Transparent Solar Cells for Home Windows

There is a company called Konarka that has designed transparent solar cells that fit right into your house's windows, right in between the two panes. They are completely clear and lack nothing in the way of photovoltaics. They can be produced with a red, green, or blue suttle tone and are a great way to make your home green and pro-renewable, as well as lessen your carbon footprint and save you money in the long-run. This new technology is part of the greater BIPV (building-integrated photovoltaics) concept. With solar cells like these, we are no longer relegated to putting cells on the roof or near the tops of structures and in inconspicuous places. We can put them where the most amount of sun is, wherever that may be, and look good doing it.

Water Energy

This has to be the ultimate in alternative energy potential. If this is real and can be truly realized...we could do and save so much.

Algae Energy

Photosynthesis is one of the keys to bio fuels. This important process in the life of plants enables the absorption of CO2, which is good. Why is it good? Plants, trees, and other types of foliage take in some of the carbon dioxide we create or put off and they change it to oxygen. That's wonderful, right? But there's another good thing about it. We can use these living organisms as fuel alternatives to coal, oil, and other fossil fuels.

One form of bio-fuel that most people have never heard of is Algae Fuel. Eviana Hartman of the Washington Post has written a wonderful article on this newer fuel. She has placed the following in her most recent article:

"If you replaced all the diesel in the U.S. with soy bio diesel, it would take half the land mass of the U.S. to grow those soybeans," says Matt Caspari, chief executive of Aurora Bio fuels, a Berkeley, Calif.-based private firm that specializes in algae oil technology. On the other hand, the Energy Department estimates that if algae fuel replaced all the petroleum fuel in the United States, it would require 15,000 square miles, which is a few thousand miles larger than Maryland.

Isn't this a wonderful factoid? So next time your thinking about the gross stuff that's growing on the river or the creek near your home and how nasty it looks. Just look up at the blue sky and think of the possibilities and it may look a little less disgusting and a little more acceptable.



Picture source: http://www.pngtourism.org.pg/png/export/pics/gallerypictures/images/Algae.jpg

Be Grateful: A Message from The Secret

Here's Hoping for a Greener 2008

I would say that I have been a bit busy lately, but that primarily functions as the understatement of the year 2007. This post will hopefully allow for me to revitalize this blog that has been a learning tool for me mostly, but apparently for others as well.

It was appropriate that the NYC new year party was done the way it was (the ball was covered completely in energy efficient light). Never before has our nation entered a year more equipped to handle the dedication it takes to live green. When I say "live green" I don't mean that you have to be perfectly carbon neutral. While possible for some , I certainly don't claim the ability to do that right now...maybe someday, but not today.

By "live green" I mean make a change. A change in the way you live your life that benefits not only the planet but your world as well. There is an inner sense of peace and guiltlessness that accompanies green actions. Let's face it, it feels good to be green. I once walked 6 flights of stairs passing several trash cans to recycle a simple 20 oz. plastic bottle. That may not seem like a big deal to some, but it was for me. I obviously haven't forgotten the way I felt that day. That one action inspired me to do it repeatedly until it became habitual. Now, I don't walk the 6 flights every time, but I always recycle those bottles when I am done with them. And so can you.

So I suppose that this year I will make an increased effort to not only maintain The Green Blog once again, but to maintain the green lifestyle. I will make a Green Truce with myself. A kind of peace treaty within. And while that truce may be tailored to each of us individually, I encourage you to do the same as me. Here's to a greener 2008 for us all!

"No one wins by chance alone. If they do, they're not winners, just lucky. I'd rather lose a thousand contests giving my all to the cause, and in so doing feel a winner, than to easily win by accident, and in so doing feel a failure." - ESB

Summer Quarter Woes

There may be a lot of green outside during the Summer, such as the grass and the leaves on the trees, but it's very hard to see those beautiful things when you're cooped up in a University classroom staring at old professors and taking notes on otherwise boring material. However, this is my reality. As such, I must unfortunately place a hold on my blogging about green things until the current quarter is over. Rest assured that once I have finished taking all of my finals, I will be back in full swing. Until then, thank you so much for reading, and once I post again I will be making an important announcement. I will still be able to receive comments on my posts and will most likely respond to those, so take a look at the archives if you're new with us.

Thank you again & see you in late September.

~ The Green Blog

Is Harry Potter Green?

He very well may be. In fact, much of the magic world he lives in is also green. While using magic their wands create no waste products, there is no dependency on foreign oil because their brooms are the ultimate form of alternative energy transportation...way alternative, and they care enough about the planet to protect it with jinxes and charms. Good thing too because Voldemort just announced that he wanted to implement a GHG production plant (the evilness is astounding). Not to mention that I heard that they were making Hogwarts and The Ministry of Magic go carbon neutral by installing solar panels and wind turbines...okay okay, I made those last parts up, but it's something that the wizarding world would do.

Anyway...let's learn some lessons that the wizarding world of Harry Potter is teaching us...like developing broomstick mass transit. That should be comfortable. :)

A View From Above

A good friend of mine is a pilot and asked me the other day if I would like to go up with him for a quick flight over the city and surrounding rural area. It was a beautiful sight. The sun was shining brightly, and there were only a few clouds in the blue sky. There was high visibility and little air traffic. The perfect day for a flight.

While the two of us were in the air I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the earth. There is so much green that covers the world, and as I was looking over the area I thought about how tragic it would be to lose it. There is just so much to work for. With the promise that renewable forms of energy bring, we never have to worry about losing it to harness fossil fuels or to pollution.

Next time your in the air on a flight, on the top of a mountain, or looking out from your 15th floor office window, look down on the world and appreciate it. Look down and think about how you can do something to protect it.

picture source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c8/Domme_sky_view.jpg/800px-Domme_sky_view.jpg

Live Earth Rocks!

I just think that there is no problem at all with the "Live Earth" tour. Does it create some carbon emissions? Yes, but so does breathing. That doesn't mean that I condone useless or unimportant GHG emissions (breathing isn't without import), but the "Live Earth" tour is not useless OR unimportant. It is quite the opposite indeed!

I guess I think it's okay because what the entire show is about world-wide is the furthering and spreading forth of global warming education to the masses. A concert medium is an appropiate and effective way to appeal to a younger audience, which is the demographic we really need to educate if you think about it. All should be educated wherever possible, of course, but many of the decision makers that will make some of the most important decisions regarding our planet are attending classes right now, even as we speak...or type for that matter.

So go ahead and buy a ticket if you live near one of the tour venues. Enjoy some good music, good times, and good education that will most likely move you to action. Live Earth Rocks!!!

picture source: http://www.liveearth.org/event.php#press

Global Cooling?...no way.

Global Cooling was a scientific theory in the 1970's that claimed that we would soon dive into another ice age due to extreme temperature patterns favoring cooler days, and that it would be preceded by and made manifest by a dire food shortage that covered the entire Earth.
"Predictions of global cooling never approached the kind of widespread scientific consensus that supports the greenhouse effect today. And for good reason: the tools scientists have at their disposal now—vastly more data, incomparably faster computers and infinitely more sophisticated mathematical models—render any forecasts from 1975 as inoperative as the predictions being made around the same time about the inevitable triumph of communism."
~ William Connolley, a climate scientist at the British Antarctic Survey who has made a hobby of studying ice age predictions.

The scientific methods that we now have are much more accurate and dependable than they were 35 years ago. Global Warming is a real phenomenon and needs our immediate attention and action.