Category Archives: Clean Energy

How Corporations Greenwash Kids

Posted on April 20, 2012 by lzerbe| 3 Comments

 

By Kai Olson-Sawyer, Leslie Hatfield, and Jennifer Bunin, EcoCentric
Main Image for: Green Lessons: What Corporations Are Telling Kids and What Kids Are Saying about Environmental Issues

Somewhere, over the rainbow…everything is slightly more pastoral when you’re drilling it. Continue reading →

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Posted in Children's Health, Clean Energy, Climate Destabilization

Solar: Is It Even Safe?

Posted on March 28, 2012 by lzerbe| 2 Comments

by Pierre Bull, Air & Energy policy analyst at Natural Resources Defense Council

Many people have asked me lately, “What goes inside solar panels and does any of it pose a health risk?”  A report released today by the corporate watchdog group,  As You Sow , titled, Clean & Green: Best Practices in Photovoltaics, gives a fair and comprehensive overview of the health and safety risks with regard to solar photovoltaic manufacturing and end of life management. The report discusses:

  . . .  in non-scientific language, the process of manufacturing PV panels, the risks involved, and how companies mitigate those risks. It focuses on practices and policies companies use to mitigate risks from hazardous compounds, reduce environmental impact, and responsibly manage their supply chains. Continue reading →

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Posted in Clean Energy, Climate Destabilization, Low-Impact Living

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The Gas Price Blame Game

Posted on March 16, 2012 by lzerbe| 2 Comments

by Peter Lehner, executive director, Natural Resources Defense Council

Every year when gas prices rise, politicians and pundits like to play the blame game. On Fox & Friends, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal blamed the Obama administration’s “radical environmental ideology” for high gas prices. (The latest Bloomberg poll, however, showed that most Americans do not blame the White House.) The Christian Science Monitor points the finger at India. Continue reading →

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Posted in Clean Energy, Climate Destabilization

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Saving the Planet Is Good For Your Health!

Posted on March 9, 2012 by emain| 1 Comment

by Peter Lehner, executive director, Natural Resources Defense Council

Environmental safeguards have clearly proven their value over the past few decades, bringing returns on investment as high as 40 to 1. Yet in its recent coverage of U.S. regulations, The Economist chooses to ignore this track record, and instead trot out a host of tired, unsubstantiated industry arguments against regulation. (NRDC chief economist Laurie Johnson has a detailed response to the article’s surprising errors in her blog.) Continue reading →

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Posted in Clean Energy, Climate Destabilization

Fracking Takes Center Stage in New York Show

Posted on February 21, 2012 by lzerbe| 3 Comments

by David L’Heureux, Senior Editor, Rodale

New York-based performance ensemble Strike Anywhere premieres its show Same River at the Irondale Center in Brooklyn from February 23 – March 3. The multimedia, interview-based, improvised production uses dance, music and theater as a lens for examining the practice of hydraulic fracturing (or fracking) in the Marcellus Shale natural gas formation beneath New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. (Read how fracking works here). An audience-ensemble forum to discuss the show and the potential impacts that fracking could have on water supplies throughout the region follows each performance.

New York-based performance ensemble addresses the impacts of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in its show Same River.

“Ultimately we are trying to raise awareness and incite dialog around this issue,” says Leese Walker, an actor and the Artistic Director of Strike Anywhere. “That’s one of the reasons we do the post-show dialog. We want people in the audience talking to one another about fracking.”

Continue reading →

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Posted in Clean Energy, Climate Destabilization

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How You Can Go Green This Year

Posted on January 10, 2012 by lzerbe| 2 Comments

 by Deirdre Imus, founder and president of The Deirdre Imus Environmental Health Center at Hackensack University Medical Center

As the New Year continues to breathe fresh—and, I hope, healthier—life into us all, The Worldwatch Institute, a global environmental research organization, has released its 12 Simple Steps for Going Green in 2012. Continue reading →

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Posted in Clean Energy, Low-Impact Living, Organic Food

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Your New Biking Resolution Could Save Billions

Posted on December 22, 2011 by lzerbe| Leave a comment


By Jessica Lass, senior press secretary, National Resources Defense Council

Making the list for most New Year’s resolutions is a renewed commitment to exercise. In LA, we have the additional benefit of nice weather to encourage residents to stick to that resolution, but usually within the first few weeks of January or early February, it’s easy to let those exercise goals fall to the way side. Continue reading →

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Posted in Clean Energy, Low-Impact Living

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The Electric Car Exacts Its Revenge

Posted on November 7, 2011 by lhatfield| Leave a comment


by Peter Hanlon, Research and Policy Analyst, GRACE Communications Foundation

“I didn’t even like cars.”

Not exactly what you’d expect to hear from a film director best known for his work documenting the rise, fall and rebirth of the electric car. But after driving electric cars for the past ten years, Chris Paine, who just a few years ago asked Who Killed the Electric Car?, has become a car guy, prone to discuss the finer points of his all-electric Tesla Roadster, plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt or dearly-departed General Motors EV-1. Continue reading →

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Posted in Clean Energy, Climate Destabilization, Low-Impact Living

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End Green Energy Subsidies…Now

Posted on September 28, 2011 by lzerbe| Leave a comment

by Ian Woofenden, senior editor of Home Power magazine

Subsidies for renewable energy are in the news this month, with the bankruptcy and investigation of solar start-up Solyndra taking center stage. This gives me a good opportunity to express my views on the subject, which do not run with the mainstream of the renewable energy industry.

I am opposed to subsidies for energy. All subsidies skew our choices, and make the project in question into a political endeavor. Because I’m in favor of voluntary transactions as the most peaceful and productive, I value individual choice, risk, and consequences. Continue reading →

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Save Cash and the Climate With Heating & Cooling Tips

Posted on August 18, 2011 by lzerbe| Leave a comment

 

by Ian Woofenden, senior editor of Home Power magazine

In almost all North American homes, heating and cooling are the largest single energy load. In the south, cooling may dominate; in the north, heating. Combined, these two energy requirements usually dwarf all others. So it’s important to focus on them if your goal is to live in a reasonably sustainable home. Continue reading →

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