Audubon's Current Issue

I promised some time ago a post on the new issue of Audubon magazine. So here we go:

This is the debut issue printed on recycled paper.

(L)ess than one percent of the approximately 17,000 magazines published in the United States contain any recycled paper, according to the Better Paper Project, a nonprofit that works with the magazine industry to promote recycled paper. For magazines alone, 39 million trees are logged a year—that’s more than one every second.

There's going to be a new ingredient in some low volatile-organic-compound (VOC) paint. Proctor & Gamble, the company that invented olestra, have figured out how to put it in paint for viscosity.

Remember olestra—that fat substitute a few years ago that made potato chips “healthier,” albeit with a reputation for causing gastric distress and anal leakage? Well, it’s being reinvented as an ingredient in eco-friendly paint.

And the heart of the issue: "The Future is Now" green design inspired by Nature or designed to save it.

Of course we've all heard the story of Velcro, and its origin in the hooks and loops of burrs, but did you know that the sticking ability of geckos will soon be seen in Band-aids and tape, robots and medical devices?

Green living: In 2007, a tornado flattened Greensburg, Kansas. In the wake of the storm, the townspeople decided to rebuild in a sustainable way.

Tour Greensburg today ... and you will find a nearly finished, energy-saving City Hall and a new arts center; cisterns collecting rainwater to irrigate native street plantings; and a reduced-rent building, dubbed the “business incubator,” that is helping local businesses ... get on their feet. The new homes are designed to, among other things, minimize waste from building materials and take advantage of natural light.

Greensburg is the first U.S. town with LED street lamps, 300 of them, which has cut its energy costs by 70 percent. And it may go off the grid entirely with wind power.

In Loudon County, Virginia, there is an EcoVillage set in a natural woodland setting with houses built of recycled materials.

(It) aims to transform the American dream of home ownership into something more idyllic than a treeless grid of identical structures connected by a swirl of asphalt ...
(It's based on) Denmark’s bofoellesskaber, or “living communities.” ... Residents typically have private dwellings with their own kitchens, living rooms, and sleeping areas, but they also have access to a common house with a large dining room and kitchen for potlucks, meeting rooms, recreational facilities, and, frequently, daycare.

There is tons more in the original article, including the bed-and-breakfast in Taos, New Mexico, built from recycled materials, the ballroom in Austin, Texas, the living jungle gym in San Francisco, and the elementary school in Chicago built to LEED standards.

Also check out the section on cars and the ways they will be using new technology to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions.

CO2 & Appliances -- Last set in series

The last set of carbon dioxide emissions for appliances -- taken from the March 2009 National Geographic:
Freezer: 1,397
Electric heat pump: 5,249
Monitor: 116
Cell phone: 5
Pool pump: 1,496
Cordless power tool: 22
Indoor lighting: 2,270
Vacuum: 57
Camcorder: 3
Aquarium: 286
Spa & heater: 2,774
Security system: 83
PDA: 8
Furnace fan: 606
Rechargeable toy: 17
Ink-jet printer: 35
Oil water heater: 4,331
MP3 Player: 8
Boombox: 23
Digital camera: 19

Presentation on Climate Change

I apologize for not posting for a while -- life got really busy. :)

I spent some time lately reading a presentation on climate change by Saul Griffith. It's a PDF of the slides and notes he uses to give a presentation explaining global warming and climate change in an easy to read format for people who don't know much about carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses and how they are affecting our climate.

I enjoyed it very much, although a little boring in places because I am already familiar with the subject, and he spends a fair amount of time going over the basics. If you already know a lot about climate change, you probably won't find it fascinating, although the sections on his own lifestyle and the plans he has for reducing his carbon dioxide emissions were very interesting.

I did have a few quibbles with it. There are some spelling and grammatical mistakes, which can sometimes be distracting. He doesn't explain new abbreviations. For example, he assumes that the reader will know that TW stands for terawatt. Most annoyingly, he placed the notes for each slide before the slide itself, so the complicated explanation comes before the simple chart and spare text. I would have preferred the reverse.

The language of energy and power is confusing and non-intuitive, but he does not address this at all until the very end, long after he introduces the terms and definitions. At least once, he changes the units of his discussion without warning or explanation. And if you do not have a solid background in the physics of electricity, you will probably find his discussion of work and energy and watts to be confusing at best.

But these are small issues when laid against the grand sweep of this presentation and the optimistic, yet mind-bogglingly difficult, path he lays out for us to get ourselves out of this hole we have dug for ourselves.

He does assume that energy users are plugged into the main energy system, the national electric grid, the natural gas distribution lines, etc. This is most definitely written for the developed world, and those thinking about these problems for the developed world. No mention is made of very poor people, in slums and villages around the developing world, who are dependent on wood and kerosene for heat and light and cooking. Obviously, they pose a problem unto themselves, for anyone trying to reduce carbon emissions, and I don't blame him for thinking them beyond the scope of this presentation, especially since the developed world and industries ought to and will clean emissions first. But I would have been interested to read what he had to say.

He spends a lot of the presentation going through his own calculations of his carbon footprint, and explaining how he will be reducing it. At the end, he says he used the same data he used to calculate his carbon footprint himself as input into 13 different online carbon footprint calculators and came up with 13 different answers, none of which equaled his calculation or his estimate, but when averaged were remarkably close to the US average. As he says, that is a big problem for the average person trying to calculate their carbon footprint.

Overall, I recommend reading this presentation, but be prepared for a review of the basics of carbon emissions, global warming, energy, and power.

Yet More CO2 from Appliances

Even more carbon dioxide emissions (in pounds per year) from appliances (3rd in a series) from the March 2009 National Geographic:
Gas water heater: 2,171
DVD player: 51
Room air conditioner: 872
Clock radio: 21
Coffeemaker: 83
Gas dryer: 435
Laptop PC: 98
Exterior light: 150
Electric water heater: 3,586
Iron: 72

More CO2 from Appliances

More appliances and the amount of CO2 (in pounds) they emit per year (from the March 2009 National Geographic):
Gas furnace: 6,967
Car: 11,903
Ceiling fan: 115
Shaver: 1
Rechargeable toothbrush: 16
Cordless phone: 36
Oil furnace: 14,380
VCR: 64
Cable box: 182
Electric range: 628

CO2 & Appliances

From the March 2009 National Geographic article entitled Saving Energy: It Starts at Home, pounds of carbon dioxide emitted by common household appliances in the United States:
Refrigerator: 1,191
Electric clothes dryer: 1,521
Television: 548
Dishwasher: 599
Clothes washer: 153
Hair dryer: 57
Stereo: 167
Desktop PC: 321
Microwave: 179
Central AC: 4,067
Toaster: 53

Planting a Vegetable Garden

Now is a great time to plant a vegetable garden. Plant your favorite veggies, then save on trips to the grocery store and long-distance traveling food later on. I won't promise you'll save money, but you will save on greenhouse gas emissions as you cut the travel time for your food.

If you've never had a vegetable garden before, Gardener's Supply has a planning tool for a raised bed kitchen garden.

If you have no space, or want to try something different, you can grow vegetables in containers on your porch or deck. I have good success by mixing half potting soil and half compost for my planting mix. I mix directly in the container I will be planting in.

If you've never gardened in eastern Idaho before, Town & Country Gardens has excellent tips for gardening in this area. To find a list of good vegetable varieties for this area, click on Vegetables/Herbs for topic, then select Vegetable Varieties & Planting Chart (it's a PDF).