3p Contributor: Tom Schueneman
Recent Articles
James Inhofe Apologizes for Calling Global Warming a Hoax
April fool 2011 :-)
In what might be one of the most remarkable about-faces ever to come from within the beltway, James Inhofe, Senator and minority ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee (R. OKLA), apologized to a stunned Senate chamber for calling climate change the “greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.”
“It’s time for leadership in Washington on climate change,” said Inhofe. “To date, I have been an obstacle to that leadership, and that changes today.”
A confused and bewildered Republican leadership called for the Senate Sargent at Arms to restore order – “this man is not who he says he is!” cried Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, accusing Inhofe of being a liberal hollywood stunt double carrying out an evil socialist plot. The befuddled McConnell then made a choking sound, suddenly blurting out the word “Hitler!”
Gravity Power Module Revolutionizes Pumped Hydro Energy Storage
Energy storage is arguably the Achilles heal of renewable energy.
Matching the diurnal nature of the wind and the sun with the on-demand, baseload nature of human energy consumption requires energy storage that is scalable to Gigawatts, reliable, efficient, economically viable, and environmentally benign.
The only method of energy storage with any significant deployment is pumped hydro, with more than 120,000 megawatts installed globally. But the last large scale pumped hydro project went online more than thirty years ago, and almost all of that capacity is used as “peaking” power for baseload sources like coal, oil, and nuclear power.
Other technologies, such as batteries, thermal energy, or compressed air storage are considered candidates for renewable energy storage. But these solutions can be costly, difficult to scale to grid-sized operations, and are fraught with environmental concerns. And so it is with conventional pumped hydro.
Typically, a large scale pumped hydro project requires an investment of up to $3 billion dollars before investors see a return, taking up to fifteen years, with an equally large environmental footprint requiring two large bodies of water at differing elevations.
There are some visionary plans for the pumped hydro concept, such as the Green Power Island from Danish architectural firm Gottlieb Paludan. But such grand schemes remain purely conceptual and thus far fail to address the core issue: pumped-hydro remains environmentally and economically costly.
Gravity Power LLC, a startup based in Santa Barbara, California, has a plan to turn pumped hydro on its head – literally.
Tech Driving Behavioral Change: Talking with Autodesk U’s Emma Stewart
Notes from Autodesk University
The breadth and depth of the technological reach on display at Autodesk University, particularly for a first-timer such as myself, is, for lack of a less hackneyed phrase, overwhelming.
But what is important to eventually grasp at such an event is the transformative power of technology to drive behavioral – and thus societal – change. Skeptics of that idea can ponder what sort of smartphone they were using fifteen years ago, or ten, or five (or even that “smartphone” makes it past spell check). We live in a world driven by Moore’s Law.
Autodesk Clean Tech Partner Program Helps Create Urbee – the First 3D Printed Car
At 200 miles-per-gallon, the Urbee hybrid-electric car is touted by some as the “greenest car in the world.” But what might truly set the Urbee apart is that instead of building a prototype the “old-fashioned” way, Canadian design firm KOR EcoLogic printed one from a computer.
The Urbee is the first car produced from a 3D printer using advanced design tools provided by Autodesk through their Clean Tech Partner Program, which grants licenses to early stage clean-tech firms to suites of Autodesk design software worth up to $150,000 for only $50.
On the Ground at Autodesk University
Interested in attending Autodesk University? See below for information on access codes for a Virtual Premier Pass to the conference.
I arrived to a cold, dry, and colorful Las Vegas strip late Sunday to attend the annual global meeting known as Autodesk University. The irony of my invitation to explore the important work Autodesk does for creating a sustainable built environment is not lost in this town known for its excess and “secrets” that remain within the confines of the strip.
The point at Autodesk University is not to leave secrets, however, but to spread the word on what Autodesk calls The Power of the Possible.
EcoBold: One Woman’s Bold Vision to Help Consumers Get Green
Steffany Boldrini grew up on a small ranch in Brazil and dreamed of making a difference. Raised on organic food and taught at a young age about eating healthy, composting, recycling, and “living with the Earth,” a sense of environmental balance quickly became second nature to the young Boldrini.
With that innate environmental awareness grew a passion for showing others how to make greener, healthier choices. She combined that passion with some entrepreneurial savvy, determination, and a desire to make her mark in the world beyond rural Brazil. EcoBold was born.
Visualizing Sustainable Water Resource Management
3D modeling technology brought to task in managing water resources
More than 900 million people struggle to find enough clean water every day. Another 2.6 billion don’t have access to basic sanitation. But any faucet can run dry and none are exempt from the realities of a changing climate, growing population, and declining resources. Assuring sustainable water resources and sanitation globally is the requisite challenge for the 21st century.
To help call attention to this pressing challenge, the United Nations recently issued a declaration proclaiming access to clean water and sanitation as a fundamental human right. To help forestall a widening water and sanitation crisis, the UN declaration also urges its member states to provide financial and technological assistance to developing nations.
We focus here on technology, a key driver for accessible clean water and sustainable resource management in the coming decades – both in the developing and industrialized world.
Being “Practecol”: Vampires, Ben Franklin and the Sustainable Lifestyle
The idea certainly isn’t new. Though couched in the terms of another era, Ben Franklin advocated living a “sustainable” lifestyle when he extolled the moral and practical advantages of frugality and thrift more than two centuries ago. It was Franklin himself that toyed with the idea of harnessing the energy of lightning bolts, but he could have barely imagined where his tinkering would lead: to a world run on electricity.
Vampire power and phantom energy existed only in the world of fiction in Franklin’s day. Today, they are everywhere, sucking the precious energy that powers our world and our daily lives. And yet elimination of vampires and phantoms is simple, and when we do, it leads us down a path that would have made Franklin proud. And keeping with Franklin’s philosophy, the solution begins with simplicity itself.
Simplicity is a core mission element behind a new line of products from St. Louis-based start-up Practecol. Simplicity that is expressed in a range of “sustainability products” for home and home office use. Each product is simple in design, easy to use, manufactured, packaged, and marketed with sustainability as the fundamental design element. The aim is to make it simple to implement a basic home resource conservation program and realize a quick savings and return on the modest investment.
Bonn Climate Talks Wrap Up, Some Progress Made
Originally published on Global Warming is Real
The “Road to Cancun” moves haltingly forward with the conclusion last Friday of the United Nations climate talks in Bonn.
According to a UN press release, the two-week negotiating session made “important progress towards concluding what was left incomplete at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in 2009.”
The Bonn talks were the first official negotiations since the end of the highly charged COP15 climate talks in Denmark last December, from which came the Copenhagen Accord, leaving almost everyone disappointed and dissatisfied.
The National Restaurant Association: Green or Greenwash?
How is it that an imaginary restaurant called “Green Wallace Wash” can get a Greener Restaurant certificate from the National Restaurant Association? Read on…
This story comes to Triple Pundit exclusively from TheGreenWashingBlog.com series “A Greener Shade of Greenwash”
Triple Pundit readers are sophisticated in matters of sustainability and the now overused term “green.” To a certain degree, that sophistication has “trickled down” to the great unwashed masses of consumers. There is greater awareness concerning problems of sustainability and the increasing vulnerability of environmental resources.
We all know that marketing to people’s fears, concerns, and desires is how business is done. There is no inherent ethical dilemma in this; it is an intrinsic aspect of human interaction. But problems arise when this process is manipulated through deception or false claims. This can mislead sincere businesses and consumers interested in sustainability, it can also provide a tool for the unscrupulous who are looking to use “green” as nothing more than a marketing ploy.
When green turns into greenwash
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