News & commentary on sustainability, activism, urban planning, politics, and our world.
Zach is the editor/director of Cleantechnica.com and Planetsave.com. You can also find his written work on Reuters, Scientific American, EatDrinkBetter.com, and numerous other sites. (Full list at: zacharyshahan.com)
Zach currently lives in Wroclaw (Poland), but has also lived in Groningen (the Netherlands), Sarasota & Bradenton (Florida), Chapel Hill & Carrboro (North Carolina), Sunnyvale (California), Ithaca (New York), and Charlottesville (Virginia). He's originally from Sarasota, FL.
Zach has a B.A. in environmental studies and sociology (from New College of Florida, the Honors College of Florida) and a master’s in city and regional planning (from UNC-Chapel Hill, the top university in the nation for his specialization the year he graduated). He has worked as a professional blogger since 2008.
Before moving to Poland, Zach worked as the Executive Director of a non-profit organization promoting sustainable development and clean transportation in Charlottesville, VA; as an urban research consultant; in various government positions (in city planning and environmental education); and in natural foods stores (ranging from small co-op markets to corporate giant Whole Foods Market).
I’ve written in the past about the fact that 100% of the world could be powered from clean, renewable energy. But to get to that 100% target, you need a lot of small 100% targets (i.e. 100% renewable energy for Scotland, for Tokelau, etc.). A report just out yesterday from the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research finds that Minnesota could easily go 100% renewable. Not only that, though — it could use 100% local clean power from solar and wind energy. That’s exciting.
Share This: It was decided many moons ago that the countries of the world would work together to stop global warming and climate change, by reducing their carbon emissions, in sync. Well, if you haven’t heard, that hasn’t come about. However, the EU has done a tremendous job of reducing its emissions in various sectors. [...]
Share This: It looks like Cornell University is going to get a tremendous clean energy project in NYC — it will use solar energy, geothermal energy, fuel cells, and innovative design on a pretty large scale. It seems it’s just missing wind energy. Here’s more: null (via Clean Technica) Share This:
Share This: I cover solar energy news (and wind energy news) obsessively over on CleanTechnica. I think one of the coolest programs I’ve run across in the past couple years is a UK program to get solar power on more schools. It involves the communities around the schools and helps them to give back to [...]
Share This: I was recently contacted by some folks from a great campaign to get a lot more progressives elected to office around the U.S. The campaign is called 2,012 for 2012. It’s an exciting project and has been doing much better than originally planned. Here’s more: 2,012 for 2012 (Grassroots Movement to Get Good [...]
Share This: Last I wrote about Boston’s new bike-sharing program, Hubway, it was about how popular the service was. (Oh yeah, and I shared a test ride blog from someone at Boston University.) Well, the rockin’ and rollin’ on Hubway bicycles has continued. In four months, 140,000 rides were taken via Hubway. Even compared [...]
Share This: Chicago may not be the first city many people think of when they think of solar leaders — it shouldn’t be — but it has been on the leading edge of green for awhile, and a couple new announcements out of the windy city keep that trend going. 1. A non-profit car-sharing [...]
Not quite Scotland’s goal of 100% renewable energy by 2025, but still a highly ambitious one (relative to other countries), Denmark’s newest renewable energy target proposals aim to have wind supplying it with half of its electricity by 2020, and renewable energy supplying it with ALL of its energy by 2050. And all of its power and heat would come from renewables by 2035.
South Korea is a definite cleantech leader. Its cleantech investments per GDP are many, many times more than the US’, or any other country’s I’m aware of. Check out the graphics below on percentage of countries’ stimulus packages that went towards green technology — South Korea is the last pie.
A number of organizations are planning and rallying people for a NYC Occupy Wall Street march tomorrow, November 7. The march is being called “End to End for 99%” and is starting at 181st St. & St. Nicholas (the northern tip of Manhattan) at 10:30am. The march will end at Zucotti Park.
