Welcome to the second installation of “Solar Day” – June 19, 2010

The dust from the storm that is the BP oil spill will take a long time to settle. Clean energy, to some or most people who are not Republican Senator Barton and his friends would be the obvious alternative. Solar Energy can be considered clean under circumstances, but owing to the fact that we are yet to realize the benefits of solar energy, and because ample number of marketing and advertising folks now populate the energy sector, we have a Solar Day. As with a lot of things, this one also got started in San Francisco.

When?

It appears that the goal is to observe “Solar Day” on a weekend date before the summer solstice, which would annually be June 21. If you remember your geography, June 21st, the day of the annual summer solstice is the year’s longest day and the harbinger of summer. Whether you consider a clever play or irony, if you owned a solar energy generator of any size, in theory, this would be the day of the year when you generated maximum power.

Of course, if we decided to celebrate our solar day on the 21st every year, we couldn’t dress up and go ask for candy..er, that’s some other day, right? So, we do it on a weekend. This way, we can all dress up, and ask the Government to make it harder for oil and easier for solar power to be showered with discounts, grants and other such candy…

I expect we will soon have a “Wind Day” based on the same theme soon. You may not want to confuse this with windy days, of which we have many a year.

June 20, 2010   Posted in: Causes, Solar Energy  No Comments

Guest Post: Eco-conscious Individuals

Preface from Srihari: Last month, I was contacted by Jack Lundee who would like to be called simply as “Follower of all things green and progressive”. I must apologize for the delay it has taken me in pushing his post here, and I hope you would take some reading and enjoying the post.  If you are interested in making a guest post on this site, please feel free to write me at  srihari at yamanoor dot com.

The Post

Eco-conscious is a term that I’ve been hearing a lot lately. Specifically, people have been taking a more action-oriented approach at making this a better planet. But it’s not just the efforts of large corporations and collaborative units Doug Band and the CGI) on issues like renewable energy, sustainable crops, and fuel emission reduction; it’s actually the act of the individual that’s providing for a greener future.

For instance, there’s been great development work on eco-gadgets, or items that allow us to do everyday tasks, while remaining safe for the environment and the user.  This would include the lessened usage of batteries; one such example is a usb wireless optical mouse that feeds off a battery-less receiver.  Another fine example would include green rags, which have become a hit over the past couple of years. Biodegradable and highly efficient, these can be used to clean windows, wash cars, dry hands, etc…

Although, gadgets aren’t the only thing that have provided noteworthy support for the green individual; acts such as travel, trash dispensing, and cell phone usage have turned eco-friendly. Subsequently, heavy ideals like marriage have yielded to the go green message.  In a piece labeled “Green Marriage Ceremonies“, Larie Pawlik-Kienlen describes ways in which to effectively make your marriage eco-friendly. She goes on to tell her audience to use biodegradable paper for invitations; recycle dresses; donate your wedding gown to a good cause; rent a hybrid vehicle for transport; set up an organic gift registry, and so on and so forth. Off the top of my head I can generally think of one major thing that would support such an initiative and that would be to hold the ceremony outdoors! Ultimately, I feel as if this makes for a splendid organic wedding!

Eco-conscious is become more widely used as green and everything surrounding it becomes more action oriented. Large civil construction companies and business already understand the important of green lighting and LEED standards, but it’s up to the individual to make a significant change in the way we live and view our planet. In light of this, I hope you’ll take the time to visit http://www.earthday.org/ to find out what you can do to support your planet.

June 5, 2010   Posted in: Uncategorized  One Comment

Introducing – The story of stuff – bottled water

My cousin Sriram Sarma forwarded the link to the website “storyofstuff.org”. Their latest project of intrigue appears to be the story of bottled water. I found this quite interesting. On behalf of our AquaNation project (about which you can find here – the site is still being designed), I blogged about it here . However I felt selfish enough that I wanted to blog about this again.

Bottled Water – Manufactured Demand

As you watch the very nifty video I am going to post below you will realize that bottled water, like may “smart” phones is an effort to create demand where none exists. The harm with manufacturing demand for items like bottled water is the fact that the life-cycle of something like bottled water causes severe environmental damage.

Bottles are manufactured from plastics which are obtained from refined petrochemicals, i.e., oil, the kind that is now flowing into the Gulf of Mexico and reaching the US coast damaging the environment and livelihood of the people living in the South – East.

Aside from the consumption of oil, huge amounts of energy go into the production, transportation, usage and disposal of these bottles. Of course you know that most of these bottles end up in the landfills rather than being recycled.

The Down-cycle brouhaha and how your bottle ends up in India!

Yes, according to the movie from the story of stuff people, a lot of bottles from California are sent to destinations in countries like India apparently to be “recycled”. However this is not what happens.  To begin with, plastics cannot be “recycled” based on current technology. As such whenever plastics are “recycled”, they are “down-cycled”, that is they come out as a lower grade than where they started.

However, the movie shows a case where plastic bottles from California ended up in a huge mountain pile outside Chennai, an inherent polluter by itself. So, the bottled water is now on it’s way to make it’s unpleasantness felt across the Globe!

Who is the real enemy – tap water or the bottle water touting soft drink companies?

According to the soft drink companies, include Coke and Pepsi (especially hypocritical in nature given their “refresh everything” front), tap water is somehow lower in quality, the enemy and something that will be relegated to a secondary stature “soon” by their campaigns. Only reality doesn’t measure up.

You may wonder – “If this is true, why do so many people drink bottled water?” It is a good question to ask. A lot of us succumb to products that we don’t need, yours truly included. Over years, we tend to forget how and why we ended up making the purchasing choices to begin with. However, it is exactly movies like “The Story of Bottled Water” that wake us to these re-thinks. I did replace plastic bottles with steel bottles by June 2009 itself, so I am almost there in terms of being nearly plastic free with drinking water. If you have not done so, I hope the movie inspires you to do so.

Actions you can take

I am going to regurgitate most of what I wrong under actions at the AquaNation blog, since the actions hold:

1. Carry a re-usable water bottle.

2. Try not to purchase bottled water at all.

3. Discourage the practice of purchasing and using bottled water where possible.

4. If you must use bottled water, please make an effort to dispose off the bottle(s) appropriately.

5. Join a movement, volunteer and/or take action with leadership.

Please watch the movie here:

References:

1. http://storyofstuff.org/bottledwater/

2. http://www.storyofstuff.org/

May 2, 2010  Tags: , , ,   Posted in: Causes, Sustainability and Media, water  3 Comments

National Arbor Day – April 30, 2010

Trees do so much for us. We use them in agriculture, to make paper, as lumber and so on and so forth. One of my favorite trees/plants is the “Traveler’s Palm” I learned about in high school. Traveler’s Palm, Ravenala madagascariensis (and I have remembered that all these years!) is a plant that belongs to the family Musacea along with our friend Musa paradisiaca, the aphrodisiac known as the banana plant or the Birds of Paradise - Sterlitzia Reginae.

I know, I am drifting off, but the plants and trees of the family Musacea are all monocotyledons, which means, they have a single cotyledon, making them the simpler and evolutionarily more ancient. This also causes them to have parallel veins on their leaves. While the leaves of the banana plant yield under the wind and tear in many places, the traveler’s palms leaves fan out higher and have a very strong vein running through the middle. As the vein progresses towards the middle of the tree, it forms a nice trough. Rain water collected in this cool and dark hollow forming a great source of water for travelers!

This is but one example of how trees serve us in many, many ways.

Stop for a moment. Look at the trees around you. Go sit under a tree and enjoy the shade!

Think about planting one. You may want to donate to have trees planted….

Arbor Day is celebrated around the world in some form or the other. You might want to look into how and when it is celebrated in your country or region and participate accordingly.

Finally, here is something beautiful that Warren Buffet said on Arbor Day:

“Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” — Warren Buffet

If you liked this quote, here are some more you might enjoy:

http://blog.beliefnet.com/freshliving/2010/04/quotes-about-trees-for-arbor-day-2010.html

Happy Arbor Day!

April 30, 2010   Posted in: Causes  One Comment

Earth Day is here!

It is as simple as that.  Many events are not seen as seminal the moment they occur. Take Earth Hour for instance – it started in a bar. Similarly, when the Earth Day was first celebrated in 1970, did the founders feel the impact of what they had set forth? Maybe, maybe not. However, they would be happy to see all that has come to pass when the event hits it’s 40th anniversary.

The Earth and her children

These are tumultuous times. Yet, more people realize the importance of conservation and sustainability than ever before.  Just this past weekend, I was volunteering with a program that allows us to teach young children anything they want. I taught two three-hour classes on “Sustainable Living for a sustainable world”. My classes tend to be set in a format where I ask people a lot of questions and through answers lead to discussions and dismissals of myths and such.

I am happy to tell you that today’s children are well on their way to be the first generation of global citizens with the best levels of awareness of the Earth, her ailing and how to venture on a path that will help fix these issues.

The path forward

Even today, there are a whole bunch of people who want to shut their ears out and sip “tea” in their ignorant bliss. If you really want to save the Earth they should not be the focus. Yes, it is important to stop them from running over our resources. However, the focus should be on people who are willing to forge a new path – the path towards a world where we reduce, recycle, and renew whatever it is – food, energy or our consumables.

It is in this path, with these folks that our future lies.

To learn more about the Earth Day and the events associated with the day, visit: http://www.earthday.org/

April 22, 2010  Tags: ,   Posted in: Causes, events  2 Comments

EnergyStar: Who is going to certify our certification programs?

Recently EnergyStar was in the news, and obviously not for the right reasons. If you do not know what EnergyStar is, it is a brand built by the Government to help businesses label their products as energy efficient. The website with it’s ostentatious offers to help you improve the energy efficiency of your house among other things.

You can mesmerize yourselves by going here: http://www.energystar.gov/

When the program derails

The “program” seemed to be running just fine, till the GAO was able to push forth an investigation. All hell, so to speak broke loose. Here is some of what came to pass:

1.1. The program did not evaluate if the products being submitted for certification were real or if they were coming from a real company. This is not altogether a new disease for certifying or examining agencies. Back in 2009, I blogged on how an IRB had provided approvals for studies from fake companies with some interesting names. You can read about that here.

1.2. The program approved a product that was purported to be a gasoline powered alarm clock. Of course, there is no reason why a gasoline powered alarm clock is not plausible. However, is it useful? Would you check to see if it exists if someone brought it up, say in a conversation? This begs the question – what exactly is the certification process here?

1.3. Some seemingly legitimate products were rejected. It is not clear if the GAO said what the response was.

1.4. A few products were also withdrawn by the GAO when they never received a response within the investigation period. It is not clear why this happened either.

Pouncing on the wrong problem

It might appear that we should immediately hoist EnergyStart, the DOE and the EPA to the altar and sacrifice them. That of course would make for a great Tea Party.

It would be the wrong thing to do, of course.

The real problem is this – no certification program is appropriate without clear, well established procedures and documentation.

Can we simply pull well documented and outlined procedures out of thin air?

Absolutely not.

The solution

2.1 Do not baptize

That’s right. Do not baptize a defective, albeit first-step solution. This is exactly what the EPA and the Government did with EnergyStar. Once they labeled it to be their solution to the consumers’ quest for energy efficiency, it was pretty much forgotten. Yes, they can claim now that they will work on it, but this should have been laid out clearly in the beginning.

The consumer may be busy, and may not be a fool. You do not have to present yourself as an oversimplified know-it-all to the average person. If the EPA had come clear and mentioned that EnergyStar was  a growing system, this problem with the PR disaster could have been lessened.

2.2 Do not sensationalize, Senator Snowe

Of all the people to go bananas over a Government rating system, I would have never presumed it would be Senator Snowe. Government agencies can do with some of the sensational and sleazy “investigations” run by the GAO at the behest of board legislators.

If she did have doubts about the EnergyStar program, which is what unequivocally motivated her call to the GAO that lead to the investigation.

Well, how about alerting the EPA about her doubts to begin with? Wouldn’t that have avoided this unnecessary embarassment to an agency that is also run with taxpayer money?

Seriously, if this does not stop, someone needs to investigate and see if the GAO is being abused by certain Senators…because the GAO wasn’t pulled out of the Easter Bunny’s tushy – that was also paid for by “taxpayers”.

2.3 Optimize

Optimize the certification program. When you begin, you make some assumptions on the science, the elements examined toward certification, volumes and so on. As time progresses and you start providing this certification, things start to evolve and even devolve based on circumstances or improvements in science and/or other observations.

For example, a lot of companies are now performing life cycle assessment to ascertain and/or minimize the carbon footprint of their products. However, one of the current weaknesses (one of many, mind you) is that LCA does not have a time value associated with the emissions. It is assumed that all the carbon (or other) emissions for the product that will be released in the product’s life cycle is made in one giant step. This of course is not true however.

Scientists postulate that the effect of carbon dioxide released slowly over time (which is the real case) is much worse than assuming that carbon dioxide from the entire product life cycle is released in one big puff. Even as we are aware of this, we do not dance naked on the streets or “investigate” LCA consultants.

With transparency and through the use of standards, LCA turns out to be at the highest echelon of acceptable practices to study the impact of a product on the environment.

2.4 Handle Deeper Issues

It is obvious that the problems with EnergyStar were not from a misunderstanding of science. The problems have more to do with poor procedures and poor or absent leadership. However, eliminating or screaming out loud would not be the solution. It is time the DOE and EPA got their act together and streamlined processes so that the companies that submit applications are scrutinized along with the products.

2.5 Comparative Studies?

Comparative studies are controversial in healthcare, but controversy or not, it would be interesting to create benchmarks for each class or type of energy device and look at how newly submitted products line up. Once again, the Government needs to ensure that the benchmarks are also pliable for replacement and constant reexamination.

Conclusion

When it comes to energy and sustainability certification, the “tax payer” stands to gain a lot from programs that are well defined programs created with a focus on maturity and excellence rather than sleaze and sensationalism. While it is important to investigate and clear agencies, it is also important to provide them with the leadership and support they deserve.

March 28, 2010  Tags: , , , ,   Posted in: Causes, Government and Sustainability, Renewable Energy Politics  3 Comments

Blog Brief: Off Topic – The EPA opens up…

…it’s website, that is.

It looks like the EPA is on it’s way for a prolonged overhaul of it’s website. And the first step, appears to be a new front page.  I took a look at it, and though it has hints of 1969, the new looks are promising.

Apparently, the EPA website has a whopping 500,000 pages. That is whopping! Of my handful of websites, once I had counted my homepage at 1,200+ pages. That pales in comparison to what the EPA has to overhaul! We should appreciate that!

So congratulations, EPA. One down, 499,999 more to go?

Open Government Directive

In addition, they are also talking about open government at the EPA. This of course is not unique to the EPA. The Obama Administration has issued an Open Government Directive and the EPA is doing it’s bit. They have invited everyone to share ideas.

It is always good to see any government try to keep up with the times (hear that China?).

One would only hope that there will be fewer missteps, like the one I pointed a few days ago:

http://www.itshothere.org/?p=143

References:

1. http://www.epa.gov

2. http://www.epa.gov/open/index.html?gd

March 23, 2010   Posted in: EPA, Government and Sustainability  One Comment

World Water Day on March 22, 2010

Most, if not all of us have grown in a time where we take a special day to celebrate or observe a day. For example, today is St. Patrick’s Day, an Irish holiday. Do not ask me anything about this though, :) , my knowledge of Irish history is very basic.

Why do we celebrate a Water day, or an Earth Day and what do we expect to come out of it?

The power of rumination

Whatever the cause, while some of us commit themselves completely to a cause, many of us cannot. However, given that this world is made of six billion people, even if some of us gave pause and spent a few minutes, the power of the consequences are extraordinary.

I wrote on very similar lines, when I mentioned the upcoming Earth Day on March 27, 2010 here:

http://www.itshothere.org/?p=121

In effect, on a single given day, if we all planned to do a few things – one thing, we can still make a big difference. Of course, the hope is, we make one small change, pick up one new habit or do something that will last for ever, or a long enough time to have a positive effect. Yes, it is a little bit like the new year’s resolutions, but take it from someone who manages to work around that, we can do it.

How is water important?

An absurd question, I know. But as you expect, it is time to use what scared me and scared you in return. Do you know that about 75% of the Earth’s surface is composed of water, however, only 5% of it is worthy of consumption? Do you know that about 1.1 billion people across the planet rely on unsafe water? Did you know water resource depletion is one of our main concerns as a species and a planet going forward?

You probably knew some, if not all, or more about this than I do! So, there you are, we all understand water is important!

So, what can we do for water?

While I was trying to ascertain how to give a long winding lecture on what we can all do to conserve water, or think about it, I found this website with over a 100 ideas on what we can do to save water!

http://www.wateruseitwisely.com/100-ways-to-conserve/index.php

While it would be hard and meaningless to try and observe every one of them, National Geographic challenges all of us to try and observe at least 5 of them.  I am going to try five of them. From the website, here’s my five, and then some:

1. “#23 Shorten your shower by a minute or two and you’ll save up to 150 gallons per month.”

2. “#32 Designate one glass for your drinking water each day or refill a water bottle. This will cut down on the number of glasses to wash.”

3. “#39 When doing laundry, match the water level to the size of the load.”

4. “#43 Soak pots and pans instead of letting the water run while you scrape them clean.”

5. “#54 Turn off the water while brushing your teeth and save 25 gallons a month.”

6. “# 80 Share water conservation tips with friends and neighbors.” (This would be YOU!)

7. “100 Turn off the water while you shave and save up to 300 gallons a month.”

8. “#111 When you are washing your hands, don’t let the water run while you lather.”

Note that I do currently follow many of these ideas, however, it is always good to reinforce one’s ideas and look forward to practicing good habits for many years.

Do you have your own ideas to help conserve water? Do you have a plan? Maybe you have children, or your own home and that can allow you to hit more of these targets than I can. However you respond, I hope we can all join hands and ease the choke hold on water supplies!

The world’s longest queue

Let me explain. The World Water Day campaign precedes a meeting of politicians from across the world in Washington D.C., USA, to discuss water. However, there is a risk that this can devolve into an opportunity to spay each other with hormones of machismo and prevent any credible change from happening. To exhort politicians to act and cause real change, an attempt is being made to set a new Guinness Book record (yes, people still read it or refer to it or get into it, I guess!) on demand for change.

I am joining. Why not join me?

Why a queue?

In many developing countries such as India, water is very, very scarce. Even I have stood in a queue during the brief periods when our formerly very lucky city (very, very lucky if you will) ran out of water, to get water. This is a common phenomenon and a way of life for many in India. Guess who gets to stand in line for the most part? Yes, you guessed it right, women.

So, making small changes that increase water availability can cause social change beyond your imagination!

So, lets form a queue to bring politicians closer to reality. So join here:

Other resources

  1. http://www.worldwaterday.org/
  2. http://www.waterday.org/

March 18, 2010   Posted in: Causes, Uncategorized, water  2 Comments

The EPA’s web presence and outreach – some assembly required

Google Alerts are great. They lead you to all kinds of nifty little discoveries. One of the recent discoveries I made, just a few hours ago, is that the EPA is holding an online/video meeting to help the public by answering questions on the principles of “reduce, reuse and recycle” as far as solid waste management goes.

That is really nice. But, I found a couple of shortcomings, that I want to write about here and maybe email EPA about them:

Shortcomings of the EPA’s online efforts

While the outreach by the EPA is very good, and I would like to watch the meeting myself, here are a couple of observations.

1. How is it that the general public can find these meetings so that they have enough notice to prepare and/or listen to the meetings? That part seems to be shrouded in some type of enigma here.

2. There appear to be errors on the website – a little too obvious. Here is a glaring one at the bottom of the page where the web meeting is advertised (linked at the end of the post):

I am not trying to build mountains here so that some EPA-haters can do some virtual top-removal here. It is just that when doing outreach like this, the EPA is best advised to fix errors, especially obvious ones….here’s to hoping!

The meeting itself:

http://www.epa.gov/oswer/videotownhall.htm

February 23, 2010   Posted in: EPA  4 Comments

Where will you find the next hint of your carbon footprint? – Airline food?

Well, yes, pretty soon, especially if you travel by Thai Airways International.

Even as dubious research “threatens” mainstream research on global warming, people across the world appear all set to move past tea parties, and look at how they can educate their customers, train them and help them with information that helps them be more energy efficient, and possibly pay to offset their footprint.

Thai Airways International’s baby steps are of course the first anyone has taken in this regard. From the little that I learned by reading the article, it appears that the following two dishes have the honor of being the first to tell their partakers of the footprint involved in ingestion, digestion and the general hedonistics involved in eating them:

1. Chicken Mussaman Curry with steamed Thai Hom Mali Rice (13.6 kg CO2 e per 250g serving),and,

2. Green Curry Kiew-Wan with steamed Thai Hom Mali Rice (13.9 kg CO2 e per 250g serving)

Don’t be surprised by the large quantity of the carbon dioxide, since it does take a lot to bring food on flight and serve it to you.

Anyway, time for you to decide if you want to take the flight or be stuck running backward in a tea party…

Reference:

http://www.foodweek.com.au/main-features-page.aspx?ID=6587

February 21, 2010   Posted in: Sustainable Food  One Comment