December 17th, 2012 
Justin Manger 
Depending on your neighborhood, bike riding can be a nice alternative to driving while getting some often seriously lacking exercise in our modern lives. But isn’t it a pain to deal with inflating tires and getting the occasional flat tire when you are miles from home? Colorado-based start-up Britek Tire and Rubber has your back. [...]
Posted in Business, Energy Efficiency, Green Products, Justin Manger, News, Transportation 
Tags: Bicycles, Green Product 
No Comments » December 15th, 2012 Justin Manger 
As expected, the natural gas revolution in the U.S. is having a large positive economic impact. According to the Financial Times, “manufacturers have announced more than $90bn worth of investments in the US to take advantage of its cheap natural gas.” This is leading to an industrial renaissance as numerous companies in various sectors such [...]
Posted in Behavior, Business, Justin Manger, Local Energy/Food, News, Policy Tags: Carbon Dioxide, Environment, Natural Gas, Washington DC No Comments » December 12th, 2012 Justin Manger 
The Japan Renewable Energy Foundation (JREF;日本語はこちら。) in Tokyo recently hosted David Suzuki, Canadian geneticist, ecologist, and environmentalist to hear his thoughts on the state of the shift to sustainability. Much of his talk was taken from his recent book, The Legacy (reviewed by Eric), and focused on how we got to this tipping point in [...]
December 6th, 2012 Justin Manger 
Back in August, Bernalillo County, New Mexico approved 20 million dollars in industrial revenue bonds to support the Tres Amigas power infrastructure project, an unprecedented effort to connect North America’s three major isolated electric grids. Should all go well, the project will enable efficiency gains, aid in the integration of large-scale renewables, and support power [...]
November 28th, 2012 Justin Manger 
Since 2007, when Levi’s conducted a life-cycle assessment of some of its major products, the company has become increasingly conscious of the sustainability of the raw materials it uses to produce its clothing. In response, the company is making changes to become more eco-friendly. Last month, according to Business Week, Levi’s introduced its first line [...]
Posted in Business, Conservation, Green Products, Justin Manger, Recylcing Tags: Energy Conservation, Green Product, Green Technology No Comments » November 23rd, 2012 Justin Manger 
On October 5, the Brookings Institution held an event on Japan’s energy future. Below are highlights from the experts’ presentations. There are still nuclear reactors under construction in Japan and they could be operational past 2040. Japan has a self-sufficiency ratio of less than 5% without nuclear in its energy mix. Japan now depends on [...]
Posted in Five Friday Facts, Japan, Justin Manger, Local Energy/Food, Policy, Sustainable Development Tags: Nuclear No Comments » November 16th, 2012 Justin Manger When it comes to fresh water “reserves,” there is no competing with Greenland. You can drink some of its bottled water from the ice sheet for a mere $52 per bottle. Below are the volumes of fresh water, in millions of cubic kilometers: Total worldwide: ~40.0 Antarctic ice sheets: ~24.7 Groundwater: ~12.0 [...]
Posted in Conservation, Five Friday Facts, Justin Manger, News, Oceans Tags: Environment, Water, Water Conservation No Comments » November 9th, 2012 Justin Manger National Geographic really makes you think about the Earth. It is an amazing place. The most recent issue (November 2012) had an article on the blazing quick cheetah, which can sprint up to 65mph (105km/h) and cover 100 meters in 5.95 seconds. Usain Bolt can cover the same 100 meters in 9.58 seconds. There was [...]
November 6th, 2012 Justin Manger 
If you are a U.S. citizen and you haven’t voted yet, take a small piece out of your day to vote. Vote because you want something to be done regarding climate change, or vote because you don’t believe in it. No matter what your policy preferences, the only way we can continue this experiment aimed [...]
October 26th, 2012 Justin Manger Signed in 1998, the Kyoto Protocol asked 40 “Annex 1″ countries – the United States and Canada, western Europe, Russia and its neighbors, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand – to cut carbon emissions by 5.2 percent from the totals of 1990. The annual estimates by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Center (NAEC) in The Hague place [...]
Posted in China, Five Friday Facts, Justin Manger, Policy Tags: Carbon Dioxide, Energy Conservation, Environment No Comments »
