2nd Green Revolution - Part 10

International League of Conservation Photographers

Images hold a powerful sway over people. Whether painting or photography, pictures tend to elicit emotional responses. A picture of an old friend may take you back to a memory of carefree days. In other instances, an image can remind us of the devastation wrought by war, famine, or natural disaster. It is along these lines that the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP) work was founded. The ILCP has a specific mission aimed at furthering “environmental and cultural conservation through ethical photography. We believe that awe-inspiring photography is a powerful force for the environment, especially when paired with the collaboration of committed scientists, politicians, religious leaders and policy makers. We plan to replace environmental indifference with a new culture of stewardship and passion for our beautiful plan.”

There are 102 photographers as part of the collaborative. To find a photographer, search their online directory. ICLP maintains a high ethical code, which derives from their mission and objectives:

Keystone Pipeline and the Future of Fuel

A few weeks ago news came out that President Obama was stalling the decision on the Keystone Pipeline from Alberta, Canada down to Texas. This was no doubt a political move tied to the 2012 election.

Apparently, the company that is building the pipeline acquiesced to demands from environmentalists that the pipeline avoid certain areas of Nebraska that supply water from an aquifer there. NPR had reported earlier in the same week that the Canadians were going to look to China to sell their oil since potential environmental reviews that would have been part of rerouting the pipeline very well may have delayed the deal. Some argue that this would have been a reason to go ahead and build the pipeline as planned, reducing resource scarcity and ensuring supply.

I’d argue a slightly different tact about “going ahead” with the project.

Not Your Average Bus Trip: How “Green” is that Green Bus? Part 1

This is the first in a series by Heather Perry. All posts in the series will be available here.

Sometimes I laugh in disbelief when I think back to my first summer after graduating college when I found myself, without really planning for it, living on a short school bus that was running off none other than pure, 100% waste vegetable oil.  I had no idea at the time that this trip would become the learning experience of a lifetime, which would to some extent alter the path of my life due to the critical environmental issues that surfaced around it.  This wasn’t some trip that I signed myself up for with a group of people to go along for the ride.  Rather, this was the result of my two best friends, Jen and Darcy, and I, wanting to road trip around the country and stumbling on an adorable, bright green short bus that had been converted by Lovecraft Biofuels to run on filtered veggie oil.  How could we turn it down?

We couldn’t.

Five Friday Facts; Quiz Edition

Test your knowledge by answering these 5 questions from the Washington Post Business section. (correct answers below)

1. How much energy does an incandescent bulb waste by creating heat instead of light?
  • 20 percent
  • 40 percent
  • 75 percent
  • 90 percent

 

 

2. In 2010, what percent of crude oil used in the U.S. was imported?

  • 32 percent
  • 49 percent
  • 60 percent
  • 74 percent

California Valley Solar Ranch Gets Underway

A number of large solar projects have been dogged by issues of environmental degradation, of all things. Last year, several concentrated solar power installations ran afoul of environmentalists due to the sites chosen. One in particular, the Blythe Solar Power Project, which was the largest installation at the time, was planned on critical habitat for desert tortoises. A more recent project in San Luis Obispo County has taken a number of steps to minimize the impact of its installation on the ecology of the region.

One of the most striking features of the California Valley Solar Ranch (CVSR), as it’s known, is that the land it sits on was retired from agricultural use due to a lack of water. A substantial portion of California’s agriculture depends on imported water, making it unsustainable over the long run. This solar power plant has undergone a number of steps to reduce the impact of the project. These include:

Starbucks Store Made from Recycled Shipping Containers

Though it seems like you can get Starbucks coffee just about anywhere, only one store (located in Tukwila, WA) can serve it to you from inside old cargo containers. A little over a week ago, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that construction is underway to build a Starbucks out of four repurposed shipping containers (40′ long, 8′ wide, 9.5′ high). It will also be the only store to be setup for walk-up and drive-thru only—no lounge will be constructed.

More than just a neat idea, there are (at least) two practical reasons for this type of assembly. The first is that it will almost certainly reduce the cost of store construction. Peter DeMaria, owner of an architectural firm that has experience building with shipping containers, stated that construction in residential applications (like this home in Redondo Beach, California) usually cut costs by 20 percent, and the amount of construction time by up to 40 percent in certain applications. The other reason is that since shipping containers are very portable, they may open up new business opportunities. A Starbucks spokesman gave the example that

What Is Your Country’s Climate Change Policy?

As a follow up to the 2-part series from NPR (covered here recently on 2nd Green Revolution) comes this post about various countries’ climate policy. With the end of the United Nations’ most recent conference on climate change in Durban, South Africa, NPR had a valuable synopsis of what many of the largest emitters of greenhouses are doing to reduce their emissions over the coming decades.

One of the biggest challenges to a unified approaches revolves around how to reconcile industrialized countries with those that are still developing.

Included in the story are the following nations as well as the European Union, along with a brief note about their plans. All data comes from the NPR report:

Pollution in Beijing Reaches “Beyond Index” Levels

Being the world’s factory and having a population of 1 billion people rushing to own cars and consume has led to rising living standards for Chinese citizens. Rising living standards are now being put at risk by those exact increased living standards as pollution overwhelms big cities in China and starts adversely affecting people’s health.

The U.S. Embassy pollution monitor in Beijing – widely considered the most reliable measure of the cities pollution – was “beyond index” a week ago (picture of Twitter feed below). That’s right, the 522 micrograms of particulate pollutants (PM) per cubic meter of air that were registered were literally off the chart. The World Health Organization‘s (WHO) air quality guidelines for PM is 20 micrograms per cubic metre (µg/m3) as an annual average. Granted, the 522 in Beijing was during one hour in one day but it is still unsettling. Other WHO data shows that average PM in some cities has reached up to 300 µg/m3.

Take a look the U.S. Embassy in Beijing’s Twitter feed for the latest measurements and you’ll see a string of “unhealthy,” “hazardous,” and “very unhealthy” readings over the last several weeks. 
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