Sticking It to the Man

From the creators of the Story of Stuff, comes the next animated chapter in the oversimplification of really difficult to understand complex issues with severe environmental consequences whose proposed solutions will continue the wealth and power for people who are already wealthy and powerful starring stick figures, the Story of Cap and Trade.

The Vine Line Between Fact and Fiction

Photo from Baldini Vineyards.

Geology is calling out the wine industry for its exaggerated product claims of high mineral concentration as scientific malarkey. The wine industry is responding, telling geology to relax, you're too tense, here, have a glass of wine.

Lights Out

People. Start buying and installing these.

Consumer misconception is at least partly to blame for the significant decline in national CFL sales. Performance issues that plagued earlier bulbs remain in the minds of many shoppers who believe believe these malfunctions still persist, despite the fact that for the most part they do not. The best way to discern a quality CFL from crap is to spot the ENERGY STAR label on its packaging, and to not buy it from IKEA.  Early pressure from government and environmental advocates to saturate store shelves with inexpensive, high efficiency, eco-friendly lighting, birthed a fair amount of bastard manufacturers who sacrificed quality control on the assembly line in favor of a fast-to-market product and hopefully higher profit margins.

Ming the Merciless

Instead of heat conducting metal fins that look like spacecraft from Flash Gordon, HydraLux LED bulbs engage a clear liquid coolant to prevent them from overheating. This form of heat control also provides 360° of small area illumination, which is great task lighting, especially if you are the prop guy in charge of gluing fishing line on miniature spacecraft for a 1930s science fiction serial whose primary special effect is a bunch of shots of steel bucket-like spacecraft flying from the left of the screen to the right of the screen. If you are that guy, then this bulb is awesome.

Climate Bill

The Climate Positive Development Programwants urban communities to be negative. Negative in emissions, that is. Clinton and friends tout their objectives in the video above.

Lights! Camera! Inaction?!

I don't think Annie Leibovitz used CFL or LED technology to light this shot. Instead, Mr. Clooney probably beckons the ladies with inefficient incandescent bulbs. He is not unlike the majority of American consumers who prefer this standard for all sorts of home applications. Recently, the New York Times, via their Green Inc. blog, have been putting the quality claims of high efficiency lighting to task. This report looks into the mysterious short life spans of some CFLs, while sometime design consultant to Annie Leibovitz, Don Pfeifer, speaks to the fixture-bulb conundrum in this interview.

The Incandoesnt Light Bulb

Edison's revolutionary and still market dominant incandescent light bulb was met with the same public and private scrutiny being faced by current clean technologies. Green Inc. comments on PBS' American Experience: Edison's Miracle of Light.

All You Can Eat Buffett

Über-investor Warren Buffett sees cap-and-trade systems as mere carbon taxes that utilities would pass on to its customers.

Blogging Efficiency

Inspired by its subjects, this post combines two links into one. The first challenges the atmospheric friendliness of compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). With longer life spans and improved light efficacy over incandescents, CFLs are widely acknowledged as a superior alternative for environmental sustainability. They use less electricity, which means less coal needs to be burned, which means less carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, right? Not so fast says a recent Canadian study. Since they use less energy, CFLs inherently generate less radiant heat. In Northern climates, like Canada, or Wisconsin, the less home lighting and appliance heat, the more a furnace needs to operate in order to maintain a higher indoor temperature. For units dependant on fossil fuels, like natural gas, longer operating times equal more greenhouse gases released. Though with proper insulation and air sealing, longer heating times should be less frequent. To blower door, or not to blower door? For many homeowners, that is the question. Link two lays out the value of home energy audits.

Hang Ten Megawatts

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome is hoping to make waves in renewable energy production.

Salt of the Sun

Solar Reserve, an energy tech company based in Santa Monica, California, is exploring solar power storage in salt.

Gridlock

We gonna plug into Electric Avenue. The grid we'll make it smarter.

The Real Sticker Price

A call to standardize home efficiency labels that would provide similar information as do appliance performance tags and automobile fuel efficiency stickers.

Green Sh*t

The New York Times has a new blog - Green Inc. It details the money train between environment and energy, business and government, and how policy, technology, and practice affect the bottom lines for both corporation and earth. The two are no longer mutually exclusive.