All power to you, Google!

My leprechaun friend, below, tells me that it's motivated, grass-root ideas that are going to create the groundswell needed for meaningful change at the level where it has to happen — the consumer.

I would rather throw my lot in with a market-signalling coalition of the good-willing than all the vapid international treaties and lobby-bruised politicians in the world. And Google PowerMeter now offers me a practical way to participate (assuming Google in Oz offers same). Here's their spiel:

Google PowerMeter allows you to:

Access
See your electricity use from any Google Powermeter enabled device.

Learn
Understand more about how you use electricity throughout the day.

Save
Reduce your electricity use and lower your monthly bills.

Since Google are currently exhausted from Doing No Evil, they are Doing This Gratis, participating leprechauns, and their offspring, get to keep their saved gold:

Google PowerMeter is a project of Google.org, Google's philanthropic arm, which aspires to leverage the power of information and technology to address global challenges.

May de road roise up to greet you!

Global Warning Climate Change Energy

0-100 kmh in 3.9 seconds.... electric Tesla Roadster

It's no surprise the world's first green sports car is red...



... at 0-100 kms in 3.9 seconds.



SMH

HOLLYWOOD stars anxious to prove their green credentials are paying more than $100,000 for a sexy electric sports car now rolling out in the US.

The sleek Tesla Roadster, pictured, is modelled on the Lotus Elise, and goes from 0-100 kmh in 3.9 seconds.

With a top speed of 200 kmh, the two-seater has a range of 370 kilometres between recharges of its lithium ion batteries.

Actors George Clooney, Matt Damon and Jenny McCarthy, boxer George Foreman and singer Will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas are among those on the year-long waiting list.

Australian-born Michael "Flea" Balzary, bass player for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, said on his blog he decided to go electric after watching the documentary Who Killed The Electric Car?

A dozen Teslas are already on Californian roads.

The company founded by PayPal billionaire Elon Musk, plans to produce 10,000 Tesla sedans next year at a plant in New Mexico.

Going green doesn't have to mean giving up speed, performance and luxury. Who would have thought? No hairshirts for those on the waiting list.

Meanwhile, closer to home, for those seeking something a bit more accessible.

In Australia, Ross Blade is converting Hyundai Getz hatchbacks into his electric Blade Runner in Victoria.

They sell for $40,000, have a range of 120 kilometres per recharge with a top speed of 120 kmh. Melbourne City Council and the Victorian Government have bought one each.

"Orders are piling up and we expect to convert 200 cars this financial year," Mr Blade said.

Big US car makers are developing electric versions of existing models. Hyundai will release an LPG/electric hybrid Elantra next year while Mitsubishi will sell an all-electric car in 2010.

The NRMA has demanded the Federal Government help speed up development of electric cars.

So this petrol engine Hyundai Getz 1.6 SX is offered for $14,990 at the mid year sale.

I would have thought it had a low emissions profile, but the Prius Fuel Saver Calculator can tell you. Plugging the Hyundai Gets 1.6 in, selecting the 4 speed automatic petrol engine option, at 15,000 kms per year and $1.55 per litre of petrol the Hyundai will cost $1,651 per year in petrol.

Interestingly, a $39,000 1.5 litre hybrid electric engine Prius will cost you $1,023 per year in petrol to run (and cause 1590 kg / year carbon emissions from a fuel economy of 4.4 L / 100km verses the Hyundai Getz' 2550 kg / year at 7.1 L / 100km)

And Ross Blade's Bladerunner would cost $150 per year for off-peak green power, to approximately $250 for peak green power. Or $0 if it's solar.

Technorati Tags: global warming, climate change

Al Gore rails America for a Clean Energy "Moon Shot"

Watthead have the good oil.

By Alisha Fowler and Jesse Jenkins

Today, Al Gore became a major ally in the ongoing effort to build consensus around an investment-centered approach to solving our energy crisis and inspiring our nation to tackle the energy challenge as the defining task of our era.

Gore issued a truly ambitious challenge for America "to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years." The organization he leads, the Alliance for Climate Protection, estimates the cost of making such a "moon shot call" a reality at 1.5 to 3 trillion dollars of public and private investment over 30 years. He issued this call to "all Americans - in every walk of life: to our political leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, engineers, and every citizen."

Technorati Tags: global warming, climate change

Whereis tells me where to go. Frankly, I love it

It's just the kind of out-there relationship you can have with a brand now-a-days. Especially one offering to plan my car journey, then offset the fuel emissions.

Whereis® (Sensis) are working with Greenfleet (who do good work restoring the Murray) on a project called GreenRoad to plant trees to offset the combined ghg emissions of their membership.

They're in the unique position to easily carbon neutralise your extra-habitual trips, you don't have to. So join up, now.

You'll love it when Whereis clears the air with you.

Global Warning Climate Change Greenfleet GreenRoad

Public's conflicting attitudes to climate action

The most interesting part of that Ipsos Mori poll on British attitudes to climate change, 2008 (concerned but still unconvinced) [7 page PDF], was that while no man is an island, the public is.

Almost two thirds (61%) say they personally find the subject of climate change interesting, yet over three quarters (77%)are pessimistic about the likelihood of others responding.

I am fairly sure they are reflective of our attitudes Down Undah, so the poll would be instructive for Australia government policy makers. I wonder whether it is because concern about climate change is a private one. Most are concerned, but the nature of CC seems so out of our control that we internalise. If we don't hear about people talking about climate change or global warming, and how to fight it, then we assume people don't share our concerns.

Looks like there is a big demand that Facebook type social networking sites can facilitate for the climate-change concerned. Another project for GWW to research: I wonder how many such online groups exist?

Technorati Tags: global waming, climate change

California goes down hydrogen highway

Look to California for leadership on climate change action, says John Addison in CleanTechBlog:

On April 20, 2004, after 40 years of fighting it was all smiles between auto executives from Detroit and the regulators of California’s health and emissions. That day a new governor signed the historic California Hydrogen Highways Executive Order.

Two years later California has it's first hydogen refuelling station. Terry Tamminen, an energy and environmental consultant to governments and author of Lives per Gallon drives a Honda FCX hydrogen fuel cell vehicle:

The car is an electric vehicle that uses an electric motor, not an engine, and captures braking energy into advanced batteries. The car also has a fuel cell which takes hydrogen from the onboard storage tank and makes continuous electricity. From his home in Santa Monica, Terry can drive almost 200 miles then pull into a hydrogen station and refuel. Terry leases the car from Honda for $500 per month. The lease includes all maintenance and collision insurance. In the future, he may lease Honda’s latest fuel cell vehicle, the FCX Clarity for $600 per month, and get a range of almost 300 miles.

Unlike most places in the United States, Terry can find over ten hydrogen stations in the nearby Los Angeles area for a fill-up. Conveniently nearby is a new Shell gas station that also includes a hydrogen pump. The hydrogen is made from H2O at the station. Yes, water is split into hydrogen and oxygen. Customers like Terry can fuel their hydrogen vehicles in five minutes then drive off, an advantage over battery electric vehicles that are typically charged overnight.

With his zero-emission vehicle, Terry gets convenience while staying true to his environmental values.

I want one. C'on Sydney.

Technorati Tags: global waming, climate change

Guide to Greener Electronics now captures carbon

The 8th edition of Greenpeace’s Guide to Greener Electronics has expanded it's criteria to include both the direct and indirect carbon footprints of a manufacturer's products. An indirect footprint includes emissions from the embedded energy that goes into manufacturing and distributing a product.

Only two companies - Sony Ericsson and Sony – score above 5/10. The overall score of the ranked companies has plummeted as Greenpeace tightened requirements on electronic waste (e-waste) and toxic chemicals and adds new requirements for evaluating companies’ impact on global warming.

“Electronics giants pay attention to environmental performance on certain issues while ignoring
others that are just as important,” said Casey Harrell, Greenpeace International Toxics Campaigner. “Philips, for example, scores well on chemicals and energy criteria but earns a zero on e-waste since it has no global take-back policies. Philips would score higher if it took responsibility for its own branded e-waste and established equitable global take-back schemes.”

Many companies score well on energy efficiency as their products comply and exceed Energy Star standards. The best performers on energy efficiency are Sony Ericsson and Apple, with all of their models meeting, and many exceeding, Energy Star requirements. Sony Ericsson stands out as the first company to score almost top marks on all of the chemicals criteria. With all new Sony Ericsson models being PVC-free, the company also has met the new chemicals criterion in the ranking, having already banned antimony, beryllium and phthalates from models launched
since January 2008.

Consumerism: The Musical

Encore.... encore...

clipped from www.grist.org

GetUp! gets $250K to put down Government climate campaign

Story so far ... John Howard, the Australian Prime Minister, still hasn't made that trip to the Governor General to call the election date. That's because he is so far behind in the polls that he is foisting every bit of taxpayer funded pro-Government advertising he legitimately can while the election hasn't been called. Kevin Rudd, leader of the Labor opposition, is saying the Liberal's spend is $1 million a day.

But, the air-time assault is annoying audiences, to the tune of $243,900. That's how much money Australians have given GetUp! Sydney at time of writing, to run the anti-ad below, pointing out that the Government's greenwash media blitz amounts to advertising puffery.



GetUp! bought the following media time during the AFL Grandfinal, smack bang in the ground zero of the Liberal's saturation advertising. It's a goal.

Good on everyone who dipped into their pockets to counteract the misappropriation of their own taxes. It's eye-opening for normally politically-relaxed Australians to see how powerful organised, grass-roots, community activism can be. Here is the time GetUp! bought:

These are the spots GetUp has purchased to show the ad on Saturday's AFL

AFL Grand Final in Melbourne - 15.08pm
AFL Grand Final in Sydney - 14.16pm
Pre-game in Brisbane - 12.07pm
Pre-game in Adelaide - 11.08pm

Based on the overwhelming response we have purchased a further 50 ad slots in Newcastle, Tamworth, the Gold Coast, Lismore, Taree, Coffs Harbour, Canberra, Wollongong, Albury, Shepparton, Ballarat, Bendigo, Gippsland, the Sunshine Coast, Rockhampton, Toowomba, Cairns, Bundaberg, Townsville, Mackay, Darwin, Launceston and Hobart. There are none left in WA.

Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Business is ready to tackle climate change

Australian business CEOs, GMs and MDs are an astute lot, or at least 85.82% of them are. A survey, by Business Climate International shows that, as a group, the vast majority are overwhelmingly concerned about climate change.

With a little more education they will become a powerful environmental voice — money talks, and there's money to be saved by using energy more efficiently.

clipped from www.businessclimate.com.au Top businesses rank their concerns in exclusive poll: To gauge what the Australian business world thinks about climate change, Business Climate International recently conducted an extensive survey of some of the country’s top CEO’s across hundreds of large, medium and small businesses. Surprisingly, results show that business leaders are overwhelmingly concerned (85.82%) and a third (33.33%)believe that hunger is likely to be the biggest by- product of climate change, while almost half (42.86%) agree that pollution is indeed the main cause. The survey found that almost a quarter of polled recipients (21.43%) identify increasing populations as a contributing factor, whilst 14.29% believe waste adds to the problem. Erratic weather conditions (28.57%), desertification (14.29%), drought (14.29%) and flooding (9.52%) were also listed as resultant fears. Over half (52.77%) of recipients have watched Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”. Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Global warming: Beat the heat, eat less meat

Hmmm. Hard one for me to give up entirely, but there are a host of good health reasons to reduce meat intake.

On the other hand, all species are in this global warming boat together. Maybe cattle need to rise above their usual bovine selves, stop farting around and show some initiative for once by sourcing locally grown food — just like I do — and stop passing their food miles on in my thick, juicy, tender, steaks. Or I'll stop eating them.

clipped from www.terradaily.com A kilogram (2.2 pounds) of beef causes more greenhouse-gas and other pollution than driving for three hours while leaving all the lights on back home, according to a Japanese study. That one kilo (2.2 pounds) of beef also requires energy equivalent to lighting a 100-watt bulb for nearly 20 days. The energy is needed to produce and transport the animals' feed. Global Warning Climate Change Energy

A personal emissions reduction lifestyle guide

I enjoy seeing global warming related material on Clipmarks and other social networking sites. It's validation that there are a bunch of people out there that are conscious and care. Anyway, here's Lubaska's clip:

clipped from www.global-cool.com Use and lose less energy by doing any or many of these easy things. Turn your heating down An average family can save 400kg of CO2 a year and a lot of money Take a stand against standby An average family can save 150kg of CO2 a year Unplug that charger An average family can save 7kg of CO2 a year Don't boil over An average family can save 45 kg of CO2 a year Try not to fly An average family can save 700kg of CO2 a year and a suitcase full of cash Turn out the bright lights An average family can save 100kg of CO2 a year and a lot of money Use better energy An average family can save 1.7 tonnes of CO2 a year Take a low-power shower An average family can save 290kg of CO2 a year and a lot of money Buy better bulbs An average family can save 200kg of CO2 a year Stuff the freezer Don't drive Wrap up your home Lower your laundry Buy local food An average family can save 4 tonnes of CO2 a year Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Companies fighting climate change rated & ranked

The solution to global warming will be marketplace driven. For the market to work, consumers need to know what companies are doing to reduce their footprints. Schemes like Climate Count, and corporate carbon counting systems will be keenly observed.

clipped from blogs.wsj.com Companies Judged for Global-Warming Awareness, Found Lacking Posted by Mark Gongloff A new group is giving consumers a way to evaluate the companies whose products they buy based on their commitment to fighting climate change. The takeaway: There is a lot of room for improvement. A nonprofit group called Climate Counts has come out with a new ranking of 56 companies divided into eight sectors. Each company was assigned a score on a scale of 0 to 100, with 100 meaning the company is perfectly committed to fighting global warming. The highest-scoring of all companies was camera maker Canon (part of the “electronics” group), with a score of 77. Second in the electronics group was IBM, with a score of 70. In the apparel group, shoe company Nike topped the list with a 73. Leading the food-products group was Unilever, which makes Dove soap and Lipton teas, with a score of 71. These were the only four companies to score 70 or higher. After that, the scores dropped off dramatically.

Global warming survival guide

Just in Time.

clipped from www.time.com The Global Warming Survival Guide GLOBAL WARMING 51 Things We Can Do to Save the Environment Can one person slow global warming? Actually, yes. You—along with scientists, businesses and governments—can create paths to cut carbon emissions. Here is our guide to some of the planet's best ideas. Enter the Time Magazine Survival Guide More Stories Graphic: Effects of Climate Change by 2020 A forecast of how climate changes will impact the environment and society by mid century. Graphic: The Earth Friendly Home Are you wasting energy? There are ways you can alter your lifestyle to reduce your carbon footprint, the measure of carbon you produce What Now? On the Front Lines Of Climate Change By Mark Hertsgaard Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Bookmark this page and tell your everyone you care for about it.

Greenpeace's aggressive tactics not winning Mac users over

Apple is the tactical low-hanging fruit in Greenpeace's campaign to reduce toxicity in electronics, such as arsenic and PVC, and to encourage waste recycling. But is it wise to push Mac users, veterans of the PC wars, to pull their wagons into a laager?

H/t Mark Lawrence who provides this take on the Steve Jobs – Greenpeace stoush from online/email Mac magazine TidBITS.

clipped from db.tidbits.com But it also feels as though Greenpeace is targeting Apple not because Apple is necessarily worse than other, much larger companies, but because anything surrounding Apple generates media attention and controversy, and that attention is good for Greenpeace's ultimate goal. Therein, I think, lies the reason why many Mac users have reacted so defensively to Greenpeace's attacks; it seems as though Greenpeace is specifically targeting Apple for other-than-stated reasons. Apple isn't entirely free of culpability here either. As much as Apple fans sometimes lose track of this fact, Apple is a public company, and a big one at that. Above all else, Apple's loyalties lie with serving its shareholders by improving the bottom line.

Just how much can a polar bear?

Translation anyone?

Global Warning Climate Change Energy

The Greenpeace green guide to electronics

If you ever wondered which electronics brands are greenest, Greenpeace has now calibrated a handy reference scale.


Apple is rotten, but I am pleased Nokia is doing best, although there is a lot of room for improvement. It will be fascinating to see how the industry responds to this Greenpeace initiative. :::[Your guide to green electronics]

Nokia and Dell share the top spot in the ranking. They believe that as producers they should bear individual responsibility for taking back and reusing or recycling their own-brand discarded products. Nokia leads the way on eliminating toxic chemicals, since the end of 2005 all new models of mobiles are free of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and all new components to be free of brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from the start of 2007. Dell has also set ambitious targets for eliminating these harmful substances from their products.

Third place goes to HP, followed by Sony Ericsson (4th), Samsung (5th), Sony (6th), LG Electronics (7th), Panasonic (8th), Toshiba (9th), Fujitsu Siemens Computers (10th), Apple (11th), Acer (12th) and Motorola (13th).

Lenovo is in bottom position. It earns points for chemicals management and providing some voluntary product take back programmes, but it needs to do better on all criteria.

Download the full scorecard or the ranking criteria in pdf.

UPDATE: Well, Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs has responded to the Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics 'shame and name' campaign by pointing out that they have a policy of not telegraphing their plans, but in actuality they are in the same bracket, or ahead of many of their competition. The case he stated was that Apple did need to do better, not at 'greening', but at communicating that greening to customers, shareholders and the media. :::[PC World]

To kick off a change in that policy, Jobs noted that Apple no longer sells CRT monitors, which contain significant amounts of lead. He also said the company has completely eliminated hexavalent chromium and some brominated flame retardants from its products. Competitors, including Dell, HP and Lenovo Group Ltd., still market tube monitors, and as for the toxics he mentioned, Jobs said, "Some electronics companies, whose names you know, use these toxic chemicals in their products today."

Jobs also promised that Apple would eradicate arsenic and polyvinyl chloride from its products by the end of next year.

Fair enough. "I hope you are as delighted as I was when I first learned how far along Apple actually is in removing toxic chemicals from its products and recycling its older products," Jobs concluded. "We apologize for leaving you in the dark for this long." Apple goes green.

Environment