Earth Hour

Environmentalists have hailed this years Earth Hour as a big success. Earth Hour started in 2007 in Sydney and this year it was held on 3/28 from 8:30pm – 9:30pm in nearly 4,000 cities and towns in 88 countries. One sad thing is how little I heard about it through the local media in my area. Lets hope the world leaders will recognize that something needs to be done.

Energy Quiz

How well do you know America's Energy? I just took the We Campaign's America's Future quiz and was surprised at what I learned about the power and potential of renewable energy. You can take the take the quiz from the We Campaign.

Florida Approves Largest Solar Power Plant in the U.S.

Florida's Public Service Commission has approved plans to build the largest commercial solar power plant in the United States. SunPower has been selected to build the largest solar photovoltaic power plant in the United States, a 25-megawatt power plant in DeSoto County, Florida and is expected to go on-line in 2009. According to Treehugger, SunPower will install the highest efficiency solar panels on the market as well as the SunPower Tracker system, which tilts toward the sun as it moves across the sky. Two other facilites were also given the green light, one at Martin County and one at the Kennedy Space Center. Red Green and Blue also has some additioinal information on the plan as well as other renewable energy devleopments in the United States.

Dead Baby Penguins Washing Ashore

Hundreds of dead baby penguins have been washing ashore off the coast of Rio de Janeiro over the past two months. The penguins are being swept away from the icy shores of Antarctica and washing up dead on the beaches of Rio. According to Michael Astor with the Associated Press, there have been more penguins (approximately 400) this year than any other year. One of the reported causes could be overfishing which causes the penguins to swim further from shore to eat and in turn they get caught up in the strong ocean currents. The article also states possible causes could be pollution as well as ocean current changes because of more cyclones due to climate change. Most of the penguins that are washing ashore are babies that have recently left the nest and are not strong enough to out swim the strong ocean currents.

Ghost Flights

British PM Gordon Brown blasted airlines that were operating Ghost Flights without any passengers in order to secure terminal slots at the busy Heathrow Airport. BMI Airline has denied the claims that they are planning on operating empty or near empty flights in order to secure the terminal slots. British Airways was caught last year doing almost the same thing with it's flights from Britain to North America. There was a flight a day traveling from Britain to the U.S. or Canada with only the pilots and cargo. With skyrocketing fuel costs, you would think the airlines would stop absurd practices that waste them money and not to mention harm the environment. No wonder we are starting to have to pay for any checked baggage with some airlines.

Green Tip: Greening Your Office

There is a good article on Chelsea GREEN about Greening Your Office. The article is taken from a book titled Greening Your Office From Cupboard to Corporation: an A-Z Guide and is available here. I am not sure how good the book is, but the article is worth a read.

Challenge From Al Gore

At a speech on July 17th, Al Gore made an Environmental Challenge that is being compared to the challenge that John F. Kennedy made in reference to the moon. Al Gore is challenging the nation to produce every kilowatt of electricity through wind, sun and other Earth-friendly energy sources within 10 years. According to the New York Times, "Gore's approach, which would require abandoning old-fashioned, coal-fired power plants, goes beyond what even the most audacious scientists and entrepreneurs have proposed, as a means, he said, of jolting the world out of old ways of thinking." I have posted video of the speech below and there also a transcript available.

Polar Bears Killed in Iceland

While I was on vacation there was a story about a polar bear that swam more than 200 miles from either Greenland or a chunk of Arctic ice to Skagafjordur, Iceland where it was shot dead by the police "in case" it proposed a danger to humans. Apparently they did not have the correct tranquilizer and could not wait 24 hours for the correct one to be flown in. This was disputed by a chief vet who said the necessary drugs were in the trunk of his car, they just needed to wait for the correct tranquilizer gun to be flown in. There are some videos of the bear on You Tube which I refuse to watch as well as pictures of the killers posing proudly with their prize. I was outraged to think this bear swam all that way from Greenland in order to survive only to be shot dead. THEN when I thought it could not get any worse, another polar bear, again presumed to have swam over 200 miles from Greenland was shot less than 2 weeks later by the same police. Between the melting ice, starving, and being shot, the poor bears don't stand a chance.

Polar Bear Petition

From the We Can Solve It Campaign: The Bush Administration has until May 15 to decide whether to place the polar bear on the Endangered Species list. Tell Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne that the polar bear, and its fragile Arctic habitat, requires protection from the effects of global warming. Sign the petition today.

Sigg Bottle Update

So far I am very pleased with my Sigg bottle purchase. I pretty much take it with me everywhere I go so that I always have a drink with me and am not tempted to buy one in a plastic bottle. At first I had problems with the water not staying cold enough and then I found ice cube trays for water bottles. I am considering buying a sleeve for the bottle to assist with keeping it cold. It is also a great conversation starter at work. Most people at work just carry the usual company supplied mug or soda bottle from the machine. My blue aluminum bottle stands out and I get comments which I can quickly turn into conversations concerning the need for reducing the amount of bottles they use and some of the dangers of BPA. A few co-workers have even said they are going to buy one. If you have not bought one yet, I highly suggest it, especially if you have watched the videos on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch I posted about earlier.