Today's Green Minute from Creators Syndicate

Feeding Africa for 07/04/2008

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

You could say that Africa is addicted to foreign food in the same way that the U.S. is addicted to foreign oil. That's because besides being a receiver of a third of the world's food-aid, the African continent spends $25 billion (U.S.) to import food. Despite the influx of food from elsewhere, 46 percent of the population is still hungry.

But the problem can be solved. One of Africa's o ...

Updated: Fri Jul 04, 2008

Not Your Father's Conference for 07/14/2008

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Once-upon-a-time the St. Louis sales team could easily hop on a plane for a face-to-face in the Boston office, but with ticket prices soaring and flight choices dropping like flies, corporate brass everywhere is looking enthusiastically at an exciting new wave of audio conferencing hardware.

As you might imagine, this trend makes the manufacturers of audio conferencing hardware very happ ...

Updated: Mon Jul 14, 2008

Scooter Spewer for 07/21/2008

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The good news is that once pollution falls to the ground, the next rain usually washes it away. The bad news is that the polluted rainwater is probably running into a nearby lake. The Environmental Protection Agency calls this pollution "Nonpoint Source Pollution." One of its big contributors might be that gas-sipping scooter you just bought, hoping it would make you more environmenta ...

Updated: Mon Jul 21, 2008

Aussie Power for 07/28/2008

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Australia is on the brink of correcting its big emission problem — maybe.

Eighty percent of Australia's energy comes from coal, and extracting it from the earth and burning it contributes to the country being, per person, one of the powerhouse emitters on the planet. In fact, in 2004 each Aussie's emission level was 4.5 times the global average.

To improve this picture, an e ...

Updated: Mon Jul 28, 2008

Electric Dreams for 08/04/2008

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Oil prices continue to zoom and the industrialized world continues to reel, but one benefit to the world is a great fueling of innovation. Portugal, for example, has just signed a pact with the French carmaker Renault and its Japanese partner Nissan that will make it the global trendsetter in electric cars.

The country is in a state of "petrol shock" since it imports all of its ...

Updated: Mon Aug 04, 2008

Ontario Does it Better for 08/11/2008

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

You're a good recycler — recycling paper, bottles, cans and plastic — but old TV's, computers and cell phones drive you nuts because the recycling truck won't take them. All that electronic scrap (with components that nobody wants to see leach into drinking water) ends up in a hole in the ground — ugh! What's a good recycler like you to do?

Well, if you're in Ontario af ...

Updated: Mon Aug 11, 2008

The Lion House Leeds for 08/18/2008

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Bronx Zoo's Lion House was dubbed a Historic District because of its gracious Beau-Arts style and striking 1903 architectural features, but since the settings in zoos have become more naturalistic, the grand old Lion House has long sat unused. Now, thanks to the vision of the Wildlife Conservation Society (plus $62 million dollars and six years), it is busy, vital, and the city's first LEED ...

Updated: Mon Aug 18, 2008

Solar is Styling for 08/25/2008

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

John Langdon, with a company called HelioVolt, points out that solar power is in a state similar to the situation of air conditioning in 1950: not yet considered standard equipment in new construction. Back then, window units were the prescribed retrofit for buildings without central air — and 6-inch deep solar panels are the corresponding retrofit for non-solar buildings now.

In 2 ...

Updated: Mon Aug 25, 2008

Recycle for Mom for 09/01/2008

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Peter Lobin of Solid Waste Solutions Corp. calls himself a "Garbologist." He was visiting San Francisco's Embarcadero when he noticed the public recycling set-up: One 90-gallon toter for "Recyclables," one for "Trash" and one for "Organics."

Since his company's motto is Integrated Environmental Solutions for a Sustainable Future, Lobin was interest ...

Updated: Mon Sep 01, 2008

Soles for Souls for 09/08/2008

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

This is a story that will warm your heart … if not your feet. Its premise is quite simple: sending used shoes to people who need them.

The particulars: The Lehigh Safety Shoe Co. has teamed up with Soles4Souls in a program that will provide industrial companies with donation boxes, brochures, ad materials and local public relations in order to help these companies host a “shoe fair.” The ...

Updated: Mon Sep 08, 2008

Home Energy Bank for 09/15/2008

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

People who use solar energy systems to power their houses can watch their electric meters slow, stop or even run backward when the sun shines. But when the sun goes down, the power decreases. Now an MIT professor, Daniel Nocera, has developed a fuel cell that "banks" solar energy and makes electricity 24/7.

Fuel cells and batteries are alike in that they produce no greenhouse g ...

Updated: Mon Sep 15, 2008

G-Power for 09/22/2008

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

If you were riding a moneymaking machine and wanted to put your zillions into saving the world, where would you start? If you're Google, you're spending hundreds of millions of dollars to make electricity from renewable sources, which is cheaper than electricity from "dirty" sources.

One of Google's most interesting investments — for $10 million — is being made in & ...

Updated: Mon Sep 22, 2008

Greener Practices for 09/29/2008

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

We see everywhere how the American public has a hunger to live and work in green, healthy spaces — and now a statistic coming from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) indicates that level of desire.

Here's the stat: One thousand professionals in the building industry have taken the NAHB's green training program. They've completed the classes, studied hard and passed th ...

Updated: Mon Sep 29, 2008

Transmission Problems for 10/06/2008

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

It may be that renewable energy sources will become cheap enough to someday be the Golden Goose, but it seems apparent that squeezing electricity out of wind, solar, biomass, etc. isn't enough. There's also the pesky problem of transmission — getting the juice from the place where it's generated to the location where it's used.

The U.S. Department of Energy has a target: generating ...

Updated: Mon Oct 06, 2008

Mysterious Kite for 10/13/2008

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

It's all shrouded in mystery, but the word is: the company was founded by a gifted inventor, the promise is to gather 10 times as much wind energy than traditional turbines, the financial backing is provided by the good folks at Google, and the product is a high-flying kite with membranes that harvest energy from the wind. Wow.

Makani Power is the company, Saul Griffith is the inventor, ...

Updated: Mon Oct 13, 2008

Fuel Bug for 10/20/2008

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Ethanol fuel has been touted as our current best alternative to fossil fuels, and corn has been the primary source of ethanol. But a significant side effect is that ethanol from corn is a threat to the stability of the world's food supply.

So the Holy Grail for ethanol producers has been to find a way to substitute bio-waste products — the stems, stalks and chips — instead of ...

Updated: Mon Oct 20, 2008

Chinese Methane for 10/27/2008

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The phrase "canary in a coalmine" comes from the age-old practice of placing a caged canary in a mine to detect explosive gases; the canary's death was a signal for miners to evacuate. The unfortunate death signaled methane gas. While the detection system has improved, coalmines tap into this dangerous, yet useful, gas in mines around the world.

Methane is a greenhouse gas 20 t ...

Updated: Mon Oct 27, 2008

Algae Crude for 11/03/2008

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

When oil prices soar to places they've never risen to before, unconventional sources of energy become ... well, less unconventional.

Consider the recent attention given to the lowly algae, and its ability to make fats. The fats can be made into refined crude oil in the same way ground crude oil is refined. But in order for crude oil from algae to be made into commercially viable quantiti ...

Updated: Mon Nov 03, 2008

Green Gizmos for 11/10/2008

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Black & Decker invented the first portable electric drill in 1917, and the company is still ahead of the curve. It's introduced three smart gizmos to lighten homeowners' impact on Mother Earth — and save them a few bucks along the way.

The Lights Out AutoSwitch is a motion detector and timer combined into a sleek unit that fits over a light switch. Walk into a room, the lights ...

Updated: Mon Nov 10, 2008

Biomimicry for 11/17/2008

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

A new UN survey says that big firms like General Electric and Procter & Gamble have, in their search for new ideas, been turning in greater numbers to Mother Nature. Janine Benyus, of the Biomimicry Guild (that wrote the report), points out that life — in its 3.8 billion years of inventing — has created an enormous number of "blueprints, designs and chemical recipes."< ...

Updated: Mon Nov 17, 2008