No Impact Man is an Inspiration

Here is a guy who lives in NYC and has made giant changes in his life in order to minimize his carbon footprint. He is living in a way that eliminates his net impact on the environment. There is a difference between no impact and net impact. Day to day we each have an impact in some way. Generally it's in things we do everyday without thought; things such as keeping our refrigerators or computers running all day, washing our clothes with the washer and dryer, and even riding an elevator. Those types of activities have impact, however, when we take into account the offsetting we do when we recycle, plant trees, or donate to alternative energy funds or carbon neutrality funds, we offset those carbon contributions we have made by working to eliminate carbon and GHG emissions.
Colin Beavan is "No Impact Man". He has a very interesting website that you can visit by clicking on the link located on the right side of this blog page where it says No Impact Man.

Discovery Channel Special

There was a special on the Discovery channel last Sunday about alternative energy and technologies that can bring it about. I was surprised when I heard the facts about some of the everyday things we use for energy regarding their power.

I learned that the sun and the energy it produces is equivalent to 77 million atomic bombs going off every second. I also learned that it takes 1,120 lbs. of coal energy to keep just one standard home computer powered for a year. I learned more about hydro-gas and the benefits that it can bring when other fossil fuels run out, and even though it's methane and its pollutants are very harmful to the atmosphere and eco-system, they are not planning to use it until they've figured out a way to capture its harmful GHG's from escaping into the sky. And harvesting it looked so cool! At the deepest depths of the ocean, were only a few life forms exist is where they find these solidified gas rocks, capture them, and store them for future use. They say that there is enough hydro-gas (solid methane) in the oceans to power the entire planet for over a hundred years.

Interesting how alternative sources of energy are all around us just waiting to be used. These are energy sources that we've had on this planet since the dawn of time; Water, wind, solar...that's just to name a few that we are just now starting to understand and appreciate as a global population. Do what you can to educate those who don't now understand the sense of urgency we are dealing with.