The following facts come from the preface of Lester Brown’s Plan B 4.0, which was published in 2009. The book is available in print or as a downloadable PDF from The Earth Policy Institute’s website. It also provided the facts for a Five Friday Facts from last month. In Texas, as of July 2009 (when [...]
Archive for the ‘Five Friday Facts’ Category
Five Friday Facts: Plan B 4.0 – Wind Energy Capacity
June 17th, 2011 
Eric Wilson 
Posted in China, Eric Wilson, Five Friday Facts, Renewable Energy 
Tags: Coal, Electricity Generation, Plan B 4.0, T Boone Pickens, Wind Power 
No Comments »FFF: Biggest Coal-based Utility in U.S. to Close 5 Old Plants
June 10th, 2011 Justin Manger To comply with proposed Environmental Protection Agency regulations, American Electric Power (AEP) will spend $6 billion to $8 billion to shut down five aging coal plants, convert at least two to natural gas, and retrofit 12 other plants. Coal-fired plants account for nearly 25,000 megawatts, or 65 percent, of AEP’s total generation capacity. The five plants [...]
Five Friday Facts: China’s Great Green Leap Forward
June 3rd, 2011 Eric Wilson As of 2007 China generated 8 gigatons of carbon dioxide annually (which amounts to 6 tons/person). In addition, there were 21 cars per every 1,000 people. As a point of comparison for the previous fact, the United States produced 7 gigatons annually in 2007, with 451 cars per every 1,000 people. Canada generated 24 metric [...]
Posted in China, Eric Wilson, Five Friday Facts, Renewable Energy Tags: Brazil, Carbon Dioxide, Cars, Coal, Electricity Generation, Hydroelectricity, Wind Power No Comments »Five Friday Facts: Residential Energy Consumption
May 27th, 2011 Chris DeArmond The average home in the U.S. incurred $1,817 in energy expenses, which equates to nearly $202 billion annually. Despite the number of primary residences in the U.S. increasing from 77 million in 1978 to 111 million in 2005, total household energy consumption decreased slightly, from 10.58 to 10.55 quadrillion British Thermal Units (Btu). From 1978 [...]
Posted in Energy Efficiency, Five Friday Facts Tags: California, Chris DeArmond, Energy, Energy Star No Comments »Five Friday Facts: Plan B 4.0 – Food
May 20th, 2011 Eric Wilson The following facts come from the first chapter of Lester Brown’s Plan B 4.0, which was published in 2009. The book is available in print or as a downloadable PDF from The Earth Policy Institute’s website. These facts all relate to food prices, which continue to rise. From mid-2006 to mid-2008, world prices of wheat, [...]
Four Friday Facts: Drinking Water
May 13th, 2011 Eric Wilson In yesterday’s post about the EZH2O water dispenser from Elkay comes the following facts about drinking water. According to Food & Water Watch, more than 17 million barrels of oil — enough to fuel one million cars for a year– are needed to produce the plastic water bottles sold in the United States annually. – [...]
Five Friday Facts: Ethanol
April 29th, 2011 Justin Manger The use of E-10 Unleaded (10 percent ethanol/90 percent ordinary unleaded gasoline) is approved for use by every major automaker in the world. One bushel of corn yields about 2.8 gallons of ethanol. 2006 represented the third largest corn harvest in the nation’s history. Ethanol production consumed about 18% of it – some 2.15 billion [...]
Five Friday Facts: Earth Day History Lesson
April 22nd, 2011 Eric Wilson In honor of Earth Day, here are five historical facts about the movement. At the behest of Senator Gaylord Nelson, President Kennedy went on a five-day, eleven-state conservation tour in September 1963, which was aimed at raising awareness about environmental issues.* Senator Nelson created Earth Day as a way to “force this issue onto the [...]
