Efforts should be focused on stopping output of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas which helps heat the planet, rather than moving to a source that can be regenerated, said Craig Mundie, the man who replaced Bill Gates as the world’s largest software maker’s futurist.

Conservation and radical technologies, including new nuclear, could be key, he said.

“If you talk to the man on the street, there is a lot more awareness of the concept of renewable energy than there is about the need for a zero-carbon source,” said Mundie, Microsoft Chief Research and Strategy Officer, in an interview on the sidelines of a major electricity conference.

Even industry insiders were not looking hard enough at “the scarier or less understood technological approaches,” he said.

The U.S. Congress is considering a massive climate bill and nations globally are preparing to negotiate a follow up to the Kyoto climate change treaty at the end of this year. Development of solar power, wind and other ‘clean’ energy sources are hot topics globally.

But the fastest way to cut carbon output is to cut use, Mundie offered.

“The first crucial step we have to take across the board is conservation,” he said in the speech at the Edison Electric Institute after introducing software for consumers to monitor their own power use, called Hohm.

He argued that humans will need energy alternatives that can be built in large arrays quickly to meet the demands of a growing, developing planet, and saw one such possibility as nuclear.

“I’m probably more enchanted with the idea of these novel nuclear approaches than any other one technology. There’s wind, there’s solar, there’s tides, there’s geothermal, but I think each of these is going to be more challenging to harness at some very large scale,” he said, stressing that he was not giving his company’s official policy.

He referred in particular to research work on traveling-wave reactors, a technology that aims to use slow-burning reactions in waste fuel from current plants.

“I think it would be a fascinating outcome if we woke up 10 years from now and said look, you can have all the nuclear you want, it doesn’t have a weapons problem related to it, the cost of fuel is relatively low, there’s no reprocessing requirements. It would be kind of a silver bullet for the energy problem.”

“It is a benefit, because we can afford something that requires little to no maintenance for them, and little to no operating cost, so it’s much more sustainable than generators,” said Navy Lt. j.g. Ryan Thrun, an engineer with the provincial reconstruction team.

The project is contracted out to Sustainable Energy Sources of Afghanistan, a non-government agency that will provide solar and wind alternatives.

“It is going to be two wind turbines, which will produce 7.5 kilowatts an hour,” Thurn said. “There will also be 24 solar panels installed on the top of the roof, which will provide 200 watts each per hour.”

While the additions won’t provide all of the hospital’s power, they will supplement the current energy sources.

“This is equivalent to a 15-kilowatt generator, based on our assessment of the typical efficiency and amount of wind that we anticipate,” Thrun explained. “It will be sufficient to supply lighting power to the hospital. The hospital is still going to require generator use to run heating and cooling, and the cooler for the mortuary.”

Besides offering a low-maintenance solution, the wind and solar generation will considerably reduce monthly overhead costs.

“To run a 10-kilowatt generator each month costs approximately $800,” Thurn said, “so it is at least an $800 per month savings.”

To remedy the typical alternative energy challenges such as lack of wind or sunlight, the provincial reconstruction team plans to use an energy storage system.

“It is not going to operate at maximum efficiency all the time; obviously, at night, they won’t get solar power,” Thurn said. “However, there is a structure that will be installed with power inverters and battery banks to store all the generated electricity that is not being used.”

The project’s results will be used as research to determine whether similar projects should be undertaken throughout Paktika province.

“This will be the first wind and solar project of this size for Paktika,” Thurn said. “It’s a test pilot project. The analysis at the hospital found that it would be a feasible project, and it will be used to support research done on the benefit of [alternative energy] for the rest of the province.”

The provincial reconstruction team and the Paktika government directors expect development and use of these projects to increase over the coming years.

“Anecdotally, looking at the wind and the amount of sunlight here, alternate power should be sought-after and implemented at facilities of this size,” said Navy Lt. David Bennett, the team’s physician assistant, who works alongside Dr. Abdul Mateen, the provincial health director, to assess and improve the health-care situation in Paktika. The director and local residents are excited and enthusiastic about the program, Bennett said.

In addition to the alternative energy solutions, the provincial reconstruction team has focused on several aspects of refurbishment for the hospital.

“We have several projects right now,” Thrun said. “We are redoing the road that goes around the hospital, we repaired the roof structure, we are constructing a kitchen building and a mortuary with all the necessary equipment and furnishing. We are also putting in some apartments for the family members of the patients.”

Bennett said the hospital treats more than 100,000 patients each year.

The Obama Administration has decided to keep a Bush-era policy on polar bears — declining to crack down on greenhouse-gas polluters on the grounds that their emissions are helping shrink the bears’ habitat on Arctic sea ice, officials announced today.

The reason, officials said: the problem of climate change is so big, and so complicated, that it would essentially overwhelm the bureaucracy created to protect threatened and endangered species.

As a result, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said, the bears will continue to be listed as “threatened.” But the government will not use the 1973 Endangered Species Act to attack the main problem that threatens them.

“The Endangered Species Act is not the appropriate tool for us to deal with what is a global issue,” Salazar said in a conference call with reporters. Instead, he said, the Obama Administration would continue to push for a cap on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions through legislation.

The polar bear, which environmental groups have made the furry face of climate change, presents a kind of problem that will come up again. Scientists say climate change is affecting animals all over the world, altering their habitats underneath them or slowly shifting ecosystems out of sync.

But, federal officials said yesterday, the Endangered Species Act was written for a different kind of threat. In cases where an animal is threatened by logging, trapping, or land development, it is used to identify — and punish — individual actions that harm them.

That framework cannot be applied to climate change, they said, because the sources of that problem are global.

“Can we actually link an effect to any listed species to an incremental increase in greenhouse gases that would come out of any particular smokestack?” said Rick Sayers, of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. At this point, he said, the answer is no.

Federal officials said they would still try to protect the bear from human threats in the Arctic itself.

They also said that, for bureaucratic reasons, it would not have accomplished much to reject the decision the Bush administration make on the issue last fall.

Today’s decision was criticized by environmental groups: John Kostyack, of National Wildlife Federation, conceded that it would have been difficult to tackle a massive problem like greenhouse gases through the endangered species bureaucracy. But he said that should not be a reason formally to let polluters off the hook.

Each smokestack is “just like buying another pack of cigarettes,” Kostyack said. “You’re adding to the risk of the species.”

By David A. Fahrenthold
Washington Post Staff Writer

Black Warrior Riverkeeper recently achieved a $150,000 settlement in a lawsuit over sedimentation from storm water runoff, one of the leading causes of impairment in Alabama’s streams and rivers. The defendants, Birmingham Airport Authority and Dunn Construction Company, were ordered to take steps to curtail construction storm water runoff polluting Village Creek, a tributary of the Black Warrior River’s Locust Fork. Part of the settlement will fund a conservation project in the Village Creek watershed.

Thomas Granito, from the Coast Guard’s environmental management office, discussed ongoing green initiatives adopted by the service in a “DoD Live” bloggers roundtable April 21.

“I have been with the Coast Guard for more than 25 years, and I’ve seen how the service is becoming greener, as is much of the rest of the world these days,” Granito said. “In the past, the Coast Guard was more concerned about maintaining compliance with federal regulations. Currently, the Coast Guard continues to shift from compliance to sustainability — basically ‘greening up’ the Coast Guard.”

Only environmental personnel participated in site cleanups in the past, Granito said, but today things are different. Changes in management, organization styles and a more responsive and flexible attitude, similar to what the Defense Department has done in recent years, have led to changes in the way the Coast Guard operates, he added.
Many of the Coast Guard’s roughly 600 facilities are going green, Granito said.

“For example, the Coast Guard Academy at New London, Conn., developed a sustainability initiatives network for recycling and using electronics and related items,” he said. “This initiative helped them win a White House award for reducing electronics materials. The Coast Guard Academy was also the first military academy to participate in a program called recycle-mania, in which colleges get together to come up with recycling initiatives.”

Granito also cited initiatives adopted at Station Emerald Isle, N.C., where recycled products such as gypsum board have been used in the station’s renovation project. This unit also has replaced traditional air-conditioning systems with more-efficient geothermal HVAC systems, he noted.

Other services have helped the Coast Guard in its search for green initiatives, Granito said.

“As far as following what some of the other agencies are doing, we’ve always got an eye out to see what they’re doing,” he said. “I know that our vessel folks are usually keyed in to what the Navy is doing, and our aviation folks are always clued in to Air Force and what they’re doing.”

And without a federal mandate requiring an increasing percentage of electricity to come from renewable sources such as wind and solar power, the U.S. industry is likely to remain in a funk for at least another year. said Randy Zwirn, Siemens Energy.< < <

EXCUSE ME!

Come on folks, the last thing we need is more mandates. It is time for the Government to get out of the way and let private industry drive this bus. President Barack Obama signed into law a nearly $800 billion economic stimulus package, right or wrong it’s law now. That stimulus package contains nearly $15 billion in tax credits for the renewable industry, and tens of billions of dollars in grants, loans and loan guarantees.

The article mentioned above goes on to state that although there are billions of dollars in renewable energy production tax credits available, many of the biggest financiers have limited tax liabilities in the current economic woes to offset and can’t or haven’t stepped up to take advantage.

Too Bad! If the big boys in private industry like Siemens and General Electric don’t reach out and grab handfuls of that cash the new breed entrepreneurs will. Individual Americans, raised with the “can do” attitude and “Christian work ethic” will step up and better ideas will come into play. The grass root movement already started to wean the United States off of fossil fuel and into renewable energy will prevail, with or without the government’s unwanted involvement.

Lighting buildings via windows and skylights is the most common way we take advantage of solar energy today. Passive solar room heating, solar hot water and pool heating are other common applications of solar “thermal” energy.

We already know it is possible to harness solar energy by directly converting sunlight into storable electricity by the use of semi-conductors and solar electric power cells. The problem comes from the inefficient storage systems currently available. Electric car development has been held back by heavy batteries that limit driving range.

Effective, responsible use of solar thermal energy incorporated into electric car technology still remains one of the twenty first century’s biggest challenges. Recently Japanese and European Union officials conducted talks aimed at jointly developing advanced solar cells and rechargeable batteries for electric cars. Here is a link to the article.

Solar energy is free, and its supplies are unlimited. Using solar energy produces no air or water pollution but does have some indirect impacts on the environment. For example, manufacturing the photovoltaic cells used to convert sunlight into electricity, consumes silicon and produces some waste products.

Efficient storage systems could be deployed to meet your energy needs in the future and greatly reduce our carbon output. Any advancement in the technology must include safeguards.

Some Southern California cities are reconsidering their lawn laws and exploring alternatives to homes with perfect rectangles of green. State officials estimate that up to 70 percent of a family’s water bill is spent on landscaping. It is becoming obvious that we need to become more water-wise in our landscaping designs.

Water Wise choices include

Artificial Turf – Quality turf is pricey, up to $5 per square foot installed. Although homeowners who have it save money on water, an estimated 750 square feet of fake grass can conserve about 22,000 gallons of water per year, is the cost an effective expenditure? The two sections of my front lawn are a total of 1100 sq ft., the math at just $3.50 per sq ft with me doing the install would be almost $4000, ouch!

Native Landscaping – OK, what does that mean? Basically a water-wise landscape design would focus on working with nature and natural forces (such as rainfall) to create an aesthetically pleasing, livable landscape, while using less water from the local supply. These designs still incorporate some green lawn space.

Decide on the trees, shrubs, and ground covers for your water-wise native landscape based on their natural ability to grow well in your area. Select plants that do well with little or no addition of water. Consider native plants as well as introduced species for residential landscapes. Re-think your watering habits, plants under trees or along the side of the house can live with much less water than we typically provide them.

Desert Landscaping - Now here is a concept I can grasp and in southern California an attractive desert landscape is easily accomplished. Low-maintenance, water-wise, desert landscape plans call for the use of drought-tolerant plants for full sun, requiring almost only naturally accruing precipitation and a good design. Remember, you don’t need to be a professional landscape artist, anyone can create a water wise desert landscape design.

A feature I like to suggest that uses the natural flow of the terrain is a “dry riverbed” couple this with a few well placed landscape boulders and a nice piece of driftwood and a center piece tree like a Blue or green Palo verde, a small Mesquite, or an awesome Mexican Elderberry and you are will on your way to a water-wise masterpiece. Finish the design off with a small mix of; cactus, aloe, small species agave, desert shrubs and/or succulents and you can create beauty and color all year long.

Now, How do I keep it alive?

With the exception of the centerpiece tree the rest of the plants are going to need only a little additional water outside what nature gives it. At original planting I would add good drainage around the root ball of the center piece tree with two, 3” deep water tubes to get it started. Don’t forget to give it some good rich soil and extra nutrients, it will need them to get established. Next year you can cut off the deep water tubes at ground level and fill them up with sand.

For the rest of the design do the same with good soil and drainage. For watering, a simple trickle or drip irrigation systems would be very efficient. Soil moisture around the scrubs can be maintained at a level most suitable to plant uptake. If properly installed and maintained, little water is lost to evaporation or runoff and water use can be reduced by 70 percent or more. The expense of installing a good drip irrigation system will be compensated by reduced water usage, less replacement of plant materials, and a lot less work.

Professional landscapers, horticulturists, and others in the nursery industry know the value of a water wise landscape design. Now you do too so go have some fun.

Watch these pages in the future for articles, tips and links to the best resources available to help you make you home and business Green Friendly.  Its Fun, its Easy and making you life more  Eco Friendly will save you money and help you  live a longer, healthier life.

Go Green California!