In my previous thread, I extolled the virtues of a consumer product over its peers because it takes an approach which is broad and comprehensive yet focused.

That’s what we need in order to reverse the climate crisis. While there are multiple carbon-reducing avenues we can and must pursue, reforestation consistently tops my list because it produces ancillary benefits for environmental tourism, avalanche and flood prevention and habitat for wildlife, especially endangered species.

With that in mind, you may have wondered why government programs don’t help and encourage taxpayers to do more in order to replant our forests.

I have pondered that point many times and am delighted to report that now, individuals can!

The Carbon Capital Fund allows us hasten the rate of reforestation in the US through an intriguing private-public partnership.

I urge you to visit the new website at http://www.carboncapitalfund.org and learn how you can do your part not only to reduce levels of carbon in the atmosphere but foster the expansion of America’s national forests.

This program truly is yet another win-win-win!

Sustainable Justice For All!

Corbett Kroehler
 

The good news about fighting the global climate crisis is that there are ancillary benefits from the methods, techniques and technologies which we must adopt in order to reduce our carbon footprint. At the top of the list of those benefits is air pollution. Exacerbating a whole host of maladies including asthma and emphysema, air pollution is as dirty as its name sounds.

Proposals to dispense with fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas and petroleum in our electrical power plants receive a great deal of attention and rightly so. However, urban haze and smog are a growing problem, too, and point to air pollution statistics which may shock you. My favorite dates back to the summer of 1996.

As you will recall, Atlanta, capital city of the State of Georgia, often called the New York of the South, hosted the Olympic Games. Living in the South, I can tell you that it was a big deal for Florida, even though we were hundreds of miles away from most of the action.

Emissions of carbon monoxide, sulfur and volatile organic compounds from lawn care equipment such as mowers and trimmers are a big problem. In some ways, they are a greater problem than automobiles. It’s true!

Until I sat down and thought about it some 15 years ago, I had not realized that this makes sense. Tailpipe emissions from cars have been regulated in one form or another for decades. Not so with lawn care equipment. In fact, until just a few years ago, the patchwork of small engine pollution regulations which has sprung up around the United States did not exist.

Is it really that bad, you might ask? The answer is yes. We need new air pollution solutions.

The Environmental Protection Agency tells us that 5% of our nation’s pollution comes from lawn care equipment and this dirty air comprises a larger portion of smog in urban areas than the national average. For example, in Los Angeles, California, air pollution from edgers, mowers and trimmers exceeds the total emissions from all planes in the city’s airspace.

With such air pollution facts in mind, then, dear reader, you may come to share my urgency for finding meaningful and practical air pollution solutions. They exist and a friend of mine by the name of JP Patten of HUGR Systems in Orlando, FL has invented one of them.

It turns out that operating lawn mowers on larger platforms with diesel engines can quintuple fuel economy and reduce airborne contaminants by large percentages. The news gets better. Modern diesel engines require no modifications whatsoever in order to operate on BioDiesel. What’s more, because fuel for lawn care involves a mere fraction of what we in the United States burn for transportation, we can obtain the liquid gold in small quantities from organic sources.

In the third post in this series, I will explain how BioDiesel is a wonderful fit for the lawn care industry, including individual homeowners who cut their own lawns.

Sustainable Justice For All!

Corbett Kroehler
 

JP Patten is a BioDiesel expert and a friend of mine. If you would like to be put in touch with him, just send me an email through the Contact Corbett link in the left navigation bar of this blog and I will relay your message gladly.

Well, when I first learned of JP and his amazing technology, I immediately wondered about the economic viability of fueling a community’s landscaping activities with BioDiesel. JP had the answer and it is quite compelling. Broad BioDiesel expansion can be quick and profitable.

Average population centers (Orlando, FL fits the mold) have more than enough restaurants in clusters for practical collection and processing of kitchen waste, such as fryer grease, to sell it at around the same price per gallon as petroleum diesel. Better yet, it is recycled fuel, which is very important, is domestically produced, even more important, and enhances engine operating temperature plus fuel economy! In fact, JP’s model uses roughly one-fifth the fuel per cutting as a conventional gasoline mower and has more torque. Wow!

When was the last time you refilled the fuel tank on your lawn mower? Did you spill?

I used to have a terrible problem spilling gasoline when refilling my mower. That’s one of the reasons I switched to an electric unit years ago.

Electric landscaping equipment truly is the best choice because exhaust from small gasoline engines is very dirty. In fact, small engine smoke is a major cause of lung cancer. However, for many Americans, mowing while tethered to a wall socket is impractical.

Enter BioDiesel.

The summer of 2007 has not been good in terms of further warning signs that our consumption of fossil fuels is heating the planet to dizzying zeniths. We have seen prolonged triple-digit heat waves covering half the continental United States at the same time and torrential East Coast flooding and rain systems.

How has this affected life in the Arctic Ocean?

William L. Chapman, who monitors the region at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign had the following to say earlier this month, “The melting rate during June and July this year was simply incredible...”

The melting of polar ice caps continues unabated. We must act today.

In this blog, I have advocated for carbon neutrality. There are various methods for achieving it as you will find by reviewing my earlier posts.

The key is to begin immediately and not relent until the carbon you produce through consuming, moving and simply living is at as low a rate as it would have been had you walked the Earth 200 years ago.

In my next two threads, I will lead you through two aspects of the quest for clean air and healthy polar ice caps which bear your attention.

Sustainable Justice For All!

Corbett Kroehler
 

If I said “ozone layer,” it would be perfectly normal if your reply were, “I thought that we fixed that in the 1980’s.” The fact is, repair work on the ozone layer high in the atmosphere is progressing at a tolerable pace because of the (mostly) global ban on nasty substances known as CFCs.

No, when I refer to the ozone layer now, I regard urban haze and its effects both on natural vistas, such as at Grand Canyon National Park, and the way in which plants (especially prairie grasses and trees) consume the byproducts of the carbon we exhale 72 times per minute and convert it to the oxygen which all animals need in order to survive.

I call this exchange process the carbon dioxide oxygen cycle. It is one of the building blocks of mammalian life on Earth, meaning human life. In short, without it, we become the dinosaurs of the Holocene Age.

Huh?

Forests are vital to the planet’s ability to process carbon, sequestering it, but, more commonly and importantly, converting it to oxygen for us to breathe. Healthy, old-growth forests clean more carbon from the atmosphere than arithmetic (and a count of the area covered) would lead one to conclude because of symbiosis.

Central Florida suffers from urban sprawl to an extent which rivals the nation’s oldest cities. At our current pace, soon we we’ll have not just suburbs next to suburbs but exurbs, where residential areas ringing cities become so large and traffic so bad that new city centers are born. Indeed, the Interstate 4 corridor between Orlando and Tampa is growing so fast that it is known by some as “Orlampa.”

“There he goes again!”

I’m sure you are tempted to react to the title of this thread that way. I don’t blame you. After all, would average web surfers think twice about the potential connection between the numbers of trees in urban areas and pediatrics?

Please bear with me, though, because this linkage is crucially important.

As the world becomes more and more industrialized and we westerners ever more acclimated to city living, the importance of urban forest value rises in proportion.

What do I really mean?

As we close out one of the hottest and deadliest summer seasons ever in the northern hemisphere, we find new questions arising about the role which green tags, also called carbon offsets or carbon credits, can play in reversing the global climate crisis.

At the same time, we find that local cineplexes are showing not one but two films about life in our planet’s polar regions and the impact which global warming has on wildlife, “A Polar Tale” and “11th Hour”.

Since I have advocated that offsets can play a crucial role in a blended approach to conservation, this seems an ideal juncture to offer my carbon credit definition. Specifically, do I define such credits are good, good over the short term or bad?

The final days of the month of August will not be the same for my generation or the next on account of the unspeakable devastation which befell America’s Gulf Coast in 2005. However, even as the region takes small, painful steps toward recovery, we must remember some of the lessons which that disaster taught us.

Positive results? Yes, it’s true. Naturally, we don’t want any loss of life or property from wind storms but in terms of the planet’s atmosphere, hurricanes and other such tropical systems play an important role. Because the earth is round, sunshine heats the surface at different intensities each day and as the seasons change. Cyclones act as, in a way, blowing off steam to keep the atmosphere’s vital filtration system healthy. In short, hurricanes can have positive results.

In Friday’s post, I told you about the American Standard Green Envirohome. In the process of inviting the owners to speak at Green Earth Expo 2008, I had an amazing, 40-minute conversation with Nonnie Chrystal, pictured in Friday’s column. Wow! It’s not every day that I encounter someone with my passion and zeal for environmental issues, especially the holistic approach of not just consuming less but healing the earth whenever possible.

It turns out that the story in USA Today which led me to Nonnie in the first place only tells half the story. As I described in my last column, Nonnie’s and Mark’s family was impacted severely by the rapid-fire hurricanes of 2004. However, I came to learn that the devastation of the next year’s hurricane season hit them hard as well. In fact, Nonnie is an alumna of Tulane University in New Orleans and has strong ties to the Crescent City. That is why the arduous journey of designing and building the American Standard Green Envirohome, in collaboration with multiple companies and governmental bodies, is like a Hurricane Katrina Poem in Concrete and Steel.

As we ponder what happened and what could have been prevented in the national disaster known as Hurricane Katrina (and rightly so), it is important that we not lose sight of the meteorological aspects of that fateful week which closed August, 2005. Indeed, that fatal storm set 3 atmospheric records for cyclones:

1) Katrina was the largest storm ever in terms of area;
2) In the hours before landfall, Katrina had the highest wind gusts ever recorded; and
3) Katrina accelerated from a Category 1 to a Category 5 hurricane faster than any storm recorded.

The third and last of the above is among the most important Hurricane Katrina environmental lessons.

I first moved to Florida from Maine in 1987. Sure enough, just a few months after calling the Sunshine State home, a tropical storm blew through. The damages were relatively mild and I counted myself lucky. It wasn’t until 1992 that I had another chance to see what nature’s fury can do to this lovely and low-lying peninsula. The name of the fury was Hurricane Andrew.

There were devastating similarities between Andrew and his gruesome successor Katrina but also differences. Andrew caused the greatest portion of damage with gales which lasted for brutal, extended periods. Katrina, on the other hand, killed mostly with water, both in the storm surge and the rainfall which breeched levies.

The other key similarity in the destruction of Hurricane Andrew and Katrina points to a trend: the $100 billion natural disaster.

In this blog, I tend to discuss the environmental ramifications of current events. I am an environmentalist so my choice of topics should come as no surprise. However, I also am a Floridian and a homeowner, a risky and often expensive combination. Everyone who owns property or plans to buy property must consider the impact of hurricanes, not just in their immediate effects but the toll they take on the property casualty industry.

When I attended the Solar World Congress in Orlando’s tourism district 2 years ago, I learned a great deal about the technology of renewable energy, especially solar, as the event’s name suggests. One of the most intriguing solutions I saw there, applied in a few different ways, was the solar air conditioner. In fact, one of the presentations on the subject was by NASA, explaining how lunar missions in coming decades will use it.

Sadly, while the most intriguing exhibits and speeches I saw at the Solar World Congress focused on the future, the technologies we use today for generating electricity and then cooling and heating our homes is firmly rooted in the last century. I am very bullish about the promise of geothermal energy and believe that I can convince you to feel the same way.

So, how helpful could it be?

I love renewable energy. It is clean and, in some cases, free to harness. Which is the right answer for your situation, however? Without visiting your home, I cannot state for certain but what I can do is offer my perspective, which cares equally for keeping the earth green and providing you with the energy you need.

Every form of renewable energy has its advantages. I tend to prefer solar because of the relative ease of installation of the equipment to harness it and the vast untapped potential. As you may know, the world uses a mere fraction of 1% of the solar energy which strikes the surface of the Earth every day.

Solar doesn’t work everywhere, however. Likewise, geothermal has the ability to generate most of the electricity we need and keep our homes comfortable year round but it does not work in every situation. So, should we focus on solar energy or geothermal?

When you learn of the awful forest fires which have become chronic summer occurrences in both hemispheres, I’m sure that you fear for everyone impacted. I do as well. However, there’s a component of global warming at work here which must remain in our consciousness.

Record blizzards and strings of bone-chilling weather cause some of us to assume that global warming can’t be to blame. After all, a warming trend would prevent blizzards, right?

I recently shared with you that the year 2007 has set more weather records. We had not one but two killer hurricanes of category 5 strength strike land within weeks of each other. Worse still, they targeted similar areas, the southwest Caribbean basin. That was a first.

Well, last week, another terrifying record came and went. Arctic ice equal in size to the State of Florida, where I live and which I call Hurricane Alley, melted in six days’ time. We shattered the record for total area melted and pace of melting.

Not only have we never seen melting of such apocalyptic proportions but in some scientific camps the astonishment at this occurrence has yielded calls for new estimates of the year when polar ice will melt completely during the summer.

The Orlando home which Catrin and I share with our 4 cats (6 if you count the 4-legged patrol on our block) weathered the 2004 hurricane season (no pun intended) well on the whole. We lost over 100 roofing shingles but never had a major water leak.

60 miles east of us in Indialantic, the story was quite different. The home which Nonnie Chrystal and her husband Mark are rebuilding suffered terrible damage, so much that it became uninhabitable and very quickly overrun with mold. Here is a photograph of the loss of roofing shingles endured at 216 Coral Way South.

Nonnie Chrystal and her husband Mark are determined to design Florida’s Showcase Green Envirohome to bear up under the greatest stresses which nature can hurl at it in this age of global warming.

The process began for them with extreme water damage which led to tremendous mold infestations. They are using SIP panels for the exterior of the home placed from the corner in so as to reduce the ability of strong winds to bow or lift the house.

Those panels, then, are arranged to allow rainfall to form channels and remain outside. However, if a leak should occur, the guts of the house will be highly resistant to mold, fungus and termite infestation thanks, in part, to BluWood.

Even at the peak of the hurricane season (which falls right now, as you read this), Florida is a wonderful place to live. The people are friendly and at no time are we far from the beach. The natural beauty which fills the Sunshine State comes with a price, however, high dew points and humidity during more than half the year. In addition to lots of perspiration and steady work for air conditioning repair technicians, Florida’s climate has another byproduct, mold.

In other parts of the United States which have 4 distinct seasons, mold is less of an issue and it usually affects clothing and luggage more than buildings. The solution can be as simple as storing those articles in the cellar until fall. For people like Nonnie Chrystal and her husband Mark, however, seaside Florida living can be moldy, just as it is for most every Floridian.

The warning signs which the 2007 hurricane season is sending us about the future have been all bad. The lessons of 2004 and 2005 went beyond the obvious such as horrible wind damage and loss of life to huge storm surges and the connection between Hurricane Katrina and mold. Even as the painful Gulf Coast reconstruction process continues at a pace which satisfies no one, those of us trying to warn the world of what is to come focus on the atmospheric side of those tragic years, too.

The record-setting storm known as Katrina, which killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands more, accelerated from Category 1 to Category 5 in three days’ time. Such a pace of intensification had not been seen before. Well, Katrina’s pedal-to-the-metal record now has been broken, just two years later, by Felix, which accelerated from Category 1 to Category 5 in just over two days’ time. In short, North America must be ready for big storms.

As the world embraces biofuels with growing vigor, it seems an appropriate moment for me to lay out their role in a clean energy future. For the sake of simplicity, let’s group these fuels into a pair of types, BioDiesel (designed for modern diesel engines) and ethanol (formerly known as Gasohol and designed for modified gasoline engines).

Are these fuels practical? Can they help wean the world off fossil fuels? Are they a boon to agriculture? Are there significant pitfalls?

The answer to each of the questions above is yes. The follow-up which my mind begs to have answered, then, is “Should we embrace them?” The answer also is yes but our byword must be “sustainably.”

A key argument against BioDiesel as a replacement for petroleum diesel is that the organic version costs too much, sometimes twice the price. If one includes the billions of dollars which the governments of the world spend defending oil production fields and subsidizing retail prices, the price per gallon is about even. However, that argument is beyond the scope of this column.

If we perform an apples-to-apples comparison between the two fuels, we find that BioDiesel expansion is aided by economies of scale. It works like this: the mechanism for extracting petroleum from the earth, shipping it, refining it, shipping it again and delivering it has existed for decades. Most of the kinks in the supply chain not only have been resolved but function smoothly.

Such is not the case with BioDiesel.

The supply chain for BioDiesel which can bring us retail prices to rival those of petroleum diesel only needs to differ from the conventional model in two ways:

1) The source is used kitchen grease and other such cooking waste rather than a viscous goo from the ground; and

2) The entire process can be contained within a single community.

Even though the 2007 hurricane season will be with us for a few more weeks, the autumnal equinox has passed. It’s fall! From the perspective of another record-breaking summer, it couldn’t come a moment too soon.

After the unspeakable loss of life of Hurricane Katrina, I have developed a habit of fearing the month of August. Before 2005, my fear was derived mostly from what Florida’s oppressive heat index would do to my cooling bill. I intend to install a solar electric array next summer to keep the numbers steady and now, I get butterflies every August when I access the National Hurricane Center website for predictions.

In the coming weeks, I will introduce you to Mr. Justin Sutton, inventor of the Interstate Traveler, the hydrogen superhighway of the new millennium. His technology is revolutionary and that’s no hyperbole. As amazing as it is, though, Justin is firm in his assertion that he is out to supplement the asphalt motorways of North America with new avenues, not replace them.

I have seen Justin give his hydrogen superhighway presentation many times and he emphasizes the fact that shutting down petroleum companies is not among his goals. It is mine but not his. Justin does aspire, though, to help America’s domestic oil industry return to profitability by redirecting their material into the production of durable plastic rather than fuel and soft plastic.

The climate, of course, is the main reason I love living in Orlando, Florida. One of the benefits of the climate is tourism. Central Florida is the tourism capital of the world, in fact. One main gateway for tourists is Orlando International Airport, just a 20-minute drive from my home. More than 40 million passengers travel through OIA every year. In fact, it is the busiest airport in Florida.

The enactment of the Open Skies treaty has resulted in a marked expansion of non-stop international flights to and from OIA. This is great news for our community and economy. My wife is German by birth. Her immediate family still resides in Germany to this day. Up until the treaty, there was only one airline which offered non-stop flights home for my wife. Now that we have more, she is developing butterflies to hop a plane and see the family.

I will not stand in Catrin’s way but the other day I learned a fact about air travel which gave me pause. I was so taken aback that I now proclaim that aviation pollution statistics can astound.

I could write an entire month of posts about the topic of bottled water. In the United States, there should be very little need for such a product. If you live in an area with municipal water which is less than tasty, as I do, I understand the quandary. After all, if you calculate it by the gallon, many of us pay more for bottled water than we do gasoline!

Over the last two decades or so, Americans have allowed the consumption of bottled water to pervade. The environmental impact of doing so is huge and, sadly, offsets many of the strides made in reducing greenhouse gas emissions by individuals, companies and governments. How big of an offset are we talking? What causes air pollution to worsen even as cars and trucks run cleaner than ever?

Call it fortunate happenstance. Call it karma. Call it providence. Call it what you will. The year 2007 will go down in history as a turning point in the world’s understanding of and response to global warming. We saw record polar melting. We saw record hurricane acceleration and the first time a pair of category 5 storms struck the same general area in the same year.

In my October 15th thread, I raved about the ecological impact of drinking water from Fiji which is shipped to North America. I do not wish to target a particular brand because it is part of a much larger (and very global) problem. We, humanity, must break the bad habit of using the world’s transportation system to move water over great distances as part of consumer marketing.

Billions of people around the world do not have regular or easy access to potable water. As an environmentalist, I dislike the international bottled water market on account of its great contribution to air and water pollution. As a person who cares about the suffering of others, I dislike it even more because of the great inequity it emphasizes.

Earlier this month, Jim Griffin of Global Green Alliance and I began in earnest our promotion of the Green Earth Expo coming up in May of 2008 here in Orlando, Florida. The response so far has been decidedly positive. My favorite part has been hearing Jim Griffin discuss his inspiration for creating the Expo. His answer always begins with the issue of reforestation in the US. I love that! It’s one of my top priorities.

For Jim, having worked as a carpentry specialist for many years, the tremendous waste of trees used in construction was very disturbing. He is right, of course. It’s a big problem which the building and trade industries have begun to address. They need to do much more and I look forward to working with them on the issue.

When I was growing up in New England, I used to chuckle at neighbors and members of our church who wintered in Florida. These snow birds struck me as not being fully in tune with their surroundings. I was wrong! The opposite was true!

Simply put, living comfortably in Florida involves climate control technology about half the year, much as it does in New England. By alternating halves, people can reduce their energy consumption significantly. Recently, I told you about Nonnie Chrystal and her husband Mark, creators and builders of Florida's Showcase Green Envirohome. Nonnie and Mark seek to continue living in Florida year-round, just as my wife Catrin and I do.

The term megacity is defined as a metropolitan center with at least 10,000,000 people. In the year 1950, the world had a single megacity, New York. Today, we have 15 and are headed for a great many more. This is significant to the question of global warming because the average city dweller uses 3 units of energy for every 1 unit produced whereas your average farmer who does not use an excess of mechanized equipment lives at roughly a 1:1 average.

In the United States, the average city dweller consumes 5 units of energy for every unit produced! In other words, we Americans do not live efficiently and the world is following our lead – not a good trend! It is for this reason that environmentalists point to reforming city lifestyles as one of the best ways to begin reversing the climate crisis. I concur fully but we must do more than teach the people to live greener and retrofit buildings to use less energy. We must control urban heat islands, too.

Since global warming is the greatest threat of our time (yes, it’s more dangerous than terrorism – I explain how during my interview on the Keyboard Culture Podcast section of this site), it is eminently appropriate that global warming and Al Gore are inexorably linked.

If you want to learn more about global warming and living green, an excellent website is www.TreeHugger.com  I cannot recommend it highly enough. It recently was acquired by the Discovery Channel. That was a telling purchase.

As good as TreeHugger.com is, if you wonder “How does global warming affect animals?”, I recommend the Resources section of www.TargetGlobalWarming.org 

Shortly after former Vice President Al Gore and the United National Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change jointly received the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, I posted my congratulations here. I mused that 2007 will go down as one of the most historic in terms of the climate crisis. The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize for what is a scientific category in the mind of some skeptics is sure to expand the argument that global warming is not happening.

In three months’ time, I will make my very first visit to Australia in order to attend the third International Solar Cities Congress.

Having attended the second one almost two years ago and left a different person, I barely can contain my excitement. I doubt that I will meet any global warming skeptics in or around the conference venue, especially since Adelaide, the host city, is a full decade ahead of most places in North America in terms of its response to the climate crisis. However, I like to be prepared.

Your wait is over! For roughly a month now, I’ve teased you with morsels of information about the Green Earth Expo and its significance not just for Florida but all of North America and beyond. If you want to skip my rambling and jump right to the event website, just have a look at the links section of the left navigation pane of this page and click on www.globalgreenalliance.com

The Green Earth Expo aims to be the ultimate green living show. Its intent is to promote green living and commerce – so that everyone who wants to live green possesses the necessary information and has access to vendors of green products and services. Since Florida is America’s front line in the battle against rising seas and other effects of global warming, the emphasis of the first annual event will be on Florida businesses and Floridians but by no means will any attendees be denied entry.

Over the last 3 years, I have attended multiple energy expos, presenting or speaking at 3. The first time, I was nervous, to say the least, but I got through it and now I’m an old hand at it. I am the exception, though, and I know it.

Jim Griffin is the creator of the Green Earth Expo and the founder of Global Green Alliance. He got his start in trade shows and that’s where this amazing story begins. After working in that field for about 20 years, he moved home to Central Florida and took up work as a carpenter specializing in high-end custom interiors. In that work, he noticed piles of debris wood which littered construction sites. This worried him, as well it should have.

Although I have lived in Florida for almost 2 decades, I spent my formative years in New England, including 3 years in Central Vermont. If you have not visited the state capital of Montpelier during leaf-peeping season, you owe it to yourself to do so in 2008!

Anyway, my years in New England gave me a love for birch, fir and spruce forests. In fact, when I moved to Florida and saw only palms for months on end, I felt like nothing would replace my love for forests of pine and spruce trees. In fact, the first time I saw a stand of native pine trees in Florida, the long leaf pine, I thought that they were the oddest pines I had seen.

Now that I have spent many years away from the Great Northern Forest, I have adjusted and find the long leaf pine of my new home, the Southeast, a simply wonderful tree.

One of the reasons I share Jim Griffin’s confidence that the Green Earth Expo will have strong attendance numbers is that he has allocated a very nice space in the Orange County Convention Center for children. Of all the energy expositions and similar events which I have attended, only one has included an area for kids until now.

I’m already happy about that but the merits of the Green Earth Expo hardly stop there. Information about solar energy will abound. The list of exhibitors and keynote speakers continues to grow but I doubt that I will look forward to any of them with greater anticipation than I already have for Justin Sutton and his Interstate Traveler.

I.T., as Jim Griffin and I have come to call it, is the world’s first solar-powered, hydrogen-fueled high-speed rail system. Although it can work in urban, suburban and exurban locales, the system derives its name from the intention to run alongside every mile of the nation’s Eisenhower Interstate highway system, as pictured here.

Catrin and I are movie buffs. While we enjoy contemporary music very much, our true pop culture passion is for modern cinema. The DVD players in our home see a fair amount of use but for us, the ultimate cinematic experience takes place at our local multiplex with 200 or more of our closest friends watching a 70-foot convex screen in unison.

The first Hollywood production which we saw dealing with the rubble of what once was the KGB was the film Terminal Velocity. If not for above-average performances by Nastassja Kinski and Christopher McDonald, this film would belong in the B movie pantheon. Well, it relates to global warming because it features a brief but important sequence in a giant wind power farm in the Mojave Desert. That was the first time I had seen such an array of wind turbines, whether in person or on screen.

A decade later, as I sat in one of the very fascinating break-out sessions of the Solar World Congress in Orlando, I saw a PowerPoint presentation about a design of a large photovoltaic power plant and listened as its merits were explained. As fate would have it, just a few weeks later, I saw the film Sahara which culminates the main story arc at a solar power plant of the same ilk!

In my previous post, I told you how the Interstate Traveler system will be effectively immune to cloud cover and seasonal changes in sunlight once the system is fully built throughout North America.

How can this be?

The answer to the question points to the genius of Justin Sutton. Every mile of rail will be covered with tens of thousands of square feet of solar collecting panels. What’s more, whereas a typical rail system only interconnects switch tracks and trestles, the Interstate Traveler interconnects the solar panels themselves by way of piping hydrogen from utility substation to utility substation.

Here’s what that means.

Enough waiting! Will Corbett ever show us the goods?

I appreciate your patience. You’ve stuck with me through multiple threads to show you what is here. Earlier, I gave you a preview of the look and feel of the Interstate Traveler in motion with the following photo:

The first time I showed this image to you, it was to demonstrate that it will operate very well alongside the multilane highways of North America. Now that you’ve had a chance to soak in that image, let’s circle back around and highlight the aspect which I like best, the fact that it’s COVERED with photovoltaic solar panels. Here’s an aerial view.

I hope that the last 3 posts have instilled in you at least some of the excitement I feel about the Interstate Traveler Hydrogen Superhighway. I’ve shown you that it’s clean. I’ve told you that it’s fast. I’ve given you a peek at it in flight. Now, let’s pause for a moment and discuss part of its role in humanitarian support.

More than a decade ago, when Justin Sutton walked through the countless mental steps and calculation blocks needed to propose the Interstate Traveler, his desire that the system be clean led to an inevitable photovoltaic cost analysis. No solar-powered rail system would be viable without one. During that process, he came to realize that a portion of the energy surplus he could build into the operating model could be given away under the right circumstances, pro bono publico.

When the American Computer Science Association chose Justin Sutton and the Interstate Traveler Company as the first recipient of the coveted NEWTY award for the new millennium, it established for the whole world that the Hydrogen Superhighway will have a greater positive impact on humanity than the good works and achievements of the Gates Foundation, Lord Richard Branson, the Segway personal transportation device and even hybrid gasoline-electric automobiles.

I am no scientist, although I know a thing or two about computers, and couldn’t agree with ACSA’s decision more. Justin Sutton has invented (he would use the word integrated) a technology which is just that good. It has the potential to take what the steam locomotive did for North America in the 19th Century and extend it for the Western Hemisphere in just a few years’ time. In fact, by the year 2020, we may have a celebration for the Americas at the new Promontory Point, perhaps in Panama City or Bogota.

Part of the reason the ACSA chose Justin Sutton’s Interstate Traveler over so many other beneficial technologies is the altruism at the heart of Justin’s work. Here are excerpts from their announcement:

Even though he wasn’t in Oslo for the ceremony, when Al Gore learned that he was the co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Prize for Peace, he already knew what the medal and diploma look like. Many of us don’t, though. Do you wonder what does the Nobel Peace Prize look like? The photo above is an example of the medal. Quite something, huh?

More than a month has passed since the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was announced and many of us who were elated by the decision have had time to reflect on a key question. No, the question is not whether Mr. Gore and the IPCC were deserving. They have been doing a great job and garner more respect every day. The question is whether the Peace Prize was the correct category. After all, one of the other categories of Chemistry, Economics, Literature or Medicine might be a better fit, right?

Were the requirements for the Nobel Peace Prize rewritten for Al Gore? I cry no. Let’s take a hard look at this. By Norwegian statute, the right to submit proposals for the Nobel Peace Prize is enjoyed by people who fit into one of seven groups:

Recently, I told you about the wonderful website treehugger.com My enthusiasm for its good deeds and deep resources has not flagged. In fact, it has grown. Now, it has achieved something else worthy of our attention, it has contributed to another Emmy award for Al Gore’s work.

You see, Treehugger.com has joined forces with Sierra Club and others to create Project 3650. In turn, Project 3650 hosted a call to action from Al Gore. You can watch his call at

http://www.project3650.org/GoreFilm.html

As you read this, I am in the midst of Justin Sutton’s second visit of 2007 to Central Florida. Working with this man is a joy. The more he tells people about the Interstate Traveler, the greater the excitement. He now has cities, states and nations lined up around the globe awaiting construction in their area.

So, what aspect evokes the greatest number of smiles? What really trips the most triggers when groups hear about the Hydrogen Superhighway? Until recently, I had trouble tracking it. A wholly unscientific tally of responses both verbal and otherwise seemed to point to a recurring rhetorical question: “How fast can you build the system worldwide?”

OK, so I have made the bold statement that it is, in fact, quite simple to build a solar panel large enough to produce hydrogen cleanly. Can I back it up? Fortunately, I don’t have to. Justin Sutton is the genius. All I have to do is give you a quick snapshot of the concept. Trust me. When I’m done, you will see that Justin derives a broad economic impact by using solar energy.

Dateline, Clearbrook, Minnesota

A ruptured pipeline which carries more than a million barrels of crude oil from Saskatchewan to the Chicago area caught fire while under repair last month. The result was sadly predictable: boom! I don’t wish to seem glib, especially since several people died, but can’t we come to grips with the root cause? Ruptured pipelines point to a fatally flawed, antiquated technology.

My wife Catrin and I have lived carbon-neutral since 2004. This means that we produce no more carbon than we would have had we lived 200 years ago. We achieve this important lifestyle choice through three key steps: reducing, reusing and recycling. We live as green a life as we can manage. While we are not perfect, our lifestyle is greener than average.

When Joel Hyatt and former Vice President of the United States Al Gore helped create a new grassroots television network called Current TV, I didn’t quite grasp the potential.

Shame on me!

I hadn’t really paid attention to YouTube up until that point (this was before Google acquired that amazing website) so the underlying premise that amateur video could be sufficiently plentiful in order to use it as the sole source for an entire network seemed excessive.

I was wrong! Fortunately, the folks at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences caught the vision and gave Current TV founders an Emmy Award just 2 years later.

NASA’s mission was changed a while back to eliminate atmospheric science as a core priority. Fortunately, the Science Mission Directorate continues its excellent work. It just issued a damning report with hard proof of the climate crisis, including pictures of polar ice caps melting.

The most compelling aspect of the report, though, is the graph of Greenland pictured above. It details “the Greenland melt anomaly, measured as the difference between the number of days on which melting occurred in 2007 compared to the average annual melting days from 1988-2006. The areas with the highest amounts of additional melt days appear in red, and areas with below-average melt days appear in blue.”

I had awaited the moment since I first heard that former Vice President Al Gore was on the short list for the Nobel Peace Prize. Now, he won it in partnership with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and just gave the global warming speech of his life (again!).

On Monday, December 10, 2007, Al Gore and green living were elevated by his words. In the photo above, Mr. Gore is flanked by Rajendra Pachauri, the U.N. climate panel’s chief scientist whom I’ve had the privilege to meet. Together, they form a powerful duo with a zeal for saving humanity from its own myopia.

My high school honors English teacher likely would tell me that I have stretched the definition of the word essay with this post but I can’t help myself. Al Gore’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, which he delivered in person in Norway on December 10, summarizes the latest news about the global climate crisis in a way I only hope to reproduce.

To quote him, “We must act.”

As a continuation, then, of my previous thread, below please find a few more key excerpts from Al Gore’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech. He does the hard part, of course, but I add context to help the segues since I only provide excerpts. Here it is, then, my essay about Al Gore on this most glorious and hopeful occasion.

Former Vice President of the United States, Al Gore, December 10, 2007:

For the last 2 posts, I have covered Al Gore’s acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize. Since American politicians win this prestigious gem from time to time but not so often that most of my countrymen would know all of the trivia, I thought this a good moment to pause and answer the question, “Who invented the Nobel Peace Prize?”.

To quote Karen Carpenter, "Christmas cards have all been sent. The Christmas rush is through."

This holiday season, how many presents did you buy, either for family and friends or yourself? It's a rhetorical question but a very important one. Here's the related query: how much pollution did you generate in the holiday shopping season versus the rest of the year?

I ask because on the course toward sustainable and green living, it is important to understand exactly how much pollution is generated in the production of all goods and services. Without this knowledge, it is very difficult to measure your carbon footprint (your impact on the planet).

Last time, I introduced you to The Story Of Stuff, the best global warming video I've seen in months. As good as it is, this 21-minute gem is about much more. It tells us pretty much EVERYTHING wrong with our current industrial model and helps consumers understand the full sphere of environmental ramifications from our unsustainable ways.

In order to help capsulize Annie Leonard's many valid and urgent points, here are the top issues she raises in her magnificent work and what we should do about them.

The URL for the video once again is:

http://www.storyofstuff.com

1) We are running on borrowed time. Every year, the industrialized world presses further and harder into pristine areas in order to obtain an ever-shrinking number of natural resources. This is the exact opposite of sustainability. Global warming is a mere byproduct.

Not once during my years in school was I happy about taking a pop quiz. Hence, I won't burden you with one here. Nevertheless, I must ask if you watched The Story Of Stuff and absorbed its many important messages.

So, are you part of the golden arrow?

Last time, I gave you 3 key points from this exemplary and instructive 21-minute video. I have 2 more for you. They point to the need for a return to simple living. We can turn the tide on global warming. Simple living constitutes a key behavioral change and one of the best ways to stop global warming.

Now, on with the show:

One of the most underreported news stories of 2007 regarded the immense heaps of electronic waste which the western world (especially the United States) exports to countries with lax environmental laws and/or enforcement for "disposal". There are dumping firms in China and elsewhere which are more than happy to take our discarded cell phones, computers, MP3 players and television sets to be strewn along the countryside with little or no regard to people or wildlife. Of course, when they operate, such devices consume large amounts of electricity so we also must seek ways to stop global warming which allow us the amenities of modern electronic equipment.

On our great quest for ways to stop global warming, the question of carbon credits arises frequently. Now, there is an opportunity to achieve carbon credits as we engage in cell phone recycling. Who could argue with that, right? Certainly not I! Before we strike at the heart of the matter, though, we should begin with a refresher on my carbon credit definition.

Simply put, a carbon credit is a glorified accounting maneuver in which greenhouse gas emissions which are not supposed to be allowed at a particular location or in a specific region are permitted because emissions which permissibly would occur elsewhere do not happen. If one lives in the fallout zone of those emissions, such a person’s disfavor with the arrangement would be understandable. Measured on a planetary scale, though, a carbon credit can be an important interim point along the journey for a clean future.

Measured against inflation, the price of consumer electronics and information technology hardware has fallen precipitously over the last ten years. In fact, I remember when a decent large-screen television cost 3 months’ salary. Since I am a movie buff, the fact that I can watch a pristine DVD reproduction of my favorite filmed entertainment on a screen which fills my family room all for under $1,000 is exciting to say the least.

The down side, and it’s a big one, is that our move to high-definition, cutting-edge technology means that we will cast off (literally) tons of old equipment which has to go somewhere. Unlike some other types of trash, dumping or incinerating electronic waste should not be done because of toxic side effects such as dioxin. Land pollution facts tell us that burning hazardous waste can leave entire regions contaminated and uninhabitable for decades or centuries.

Where does that leave us? Since I am an environmentalist, it should come as no surprise that I advocate recycling electronic waste. However, that’s not always a practical option for folks. The good news is that government entities have begun to partner with manufacturers to provide collection points. An example of such collaborations is the Plug-In To eCycling initiative from the Environmental Protection Agency.

You can read more at

In some parts of the world, the Christmas season only now is in full swing. At Chez Kroehler, the gifts under the sustainable Christmas tree were unwrapped before Catrin and I were tucked snug in our bed on Christmas Eve and the decorations all were stowed before we opened the egg nog on December 31st.

I wish to begin the new year with an examination of a very important issue and statement of my formal position on the topic of working forests and sustainable commercial forestry. There is no lack of controversy on these marks but achieving consensus is vital if we are to embrace the full panoply of ways to stop global warming with the zeal they deserve.

One firm intimately involved in commercial forestry is Weyerhaeuser. I will make few friends in the inner circle of the environmental community by stating this but Weyerhaeuser must be treated as an ally if we are to progress toward a truly sustainable and environmentally just future. Indeed, Weyerhaeuser reforestation projects are the first aspect of the larger issue of working forests which I would like to engage.

Before I do so, however, I ask that you indulge me in a brief, interrogatory digression:

Was your 2007 Christmas tree paper or plastic?

In my previous post, I assigned a brief online quiz about forestry. Did you take it?

If not, here is the URL once again:

http://www.abundantforests.org/eiq_quiz.html

The first of seven lessons taught by this important online tool is that natural Christmas trees are replaced with saplings when they are harvested. Oftentimes, this is the case. Why is it, then, that pictures of reforestation projects seldom include Christmas trees? How should the answer affect one's decision to buy a natural or plastic tree next Christmas?

If you plan to purchase an artificial tree and store it for repeated use for at least ten years, the environmental impact works out about the same when compared with a natural tree harvested from a sustainable forest which is recycled (made into mulch and other forest products) when you are done with it.

If you purchased a real tree this holiday season and haven't discarded it yet, consider recycling it.

For a list of treecycling services in the United States, visit

Huh? Corbett is off his rocker! He took us from extensive coverage of Christmas trees to desert flowers!

I don’t blame you for questioning my judgment. However, there is a vital core theme here (and method to my madness). As we cover reforestation in great detail in the new year, it is imperative that we understand the central and multiple roles which trees play. So, let’s begin with the general and work toward the specific. The Christmas tree theme was intended in part to prompt you to think about coniferous forest animals, thus allowing me to make a sharp u-turn for a moment.

Here we go.

Everything about healthy stands of trees is about symbiosis, the productive interaction between living things. Hence, even though we think of deserts as barren, lifeless voids, they are, in fact, very much alive. Given the great lack of rainfall in deserts, plants and animals must depend on each other for their very existence.

So, as we explore symbiotic relationships in desert species, we can point to the fact that large animals soften the hard soil with their hoofs, thus providing habitat for smaller creatures. Likewise, air plants which take moisture directly from the air, like the pineapple, offer food even though there may be no rain for months. In short, in the desert, it’s all for one and one for all.

One of the lessons of the E-IQ quiz which I assigned last week is that America’s forests are larger than in recent years. In all candor, that fact is in dispute. What is not in dispute, however, is that the commercial forestry industry does a far better job today of replanting than in any recent decades. Why? Part of the reason is that the general public has demanded the industry’s support in reversing air pollution and causes of global warming.

In the undated photo above, we see that the air between the forest and the snowy mountaintops is fairly clean. Sadly, such is not the case everywhere and while I concur that the forest products industry has cleaned up its act in the United States to a measurable extent, other places around the world continue to suffer from clear cutting and widespread deforestation at historic rates. Humanity must look past territorial boundaries and engage in wide reforestation efforts.

Last year, I wrote about how Florida’s Showcase Green Envirohome was born of family tragedy and natural disaster to become the world’s greenest and most hurricane-resistant home. Parts of that series were syndicated throughout the blogosphere because of the human tale it tells. In no way do I wish to grandstand on profound loss but human history is chock full of examples of how people turned lemons into lemonade and charted a new course for the future.

Right now, as you read this, residents of California are doing just that. So, even as the toll from recent forest fires there is tallied, it is time to spend at least part of the time pondering the ecological response. We need to rebuild businesses and homes which were destroyed, as well as many lives, but also restore the area’s natural beauty. So, I advocate that California forest fire updates henceforth take into account reforestation efforts whenever possible.

One organization with a proven track record of replanting fire-damaged areas is American Forests. The folks there are the real deal. That’s why Jim Griffin, the man with whom I created the Green Earth Expo, selected American Forests as the organization to plant trees from Expo proceeds to help offset the week-long event’s carbon footprint.

Green sustainable modular buildings can offer advantages over conventional construction through economies of scale and waste stream reduction because entire sections are prefabricated. The building industry is to be commended for its accomplishments in this regard. When designing Florida’s Showcase Green Envirohome, though, Nonnie Chrystal sought to do more. She wanted the world’s greenest home which also was as resistant to hurricanes as any above-ground structure could be.

In achieving her goal, Nonnie employed a whole host of innovative technologies in order to make it happen. Last month, I brought Nonnie and her husband Mark to the offices of Global Green Alliance in Orlando to record a video series on the subject. The results of that video shoot now are live.

I have created a playlist of 10 segments on Florida’s Showcase Green Envirohome and you are more than welcome to watch the whole thing at

The concept of a Clean Air Act impact on oriented strand board industry practices and profits may seem far-fetched but I ask that you bear with me. There is a crucial point here.

In the video series which I shot with Nonnie Chrystal regarding Florida’s Showcase Green Envirohome, Nonnie gives several explanations about wood-frame construction and why she avoided it for her amazing project. One of the reasons stems from drawbacks of oriented strand board, such as particle board, which can be highly flammable and/or emit toxic gases which become a grave health concern during periods of long confinement.

Nonnie’s solution comprises multiple technologies which are explained in the video series and my favorite is Armoroc. Not only does it contribute tremendously to the home’s superb resistance to hurricanes but the ingredients used in the manufacturing of Armoroc can be assembled cleaner than with conventional materials. It’s a win-win!

Last week, I told you about the need to shift some of our attention toward reforestation projects in California now that recovery from the devastating series of brush, forest and wild fires has begun. This moment also presents an excellent opportunity to explore the practicality of green building vs. traditional building in California and elsewhere.

The conversations I have had with builders and people engaged in the green building movement have led to a single answer to the question of practicality: done wisely, the price differential of green building vs. traditional building need be only about 10%. Of course, that statistic only indicates raw construction cost and in no way reflects the immediate savings in energy expenses which will result as soon as occupancy begins.

If the difference in cost of green building vs. traditional building is so narrow, why has it not become more prevalent? The reasons are varied. Some development companies claim that their customers seldom ask about green building practices and options. In other places, there is a lack of experienced civil engineers who can guide the process of building structures to green standards such as L.E.E.D.

2008 has been an historic year yet it barely has begun. Given that 2007 was the second-warmest year on record, the alignment of environmental and market forces to move us toward a more sustainable future could not be needed more urgently. Green building plans are an excellent way to begin addressing the vast challenges of a changing climate and in recent weeks they received a warm embrace from factions within California’s construction industry.

In the United States, energy for buildings (cooling, electricity, heating, etc.) accounts for 40% of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. Of that, homes are a significant contributor. Anything we can do to reduce those numbers can produce a dramatic and immediate benefit. However, until this month, collaborations between builders, real estate managers and environmentalists were rare to say the least.

In short, environmental considerations and practices were determined in corporate board rooms and environmentalists seldom were offered a seat at the table. Fortunately, the situation has begun to change and California has taken up a leadership role, especially in the northern region.

What changed? How have we progressed to having not just a genuine dialog between opposing camps but collaboration and alliances? The simple fact is that some of the opponents to California’s green building plan realized that there are green backs to be made in green building and switched sides of the argument.

I’d like to remain with the California theme which I have embraced this month and give you a bit of follow-up coverage at the same time. Electronic waste is a serious problem and one which must be tackled by the business community and government in tandem. I recently shared with you a handy website maintained by the Environmental Protection Agency for recycling of electronic waste through the Plug-In To eCycling program. The URL is:

http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/osw/conserve/plugin/partners.htm

Apple is not one of the companies listed. I found that surprising since it has a comprehensive program for recycling electronic waste as part of its larger environmental efforts. For that, Steve Jobs is to be commended, although there is almost always room to do more.

One example is in the design phase. At the risk of allowing this thread to become a commercial advertisement (I do not own Apple products), I would like to turn your attention to the recent announcement by Steve Jobs of the new MacBook Air.

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a biome as “A major ecological community type (as tropical rain forest, grassland, or desert).” That definition is good but omits a key implied detail: “under the climatic conditions of the region.” I am no lexicographer so I will not argue with the esteemed authors of that dictionary but my point is important.

As we acquire a greater understanding of the impacts on wildlife of commercial forestry and reforestation projects which seek to mitigate the effects, we must take into account scientific research in unspoiled areas. Simply put, some animal species have generational memories which span decades and can be lost easily.

As I explained in a recent posting here, about 40% of the energy used in the United States is for buildings and homes constitute a large portion of that. Since everyone needs a place to live and since one indication of a person’s socioeconomic status is the site of one’s dwelling, the aforementioned statistic should come as little surprise.

If we want to do something about wasted energy, we must approach the problem from every angle, including residential construction, including educating the public, mandating green building standards in new structures and encouraging the application of strict efficiency standards in remodeling projects.

That’s a tall order to fill. Fortunately, there are excellent websites such as www.HomeEnergy.org which provide us with oodles of material. In fact, so much good material can be found there that the site is worthy of use in any living green curriculum for classroom instruction. Likewise, for those of who no longer attend school but wish to go green in a house design or remodeling project, it is a superb place to go.

In the quest to stop global warming, we all need to give a little. In recent posts, I have covered the importance of embracing commercial forestry operations which are sustainable because our need for wood products will not stop just because we have wrecked our atmosphere. Some of my allies in the environmental movement disagree with my stance. I understand their position.

Another group which may object to this thread is beach enthusiasts. You see, wind power is an important component in the blended approach which we need to take toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions and, as a result, preserving our coast line from rising seas. However, no one solution works everywhere, wind power included. Hence, everyone must compromise a bit.

Arborists and those who cherish trees above all else in nature must come to understand that working forests can protect wildlife, help clean our air and provide wood at the same time, if done sustainably. A similar position is required of people who would like to see our coast line kept free from development.

I just returned from an amazing experience. My good friend Adam Nehr helped me arrange a behind-the-scenes tour of the Kennedy Space Center, the main NASA facility in Central Florida. I had a blast! I had the opportunity to stand directly under a Space Shuttle for several minutes and watch it be prepared for orbital flight! I did many other wonderful things, too.

As something of a space nut, I knew that my NASA escort would provide all sorts of interesting details. I also knew that when the Kennedy Space Center was created, tens of thousands of acres of pristine natural habitat were placed in permanent preservation so that NASA workers could labor on the space program without encroachment from the surrounding community.

What I didn’t know is that habitat preservation is a very big deal at the Kenney Space Center. Impressive! The scrub jay is an imperiled species in Florida and habitat preservation is one of the best things we can do to help these precious creatures. It turns out that NASA and its sister agencies which manage Kennedy Space Center spend big bucks preserving and restoring scrub habitat throughout the facility. This is very good news.

Yesterday, I made my usual weekly pilgrimage to Publix, Catrin’s and my local supermarket. During our 16+ years of wedded bliss, we have alternated between competing grocery chains. Because of its distance from us, we seldom shop at Whole Foods Market. However, a recent policy change on the part of this national grocer may well compel us to modify our buying pattern.

As I have written in recent months, shopping bags used in supermarkets count for a very large chunk of the air pollution which the United States generates each year. Whether you choose paper or plastic, many natural resources are consumed to create the bag and pollution spewed into the air in the process. That’s why I advocate so strongly for using canvas bags or, even better, no bags at all whenever possible, just as I do.

Residents of the Western world such as this author rail against needlessly wasteful forest practices as a significant inhibitor to reforestation. Our argument is valid. However, the air we breathe is blind to territorial borders, as are cyclones, forest fires and hurricanes. In short, if we wish to save ourselves from the worst effects of global warming, we need to take a global perspective on reforestation.

Poverty around the world, including fuel poverty, whether in cities or rural areas, is a big problem not just for the moral fabric of society but for environmental protection. What’s more, many of the regions with the most at-risk species of wildlife are desperately poor, with the average resident earning less than $2.00 per day.

Such regions also are fraught with civil war, coup d’etat activity and rebellion. Arguably the worst side effect of these conflicts between people is the fact that aid workers cannot do their job because of the danger – including the management of reforestation projects.

Since my previous column covered the role of plastic shopping bags in supermarkets, today’s installment may seem a departure. Trust me, my friend. The two issues are related. If we ever hope to succeed in jump starting reforestation projects around the world in order to return our biome to its pre-industrialization state, we must address the question of reforestation in conflict zones.

The image above is from an excellent video clip of a January 31 stunt by the good folks at Greenpeace. I am aware that some find the methods and tactics of the environmental advocacy group Greenpeace objectionable. Nevertheless, they are peaceful and effective. Generally, I support them with a smile, as in this case.

A prime example of their methods is the aforementioned video, which is linked below. You see, despite the fact that 2007 was the second-warmest year on record and that the permanent ice pack, which is the foundation of polar bear habitat, withstood unprecedented melting, some people, including government officials, still declare polar bears not in danger from global warming.

Last time, I showed you a brief but important video about the type of peaceful protest needed to prevent the loss of more polar ice and eventual polar bear extinction. Lest my writings seem alarmist, let us take a sober examination of the problem.

If you didn't have a chance to watch it, the video points to a failure on the part of the government of the United States to list the polar bear as an endangered species.

Why is that a problem? The initial answer may seem obvious. Polar bears are endangered. However, there’s another reason of equal importance. Without global cooperation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we cannot fix the problem. By extension, since polar bears live in northern Canada as well as Alaska, the Canadian government has an equal responsibility to act.

Sadly, our friends to the north are correct in one element of their justification for deferring action. Canadians produce much less pollution than their Yankee neighbors so they should not be compelled to act until the government of the United States does.

Last month, the electronics giant Intel made a very large commitment to renewable energy by signing a multi-year agreement with Sterling Planet, the 2007 Renewable Energy Marketer of the Year, to offset more than 1 billion kilowatt hours of fossil-derived electricity. Wow! That is a very impressive achievement! Everyone involved is to be commended!

The arrangement between Intel and Sterling Planet was certified by the United States Environmental Protection Agency as making Intel the single-largest corporate purchaser of green power in the United States. Kudos all around!

Producing electronics involves a great deal of energy. The folks at Intel know this and take their responsibility seriously. While there’s room to do more, this most recent commitment by Intel left my mouth agape with its scope. Well done, folks!

In recent posts, I have tiptoed around politically sensitive topics. Today’s thread will be no different. However, I ask that you strive to remain focused on the environmental theme at the core of the story. Folks in the United Arab Emirates are building a new metropolis, called Masdar City. Green sustainable modular buildings are a central theme and many topographic design principles borrow from mutualism in the desert.

At the following URL, you will find some interesting coverage of Masdar City. I ask that you pay particular attention to the 5½-minute video. It contains some exaggerations about carbon neutrality and the achievement of a zero waste stream. Nevertheless, Masdar City will be an impressive metropolis when complete (assuming that it lives up to its own hype).

http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/04/solar-city-to-rise-in-persian-gulf-why-not-arizona

The National Home Builders Association (NAHB) is one of the loudest and most influential voices in residential construction in North America. I have been pleased to see NAHB take important steps toward embracing green home building requirements. In fact, they were included in the New American Home 2006 project just a 30-minute drive from my home in Orlando. The finished product is pictured above and at the end of this thread.

If you would like to learn more, I encourage you to watch the video clip linked below. It was the promotional piece shown in advance of the 2006 builders show but remains informative on the question of green home building requirements and the construction industry. In short, the message of green building has begun to permeate.

http://www.buildersshow.com/documents/newamericanhome/newamericanhomemid.wvx

As a zealous environmentalist, though, I can’t allow the discussion to stop with one commendable home project, especially since residences are a large contributor to global warming through inefficiencies in energy use - and because the New American Home 2006 falls into the popular culture definition of McMansion.

Since my earliest days as an expert here on Keyboard Culture, I have focused on the need for reducing our emissions of greenhouse gases and carbon as much as possible, through any practical means necessary. One of the most important ways is through carbon offsets, also known as renewable energy credits.

I gave you a list of the 3 carbon offset websites which Catrin and I use as well as the reason for our favoring them. Our opinion of those wonderful sites (Krystal Planet, NWF Wind Current and TerraPass) has not changed. However, I have discovered a charitable website which gives you the opportunity of seeing multiple ways to stop global warming all on a single page. The URL is

http://www.changingthepresent.org/global_warming/gifts

Why is this charitable website important?

Do you read Colette Chandler’s writings here on Keyboard Culture? If you do not, I strongly recommend that you begin doing so immediately. You’ll find the link along the right margin of my column. The name is Green Marketing .

Colette and I have shared real estate here on KBC for quite some time and recently have begun collaborating offline. At the same time we formalized the crossover between our two columns, Colette initiated coverage of the topic of green washing.

It’s a really big deal which we in the environmental community must explain adequately, lest two undesirable consequences come to pass:

1) Our credibility is damaged because consumers who seek an unbiased opinion about a company’s green initiatives distrust us; and

2) Those who engage in pernicious green washing score significant victories.

Here, then, is my take. The term green washing means:

Partnerships between the environmental community and leading manufacturers are among the vital ways to stop global warming. As I stated in this column’s earliest weeks, if we are to succeed in our quest to stop global warming, we must make the solutions cultural. Doing so involves driving the debate so that the phrase Stop Global Warming becomes common parlance, just as Acid Rain was 20 years ago in North America and western Europe.

In capitalist economies such as the western world has, manufacturers and their retail partners are large contributors to the culture with their products and advertising methods. Neither government nor the environmental community can drive our culture alone. We must have commercial partners. This is one reason why the Sierra Club alliance with Clorox is a milestone event.

To be clear, there are strong (and in some cases vehement) divisions within the Sierra Club leadership and larger environmental community over this new partnership. While I remain plugged in to Sierra’s internal operations, what I state in this column is as a journalist, not a former Sierra leader.

Carl Pope is a good man. He leads the Sierra Club and does so with aplomb. He speaks openly about solutions to environmental challenges and global warming tops his list consistently. Here is what he had to say about his new official relationship with Clorox.

Despite the awful damage which they can inflict on people and property, hurricanes play an important role in the functioning of our atmosphere. My assertion may seem counterintuitive and I will endeavor to share with you here that it is not (and include an anecdote to help me be more persuasive).

As you may know from geology, our planet is in constant motion, spinning and tilting on its axis and orbiting the sun. This motion gives us the force of gravity and an electromagnetic field which helps deflect harmful cosmic rays. For a demonstration of what would happen if we lost the field, rent the DVD The Core because Stanley Tucci’s character explains it well.

The importance of hurricanes is this: even as the planet’s electromagnetic field wards off spaceborne nasties, we need to harness some of the sun’s radiation in order to heat our world and produce oxygen through photosynthesis (without the sun, plants would die and cease to produce oxygen for us to breathe).

So, what we need is a way of keeping the good aspects of sunlight but shedding the bad. Temperature is a big deal in this equation. Because of our orbital track, orbital tilt and the position of the moon, the sun heats the surface of the planet to varying extents at any given moment. If it didn’t, we’d be more like Mars or Venus.

The intensity differential of sunlight striking the dark side of the world and the light side at any given moment is tremendous. It is the difference between night and day, no pun intended.

This is why the spacesuit visor for astronauts is so highly reflective. Conditions in space are such that without a proper suit, an astronaut literally could fry on one side of his/her body and freeze on the other because of the importance of solar radiation. Here on earth, those conditions also point to the importance of hurricanes.

Simply put, sunlight is very harsh. We need our atmosphere to regulate that harshness. During my second commercial airline flight Down Under, I flew between Los Angeles and Honolulu. It was a morning flight so the position of the sun was nearly constant along the port side of the aircraft. Indeed, the sunlight was so intense that my wife Catrin had to close the window shade for our row of seats.

Last month, I had the distinct privilege of attending the third International Solar Cities Congress in the charming city of Adelaide, along Australia’s south coast. The event was tremendous and several of my upcoming threads here on KBC will be inspired from the many revelations I had during my time Down Under.

Among the most fascinating was related by Gary Doer, Premier of Manitoba, Canada. In his remarks, Mr. Doer illustrated beautifully the contemporary effects of global warming and the consequences of polar ice melting in northern Canada.

Churchill, Manitoba is among the most accessible locations for viewing polar bears. Because these majestic beasts can kill a person with one swat of their front paws, it is necessary to enter their habitat in a tundra buggy as pictured above. It is, in essence, a mobile entertainment venue suitable for the harsh weather conditions and strong enough to protect its occupants from excessive bear inquisitiveness or aggression.

The alarming tale of the need for polar bear refrigerators in Churchill, Manitoba which I shared with you last time disturbed me greatly when I first heard it. However, in the same speech, Premier Gary Doer also shared some very good news. His province is on track to decommission all of its coal-fired electrical power plants by the year 2010. Impressive!

Cynics might decry Manitoba’s move as relatively insignificant given the province’s small population compared with other places. That is not the point. The key here is that a province which derives so much of its economic growth from fossil fuels is recognizing in a very formal way that burning coal for electricity is bad. Mr. Doer and his colleagues in the Manitoba legislature have raised the political carbon flash point. It’s just that simple.

As natural gas and petroleum prices continue to fluctuate and as global warming deepens the devastating droughts which are causing hydroelectric and nuclear fission power plants to reduce their capacity, coal advocates point to the merits of their preferred fuel source. Under that narrow definition, they are correct to an extent. Where they go wrong, however, is in the broad side effects of mining and burning the black rocks.

Recently, I shared with you the importance of hurricanes. These killer storms are nothing we should wish on anyone but they play an important part in how our atmosphere regulates temperature. Prairie twisters are similar in the damage they inflict and the role they play in maintaining the health of our atmosphere.

Considering how fatal and costly they can be, you might question the balance between the importance of prairie twisters and our atmosphere. I would not blame you if you did. Fortunately, there’s a new National Geographic video clip which illustrates my point better than any amount of prose. I encourage you to view it at

http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&brand=&vid=122307ce-66e2-4478-8aa9-9d2bc5629e30

Isn’t that something? The action film Twister with Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt used visual effects inspired by actual storms but the clip linked above documents the real thing and the people who tempted fate for an up-close examination of a prairie twister.

“Enough people think climate change is real to cause developers to change the way we do business.”

- Professor Steven Kellenberg, University of Southern California

Principal, EDAW Green Communities initiative

The 2008 International Solar Cities Congress was an amazing event. When it comes to the environment, I am a very tough audience and am delighted to report to you that I learned many exciting facts at the event in Adelaide. Having returned from it just a few short weeks ago, I did not think that I would attend a conference or forum which surpassed it but, lo and behold, I just did.

Mere hours ago, I returned home from the Urban Land Institute’s Sustainable Communities forum just a 20-minute drive from my home. A very prestigious event, the full name was Creating Sustainable Communities: Strategies for Succeeding in Florida’s Unique Environment. It was superb! Our keynote speaker traveled all the way from California to make the statement quoted at the beginning of this thread during his broader and truly fascinating slideshow presentation.

My friend, the 2007 landmark California green building plan represents a quantum leap in the green building movement!

Professor Kellenberg’s presentation was about much more, though, than how he and his colleagues have worked to convert opponents to California’s green building plan into true believers. He also shared with us the myriad economic and social benefits of green office building innovations and their residential counterparts and the fact that more and more developments around America and the whole world are adhering to green building plans.

Here are two quick statistics:

Guy Dauncey is an environmental pioneer. He’s one of the good guys. As president of the British Columbia Sustainable Energy Association, he continues to accomplish many great deeds for the cause of sustainability, such as the British Columbia provincial government’s Solar Hot Water Acceleration Project. Mr. Dauncey is quoted widely and one of his current recurring themes is that of the Triple Bottom Line.

Simply put, we sustainability experts know that businesses which go green and stay that way expose themselves to additional opportunities which conventional businesses could not seize. Capsulated into a single concept, this is the triple bottom line (TBL).

Born of green office building innovations, the TBL is the intersection of economic success, social equity and environmental sustainability. Think of it as holistic sustainability. Companies which excel at the TBL enter a market segment known as eco-luxury.

A distant cousin of eco-tourism, eco-luxury is a group of goods and services for clients who wish to engage in green commerce and for whom price is a secondary consideration. I will cover this growing trend in future posts but I wanted to make you aware of the scope of the movement today because it refers back quite nicely to its origins, green office building innovations.

The sprawling college town of Gainesville, Florida is situated about a 3-hour drive from my home in the heart of one of the most biodiverse wildlife corridors in North America. If the town of Gainesville is the heart, then the primary campus of the University of Florida is the left ventricle, for it keeps things flowing.

While it still has much work to do, I am proud to report that the University of Florida is among the growing list of schools working to go green. It has made a significant investment in sustainability and other environmental programs for students, alumni and the general public alike through its Solutions For Your Life initiative, among other efforts.

Recently, I had the wonderful opportunity to hear a presentation by Dr. Pierce Jones who runs the school’s Program for Resource Efficient Communities, affectionately known as Build Green. Due to time constraints of a packed seminar roster, Dr. Jones limited his remarks to the subject of the efficient use of potable groundwater resources. He did a wonderful job!

The map which begins this thread is a decade old and the red shaded areas show what will happen to my home if sea levels rise 3 feet. Sadly, it has become a best case scenario because most of the predictions from the scientific community about sea levels have come to fruition since the map was created.

How dire are our straits, then? I could overwhelm you with facts and figures. Fortunately, our allies at National Geographic have done the heavy lifting for us in the form of an excellent series entitled “Six Degrees.” I commend it to your immediate attention but be warned, it may give you nightmares.

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/sixdegrees

In its January/February 2008 issue, Natural Home Magazine published an impressive list of the top 10 best green-built neighborhoods in America, including the Navy Yard at Noisette in South Carolina, which claims to be the most sustainable community in the United States.

I will allow the public relations departments of the other 9 featured projects to vie for the true definition of success and turn my focus to a recurring theme here in my section of Keyboard Culture, that of green sustainable modular buildings. They are very much a part of the Noisette project, as they no doubt are in the others.

There’s an old saying in the Northern Hemisphere which is supposed to help us deal with the chronic recurrence of killer storm events during the first calendar quarter of each year: Spring comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.

Like you, in the age of global warming, I find it of no comfort when I see nearly constant news coverage of natural disasters, especially those which leave shattered lives in their wake. The Atlanta tornado of mid-March 2008 and its accompanying weather disturbances compelled me back to a question, though. How does global warming affect the weather?

The simple answer is that it disrupts the planet’s natural ability to regulate itself. As I explained in recent threads, hurricanes and tornados are one of the ways in which our atmosphere dissipates excess energy caused by the temperature differentials which occur every single day of the year as the Earth orbits the sun. However, global warming causes those differentials to fluctuate abnormally.

As the New York of the South, Atlanta is the economic and social anchor of its region, home to the world’s busiest airport, among other key distinctions such as the horrific Atlanta tornado of mid-March 2008. As reconstruction progresses and grieving families mourn the fallen, it is important that we learn from what nature taught us during that fateful week.

The death toll and collateral damage, of course, are the source of greatest shock from the horrible Atlanta tornado and related storms but the fact that they occurred in a dense urban area is a close third on the list of frightening aspects. Why was Atlanta hit so hard? The lack of good windbreak trees is a big reason but more on that in a moment.

Global warming expands the zones where killer storms such as hurricanes (and the Atlanta tornado) form. If you have followed my blog here on Keyboard Culture for some time, then you know that the solutions which we embrace to combat global warming must include the planting of millions of trees. If we do that in a concerted way, we will be on the right track.

There is a large ancillary benefit to doing so, however. Good windbreak trees help reduce the occurrence of killer storms and if Georgia still had its vast, historic forest canopy, there is a good chance that the Atlanta tornado would have dissipated faster and, not coincidentally, the Atlanta region would not be in the deep drought which currently afflicts it (a separate topic best left for a future post here on KBC).

Trees perform many, many important jobs in our environment. Windbreak trees are among the most important because they do the same job as others but add the benefit of regulating wind speed.

My first anniversary as the global warming expert here on Keyboard Culture is just two months away. Since joining this wonderful community, I have passed two key milestones:

1) This section of KBC now sees more than 5,000 unique visitors per month; and

2) I have answered the question, “So, how did you become an environmentalist?” more often than during the previous decade

Another milestone occurred recently. Earth: The Sequel, an essential book about how innovation can figure prominently among ways to stop global warming, became a New York Times bestseller. That’s big news!

Co-written by Fred Krupp, president of Environmental Defense, I commend Earth: The Sequel to your attention for one simple reason: in it Fred Krupp and his co-author Miriam Horn send a clear message that capitalism can be a key ally as we seek new and more effective ways to stop global warming – and in Mr. Krupp the reader finds an authoritative, conservationist source with credentials above reproach. No wonder Earth: The Sequel became a New York Times bestseller! It teaches about fun ways to stop global warming!

As I write this, the Midwest flooding which struck much of the middle section of the United States has receded in many areas and life has begun the slow, grueling process of restoration. Thousands of victims and their families have been changed forever. We will see mass environmental migration (people!), just as we did in the wake of Hurricane Katrina 2½ years ago.

So, how does the tragedy of March, 2008 help us predict the impact of global warming in Costa Rica? It seems a far-flung notion, does it not? Well, it is true that the weather patterns of Central America are driven by distinct atmospheric forces which have little in common with the Mississippi Valley. However, the patterns of devastation has been and will be alarmingly similar.

Despite its size, Costa Rica contains varied ecosystems, from mountainous regions to agricultural plains to beach areas and then, of course, rain forests and jungle. This blend of biomes in a compact area helps to bring rain in the proper amounts – that is, until recently. Over the last decade or so, Latin America has suffered increasing cycles of drought and flooding, bringing horrific deluges similar to the Midwest flooding of 2006, 2007 and 2008.

Habitat for Humanity benefits greatly from the close association and visibility of Jimmy Carter, former President of the United States, and his beloved wife, Rosalynn. However, this fine organization, which addresses a key area of human need, affordable housing, does not operate without controversy, not of a political nature but an environmental one. Some of my allies in the environmental community maintain that all projects which Habitat for Humanity undertakes should employ green building practices. They have a point.

Habitat for Humanity does fine, commendable work but there's room for improvement on the environmental front.

Now, in the aftermath of the Midwest flooding of 2008, when Habitat for Humanity prepares to tackle yet another housing crisis, we have a duty to emphasize the green building practices used by Habitat for Humanity, especially their application of optimized value engineering (OVE).

Beginning with my next post, I will cover green building practices in greater depth than I have at any time in the 10 months I have been an expert here on KBC. The good news is that great strides have been made just in the last year or so, particularly in the area of optimized value engineering, the quest to strike a balance between erecting greener structures and keeping the cost of labor and materials in check.

Habitat for Humanity, of course, controls labor costs through altruism and community engagement which President and Mrs. Carter help to foment. Good for them! As a commercial enterprise, though, we must employ green building practices within the context of optimized value engineering at all times. Fortunately, the Habitat for Humanity standard can help there, too.

Last month, I told you about a green building project in South Carolina, the Navy Yard at Noisette. It was featured along with 9 other green building projects in the first issue of 2008 of Natural Home Magazine. In addition to shining the international spotlight on praiseworthy undertakings, the magazine article helps us address the practicality of green building vs. traditional building methods and the larger issue of triple bottom line sustainability.

One commendable real estate initiative which was not included in Natural Home Magazine’s coverage is Playa Vista in Los Angeles, California. In addition to being located in an area with an accelerating turn toward green building vs. traditional building methods, Los Angeles has a climate nearly ideal for demonstrating green builder homes in high desert surroundings.

Few places on the planet call for the use of green building methods more than the desert. Residents are under threat of death from exposure most every day of the year. Likewise, water shortages are chronic. However, desert climes also can be quite attractive. Where, then, do these seemingly contradictory forces meet? The triple bottom line of sustainability is the answer.

Air pollution has no long-term benefits. There are short-term economic benefits to some because they have learned to turn a profit from directly or indirectly spewing air pollution into the atmosphere. It is a well-documented fact which no credible person would dispute that air pollution is bad for people and wildlife. What, though, is the effect air pollution has on the Earth’s ecosystem and what can we do about it?

The effect is broad but can be summarized concisely: air pollution, as a component of global warming, disrupts the ability of the atmosphere to regulate itself, leading to erratic weather patterns. In turn, these patterns impinge upon natural systems and we wind up with a big mess, including insect species where they don’t belong, melting glaciers, widespread famines and the list goes on.

Last time, I told you that cost can be a downside to green building practices but that a proper calculation of the cost must include the question of infrastructure and the overall effect on natural systems. Since transportation is the greatest source of pollution when communities are established or expanded, our measurements must include the transportation infrastructure and the impact of such on natural systems.

Green builder homes can assist with both questions because they have a reduced impact on the environment in their construction and operation but also on infrastructure since they consume less energy. I maintain, however, that we must go much further, to include the triple bottom of sustainability, which I have covered here recently at KBC, as well as the even larger aspect of sustainability, the integrated design process.

For months now, I have wondered when the world would see the greatest impact from Al Gore’s work since leaving public office. His sharing of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change focused a great deal of attention on global affairs and rightly so. We also must remember the answer to the earlier question which came from his brilliant film: “Did Al Gore win an Oscar AND an Emmy?”

That would be a yes, my friend!

Let’s cast aside cynicism about global warming for a moment and focus on the entertainment value of Al Gore’s work. After all, if we are to mollify the climate crisis, we need the participation of a large segment of the population of every nation on earth. In order to leverage that many people, we must make the process cultural, entertaining, even.

Well, since the former Vice President is not a household name per se, how do we accomplish this? We don’t have to worry about this challenge because he is doing it for us. Yes, a new section of the Al Gore global warming website at WeCanSolveIt.org has gone live and features the first of what promises to be a series of excellent public service announcements. You can access this superb content for free at

Earlier this month, the world mourned and commemorated the 40th anniversary of a moment in global history, the soul-shattering assassination of the Reverend Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr.

The occasion was marked by various public events and extensive coverage by the news media. I wouldn’t have it any other way. What was covered less, however, was the Dream Reborn Conference in Memphis, Tennessee. It took place in parallel with and in honor of Martin Luther King’s vision of national unity.

The vision of Van Jones and the Green For All Initiative is lovely. It focuses on bright futures, bright for the United States as we embrace the positive economic impact by using solar energy and bright because programs such as Solar Richmond help bring the long-term goal of color-blind economic opportunity which Dr. King helped foment to fruition.

One of the recurring themes I embrace here in my section of Keyboard Culture is that of making environmental reform and tackling the global climate crisis a cultural effort. People must enjoy living greener and embracing change before a meaningful transformation will occur.

This is the lesson of both the Green For All initiative and the Solar Richmond program, two efforts which connect people with their planet to yield profitability, the triple bottom line. In my previous posts, I have shared video content with you to emphasize the point that a sustainability plan for non-profits can be an excellent starting point in the larger effort to effect cultural change. Now, I’d like to share a long-form video with you regarding the Unified Earth Theory.

In early April, the 2008 weather effect known as La Niña faded suddenly and more than expected. This has brought much-needed rainfall to a parched nation. However, the drought in Georgia, USA remains a profound crisis which even prolonged torrential rains only will begin to address. What’s to be done? We can’t just raze millions of structures and replant the forests which used to occupy that territory but we can engage in something almost as good and Delta Airlines is helping to lead the effort.

With its Force For Global Good initiative, Delta Airlines not only has embraced international corporate social responsibility but taken a very forward position, much like General Electric has with its Ecomagination program. Well done, folks!

On February 11, 2008, carbon economist Johannes Ebeling and scientist Maï Yasué published a landmark study entitled Generating carbon finance through avoided deforestation and its potential to create climatic, conservation and human development benefits. The title is long but the Journals of the Royal Society in the United Kingdom saw fit not only to assist these great minds in publishing their work but in aiding its promotion as well.

I bring it to your attention because this magnificent work combines the economic and environmental consequences not just of deforestation but reforestation and then adds yet another layer, the somewhat newer concept of avoided deforestation in the valuation of carbon credits.

Whew! I know. I am delving much deeper into economics and hard science than I usually do. Hang with me, dear reader. One of the very first topics I covered when this blog went live was my carbon credit definition, a vital concept which relates to how we reverse global warming without shuttering the world’s economy. In the succeeding months, I covered reforestation extensively. I only have touched on rational carbon management, though, and now is the time to report on all of it.

During the month of April, I painted a financial picture for you, one in which the unified earth theory can be applied in the United States and elsewhere through adherence of the triple bottom line of sustainability. These crucial principles can help us respond to global warming better and faster than simply taking a step-by-step approach. However, there’s another benefit which we must consider. It has an environmental and humanitarian aspect.

You see, indigenous populations in the tropical rain forest, such as in South America, suffer greater and greater encroachment from city dwellers and farmers every year. This is caused by economic mismanagement on the part of local and state government but also pressure from industrialized nations to continue providing cheap imported goods while ignoring the principles of sustainability.

Tom Szaky, cofounder and CEO of Recycle Inc., is an environmental pioneer and inspiring success story. As a promising student at Ivy League Princeton University a few short years ago, Mr. Szaky saw the great potential of a tried-and-true environmental technology, vermiculture (the science of worms and their role in our biome) and, much like Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates did several years earlier, promptly dropped out of school to pursue his dream.

Fast forward to the present day and his company, TerraCycle, plays a vital role in a program worthy of everyone’s attention, the Retote recycled plastic shopping bag from Target Corporation.

“This is a one-of-a-kind promotion that lets everyone who gets the magazine take part in an environmental program ... Target shoppers will recycle their shopping bags and, in return, get a practical bag that can be used all the time.”

- Newsweek President Greg Osberg

While much of the mainstream press in the United States and around the world does at least a competent job reporting on environmental issues, especially global warming, Newsweek magazine set the bar very high in its special April 14, 2008 issue, Environment & Leadership: Who’s the Greenest of Them All? How? Newsweek magazine collaborated with Target Corporation and TerraCycle Inc. to help promote Target Corporation’s Retote recycled plastic shopping bag in a unique way.

T.E.D., which stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, began in 1984 as an annual conference. Now owned by The Sapling Foundation, TED is the preeminent gathering for thought leaders from around the world and amplified by the power of the Internet. Host to weekly talks, the TED.com website is a wonderful hub of information.

Back in February, a TED video was posted which gives us the latest news on Al Gore and an important update on the facts and predictions offered in Mr. Gore’s Oscar-winning film, An Inconvenient Truth. It is a 30-minute update which everyone who breathes needs to see. It is truly superb and the Lake Lanier drought pics alone will open your eyes.

DATELINE: JUNEAU, Alaska, April 18, 2008 – Montpelier, Vermont is known as one of the most picturesque capital cities in America. Having lived near there for almost 3 years in the 1980’s, I can attest that Montpelier’s reputation for natural splendor is very well earned. However, the tiny capital with the golden dome pales by comparison with Juneau, Alaska, located on the historic Marine highway.

Another key difference between these cities is that millennia ago, Montpelier sat atop a glacier. Juneau sits near one today, the Mendenhall Glacier, just a 20-minute drive from the center of town.

For decades, glacier and icecap science activities have been relatively convenient for researchers and tourists alike. Now, they are downright treacherous because of the record melting underway there. In recent years, Alaska has seen summertime high temperatures at or above 95° Fahrenheit and now Juneau has begun to pay the price.

In February of this year, my wife Catrin and I had the great pleasure and privilege of traveling to Adelaide, Australia for the third International Solar Cities Congress. Living in Florida as we do, we assumed that we could tolerate the arid summer weather which the state of South Australia had in store for us. We were wrong.

As it turned out, the damage to our planet’s ozone layer, which received so much attention during the 1980’s and was supposed to be ameliorated by the global ban on chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), has left a lingering effect Down under, oppressive solar radiation. As a result, although we managed to arrange our schedule so that we saw many wonderful sites and sounds, we also spent much more time indoors than we originally had planned.

If you’ve spent any amount of time reading my thoughts here on Keyboard Culture, then you know that I fit the textbook definition of tree hugger. However, you don’t have to be like me, or believe in global warming for that matter, to become part of the solution. Why? Because, as you will read in this top 7 list, the steps we need to take to reverse the climate crisis have ancillary benefits.

So, way 1 of 7 is to take up a cause. How do you live day to day? When you open your eyes in the morning, do you ponder the fact that tens of thousands of people and several endangered species of wildlife will die before you next sleep? Does the connection between people and our environment even cross your mind?

Well, I don’t want to preach so let me just tell you this: modern technology only protects us to a certain extent. We need each other and a healthy environment in order for civilization to survive the growing climate crisis. Period.

Fortunately, you don’t have to be Al Gore in order to do your part. The best way to begin is to choose a cause. For example: automotive tailpipe emissions cause global warming but they also cause emphysema and lung cancer, two maladies not directly related to global warming. It’s reasonable to hope that you’d like to see fewer people die from lung disease, right?

In the middle of the 19th Century, an Irish scientist by the name of John Tyndall established the correlation between carbon particles in the atmosphere of our planet and increases in global average temperatures. So, if you dispute the phenomenon global warming or hear others doing so, the argument goes against more than a century of hard science, science which was not controversial until multinational conglomerates decided to invest some of their billions of dollars in quarterly profits into disinformation in favor of maintaining the status quo. This fact does not escape the watchful eyes of OSAC, NASA, NOAA and agencies of governments large and small the world over.

Here’s a brief quote from Tyndall: