Renewable Energy and Alternative News Bites:
A dead-end Austrian town gets a new life and blossoms in a big
way with clean, green energy! Biofuels, biomass, co-generation (and
increased tourism) are just the start for this town. Read the
article at
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/28/business/carbon.php
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A coastal impact study at
http://www.architecture2030.org/current_situation/coastal_impact.html
is available to determine the effects of one meter of sea level
increase; mayors and citizens of U.S. coastal cities are very
interested in the findings; 53% of U.S. citizens live on or near
coastal regions.
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According to the German Wind Energy Association (http://www.wind-energie.de/en/),
the use of wind power has created savings of 2 billion Euro in 2007
for users. In the first half year, German wind farms produced 22
billion kilowatts of electricity—about 9% of the German electricity
consumption. Electricity from wind farms is now taking the place in
the electricity market of increasingly expensive conventional power
plants, such as old inefficient gas or coal stations.
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The whole idea stinks—but generating heat and electricity from
animal manure is appealing; the technology is an important component
of fighting climate change. Normally, farms store waste in a lagoon,
then use it later as fertilizer. But its natural decomposition
produces methane—much more potent than CO2. So the capture of that
gas and then use of it in an environmentally friendly fashion is a
positive double whammy! You can read more information about this
technology at
http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=49621
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Our Canadian neighbors can visit this site with information about
renewable energy incentives and grants:
http://www.oee.nrcan.gc.ca/corporate/incentives.cfm
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The National Farmers Union (NFU) has released a report documenting
how RES (Renewable Energy Standards) significantly increase jobs,
business activity and local tax revenues, particularly for farmers
and rural communities. NFU President Tom Buis says that “A national
renewable electricity standard will provide significant economic
opportunity in rural America.” Download the report in PDF format at
http://www.nfu.org/wp-content/res-for-nfu-7-27-2-07-clean.pdf
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If you think corn-based biofuels will save the world, think again;
researchers say more corn grown in the Midwest will result in more
agricultural run-off (i.e. fertilizers and pesticides) into the Gulf
of Mexico, contributing to an ever-increasing ‘dead zone’ where
little but algae survives. Last year’s dead zone was over 6600
square miles; this year’s is anticipated to exceed 8500 square
miles. Read this rather depressing article at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6904249.stm
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What is your ‘carbon footprint’? Here’s a carbon calculator, where
you can see how much carbon dioxide you and your lifestyle release
into the atmosphere every year:
http://www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/calculator/?src=nav1
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A self-contained dairy that will feed 7,500 cows--and power itself?
In fall of 2008, the XL Dairy Group will begin operations at its
site 100 miles west of Phoenix, AZ, and the facility will be a
self-contained bio-refinery designed to produce high-grade ethanol,
biodiesel, milk and dairy products, and animal feed --along with
100% of the energy required to run the plant. For more information
on this project visit
http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=48223
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A prototype wave energy device called the AquaBuoy has been deployed
off the coast of Newberg, OR, by a company called Finavera
Renewables, Inc. Located about two-and-a-half miles off the coast,
the unit consists of an open steel cylinder with a piston, suspended
and supplied by two steel-reinforced rubber hoses. As waves pass,
the piston moves up and down the cylinder, forcing high pressure
water into a turbine, generating power. You can view more
information about this fascinating project at
http://www.eere.energy.gov/news/news_detail.cfm/news_id=11261.
Quotable Quotes:
“If future generations are to remember us with
gratitude rather than with contempt, we must leave them something
more than the miracles of technology. We must leave them a glimpse
of the world as it was in the beginning.” ---Lyndon B. Johnson
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“All ethics...rest upon a single premise: that the individual is a
member of a community of interdependent parts. The land ethic simply
enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters,
plants and animals, or collectively, the land.” ---Aldo Leopold,
Wilderness Society founder
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“The average man does not know what to do with his life, yet wants
another one which will last forever.” ---Anatole France
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“Go to heaven for the climate, hell for the company.” ---Mark Twain
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“Man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but when separated
from law and justice, he is the worst of all.: ---Aristotle
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“And what is man without energy? Nothing -- nothing at all.” ---Mark
Twain
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“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” ---Ralph
Waldo Emerson
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“I have no doubt that we will be successful in harnessing the sun’s
energy; if sunbeams were weapons of war, we would have had solar
energy centuries ago.”
---Sir George Porter (won Nobel prize for chemistry in 1967)
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“Thoughts create a new heaven, a new firmament, a new source of
energy from which the arts flow.” ---Philipus Aureolus Paracelsus
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“You only lose energy when life becomes dull in your mind. Your mind
gets bored and therefore tired of doing nothing. Get interested in
something! Get absolutely enthralled in something! Get out of
yourself! Be somebody! Do something. The more you lose yourself in
something bigger than yourself, the more energy you will have.”
---Norman Vincent Peale
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It takes a lot more energy to fail than to succeed, since it takes a
lot of concentrated energy to hold on to beliefs that don’t work.”
---Jerry Gillies
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“Don’t get me wrong, I love nuclear energy! It’s just that I prefer
fusion to fission. And it just so happens that there’s an enormous
fusion reactor safely banked a few million miles from us. It
delivers more than we could ever use in just about 8 minutes. And
it’s wireless!” ---William McDonough
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