Get Energy Smart! NOW!

Dr. Slammy over at Scholars And Rogues is one of those thoughtful bloggers that any/all can gain from reading and considering.  Yesterday, he sent An open letter to Progressive America.  This piece, very worth reading, lays out Dr. Slammy’s regret for his non-vote in 2000.

 Slammy then looks back on how the world and US government might have different with Al Gore in the Oval Office and makes an appeal for all Clinton and all Obama supporters to understand the clear difference between a choice between the Democratic candidate (whichever it might be) come November and John McCain.  Dr Slammy considers a raft of issues and seeks to highlight the stark choice before us / the US:

What about McCain, though? He voted in favor of waterboarding – after repeatedly calling it torture?! He not only supported the invasion of Iraq, he supports staying there for a thousand more years. He also promises that there will be more wars. He supports repealing Roe v. Wade. He voted no on a $100M initiative to reduce teen pregnancy by education & contraceptives. He’s rated 0% by NARAL, indicating a pro-life voting record. He’s rated 83% by the Christian Coalition, indicating a strongly (euphemism alert) “pro-family” voting record.

A powerful statement, a powerful appeal for seeking unity post-primaries, to understand the starkness of the choice before us and the US. And, a raft of serious issues.  A raft of serious issues with a very serious gap. 

• Where is the environment in Dr Slammy’s discussion?  Absent! 
• Where is Global Warming?
• Where is energy?  Absent. 

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The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) is launching a national advertising campaign attacking Al Gore. And, via the attacks on Gore, seeking to undermine a growing understanding by Americans that we must act in face of global warming or face quite serious consequences.

CEI is focusing on attacking the messenger, rather than the message, since it (and other deniers living in the Black Hole of Denial) are on the retreat when it comes to Global Warming as their message flies in face of the reality staring us / the US in our faces. 

Now, for a moment, let us take a stroll through “the messenger” before going to message. 

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There are books that you just want to love, truly, but can’t no matter how hard you try.  Anne Rockwell’s Why are the ice caps melting? The Dangers of Global Warming is such a book. 

This is “Level 2” book, aimed a K-4 audience (ages 5-9).  As one who regular gives Climate Project presentations to elementary school audiences, this book was of great interest to me.    A “professional” at communicating with youth would provide me thoughts and paths for addressing the issue with young children.  Great.  Something to take with me to schools.

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When it comes to the fundamentals of education, there are the “three Rs”:  Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic.

Environmentalism’s Three Rs:  Reduce use; Reuse things; Recycle as much as possible.

And, for energy, there are these Three Rs: Reduce use (via efficiency and conservation); Renewable power as much as possible; Remediate for any use of non-renewable power sources.

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One of the challenges in pursuing a greener economy quicker is the risk, the serious risk, that quicker could mean dirtier.  The Washington Post carried an expose of one of those risks on its front page this Sunday:  Solar Energy Firms Leave Waste Behind in China.    WashPost calls out Luoyang Zhonggui High-Technology Co, a producer of “polysilicon destined for solar energy panels sold around the world,” for dumping a “bubbling white liquid” (silicon tetrachloride) in the middle of a village.

“The land where you dump or bury it will be infertile. No grass or trees will grow in the place. . . . It is like dynamite — it is poisonous, it is polluting. Human beings can never touch it,” said Ren Bingyan, a professor at the School of Material Sciences at Hebei Industrial University.

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Dennis Hastert’s Congressional seat has been filled. Rather than a seemingly corrupt, extreme right-winger who (at times) makes other Republicans seem almost in the reality-based community, Illinois-14 will be sending someone of substance to the Congress, a man with serious scientific credentials and successful business experience.  Bill Foster is now Congressman Bill Foster.

In short: YEAH! 

And, that is very true when it comes to the energy and environmental arenas.  Oberweis would have been a disaster on, well, any energy or environmental issue that we can put on the table.  Foster should serve as a substantive voice to help guide US policy toward a prosperous, climate-friendly society.  He also is a successful businessman, which colors his positions both in good and, as will be seen, potentially dangerous ways.

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Solar is a highly efficient for heating water. Combining it with underground storage, and a year-round system can be created where the system can cover heating requirements in the winter and cooling in the summer.  The Dutch company Ooms Avenhorn Holding BV has taken this concept and moved it a step forward with the Road Energy System^® (RES).  

Rather than putting tubes on a rooftop, RES lays the collection system within concrete, think the black asphalt of a road or runway.  The piping connects to undeground storage areas. Think walking on black asphalt on a sunny August day and you understand the heat being transfered into the water in the pipes. This water is then transfered into the storage area.  On demand, in cold weather, the hot water is draw on to heat buildings and to keep the road above freezing. After cooling, the water is moved into cold storage to provide air conditioning for summer months.  A year round solar/geothermal heating/cooling system for both the road and buildings.  The renewable combo greatly reduces electricity requirements (and thus pollution) and the cooling/heating of the road reduces maintenance requirements (and lowers/eliminates deicing and plowing requirements in winter).

And it is deployed.   “Solar Energy collected from a 200-yard stretch of road and a small parking lot helps heat a 70-unit four-story apartment building in the northern village of Avenhorn. An industrial park of some 160,000 square feet in the nearby city of Hoorn is kept warm in winter with the help of heat stored during the summer from 36,000 square feet of pavement. The runways of a Dutch air force base in the south supply heat for its hangar.”

For more information, see this brochure.

Hat tip to Scholars and Rogues.

One of the greatest strengths of the blogosphere is at the same time one of the greatest challenge: there is so much tremendous stuff, so many tremendous minds out there.  It is hard to keep up with the strength of material and all the good sites.  The “must check out regularly” list keeps growing larger, thus becomes of ever less value. Thus, there are those places where I don’t stop in often enough.   Whenever I return to ScholarsAndRogues, I find good reasons for regretting that I hadn’t been back more frequently. 

Well, just posted is a truly excellent item:  Can enviro groups find shared language and values?   This piece does some content analysis to try to examine the language of environmentalists, environmental evangelicals and “crunchy conservatives”.   

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So, at the end of the day, how effective was Heartland Institute’s Black Hole of Denial in New York City?  Well, one way to judge is via the media performance.  As DeSmogBlog notes:

Mainstream media seem to have caught up with climate change denial (caught up with reality, really), just in time to humiliate the assembled “sceptics” at the Heartland Institute’s 2008 International Conference on Climate Change. [Read more →]

Yes, you too can have your two-year cuddling at home with colorful bean bag elephants. At just $35 each  or $90 for three, you can have your gray, green, and pink elephants.

The send-up opportunities are just too enormouse hear.

The Pink Elephant?  Is a sign that the Republican National Committee is embracing the Log Cabin Republicans?  Or, is this simply sexual stereotyping, as this is “Maxine”.

The Green Elephant suddenly a Republican embracing of the importance for green power for a stronger American economy and for securing the nation’s future. Well, as this is “Paddy”, pretty sure that this means the Republican Party is declaring where it stands on the Catholic-Prostetant divide in Northern Ireland.   Or, does the RNC mean to have it both ways?

Meet Paddy, the newest member of the Republican National Committee’s family of elephants.

Paddy is available for a imited-time onlyand is sure to be snapped up quickly.  Embroidered with the official logo of the RNC, Paddy is a wonderful plush toy and makes a perfect gift for St. Patrick’s Day.  Or give Paddy to the “Green” Republican in your life who is dedicated to improving the environment.

The “Green” Republican as target audience. “Dedicated to improving the environment” and Republican haven’t been much of a match since the days of men like Mac Mathias. Thus, there is a good reason for making this a limited edition version as, with each passing day, Green Republicans are becoming an ever-more endangered species.