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Dozens of cities and school districts are getting good marks for implementing hybrid buses that run on both diesel and electricity. In doing so, they are helping to commercialize a technology that proponents say will save fuel costs and prevent the release of harmful emissions.

So starts Driving Hybrid Buses, an EnergyBiz Insider looking at hybrid buses.   As per PHEBs:  Plugging in that School Bus for an Energy Smart Future, the real explosive potential might be moving beyond “hybrids” to plug-in hybrid electric buses (PHEBs).

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What’s the wisest thing to do given the uncertainties and risk?

That is the core question that science teacher wonderingmind42 asks in his latest video discussing the challenges of considering Global Warming and how best to deal with the challenges before us.

For some, those who are able to step back and approach problems with logic and thought, WonderingMind42 might provide one of the most powerful ways to discuss Global Warming and our need to take a different path forward.

This 9 minute, 42 second video is worth the 10 minutes …

But, if you prefer my words rather than the video …

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Bit-by-bit, bloggers are gaining similiar treatment to what traditional media reporters might receive.  Bloggers get invited to trade shows, receive products and books to review, get invited to Iraq, have press conferences with business leaders and politicians, and get all-expense paid trips courtesy of oil companies (1, 2).   This is a welcome trend, in my mind, opening up citizen journalism to the types of access for learning and asking questions that has been the monopoly of traditional media venues. Sometimes this can lead to better and more inciteful analysis. And, well, sometimes not.

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DISCLAIMER:  This is not about investing for your direct financial security but investing in our common future, If interested, continue with this discussion of a new path toward Investing in a Progressive Future.

Political Mutual Funds

It is a complex challenge to decide how to donate money. There are so many important issues and causes. There are so many dedicated, hard-working, well-run and effective organizations. There are so many appeals for money, from slick to ham-handed.  And, well, some of the slickest come from those not necessarily dedicated, hard-working, well-run or effective. Thus, the emergence of efforts like Charity Navigator.

When it comes to investing money, mutual funds claim to reduce by grouping together companies, enabling one to choose a sector to invest in or a style of investing rather than seeking to find the perfect individual stocks and creating one’s own balanced portfolio.

Well, the New Progressive Coalition has taken a bold step toward a metric based path for combining these for financially helping create a progressive future.

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Well, when it comes to the future of America’s automotive fleet, it is clear that at least part of the Massachusetts Institute for Technology can’t get its mind around the reality of change in the transportation system.  They are focused on ‘Business As Usual’ (BAU) rather than the Business To Be (BTB).

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Denmark has an announced plan for 30 percent of all electricity to come from renewable power by 2025. Well a just released study might make this seemingly ambitious goal a relic of the past.  Ea Energy Analysis produced 50% Wind Power in 2025 laying out the costs, benefits, and challenges of reaching this target.

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Well, yesterday the International Panel on Climate Change released a quite serious report (pdf), stating that global warming is unequivocally occurring, that humanity is a leading factor, and that major action is required (ASAP) or the damage will go from serious to, well, potentially catastrophic. 

So, where is this covered?  For the Washington Post, page A3 Saturday.

Sunday, an excellent follow-up article … page A10.

World as we know it to end, see inside …

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Freedom from Oil …

This is an agenda, an objective that all Americans should support. (Okay, maybe not some oil company CEOs …) 

And, this is a good key agenda item for next President, to move past the current occupant of the Oval Office’s identification of our “oil addiction” to actual action to fight the addition.

And, this is the core concept for David Sandalow in his excellent Freedom From Oil:  How the Next President can end the United States’ Oil Addiction.  And, while not perfect, Sandalow’s roadmap merits consideration as we chart a path toward a better future.

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According to the Governmenta Accountability Office,

comparing federal electricity subsidies by fuel type shows that renewables such as wind still get only a small share of the overall subsidies awarded to the energy sector.

Again, no surprise here.

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Okay, anyone who understands energy and global warming issues knows that eating down the food chain and eating locally are two great ways to reduce your carbon footprint.  This post, however, is not about this.

According to work done by Paul Higgins (American Meteological Society (AMS) Climate Policy), tackling obesity and global warming opportunities go beyond going vegan.

Doctors recommend walking/biking 30 minutes a day and eating less red meat.

That’s how Americans can simultaneously save the planet and their health, say doctors and climate scientists.

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