2nd Green Revolution

On or around the first of every month, 2nd Green Revolution updates the green events calendar for the coming month. Last November we began including a post highlighting some of the intriguing events for that month. Many of the events on the calendar for March take place in India and China. Half of the events featured below are in California. In addition, at the end of the month is the biomimicry design workshop, hosted by the Biomimicry Institute, which was highlighted in a recent post.

Here is a sampling of conferences that caught our eye. Read the rest of this entry »

• American household emissions come primarily from driving, electricity and home heating. Outside of America’s low-car outlier, New York, emissions from driving range from an average of 22,500 pounds of carbon dioxide per year in places like Providence and Boston (reflecting about 1,000 gallons of gas bought each year) to an average of 32,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per year in places like Greenville, S.C.

• Carbon emissions from San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose, California were the lowest among American metropolitan areas, but “are still more than four times the emissions in the brownest Chinese city (Daqing) and 10 times as high as the household emissions in the average Chinese city.”
• The average household in San Francisco uses about seven megawatt hours of electricity per year, which is associated with about 7,000 pounds of carbon dioxide. The average household in Orlando, Fla., or Memphis, Tenn., uses about 18.5 megawatt hours of electricity per year and that creates about 26,400 pounds of carbon dioxide.

• Average July temperatures are the best predictor of electricity usage.
• Home heating is the third major source of household emissions. Carbon dioxide emissions from that source range from less than 1,000 pounds per year in Florida cities, to more than 16,000 pounds per year in Detroit.

Source: New York Times

Despite announcing his intention not to seek a second term as governor of Colorado, Governor Bill Ritter has continued to pursue a clean energy future for the state. While many states have mandates of 20% or 25% electricity generation from renewable energy sources by 2020, Ritter is pushing ahead toward 30%. Ritter’s goal is one of the most ambitious, ranking in the top three states as measured by a percentage of electricity production.  Read the rest of this entry »

On or around the first of every month, 2nd Green Revolution updates the green events calendar for the coming month. Last November we began including a post highlighting some of the intriguing events for that month. Many of the events on the calendar for February take place in India, New Zealand, and Australia. However, there are a few in San Francisco, California and several intriguing domestic events at the end of the month.

Here is a sampling of a few domestic symposiums that caught our eye. Read the rest of this entry »

Here is some eye (and mind) candy. A neat slide show on the New York Times website shows several creative ways college students are living alternatively off the grid. While perhaps not reasonable or desirable for most of us, experimentation like this creates awareness and insight into our accustomed ways of living so that we may change certain aspects we don’t like. These folks may not be living like Henry Thoreau but their innovation is refreshing.

A family living in a yurt in Alaska was also recently profiled by the Times. For those who would like to check out a yurt without moving in, the Treebones Resort along the Big Sur coast in California is a unique experience in a beautiful location.

- Justin Manger

[Image Credit]

We all want to believe in something (Santa Claus, the money tree, the fountain of youth). The following is something 2nd Green would like to believe in, but we maintain a skeptical stance.

I recently heard about this company, SOLCOA, on a sustainability listserve. Based in San Jose, California, SOLCOA provides companies with energy audits and upgrades. Their mission “is to be a vital resource to non-profits by providing energy efficiency upgrades and improvements to their buildings which may have not been previously possible.” Read the rest of this entry »

While climate change has no scientific connection to earthquakes, one of the contenders to provide renewable energy may. Two geothermal projects – one in Basel, Switzerland and the other in Northern California – have recently been shut down amid concerns about increased earthquake activity believed to be related to the tapping of thermal energy in the earth’s inner layers. While the move seems precautionary, the seismic activity has raised concerns. Since shifts in the earth’s tectonic plates cause tremors, there appears to be a causal relationship between the drilling and earthquakes, as the activity occurred at both locations. Read the rest of this entry »

On or around the first of every month, 2nd Green Revolution updates the upcoming green events calendar for the coming month. Last month we began including a post highlighting some of the intriguing events for that month.

This month there are several international conferences posted on Conference Alerts. Here are a few domestic and a couple of international conferences of interest, including the United Nations’ long anticipated meeting in Copenhagen. Read the rest of this entry »

The White House announced today that President Obama will swing by the much hyped COP 15 climate change meeting taking place in Copenhagen, Denmark (the COP in COP 15 is an acronym for “Conference of Parties”, the highest body of the United Nations Climate Change Convention which meets on an annual basis). On the way to picking up his Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on December 10th, the President will stop by the international climate summit on the 9th, near the beginning of the 12 day meeting. He will tell the delegates that “the United States intends to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions ‘in the range of’ 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050,” according to the New York Times. Read the rest of this entry »

Many internal corridors of buildings do not have natural lighting due to a lack of windows. Skylights have provided natural lighting for years, but light tubes (or solar tubes) offer a new option for bringing outside light into buildings. The technology, discussed briefly in a post earlier this year as part of the Science Channel’s Ecopolis series, allows the units to have a smaller physical footprint than skylights and can subsequently fit into more confined spaces.

On a recent visit to a school in the Denver area, I had a chance to see these devices in action. In a dark interior hallway, bright white natural light streamed down from above. The contrast was stark compared to the rest of the passageway. Read the rest of this entry »