Naturally Earth Friendly

The Environmental Defense Fund just sent out this e-mail to inform everyone about some wonderful news. In it we were asked to forward the information for everyone to see, what better way than posting it up here. Enjoy.

“My presidency will mark a new chapter in America’s leadership on climate change that will strengthen our security and create millions of new jobs in the process.”

– President-elect Barack Obama, November 18, 2008

Today has been a big day in the fight against global warming.

President-elect Barack Obama gave his strongest public commitment to date in support of a national cap-and-trade system to reduce America’s global warming pollution and unleash a clean energy revolution.

The President-elect told the Bi-Partisan Governors Global Climate Summit, underway this week in Los Angeles, CA:

I promise you this: When I am president, any governor who’s willing to promote clean energy will have a partner in the White House. Any company that’s willing to invest in clean energy will have an ally in Washington. And any nation that’s willing to join the cause of combating climate change will have an ally in the United States of America.

He went on to call for a national cap-and-trade system that will “establish strong annual targets that set us on a course to reduce emissions to their 1990 levels by 2020 and reduce them an additional 80% by 2050.”

What makes this statement momentous is that it signals President-elect Obama’s intention to make global warming a central priority for his first term.

EDF President Fred Krupp issued the following statement in response:

President-elect Obama got it exactly right. His plan… will jump-start job creation in new energy industries, and take a huge step toward solving climate change. We strongly applaud President-elect Obama’s statement today, and his leadership on this issue.

Meanwhile, at a news conference back in Washington, DC, EDF joined a diverse coalition of 32 leading corporations and environmental groups in calling for national legislation to limit the release of global warming pollution.

EDF was a founding member last year of the coalition—the United States Climate Action Partnership, or US-CAP for short—which was established to add powerful support for effective national climate legislation.

Taken together, these announcements represent a truly historic day in our fight against global warming.

It is important to remember, however, we haven’t won anything yet.

These words, while encouraging, won’t mean a thing if we can’t move legislation through both the House and the Senate starting January 20th.

This gets us in the game, but we’ve got a lot of work ahead.

We’ll keep you posted through regular Transition Report emails.

In the meantime, please forward this to friends, family, colleagues, and anyone else interested in joining our global warming fight.

Encourage them to sign onto our 2009 Green Energy Petition: http://action.edf.org/campaign/green_energy_petition

And, please keep your comments coming into our Green Room.

Thanks for all you do,
Sam Parry
Director, Online Membership and Activism

Hawaii is a beautiful place to visit. Green landscapes surrounded by blue waters used to come to mind when I thought of Hawaii, until now. Now the ambitious goals of Governor Linda Lingle and the Hawaiian Electric Company pop into my head. In the hopes of making Hawaii a clean, renewable energy model for the rest of us they hope to generate 70% of their energy needs from renewable sources by 2030. They will also ban new coal plants, convert existing fossil fuel plants to biofuel, and add windfarms on the smaller islands. If you’re one of the lucky residents who reside in this beautiful state, then start looking forward to incentives for buying solar panels and an electric vehicle. I can’t wait to see where they are at in 2015. Good luck in accomplishing such a large goal Hawaii!

DiscoveryGreen.com - the latest and greatest city project we’ve run across has been found in Houston, Texas. Only a year ago, this used to be simply a large asphalt parking lot in downtown, but it’s been re-envisioned into an urban retreat for city dwellers. The parking lot is still there, but hidden underneath this new park. Houston even replanted a few hundred year old Oak trees to add to the existing century old Oak trees already located there, it’s the new centerpiece to DiscoveryGreen.com.

In addition to the large grass area for pickup games, there’s also a playground and water feature for the kids, dog runs, jogging trails, a man-made 1 acre lake and a couple of restaurants, The Grove and The Lakehouse. DiscoveryGreen.com is also home to free yoga, concerts, a recycling program for downtown residents, and a weekly farmers market.

Some of the creative Earth friendly ideas Houston has incorporated includes the man-made lake staying at the right levels by feeding the water caught on the roofs of the solar paneled structures right in. High tech, and highly-efficient restroom fixtures are joined with solar panels, sponsored by BP, in the structures. The Grove’s green roof grows herbs and spices and the leftover construction materials for the park are being recycled for use in future projects. Let’s hope this idea is copied in many cities. Replace the asphalt for a new green park - what a great idea Houston!

Sources:
DiscoveryGreen.com
TreeHugger.com

Yes, that title’s correct. General Motors decided to kill their beloved SUVs! Amazing isn’t it? No one expected such a quick and drastic decision, but that’s exactly what happened when General Motors’ senior executives met in late May. The $2 billion overhaul of their SUVs, the CXX project, was in the grave without a single negative vote.

SUVs, like the Escalade, Yukon, Tahoe and Suburban, were the outdoorsy iconic image of General Motors most successful vehicles in it’s 100 year history. But the rising gas costs and consumers heading into the hybrid and more fuel-efficient car arenas were the main determining factors in this drastic decision.

Reality had set in.
- Robert A. Lutz, G.M.’s vice chairman and head of product development

General Motors, the world’s largest automaker, is doing what it needs to reclaim a future and head off bankruptcy before it’s too late. Has America’s beloved Sport Utility Vehicle brought the end for Detroit automakers? Or will the electric-driven Chevrolet Volt, said to be released in 2010, be the turning point? Let’s hope the Volt isn’t too late.

For more reading on the History of General Motors and some of their challenges, visit the New York Times article “General Motors, Driven to the Brink.”

Created near the Earth’s surface by the decay of organic matter, such as in the landfills, methane is then carried into the atmosphere by the rising air in the tropics. A relatively potent greenhouse gas, methane has a high global warming potential 25 times greater than carbon dioxide. Recent data shows that after a slowing down of methane build up over the last ten years it may be back on the rise.

The Earth’s methane concentration has increased by about 150% since 1750, and it accounts for 20% of the total radioactive forcing from all of the long-lived and globally mixed greenhouse gases. - Wikipedia

One of the possible reasons for this is the large amounts of methane being released from the ocean floor. This in turn has been suggested to having an effect on the rapid global warming of our planet. Then as a vicious cycle, the added methane in the atmosphere heats up the Earth and results in more methane being released because of the added pressure.

A recently discovered increase in the release of methane from the melting permafrost is also concerning scientists. Measurements are showing a five times greater release than what was estimated earlier in Siberia. Because of this area heating up faster than other places on Earth, the melting permafrost will have an additional affect on global warming. Ice reflects the sun’s rays and heat, while the ocean water soaks it up. The less ice we have, the more the planet heats up. This can cause more releases of methane gas.

If this keeps up, we’re sure to see an increase in powerful hurricanes, severe heat, floods, and more. To start at home, click here for the StopGlobalWarming.org Action Items list.

Do you see anything wrong with this ad? No, okay then have a look at the script below.

The solution to our climate crisis seems simple.
Repower America with wind and solar.
End our dependence on foreign oil. A stronger economy.
So why are we still stuck with dirty and expensive energy?
Because big oil spends hundreds of millions of dollars to block clean energy.
Lobbyists, ads, even scandals.
All to increase their profits, while America suffers.
Breaking big oil’s lock on our government …
Now that’s change.
We’re the American people and we approve this message.

Anything? I didn’t think so. This is the Repower America ad WeCanSolveIt.org tried to have run on ABC and they flat out refused. I don’t understand how this simple message about switching our nation to clean energy can be seen as bad. That is unless ABC is “in bed” with the coal and oil companies who are being addressed. I think that’s a reasonable assumption, but I don’t have any facts to support it. Do you have any thoughts on the matter?

America is in trouble. If these big oil companies are still allowed to mislead us in their effects on this planet, why can’t the truth be shown right alongside it? They have the money to advertise and lobby the government are are stopping the very future of this country.

When I learned about this in my e-mail this afternoon, I’ll admit it, I had some unfriendly thoughts pop into my head. You can probably see this created a heated debate in my head while writing this out to share it with all of you. Thankfully WeCanSolveIt.org has a simple message you can send to ABC politely asking them to run this ad this Friday on 20/20. And it’s a good thing they did, my letter wouldn’t have been so pleasant. People just like us, 67,562 at the time I was writing this to be exact, have already sent in their messages. Send in your message here.

So just for fun, I decided to look into eco-friendly paints. I was curious what the big boys were doing, Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore. It was easier to navigate the earth friendly paints at Benjamin Moore and their new Natura paints caught my attention. Virtually odorless, zero VOC’s, and 100% acrylic - you can breathe easy while painting. It’s currently available here in California, as well as Washington, Oregon and Texas. It goes nationwide Spring 2009. And this environmentally sensitive doesn’t compromise on performance either. You can still expect a great adhesion, fast dry time and durable finish. 

When I think about paint collections, I’m drawn to the Pottern Barn seasonal collections by Benjamin Moore. This season is no different. Take a look at some of the Fall inspired colors they came up with this year. Texas Leather is my favorite.

In the past it wasn’t common for a “big” company and “eco-friendly” to be used in the same sentence. Today, it’s practically required, or at least it should be. The eco-conscious consumer is smart, knowing what to look for and not settling for the products that cause harm to our planet. Canon, the “big” company in this story started a new environmental initiative, “Generation Green” in hopes to reduce their environmental burdens of their products. You’ll soon be finding “green” scanners, PIXMA inkjet printers, and imageCLASS laser printers in your local electronics stores. I know this because my husband works at Fry’s Electronics and they just got them in. Canon will continue to aspire in the creation of products that consider both the consumer and the global environment together in harmony.

Eco-Conscious
Some of the nice new features of these “green” printers includes an automatic 2-sided printing (save up to 50% of paper), transparent inks, white LEDs, more compact in design, and more eco-friendly packaging. The Canon Scanners weren’t left out either with the energy-efficient USB Power Source and the white LED light.

Eco-Friendly
Canon’s Inkjet Printers, specifically the PIXMA printers, have a power supply casing made of recycled plastic. Their Laser Printers’ cartridges are 100% recovered with zero landfill waste. And Canon was the first in the printing industry to create a toner cartridge recycling program. Today they now have a hardware recycling program for scanners, PIXMA printers, and imageCLASS printers.

Eco-Standard
Canon’s Inkjet and Laser Printers, more specifically the PIXMA printers again, and all current Scanners are ENERGY STAR® qualified - and the printers automatically enter low-power mode when not in use (same with some of the imageCLASS printers). You won’t be finding any cadmium, mercury, lead, or any other hazardous materials in these products either, thanks to them being RoHS compliant.

Not only do the new iPods and iPod Touch 4G, or 4th generation, look great, but Apple made them environmentally friendly as well. Arsenic-free glass, BFR-free, mercury-free, PVC-free, and highly recyclable, Apple definitely made an effort here. Using an internal environment checklist, Apple was worried about the toxins, but also made these little guys highly recyclable. Way to go Apple.

Apple’s also improved the battery life to almost 24 hours for music and 4 hours for video, fewer call drops, and fixed a lot of their bugs. They are offering 3 models; 8GB for $229, 16GB for $299, and 32GB for $399. These will probably sell like hotcakes for the upcoming holiday season, from lime green to magenta to the classy silver, your friends and family will love these.

Until now, it has been internationally believed that the United States ranks number one, worldwide, as the country with the highest greenhouse gas emissions. However, a new report, to be published by the Journal of Environment Economics and Management next month, claims that China has already overtaken the United States as the world’s “biggest poll

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