Corbett Kroehler - Global Warming

Drake Landing Solar Community Proves Viability of Passive Solar House Design Even in Cold Climates, Blending Geothermal Heating with Solar Water Heating

2008-07-23T15:00:00Z

"Okotoks can fairly call itself the greenest community in Canada, maybe the world."

– Stephen Harper

Prime Minister of Canada

The Drake Landing Solar Community, in Okotoks, Alberta has reached a highly commendable and very remarkable milestone in passive solar house design, blending geothermal heating in the summertime with year-round solar water heating. That may read like a mouthful but, in short, this 52-home solar community in Central Canada soaks up heat in the summer and uses it to keep families warm in the winter while using just the tiniest fraction of grid power and natural gas versus what it would through conventional design.

Now, we’re talking!

]]>

While not 100% green, I bestow upon the Drake Landing Solar Community my highest commendation for ingenuity and carbon footprint reduction. Prime Minister Harper is correct. The Drake Landing Solar Community is the greenest community in Canada and perhaps the world!

When skeptics say that we must expand our options for geological exploration of fossil fuels, the environmental community can point to wonderful developments such as Drake Landing and bellow: “Do you see? Passive solar house design works even in cold climates. We can move away from fossil fuels today. There’s no reason to wait!”

Seeing is believing and now, skeptics of every stripe can travel to the Drake Landing Solar Community to take a tour and see just how effective the combination of geothermal heating and solar water heating can be. They had better knock first, though, because the 52 units sold out long before construction was complete.

To learn more about the Drake Landing Solar Community’s novel combination of geothermal heating and solar water heating, please visit

www.DLSC.ca

Fomenting the Triple Bottom Line

Corbett Kroehler

Furman Cliffs Cottage Redefines Role of Sunshine in Passive Solar Ranch Homes

2008-07-21T15:00:00Z

Back in March, I told you about an amazingly green housing project in South Carolina, the Navy Yard at Noisette. The developers and everyone in the community can be very proud of the accomplishments but some of their fellow Carolinians took the Noisette project as a challenge to elevate the design of passive solar ranch homes to a whole new level.

Meet the Furman Cliffs Cottage. An impressive collaboration between Furman University, Johnston Design Group, Innocenti & Webel, Triangle Construction and others, the Furman Cliffs Cottage has set a new standard for passive solar ranch homes in a novel way.

]]> Technologically speaking, passive solar ranch homes use the shifts in temperature (which just about every structure with southern exposure experiences between morning, noon and night as the sun tracks high above) to provide ventilation without the use of ventilators. While allowing for these shifts, the Furman Cliffs Cottage adds another important layer to the concept of passive solar, that of the draw against the mains by phantom power.

So long as they contain any of the modern conveniences such as computers, kitchen appliances or television sets, even passive solar ranch homes suffer from phantom power draw, the use of electrical current to keep devices in standby mode. While each appliance merely may sip power in standby, taken in aggregate, a home’s phantom power draw can be quite significant. The Furman Cliffs Cottage solves this problem through whole-house power regulation by computer.

In combination with the countless other green attributes, this innovation places the Furman Cliffs Cottage in a new breed of passive solar ranch homes which not only use natural shifts in sunlight to maintain constant, suitable temperatures but have a reverence for every watt of power emerging from the photovoltaic panels.

Perhaps best of all, the Furman Cliffs Cottage is open for tours and viewings through June of 2009. You can learn more (and can claim your timeslot) on the project website:

http://www.furmancliffscottage.com

Fomenting the Triple Bottom Line

Corbett Kroehler

American CAFE Standard for Automobiles Woefully Inadequate – European Compact Cars Already Achieving the Impossible

2008-07-18T15:00:00Z

The American system of mandating and measuring the fuel efficiency in automobiles is called the CAFE Standard, Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency. The United States Department of Transportation defines it as, “the sales weighted average fuel economy, expressed in miles per gallon (MPG), of a manufacturer’s fleet of passenger cars or light trucks with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of 8,500 lbs. or less, manufactured for sale in the United States, for any given model year.”

The program has existed since 1975, when it was instituted in response to the first gasoline crisis in the United States and has been tweaked very seldom since then. In fact, average fuel efficiency ratings of automobiles on American roads are lower now than when the mass-production automobile was invented a century ago!

How can this be?

]]> Some might argue that the safety factor in driving today is much higher. That is true, of course, but are we really meant to believe that humanity has the capacity of sending a probe all the way to the planet Mars to conduct in-depth soil analyses and transmit the results to Earth but cannot build automobiles which are safe but also get at least 60 miles per gallon?

Come on! Talk about a non sequitur! That simply makes no sense.

The truth is that we can build safe, fuel-efficient cars and I don’t mean hybrids. Today, people in Europe can purchase a diesel version of the Ford Fiesta, from the same family which gave us the mass-production automobile, which gets up to 60 miles per gallon with a manual transmission. 60 miles per gallon! So much for the American CAFE Standard as a leading benchmark!

Is the diesel Ford Fiesta available in North America? Not to my knowledge. Why not? I can find no rational explanation other than the fact that Ford does not want to sell it in North America.

Worse still, this is not an isolated model. My friend Ben Myatt lives in the Principality of Andorra and drives a modern, diesel Ford Fiesta which gets 60 miles per gallon. However, way back in the early 1990’s, I met a Scotsman who told me that he drove a diesel Ford Escort back home and got upwards of 80 miles per gallon with a good tailwind – back in the early 1990’s!

Something isn’t right here. Honda and Toyota are to be commended for their work on hybrid automobiles but we have had the technology for high-efficiency conventional automobiles for years and allowed Ford Motor Company to game the system, to control the market and the same United States Congress which created the CAFE Standard has sat on its hands and allowed progress on fuel efficiency to stagnate.

Shame! Shame! Shame!

So, if you are in the market for a new car and you live in North America, pop into your local Ford dealership, tell the sales manager that your friend Ben Myatt in Andorra drives a diesel Fiesta with a manual transmission and that you want one. I have a feeling that the sales manager will claim that you don’t have your facts straight. That’s OK, though, because your next step should be to visit the offices of your members of Congress to drive home the point, pun intended, that if Europe can have a 60 MPG Ford Fiesta, North America wants it, too!

Fomenting the Triple Bottom Line

Corbett Kroehler

In Northern Hemisphere, Melting of Polar Ice Well Ahead of Many Predictions – Next Month Could See Ice-Free Arctic

2008-07-16T15:00:00Z

There’s an old saying which some believe originated as a Chinese curse: May you live in interesting times. The new millennium certainly qualifies! It often seems that the weather has become our worst enemy. If I were a polar bear, I know that I’d feel that way.

Greenland photo credit: Kim Hansen

So far this month, I’ve been telling you about the significance of proclamations about global warming which have emerged from the scientific community this year. The news is not good. In fact, it’s horrible. All peer-reviewed predictions about the causes and effects of global warming are coming to fruition and it may well happen that next month, summertime melting of polar ice in the Northern Hemisphere will be complete. We could have an ice-free Arctic for the first time in the history of humankind.

That’s a very big deal. In fact, some of the more conservative estimates by very respected academic bodies gave us until 2050 before we’d see a completely ice-free Arctic, even in summer. They were way off. Why? Was there a flaw in their interpretation? Could it be that atmospheric carbon content is not the best measure of the doom we have leveled on ourselves?

]]> No and no!

The problem is that we are in uncharted territory. While deep-core isotopic analyses of the planet’s ice shelves tell us a great deal about the atmosphere going back millennia and beyond, we don’t have satellite imagery or constant monitoring of ocean temperatures or data from weather stations on every continent. In short, the predictions which gave us until 2050 were guesses, highly accurate ones by many of our best minds, but guesses nonetheless.

Besides, the estimates were based on a snapshot of atmospheric content. There was no way to predict an outcome based on carbon content if more carbon is added every day and we spew 40 million tons of it every 24 hours. Even Albert Einstein struggled with the challenge of predicting a random event.

Where do we go from here? Well, my first recommendation is to watch the film The Day After Tomorrow. It is a bit overdone for dramatic effect but not by too much. As you see things like tornadoes attacking Los Angeles as a stampede and Manhattan underwater, reflect on the killer storms which much of the world has seen so far this year. Living in the center of America’s hurricane zone, I shudder to think what the summer storm season has in store for Chez Kroehler, let me tell you.

I don’t wish to give you nightmares so let me end with this. Skepticism is healthy but stoicism is not. On the question of humanity’s role as the central cause of global warming, we are long past any doubt. The book is closed. Carbon is the culprit and the industrialized world loves it.

On the question of the causes and effects of global warming, melting of polar ice is as predictable as the dawn and we have known for decades that an ice-free Arctic would occur at some future point. Now, we know with scientific certainty that it will occur as soon as next month but no later than the summer of 2015.

What should you do? Live carbon-neutral today, immediately and aspire to live carbon-negative by the end of the year. It’s easier than you think and now you can watch on the evening news what will happen if you don’t.

photo taken by: Mila Zinkova

Fomenting the Triple Bottom Line

Corbett Kroehler

From the Holocene Epoch to the Anthropocene Epoch, How Global Warming Led to Climaticide and Melted Humanity’s Ice Shelf

2008-07-14T15:00:00Z

“Our world, our old world that we have inhabited for the last 12,000 years, has ended, even if no newspaper in North America or Europe has yet printed its scientific obituary.”

- Professor Mike Davis

University of California at Irvine

Although science is at the heart of this blog, I am neither a scientist nor a science writer. I am an environmental journalist. However, science is at the heart of everything I write and advocate because without scientific laws, there is no existence.

Science has told us that we have poisoned our atmosphere and oceans but also that human landscape transformation now exceeds natural sediment production by an order of magnitude. In other words, the Earth really isn’t the Earth which humanity inherited.

]]> In fact, geologically speaking, we have taken a natural progression from how things were eleven or twelve thousand years ago (and likely would have remained for hundreds of thousands more), and accelerated the evolutionary process to such an extent that the Holocene Epoch, the moderate climatological age in which we currently live, is coming to a very premature end. Even though humanity continues to thrive on this planet, we have committed climaticide.

As a general rule, I try to avoid technical jargon, only throwing in big words and lofty concepts when their more vernacular cousins fail to express the true flavor of my intent. Well, the month of June 2008 saw some remarkable statements about climaticide from the scientific community and it’s time for my prose to match their laudable work.

Stratigraphy is a specialty within geology. It studies the epochs (or ages) of the Earth, as in ice age. Because of our actions, the Holocene Epoch is ending and the Anthropocene, the next age with a climate generally inhospitable to wildlife and run by urban-industrial society, is beginning. Here’s an excerpt from what the oldest and most respected academic body on stratigraphy recently had to say on the question of moving from the Holocene to the Anthropocene.

“The combination of extinctions, global species migrations and the widespread replacement of natural vegetation with agricultural monocultures is producing a distinctive contemporary biostratigraphic signal. These effects are permanent, as future evolution will take place from surviving (and frequently anthropogenically relocated) stocks.”

- Stratigraphy Commission of the Geological Society of London

In broad terms, the food riots, relentless cycles of floods and tornados and frighteningly fast melting of our polar ice caps are a portent of an environmental apocalypse. I don’t wish to sound maudlin about the matter but within the last month several of the top minds and academic bodies on the subject, with centuries of experience, empirical data and wisdom on their side, have told us that the end is nigh.

So, here’s your wake-up call. Wake up, humanity!

How bad could it be? Well, the food riots I mentioned are a perfect example. They occurred in some places which ordinarily are peaceful and enjoy domestic harmony. We could lose that, the sense of universal brotherhood which today spans many borders and continents.

“The real danger is that human solidarity itself, like a West Antarctic ice shelf, will suddenly fracture and shatter into a thousand shards.”

- Professor Mike Davis

Back in October, I told you that the fuel consumed in an average transatlantic commercial air flight equals roughly one million years of planetary evolution. The climaticide we have committed in evoking the Anthropocene Epoch ahead of schedule may well take just as many years for the Earth to correct.

Fomenting the Triple Bottom Line

Corbett Kroehler

Dr. James Hansen Global Warming Testimony before Congress Reminds Us That OSAC, NASA and Others Have Worried For Years about Climaticide

2008-07-11T15:00:00Z

“Climate can reach points such that amplifying feedbacks spur large rapid changes. Arctic sea ice is a current example.... the Arctic soon will be ice-free in the summer [and] more ominous tipping points loom.”

- Dr. James Hansen

briefing before United States Congress

June 23, 2008

As America’s leading authority on global warming (and arguably the top mind on the subject living anywhere in the world today), Dr. James Hansen has a very difficult job. He wears many hats, many of them tilted to the side of a crusader. As the director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, James Hansen is the top mind on the climate crisis on the payroll of the government of the United States.

]]> As an adjunct professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University, Dr. Hansen must inspire the next generation both to act on the climate crisis now and prepare for its worst repercussions. Of course, he also must continue to sound the alarm to his countrymen (and every person on Earth willing to listen) about a problem we have created, climaticide, the killing of the climate on the only planet we have.

To wit, during the last week in June, Dr. Hansen gave something of a mini book tour in Washington, DC for his latest PowerPoint presentation, Global Warming 20 Years Later: Tipping Points Near. He spoke before the Green Apple Festival, the National Press Club and the United States Congress.

At each appearance, he laid the truth bear, he was correct about global warming 20 years ago, during his early career at NASA, and the governments of the industrialized world, including the United States, have squandered a priceless opportunity to initiate key reforms.

A sobering assessment of the analyses which occurred during those two decades reveals that OSAC, NASA and many other government agencies were quite worried about global warming even as the official policy of the White House and others was, more study. In fact, as you may know, all the way back in 2001, the Pentagon held a symposium related to the national security implications of global warming. Its title? Naval operations in an ice-free Arctic. What’s more, just recently, the US Intelligence Committee, of which the Pentagon is an active, contributing member, released a report. Its title? The National Security Implications of Global Climate Change Through 2030.

So, you see, plenty of people who claim to have doubts about humanity’s role in climaticide are smart enough to hedge their bets and prepare for the worst. That’s all this environmentalist asks: believe it or disbelieve it. Either way, stop the obstructionism.

Ironically, the James Hansen global warming testimony before Congress twenty years ago said something along the same lines, at least to the citizens seated in the gallery. Climaticide is coming. We can stop it but only if we act now. We did not act so now we have another layer of variables in the equation.

Next time, I will share with you the anthropological consequences of our inaction. They are chilling but have one benefit: they are the truth.

photo courtesy of: Roger Braithwaite, University of Manchester (UK)

Fomenting the Triple Bottom Line

Corbett Kroehler

Why is Global Warming Occurring? For Twenty Years, NASA Global Warming Authority Dr. James Hansen Has Answered with Pictures and Graphs of Global Warming Causes and Effects

2008-07-09T15:00:00Z

June was my anniversary month as a Keyboard Culture expert. My tenure has been a wild but highly rewarding ride. It’s also been historic. In a year’s time, I went from having just a handful of readers to more than 20,000 unique visitors per month! For that, the thanks go to you, dear reader, so, thank you!

June also was historic because NASA global warming authority Dr. James Hansen commemorated the twentieth anniversary of his congressional testimony by giving an update on Capitol Hill. Not surprisingly, his performance was exemplary. Since he first raised a billowing red flag over the Capitol building that human behavior was at the core of global warming causes and effects, Dr. James Hansen has done nothing but speak louder, more frequently and to growing audiences. This man knows his subject.

]]> Even as many of the same people who listened to him responded with the same question, Why is global warming occurring? my favorite NASA global warming authority gave us the truth, so boldly that many proponents of the status quo couldn’t bring themselves to imagine the global warming causes and effects which James Hansen related.

Dr. Hansen gave us layer upon layer of proof. He gave us pictures and graphs of global warming. He gave us predictions of the causes and effects. When most of his predictions unfolded exactly as he foretold, he gave us newer, even more accurate graphs of global warming. Time after time after time, his critics responded with ad hominem attacks and Dr. James Hansen parried and volleyed with more pictures and graphs of global warming.

So, now what? James Hansen’s predictions of global warming are coming true. Where do we go from here? Well, twenty years ago, when he first testified before Congress about global warming, Dr. Hansen assuaged our concerns slightly by stating that we had a certain amount of leeway, that if we acted quickly and decisively, we had time to stave off disaster. Sadly, we barely acted at all and now have a planetary crisis on our hands.

What does this mean?

In the succeeding parts of my report on the final week of June 2008 on the topic of the global climate crisis, I will contextualize global warming causes and effects within the definition of a bittersweet neologism, climaticide.

Fomenting the Triple Bottom Line

Corbett Kroehler

Greenland photo courtesy of “Prof. Konrad Steffen, Univ. of Colorado”

Important Message from NRDC.org Website StopDirtyFuels.org Reminds Us of Truth about Clean Coal Technologies

2008-07-07T15:00:00Z

“We don’t want to spend taxpayer dollars on fuels that make global warming worse.”

– Hon. Kitty Piercy, Mayor

Eugene, Oregon

June 23, 2008

Last time, I gave you my position on clean coal technologies. They are a myth. However, since no reasonable environmentalist can expect the world to abandon coal overnight, the most important thing for us to do is disseminate the truth about clean coal technologies and drive consumers of coal toward clean, renewable resources.

One area where the environmental community can obtain the fastest results is in educating government bodies. NRDC, the Natural Resources Defense Council, is a very influential organization doing just that. The quote above came in part as a response to their work.

]]> There is no such thing as clean coal but fossilized industries use a multifaceted approach toward putting a happy face on coal as an energy source. They claim mining coal creates jobs and economic stimulus. Well, few practices cause more environmental damage than coal mining but at the same time Appalachia is a heavy mining region of the United States and has the most economically disadvantaged residents per capita.

In this presidential election year, with energy independence a hot topic, which grows hotter by the day, initiatives such as StopDirtyFuels.org from NRDC are vital. They remind us that one need not believe in global warming to oppose coal. Clean, renewable resources are as much about economic sustainability as they are about environmental sustainability.

That’s why we need groups such as NRDC to create initiatives such as StopDirtyFuels.org. We must remind everyone that clean coal technologies are a boondoggle and that, if we remove government subsidies, renewable resources can compete head to head with coal right now, with today’s technology.

Coal is dirty. It is bad for the environment. It is bad for the long-term success of mining communities and, of course, the health of miners. We must eschew this ancient technology in favor of solar, wind, geothermal and other renewable resources and we must begin to change today. StopDirtyFuels.org is one tool to help us do just that.

Fomenting the Triple Bottom Line

Corbett Kroehler

Debunking of Clean Coal Technologies Leads Environmental Defense to Launch Innovative Partnership with Kohlbert Kravis Roberts

2008-07-04T15:00:00Z

There is no such thing as clean coal! Period!

In my first year as a Keyboard Culture Expert, I have mentioned my position on clean coal but never as affirmatively as right now. Why the change? Well, it’s not really a change so much as a tweak in my narrative style. It is precipitated by two events of historical significance.

Firstly, we have the nomination for President of the United States of Senator Barack Obama. No matter whether you follow politics passionately with an inclination toward one political party or away from another, or are lukewarm about all of it, you are or will become aware of the fact that Senator Obama’s nomination by the Democratic Party has caused a marked uptick in budget allocations for television advertising by fossil fuel companies, including mining interests.

In a word, fossilized conglomerates which have been embraced by many national politicians in recent years have become frightened. Whereas earlier in this decade they have spoken occasionally about clean coal technologies, now they can’t seem to refer to them often enough.

Since this is not a political blog, I will leave the matter there with a simple statement of fact. These companies are frightened.

Secondly, though, is the preceding event to Senator Obama’s nomination, the partnership between Environmental Defense, a standard bearer in the quest for a clean environment and a reversal of global warming, and one of the world’s largest investment firms, Kohlbert Kravis Roberts.

]]> In 2007, Kohlbert Kravis Roberts was poised to help finance a rash of new electrical generating stations throughout the United States, many of them with coal furnaces. Among the deals was what would have been the largest acquisition of an energy utility, TXU in this case, in American history. The good people of Environmental Defense leapt into action and called upon their membership base to protest the proposal.

The result was every bit as historic as the merger: Environmental Defense engaged the financiers at Kohlbert Kravis Roberts in a new alliance which helps channel large chunks of investment away from the carbon-intensive practices of the past toward a cleaner, greener future. In just a year’s time, this alliance has begun to bear additional fruit, particularly a broader corporate awakening about the need for responsible, environmentally sustainable practices. In fact, dozens of coal-fired power plant construction plans have been canceled or delayed because of the historic achievement of Environmental Defense.

While cultural changes in the United States and many other nations continue to awaken from a long hibernation, much progress remains to be achieved. Next time, I will share with you a new initiative from NRDC, a peer organization to Environmental Defense of equal esteem.

Fomenting the Triple Bottom Line

Corbett Kroehler

2008 Failure of Mississippi River Levees Points to New Disaster Planning Models in Age of Global Warming

2008-07-02T15:00:00Z

“Is everything spinning out of control? Midwestern levees are bursting. Polar bears are adrift. Gas prices are skyrocketing. Home values are abysmal. Air fares, college tuition and health care border on unaffordable.... Horatio Alger, twist in your grave.”

Alan Fram and Eileen Putnam

Associated Press

June 22, 2008

With so many natural disasters occurring simultaneously, it can be quite tempting to lump them into a single nightmarish disaster. If we are to survive the growing frequency and ferocity of killer storms in this age of global warming, we must resist the temptation to wallow in helplessness. Humanity can and will learn from the Mississippi River levee failures of 2008 and adapt our disaster planning models where possible.

So, was the horrendous flooding of 2008, which caused multiple Mississippi River levees to fail, all that different from what happened along the American Gulf Coast in 2005 with Hurricane Katrina? The answer is yes and no but we can learn from both.

Katrina was at the time the largest and fastest hurricane on record. While much blame justifiably was passed from one government agency to another, from a mechanical perspective, the sea swells which Katrina sent hurtling toward New Orleans and the rest of that section of coastline were quite high but not unimaginably so.

]]> In short, if the mangroves and other natural windbreak structures which nature historically provided had been left in place instead of being destroyed deliberately for short-term financial gain, the damage would have been terrible but significantly less so than on that fateful summer’s day.

Global warming caused the waters of the Gulf of Mexico to be abnormally high, which provided fuel for an already powerful storm and ultimately, there was nothing anyone could do about it.

As for the upstream Mississippi River levee ruptures of 2008, particularly in Iowa, the similarities end with atmospheric fuel.

For more than a decade, climatologists have warned us that an overall pattern of destabilization would be one effect of global warming, that rainfall and wind patterns would shift. To that end, global warming most definitely was a prime cause of the Mississippi River levee ruptures.

By how much, though?

Well, here’s a little perspective for you. The torrential rains which struck the upper Mississippi River Valley in 2008 came in June, which is a very unusual occurrence in and of itself, but then also dropped significantly more rain than the region sees even during the most unseasonably heavy downpours.

In the end, the levees ruptured because the 2008 flooding resulted in peak flows which were 6 feet above the worst ever seen or predicted!

That is the type of change we will see with greater frequency in this age of global warming. That is the type of change which just a few weeks earlier caused massive flooding a few hundred miles away in Wisconsin Dells, where the flood waters were so strong and unrelenting that a lake wall imploded, an event virtually unheard of in the United States.

My friend, disaster planning models in this age of global warming must be reworked for huge swings in natural patterns – far outside our historical norms or imaginings. We have made this mess for ourselves and now we must try to live with it. Although, the 2008 Mississippi River levee disaster has shown us that unless we act quickly and decisively, many of our friends and neighbors won’t be able to live with it.

Fomenting the Triple Bottom Line

Corbett Kroehler

Can a Carbon-Negative Company Send a Bad Environmental Message? Fiji Artesian Water Can

2008-06-30T15:00:00Z

The term carbon-neutral has become something of a buzz word. Through a combination of conservation efforts and offsets, my wife Catrin and I have lived carbon-neutral since the year 2004. Carbon-neutral simply means to live as if there were no industrialization, producing only as much pollution as is necessary for a basic existence.

Sadly, if the entire world became carbon-neutral overnight, if we parked every car, decommissioned every fossil-fueled power plant and extinguished every forest fire, we could not save the Greenland ice shelf from melting into the North Atlantic.

Put another way, if we want to save ourselves from the ravages of global warming and reverse the crisis, we must become carbon-negative. We must return our planet’s atmosphere to its cleaner, earlier state while expanding the global economy at the same time.

It’s a tall order but it can be done. Fiji Artesian Water claims to be a carbon-negative company. I have reviewed the assertions of its FijiGreen.com website. There is much to admire about what Fiji Artesian Water is doing to expand its business, protect biodiversity in Fiji and reverse global warming. However, despite its commendable alliance with Conservation International and other environmental organizations, Fiji Artesian Water sends a bad environmental message because it encourages people to drink water from the other side of the world.

]]>

Back in October, I told you why this is a bad idea from an environmental perspective. Despite the impressive changes which Fiji Artesian Water has made to its operating model, it is left with a bad environmental message. Water should be water and the goal of every environmentalist should be to see that all of humanity has access to clean drinking water which also is tasty. Until we have that, no carbon-negative company which sells water can claim the high ground.

Fomenting the Triple Bottom Line

Corbett Kroehler

Saving the Amazon Rainforest Made Easier With Brazilian Springs Water? Well, Yes and No

2008-06-27T15:00:00Z

Last time, I told you about the commendable gains made in the promotion of the SIGG aluminum water bottle by StopGlobalWarming.org It’s a wonderful product but perhaps impractical for your situation. What are your alternatives?

You may have heard about Brazilian Springs water, which claims to be the first and only eco-friendly bottled water in the world. Is that possible? It’s a question of degree. First the good news...

Brazilian Springs Water as a firm created a foundation and then partnered with Fundaçâo de Preservaçâo da Floresta Amazônica, FundAmazon for short, to protect sensitive lands which have been cleared (or are under threat of clearing) plus engage in broad reforestation along Brazil’s Atlantic coast. A portion of the revenue from the sale of the bottled water, which comes from Arkansas, is directed into the foundation to go toward saving the Amazon rainforest.

The goal is sound. The urgency is great and the need for international involvement cannot be overstated. Two thumbs up for creativity and mission!

Now, the bad news – the water is bottled in only one place yet available in many. In other words, the product must be shipped, a carbon-intensive practice. Of equal damage is the fact that the water is packaged in PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles, which, while recyclable, is a carbon-intense material which usually winds up in landfills.

]]>

The global demand for raw materials, which includes about 30% of petroleum for PET in drinking bottles, is part of what drives deforestation in Brazil. So, we’re paying twice, once to cause the deforestation and once to repair it.

To be fair, the good people at Brazilian Springs Water are trying to be part of the solution, especially as the only firm dedicating a consistent revenue stream into saving the Amazon rainforest. Ultimately, however, their approach is not unlike a bandage for a head wound, woefully inadequate and probably dangerous.

If you can’t follow my lead and use a SIGG aluminum water bottle from StopGlobalWarming.org, your next choice should be to use bottled water with a production facility near you, so that the water doesn’t travel far from its source. That way, emissions from delivery are minimized. Unless you live near Hot Springs, Arkansas, Brazilian Springs Water does not pass the location test.

The folks at Brazilian Springs Water may feel that my position is unfair. I am firm in my conviction but next time, I will share with you the latest details of a bottled water program which is even more harmful.

Readers of my section of Keyboard Culture know that I am very bullish about reforestation. I spend a great deal of time covering it and if I can turn away an initiative which has saving the Amazon rainforest as one of its central corporate goals, then you know that the approach must be flawed.

Fomenting the Triple Bottom Line

Corbett Kroehler

Review of "I Am Not Plastic" Message of SIGG Aluminum Water Bottle from StopGlobalWarming.org

2008-06-25T15:00:00Z

The quest for clean, potable water is an understandable one. All mammals (and many other forms of life on this planet) need water to sustain them. It is elemental. Sadly, clean drinking water and tasty drinking water are not always synonyms. What’s more, since global populations have exploded without a corresponding increase in municipal infrastructure, many locations around the world now have sour water as the standard at the tap.

This avoidable situation is the reason bottled water has become a huge growth industry, leaving environmental devastation in its wake, in my home state of Florida and around the world. We need to move away from the status quo and earlier this month, I shared with you the fact that the I Am Not Plastic SIGG aluminum water bottle from StopGlobalWarming.org represents a workable solution.

I am the first to admit that bottled water can be a comforting luxury. Dasani is my favorite brand but as I have traveled the world, I have encountered several brands of water which go down great by themselves or with a meal. The problem? Huge consumption of natural resources!

]]>

The best option is to carry water with us from home in a sturdy, low-maintenance, reusable container with a long life span. The I Am Not Plastic SIGG aluminum water bottle from StopGlobalWarming.org works for me.

While expensive, this bottle does its job and makes a loud statement at the same time. That’s why I love it. The concept is simple and the execution flawless. All I have to do is remember to bring it home once it is empty.

Much like leaving the supermarket without shopping bags 90% of the time or more, using the SIGG aluminum water bottle allows me to make a statement but I also save money because I have a reverse osmosis filter on my kitchen sink. I just fill it each morning and the quality is the same or better than if I spent $1 per liter for designer or luxury water.

The I Am Not Plastic SIGG aluminum water bottle from StopGlobalWarming.org simultaneously permits my secret smile because I get to preach at people about the evils of plastic water bottles without saying a word.

As petroleum prices continue to rise, we may well see a significant increase in the retail price of water bottled in single-use plastic containers. I will be curious if the change has any effect on buying patterns. At a minimum, it may cause consumers to think twice before indulging in this particular consumptive behavior.

Fortunately, none of us has to wait to learn what happens. We can use a SIGG aluminum water bottle from StopGlobalWarming.org and become part of the solution today.

Alternately, if you prefer a more subtle approach, you can opt for the SIGG aluminum water bottle which contributes to clean water projects in the third world. Just visit ThirstForChange.com and you can join Cindy Crawford in kicking the bottle habit.

Fomenting the Triple Bottom Line

Corbett Kroehler

2008 Tornadoes in the US Add Validity to Global Warming Predictions

2008-06-23T15:00:00Z

Hail, tornado, flood! Hail, tornado, flood! We sure have seen a mess of tornadoes this year!

When describing killer storms which leave unspeakable devastation in their wake, it’s easy for a journalist to seem glib. Allow me to contextualize the following statements. They take into account only the atmospheric significance of tornadoes in the US which have struck thus far in 2008.

Living in an area which sees multiple fatalities from tornadoes most every year, I have nothing but sympathy for storm victims and their families. Nevertheless, the 2008 tornadoes in the US point to larger, equally ominous results.

The atmosphere of the Earth is self-regulating. It has to be on account of the fact that conditions in space are very harsh. Between the outermost layers of our atmosphere and the surface of the moon, temperatures drop to well below minus 400° F. That’s cold.

Outside those same protective atmospheric layers, the levels of heat and radiation are so great as to sear flesh to a crisp in a moment’s time. In other words, our atmosphere keeps us in the habitable range of roughly 100° F as a global average, from 0° F to 100° F.

How does this relate to tornadoes and global warming predictions? In previous posts here at KBC, I have noted that hurricanes are important to the health of our atmosphere. Speaking strictly in terms of our environment, hurricanes are vital. Tornadoes are similarly important. Here’s how that works...

At any given moment, the sun, the same ball of radiation which can sear flesh to a crisp in a moment’s time, heats the surface of the Earth differently. This is simple physics, driven by our orbital pattern and axial rotation. Those differences cause tension to build in the atmosphere. That tension must be dissipated. Wind storms such as hurricanes and tornadoes are, in effect, pressure release valves for the atmosphere.

In 2008, we’ve seen tornadoes in the US strike with unusually high frequency and ferocity. This is caused by several factors, primarily wind sheer. The disruptions to our typical atmospheric patterns which global warming causes in turn cause large swings in temperature, usually from hot to cold. Tornadoes are the localized atmospheric response to rapid shifts. Hurricanes are macro (or regional) responses but differ in two ways:

]]> 1) most of the time, they require an aquatic boundary layer in order to form; and

2) they last for many hours or days (versus just a few minutes, as tornadoes typically do).

In short, global warming is driving tornadoes in the US because our reckless behavior is destabilizing the atmosphere. That destabilization leads to shifts in the changing of the seasons and precipitation patterns. Those changes lead to swift changes in temperature and wind patterns.

It’s a large, vicious cycle which only can be abated if we return the global average carbon content of the atmosphere to its maximum level of 300 parts per million. As of this writing, we are at or above 400 parts per million and rising, just like the frequency of killer wind storms.

Photos courtesy of NSSL

Sustainable Justice For All!

Corbett Kroehler

Interview with Interstate Traveler Creator Justin Sutton Points to New Energy Future with Solar Radiation Explosions

2008-06-20T15:00:00Z

NOTE: Audio for this post is accessible at the end

Justin Sutton is full of bright ideas, no pun intended. He invented the Interstate Traveler – which is on track to break ground in 2009 – but as impressive as that revolutionary system is, it really is just the beginning of the good deeds he has planned for his countrymen and all of humanity.

The sun is at the heart of much of what Justin Sutton does. One might say that it fuels his genius. Well, one of the objections which global warming skeptics hurl at us true believers is that sun spots are to blame for increases in global average temperatures. In effect, they are saying that solar radiation explosions are the culprit, not the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation on a planetary scale and widespread ocean poisoning.

Basic geology explains away any correlation between solar radiation explosions and the pace at which our world is warming but the genius of Justin Sutton is that his inventions work no matter what happens to the sun. So long as it keeps shining at much the same intensity, we are in good shape. Moreover, the Interstate Traveler transports more people, provides more free hydrogen and provides more clean water if solar radiation explosions persist. In other words, he has us covered.

As you will come to understand by listening to the interview which he gave to me on May 31, shortly after returning home from a successful visit to Orlando for the Green Earth Expo, Justin Sutton has found a way to provide for many of our needs while boosting our economy. The running time of the telephone interview is almost 50 minutes and the topics have a wide range but I am confident that you will find it a fascinating listen.

]]> Justin Sutton is a Renaissance Man. I’m sure that he would try to tamp down my high esteem for his genius and altruistic aims but take a listen to the interview below and judge for yourself. He knows what he is talking about, my friend, and isn’t shy about sharing the logic behind the future success of the Interstate Traveler.

Sustainable Justice For All!

Corbett Kroehler

Listen Free Here