By Green Blogger
A new Food TV show, Pitchin' In, focuses on where all the deliciousness comes from...our Blessed Mother Earth and her beauteous bounty of natural resources. This show features gobs of goodness for "local" foodies.
Greening Hollywood: Mother Nature Approves...
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On canvas, this amazing portrait was created by Posted via email from The Green Blog Network
Public Swimming Pools Get 30% Solar Tax Credit
by Susan Kraemer
[ Originally published on Clean Technica ]
When the 30% tax credits as cash grants were instituted with the American Recovery Act, I was doing solar estimates for a small solar start-up in California. I was surprised to find that the 30% solar tax credit (available as a cash grant for businesses) was available for solar thermal - only when it was not used for heating swimming pools. Heating water for showers, dishes, radiant heating system in buildings with solar thermal was eligible, but swimming pools were excluded.
Yet I found that heating the swimming pool was the greatest need that the apartment owners I was contacting had, and it was such a staggering source of greenhouse gas emissions, that I wrote up my suggestion that “like heating apartment pools” should be instated as the measure we use when we say doing something is like taking some number of “cars-off-the-road” to “measure” carbon reduction.- » See also: New Carbon Footprint Calculation Accounts For Country of Consumption
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My estimate for an Apricus system for Santana Row came in at $227,790, and $1, 256,373 money saved over 25 years (not spent on gas, which if its average annual cost rise -of 9% a year till this year- were to continue over the next 25 years would have been an estimated $2,473,605.)
The greenhouse gases saved over the twenty five years came to 90,000 tons of carbon.
Greening Christmas: We're Dreaming Of A White (And Green) Christmas
Looking for a last minute stocking stuffer? Need some home decorating or festive recipes before the guests arrive? Check out the new book from Chronicle Books by Anna Getty, I'm Dreaming of A Green Christmas, with video vignettes available on YouTube...suitable for good friends and family.
Now, if only all of us had such luck with good friends and stocking stuffers!
Happy Holidays! Wishing everyone Health and Prosperity for 2010!
Posted via email from The Green Blog Network
Greening Copenhagen: A Climactic Fairytale
by Paige Donner
When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger addressed the leaders attending the Global Climate Conference in Copenhagen earlier this week, he noted Copenhagen's Little Mermaid, its famous statue in the city center that is drawn from a Hans Christian Andersen fairytale. He also noted that his favorite fairytale as a child was "The Ugly Duckling" because of its theme of transformation.
The California Governor is lobbying hard to maintain our focus on the fact that "this conference is automatically and already a success."
In these final hours of the historical summit, much focus is being placed on a global agreement being signed by all the world's leaders, the developing nations and the developed nations; And in particular whether China and the U.S. can come to an agreement about emissions reduction inspections and national sovereignty. Much focus is also being placed on which leaders B.O. is including in his pack and which ones he is snubbing.
Schwarzenegger's emphasis continues to focus our attention on the integral role that subnational governments and leaders - and individuals and entrepreneurs - play in this transformation of our environmental practices and some of the industries upon which we base our global economy.
Governor Schwarzenegger:
Some examples he gave of industry and entrepreneurs leading the way: A German company in Texas building and operating the world's largest wind farm; a renewable energy company in China stating that they feel that renewables are "good business, not a burden." Solazyme, the firm that derives its renewable energy from algae and its recent U.S. Department of Defense contract is more evidence of successful private-public partnerships.
He also spoke about his late Mother-in-law's pioneering efforts to create the Special Olympics. This was an effort of individuals and people. This was not an effort set forth by governments. He pointed out that;it is people, friends and family, who are there at the finishing line to give the athletes participating in the Special Olympics a big hug, not governments. The Special Olympics is now in 180-plus countries.
Without the dedication of individuals, activists, entrepreneurs, there would be no environmental movement. "Movements began with the people, not with governments," concluded Schwarzenegger.
Governor Schwarzenegger:
"...the world's governments alone cannot make progress, the kind of progress that is needed on global climate change. They alone cannot do it. They need everyone coming together, everyone working together. They need the cities, they need the states, they need the provinces and the regions. They need the corporations, the activists, the scientists and the universities. They need the individuals whose vision and determination create movements. They need everybody out there.
So ladies and gentlemen, let us regain our momentum, let us regain our purpose, let us regain our hope by liberating the transformative power beneath the national level.
That can be the great contribution of Copenhagen -- that could be the great contribution of Copenhagen.
Some examples he gave of industry and entrepreneurs leading the way: A German company in Texas building and operating the world's largest wind farm; a renewable energy company in China stating that they feel that renewables are "good business, not a burden." Solazyme, the firm that derives its renewable energy from algae and its recent U.S. Department of Defense contract is more evidence of successful private-public partnerships.
He also spoke about his late Mother-in-law's pioneering efforts to create the Special Olympics. This was an effort of individuals and people. This was not an effort set forth by governments. He pointed out that;it is people, friends and family, who are there at the finishing line to give the athletes participating in the Special Olympics a big hug, not governments. The Special Olympics is now in 180-plus countries.
Without the dedication of individuals, activists, entrepreneurs, there would be no environmental movement. "Movements began with the people, not with governments," concluded Schwarzenegger.
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