbon dioxide curve was right on."
Muller won the MacArthur Genius Grant 30 years ago. He was the last major skeptic on Global Warming. He just completed major research on global warming funded by the Koch Foundation, a ?conservative? group by the Charles G. Koch family, the oil billionair family. Anyone knowing about the funding source, would have been surprised about the results.
He found last year that Global Warming is real.
He now has determined that human activity seems to be the predominant cause. The rise in CO2 matches perfectly with the rise in temperatures. Correlation is not causation, but the correlation is very strong.
Global economic shock to cut back on CO2 emissions? Energy efficiency. And switch away from coal. He suggests NatGas as immediate switch away from coal. NatGas produces 1/3 the level of CO2 as coal. (I'm not so sure about 1/3, I think it is 33% less CO2 than coal per energy equivolent.)
The big thing is that the controversy of Global warming is dead. It's a fact. It appears to be perfectly correlated with human factors that generate greenhouse gases (eCO2). So the next debate (or controversy, maybe) is what are we gonna do about it.???
New version of his book:
'via Blog this'
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