EcoLocalizer

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While I’ve lived on the Gulf Coast for just a little over 10 years, I’ve already endured a more-than-fair share of hurricanes: Georges, Ivan, Dennis, Katrina, Wilma.

I’ve been more fortunate than many, but my post-hurricane experiences have actually raised my awareness a great deal about the importance of sustainability. Because few things make you understand the challenges of sustainable living more than a few days or weeks in a disaster zone with no electricity, no drinkable running water, no passable roads.

And so, with another hurricane season once again looming (it starts June 1), here are some of the sustainability lessons I’ve learned over the years:
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In my talks, I have talked a lot about reinventing normal life and in particular our notions of mobility (among other things)…
Part and parcel is this idea that it’s a small world. We get this small world idea from Disneyland as kids (recall hearing mechanical children swaying to the refrain “Its a small world after all”) as well as from seemingly serendipitous encounters that are probably statistically ordinary in a world were people jet and motor around the country. It is easy to think that the world is small when one can get from point A anywhere in the global economy to point B anywhere in the global economy within a matter of hours (rather than days or months). It makes it easy for us spread out families and friends as people chase paychecks and jobs across the country if not the planet.

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Last week, UCLA Anderson hosted the California Clean Innovation conference to facilitate the new ideas that will drive the future of clean technology. I must admit to being a bit intimidated by the topics to be discussed - I’m far from technically inclined - but the event was well done and I learned a ton.

First, what we’re all interested in…the moolah. I’ve been hearing a lot about the investment going into clean tech these days. The first keynote speaker, Ira Ehrenpreis of Technology Partners in Palo Alto also explained why this is so.

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In 2005 the world was aghast by the images seen on television and newspapers of the mass destruction caused to human life and the city of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina.

A recent report reveals that State authorities are bolstering levees around Sacramento to prevent it from experiencing Katrina-like effects during a flood. They also hope that severe storms don’t hit the capital city before the completion of projects planned to end by 2012.

With the right combination of bad weather conditions, officials from the Department of Water Resources predict that the American River’s 18,000-square-mile watershed, along with the Sacramento River’s 23,000 square miles in Northern California, could flood the capital city under 20 feet of water, cause $25 billion worth of damage, and devastate homes in Sacramento-area communities.

According to a recent Los Angeles Times article, flooding from the rivers would also leave “500 dead, 102 square miles flooded, and 300,000 people uprooted, an international airport and state agencies under water, and years of recovery.”

So what is the State doing to prevent Sacramento from becoming another New Orleans?

The Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency has been designated to work with state and federal agencies to double Sacramento’s flood protection by using pre-approved $5 billion dollars in state bond money.

Stein Buer, the agency’s executive director, is working with The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the federal Bureau of Reclamation to reinforce the Central Valley’s 1,600 miles of levees, build a spillway channel for the Folsom Dam, and buttress Natomas Basin levees.

Besides infrastructure maintenance, other signs that people are preparing for the worst are building moratoriums near flood-prone areas and higher flood insurance prices.

Environmentalists are concerned about the environmental impacts of more levee construction, homeowners are upset at another high expense, and builders are dismayed at the inability to build, but state officials assure that their plans are in the name of safety.

Because, after all, how horrible would it be if Sacramento became another Katrina? Nobody wants that.

Photo: Wikipedia

Could you be breaking the law by brewing your own biodiesel for your car? You might not be aware that the feds and some states might require you to pay taxes for your grease-based fuel, as a retired chemist from Illinois rudely discovered last year.

It’s disturbing that you could face fines for doing something that’s both a money-saver and good for the environment. Still, I thought it might help any would-be biodiesel home-brewers out there to know where to find more information about the laws that might apply to you. Here are a few sites I discovered that might come in handy:

Alternative Fuels & Advanced Vehicles Data Center: This page on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Website gives a state-by-state summary of incentives and laws affecting homemade biodiesel, other alternative fuels and alternative fuel-powered vehicles.

The California Center for Sustainable Energy: According to this site, “The first 400 gallons of home-made biodiesel is exempt from federal taxation and anything afer 400 gallons is subject to normal federal tax rates.” The center also advises home biodiesel-brewers to check with their state to see if state fuel taxes apply to them. You’ll also find lots of good links here on home biodiesel production, equipment suppliers and biodiesel fueling locations in the U.S.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory: While this site doesn’t specifically address biodiesel tax policies, it does feature a large number of informative publications about biodiesel production, handling, use, quality, stability, compatibility, emissions and fleet evaluations.

Other sites with lots of information about all aspects of biodiesel include the National Biodiesel Board and its companion marketplace site, AllThingsBiodiesel.com, the National Biodiesel Foundation, an article on “Greasoline” at the Journal of Young Investigators and, of course, Wikipedia (here and here).

Image credit: Mejidori at Wikimedia Commons, released into public domain.

Rising prices for everything from copper and platinum to flour, gas and cooking oil are creating new markets for trend-minded thieves across the U.S.

With gasoline prices in the U.S. breaking new records weekly, for example, law enforcement officials are seeing more cases of cooking grease thefts from fast-food establishments and other restaurants. Why used grease? Because cooking oil can be converted into biodiesel fuel that can be sold at a cool profit.
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Worldchanging magazine has announced that it is selling the ultimate environmentalist gift for high school and college graduates: carbon offsets for life.

This means that for every donation above a certain level, Worldchanging will buy carbon offsets in the name of the graduate.

But the price of this gift is not cheap—the minimum donation is $6,000 to offset a graduate’s childhood, and the max is $25,000 to offset an entire career. It also raises an important question: what will such a present do to the mindset of the recipient? Read the rest of this entry »

If you think the virtual, online world helps reduce energy consumption in the real world (a topic we’ve touched on before here at Green Options Media), think again: a new study by management consulting firm McKinsey & Company provides scary insights into how Internet computing is devouring more and more power and spewing out more and more greenhouse gases.

Based on data from the Uptime Institute, a technology consulting company based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the McKinsey report finds that, between 2000 and 2006, the amount of energy needed to power data centers doubled, and that consumption is likely to double again by 2012. In the U.S. alone, we would need to build 10 new power plants by 2010 just to meet the growing energy needs of this country’s data centers.

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The U.S.’s rush to grow corn for fuel has already been blamed for rising food costs that are pricing the world’s poor into hunger and malnutrition. But the high cost of corn is having another unintended consequence: a plunge in biofuel plants’ profit margins.

About one-fourth of all corn grown in the U.S. is now cultivated for fuel rather than for food. Meanwhile, the growing demand for both food and fuel is driving commodity prices for crops like corn to record highs. That means, even with the federal government’s generous subsidies for ethanol production, today’s biofuel profits aren’t what they used to be.

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Inspiring eco-entreprenuers and would-be B&B owners everywhere, the Venice Beach Eco Cottages are the new cool spot to stay on sizzling Venice Beach. Their tagline says it all: sustainable, environmentally friendly, gezellig - a chill-sounding Dutch word meaning a cozy, relaxing, and warmly enjoyable environment.

These one-time crack houses were renovated by Cynthia Foster and Karel Samson to become 450 square feet of sustainable, solar-powered beach heaven. Each bungalow has been rebuilt using green materials, like reused wood and recycled denim insulation. Inside, each of the three cottages sports organic linens and mattresses, repurposed furniture, and energy efficient appliances.

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