Envirominute

Cellulosic Ethanol

noreply@blogger.com (The MacDaddy) — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 15:25:00 +0000

Interesting article in the latest issue of Wired about the future of cellulosic ethanol. The future looks bright as long as we can convince the politicians that cellulosic and not corn based ethanol is the way to go. Okay so maybe the future doesn't look so bright. :)

technorati tags:wired, cellulosic, ethanol, switchgrass, environment

Blogged with Flock

Who Saved the Electric Car

noreply@blogger.com (The MacDaddy) — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 01:41:00 +0000

Here's a good story done by David Pogue from the NYT for CBS News. I was glad to see him mention and talk with the director of "Who Killed the Electric Car".

technorati tags:pogue, cbsnews, whokilledtheelectriccar, gm, tesla, environment, battery

Blogged with Flock

Is your company Green?

noreply@blogger.com (The MacDaddy) — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 17:25:00 +0000

I don't think mine is.

It finally really hit me today while riding the train into the office. There was an article in the NYT about Mayor Bloomberg calling for a reduction in CO2 emissions from NYC buildings. Apparently, 79% of all CO2 emissions in NYC come from buildings as opposed to the national average of 32%. NYC has a relatively low carbon imprint based on density, smallness of the apartments and the fact that the public transportation is so good. But this really got me thinking that it's time for me to do something at work.

Here's what has kept me from acting earlier(no excuses though)...I've been working for this large ad agency for almost a year and a half with a little 3 month hiatus during that time. I'm considered a temporary employee and therefore I don't feel I have the same voice as if I was a full-time employee and a little worried about ruffling someones feathers the wrong way and ending up on a permanent hiatus. Anyway...I've noticed they have no policies that I know of for recycling paper, plastic, glass or aluminum. I'm going to find out what the official policy is first then start trying to make some changes and get a decent recycling policy instituted. The amount of paper that gets wasted here alone is a crime! And many floors have free sodas for employees to drink but there is no recycling bins for the empty cans. The used to have bottles of water but thankfully most of those are gone and replace with filtered water dispensers on each floor. Then of course there is energy use. I know the area where I work is pretty much buzzing wit equipment powered on all time 24/7 even over the weekend. The lights are on timers to go off at 11pm however.

So here I was thinking about all this stuff on my way from getting off the train and walking to the office and what did I see? This...

Now I'm not sure whether this came from my company but it got my blood boiling. All this plastic, CRTs, mercury all being dumped and carted off to god knows where. The iMac looked completely intact while some of the other CPUs and monitors had been gutted. Bottom line... there's a correct way of disposing of these types of material and this isn't one of them. Apple has a recycling program and with the number of computers this company must buy from them certainly sending them back to Apple is an option. Don't know if I can find out where it came from but there were copies of Adweek in the bins also so my guess is ad agency. Just don't know if there are others in the area.

So here I go on my mission. I'm going to start slowly but be persistent. I will of course report my progress. Wish me luck!

Technorati Tags:
green, recycle, apple

The Green

noreply@blogger.com (The MacDaddy) — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 17:03:00 +0000

Was walking through the NYC Subway the other day and spotted a large ad campaign for a new series on The Sundance Channel. I took out the old phone camera and snapped a couple of pics. This is the only one that looks decent.

Looks like Sundance, thanks to Robert Redford, is making a big push in the green programming. I also noticed this show on iTunes today, Big Ideas for a Small Planet. You can download the first episode for free. They are also running a Big Idea contest for the best big ideas on how to save the environment. I've got to start thinking......

Technorati Tags:

environment, global warming, climate change, green, television, sundance channel, contest

Discovery Home goes Green

noreply@blogger.com (The MacDaddy) — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 03:15:00 +0000

It appears that the green movement is really taking off in the mainstream media. According to this NYT article, Discovery Home, part of the Discovery Channel Networks will begin refocusing their programming on all things green and environmental. This is of course great news and something I look forward to setting my TIVO to record.

Technorati Tags:
environment, green, discovery, television

The Supreme Court Has Spoken!

noreply@blogger.com (The MacDaddy) — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 21:33:00 +0000

The times they are a changin' and November 2008 isn't too far away.
What a brilliant victory for the environment. It's amazing to me that the decision was so close but then again look at the dissenters. Full article from the NYT right here.

Bottom line...the EPA must do something about limiting the emission of greenhouse gases or come up with some very good reasons why it can not. Finally the administration can no longer ignore the issue and Congress now has the green light to push legislation.

Hooray for the Environment!

Technorati Tags:
environment, supreme court, global warming, climate change

Apple Hits Bottom of Greenpeace List

noreply@blogger.com (The MacDaddy) — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 20:31:00 +0000

This is tough to take as a big Apple user fan of the company. Of course Apple feels differently but it certainly doesn't look good being at the bottom of the list.

Take a look at the article from Greenpeace

Technorati Tags:
apple, greenpeace, environment

The Environments Big Night!

noreply@blogger.com (The MacDaddy) — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 23:05:00 +0000

Well for most it was a forgone conclusion that AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH would win the Oscar for best documentary so it's not really any surprise that it did indeed win. Of course I think this will only help to further the awareness of the climate crisis and open up peoples eyes to the seriousness of the issue. As much as I'd love Gore to run for President again I really fear for the next person who has to follow up to W's mess.

Another cool thing about the Oscars last night was they were in many ways the first green Oscars ever. Having lived in LA for 14 years I am very jaded towards Hollywood and the importance we put on actors. But since they are such public people and the Oscars are seen by over a billion people worldwide, getting the message out about global warming is something that at least last night was a very positive result of the evening.

Technorati Tags: carbon dioxide, energy, global warming, Gore, innconvenient truth, oscars

Give the Gift of Wind

noreply@blogger.com (The MacDaddy) — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 04:39:00 +0000

This past Christmas I gave an unusual gift to my immediate family members. WIND. It wasn't just a lot of hot air but truly a gift of wind energy or at least the purchase of wind energy credits to help offset their use of coal and oil fired electric energy.

I stumbled upon Renewable Choice Energy when I was researching electricity providers for my home. Each year our local utility, NYSEG, by law offers us users the opportunity to pick our own electricity provider. Sadly, in our area there are no options for 100% renewable energy providers, however I am receiving 450 kilowatts of wind power each month through NYSEG for $10/month. Because that represents a small percentage of our monthly electric usage I was looking for other ways to offset your electric carbon footprint. This is when I found Renewable Choice. For $15 a month I am attempting to offset a larger percentage of our carbon emissions and by committing to their program for a year i received a $50 gift card to Whole Foods Market. Over a year ago, Whole Foods completely offset their entire energy use by purchasing carbon offsets through Renewable Choice.

So my family has the gift of wind. Whether they opt for the monthly $15/month program is up to them. Of course I'll encourage them to go for it. Wind, a great gift for any occasion.

Technorati Tags: carbon dioxide, enery, global warming, offsets, oil

Carbonless Travel?

noreply@blogger.com (The MacDaddy) — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 03:53:00 +0000

The family and I are going to be taking a vacation soon. Our travel will require my wife and I and our son to jump on a plane and fly from NY to SC. I booked our flights on Expedia and was very pleasantly surprised when I was offered the option of purchasing carbon offsets for our travel. I didn't occur to me to do something like this until it was offered right in front of me. Expedia has an arrangement with TerraPass and for only $5.95 each I was able to purchase enough carbon offsets for our air travel to and from our vacation. These fees will go to fund clean energy projects and the website goes into some detail on several of these.

Just today the New York Times in the business section had an article on programs like this, "Guilt-Free Pollution. Or is It?". It did bring into question the effectiveness of carbon offset programs. Take a read and judge for yourself. I feel if you've got to travel that this is the least you can do and your money will go to help some great grass root efforts.

Technorati Tags: carbon dioxide, enery, global warming, offsets

ExxonMobil making nice?

noreply@blogger.com (The MacDaddy) — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 05:02:00 +0000

Check out this article from the New York Times today

Technorati Tags: enery, global warming, global warming, global warming, oil

Pardon the interruption

noreply@blogger.com (The MacDaddy) — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 17:57:00 +0000

I'm Back! And I have much to say.

I've been consumed by very important things in my life like finding a job, and playing with my son. I wish finding work wasn't such a drag and that everything would just fall into place but as they say things always have a way of working out and just as I'm down to literally my last dollar...boom! Work!

So here's the problem: when I'm not working I'm all consumed by finding and freting about work and when I am working, well...I'm working so I don't have the free time I need to persue my honorable goals. I hope to find the balance and really get off my butt now and make a difference at least in my own home. So I'm not sure if this will end up being one HUGE entry of many small entires but I'm leaning towards the many smaller ones.

Let me just start out by updating what I've done from home to try and lessen my family's carbon footprint.

1. I've installed CFL bulbs in almost every light fixture in the house. The exceptions are some dimmable floods in the kitchen and family room. I ordered some dimmable floods through 1000bubls.com but they buzzed really badley. To be honest I didn't give them time to see if the buzz would ever go away after warming up. I (and I know my wife) wouldn't put up with the buzz so I sent them back. It appears dimmable CFLs aren't very reliable at this point so I may just have to go with non-dimmable bulbs for now.

2. We took delivery of our first shipment of Bio Fuel the other day. We're paying only 20 cents more per gallon than regular heating oil. I found an oil delivery company through a website that sells Bio Feul to my area. Their name is Sclafani Oil. The other cool thing is all their delivery trucks run on Bio Diesel. I guess it will take one or two more delivery's before we're running on almost 100% B20. You see we have to use up the existing regular low sulfur heating oil in the tanks before the full effect of the B20 kicks in. Well there really aren't any real effects we be able to see or feel but it may begins to smell a little more like frech fries around the house?

That's it for now. I'll be back!

Technorati Tags: biodiesel, bulbs, carbon dioxside, CFL, enery, global warming, oil

A Terrifying Message from Al Gore

noreply@blogger.com (The MacDaddy) — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 02:14:00 +0000

Hadn't seen this one before. A lighter look at Al's movie.

A New Beginning

noreply@blogger.com (The MacDaddy) — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 17:18:00 +0000

Hello and welcome to envirominute.org.

This blog has truly been 14 years in the making. Yes even before blogging and barely the internet were even invented.

14 years ago I worked for a then upstart network in the promotion and advertising department. I had an idea to use the talent from the various shows on the network to created 1 minute PSAs called "Envirominutes". Essentially it was a vehicle to not only promote the different talent at the network but to also try to inform and educate the viewers on environmental issues and provide them with ways of living a "greener" existence.

So I may have been a little ahead of my time. Apparently being "green" is trendy all of the sudden witness the cover of Newsweek's July 17th edition.

For me, it all started much ealier than this year. I think back to grade school and the beginning of Earth Day, wearing ominous buttons with a picture of the EARTH enveloped in a smog mask. Environmentalism really didn't become a large part of my thinking until I moved to California in the late 1980's. I remember becoming a paying member of many different organizations that supported a "greening" of the world as well as some well known animal rights and wildlife organizations too.

I've been a recycler for as long as I can remember. I would always think about what happens to each item I throw in the trash. How long will that sit in the landfill before it breaksdown or will it ever. Styrofoam, batteries, old electronics. I tried to recycle as much as possible and donate anything I didn't want to charitable organizations.

Well without boring you with my whole life history, here we are in 2006. The price of oil is over $75 dollars a barrel and gas is well over $3 a gallon where I live. Global warming is no longer fiction but scientific fact. That is of course unless you listen to some media types and politicians. My whole life has made a 180 degree turn over the last 3 years. After 45 years of never being married, I met my wife on a blind date in 2003, we were married in 2004 and we had our first child in 2005. You see my son is ultimately responsible for my growing passion for environmentalism.

Now that I've brought another life into the world I feel a "moral obligation" as Al Gore put it, to do whatever I can to make sure he has the same quality of life and environment that I have. Is there any better reason? Of course what really kicked me in the butt was the movie AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH. I saw this film with my wife after having just returned from a family reunion in New Hampshire. One of my cousins works for the NH Department of Environmental Protection and is pushing hard on the adoption of biodiesel in the state. It was very interesting talking to her and learning more about biodiesel. Of course here in NY you can't buy a diesel car but we can burn biofeul to heat our house.

So many factors came together to bring me to this. It is my hope to use this forum to inform and educate anyone who wants to come in and look. It is also my hope to produce many enviromintues. Whether these live on the internet or make it into a syndication deal with maintstream media is not a concern of mine. I only want to produce informative, educational, motivational content that will help us all to save our planet. The world is really quite a mess right now, between our deteriorating environment to the wars in the Middle East. As an individual all I can do is to take action here at home and eventually in my community to help make a difference. If I believe I can make a difference. If I believe otherwise then there really is no hope for us.