Tag Archives: energy

The Supreme Court Just Dealt a Huge Blow to Obama’s Climate Plan

by EugenioOIBS Posted on February 10, 2016

Mother Jones

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In a setback for the Obama administration, the Supreme Court on Tuesday temporarily halted enforcement of Obama’s signature climate initiative.

The Clean Power Plan, issued by the Environmental Protection Agency last summer, requires states to limit coal-fired power plant emissions—the nation’s largest source of greenhouse gases—by a third by 2030. The regulation was expected to revamp the energy industry in the coming decades, shutting down coal-fired plants and speeding up renewable energy production. But 29 states, together with dozens of industry groups, sued the EPA, claiming the rule was “the most far-reaching and burdensome rule the EPA has ever forced onto the states.”

In a 5-4 vote today, the Supreme Court issued an unusual, one-page emergency order for the EPA to put the plan on hold until the US Court of Appeals, which will hear the case this summer, comes to a decision. While the hold is temporary, many see the order as a sign that the Supreme Court has concerns about the policy.

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The Supreme Court Just Dealt a Huge Blow to Obama’s Climate Plan

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An Easy Guide to Saving Energy in Your Home

by FeliciaWalthall Posted on February 8, 2016

Not sure where to start when it comes to environmentally friendly home improvements? The plethora of suggestions for greening your house and reducing your utility bills is definitely good news, but it tends to leave the average homeowner a tad confused about how or even whether to implement them all. Here’s a common sense guide to help you sort out the most worthwhile and doable energy-savingimprovements.

It’s highly visible.Make a bold statement to get everyone in the family on board with your energy-saving project. A home energy monitor is perfect for this; just clip the inexpensive device onto your power cable and it will clearly display exactly how much power you’re using at a given moment.

It provides a great ROI.”Invest pennies to save dollars” is a formula that makes sound financial sense.Caulk and weatherstrippingare two very inexpensive materials that will go a long way toward greening your home. Avoid wasted energy; use these supplies to minimize leakage of heated (or in summer, cooled) air via cracks and gaps around doors, windows, faucets, and electrical switch plates.

It doesn’t seriously affect your comfort level. Install a programmable thermostat to decrease the heat whenever you are away for the day or asleep for the night. While you’re at it, make sure the temperature is set a degree or two lower than you’re used to even for those times you’ll be at home and active. Chances are that you’ll barely notice the difference.

It’s appropriately timed.If you have a major appliance such as a dishwasher that’s damaged beyond repair or approaching the end of its useful life — or if the environmental cost of running the item is greater than the price of a new one — take the opportunity to purchase an energy-efficient replacement.

It’s suitable for your area. For example,a heat pumpis a wonderfully energy-efficient way to warm your homeifyou live in a part of the country with a relatively mild climate. In a wintry northern state like Minnesota, you’ll end up wanting to supplement with less-green heat sources like electricity or natural gas.

It really counts.Replace your old HVAC system with a new Energy Star efficient version to give you more energy savings for your initial investment than, say, changing your windowpanes. To be precise, an Energy Star-certified heating and cooling system will save you approximately 30 percent annually in fuel and maintenance costs.

It offers fringe benefits.Use up to 50 percent less energy with anEnergy Star-certified washing machinethan the average top-loader. Not only that, it cleans more effectively, removes stains better, is gentler on your clothing, and reduces drying time.

It saves energy year-round. Insulate your attic to keep your home warmer in winter and cooler in summer while expending less energy. This has the added advantage of extending your roof’s lifespan.

It’s safe.Insulate your water heater to keep your water supply hotter (unless you own a hyper-efficient newer model whose factory-installed insulation has an R-value of 16 or more). Be very careful about where you apply the insulation, though. Do not cover an electric water heater’s heating-element access panels or a gas unit’s controller, pressure and temperature relief valve, and anode, or the top of the unit — which exhausts so much heat that the insulation might be set on fire.

It’s beyond simple.Save on your electricity bill with easy-to-use power strips, since they take only 61 seconds of your time: one minute to plug in a number of common devices like your printer and one second to switch them all off when they’re not needed. This reduces power vampires, which draw a surprising amount of energy even when not in use. To make life even easier, install anadvanced power strip, and you’ll no longer have to remember to switch off or unplug. The strip will do the “thinking” for you, by sensing when your tablet is fully charged or your toaster is no longer being used.

By Laura Firszt,Networx.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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An Easy Guide to Saving Energy in Your Home

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Closing This Nuclear Plant Could Cause an Environmental Disaster

by GladisHouchins Posted on February 3, 2016

Mother Jones

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The Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant sits by the scenic hills overlooking the California coast, a few hours’ drive north of Los Angeles. It’s the state’s only remaining nuclear plant (after the San Onofre plant was closed in 2013), and it’s responsible for about one-tenth of the state’s electricity, serving more than 3 million homes and businesses.

Since construction on the plant began in the late 1960s, Diablo Canyon has been a focal point of the nationwide controversy over nuclear power. In 1981, roughly 2,000 protesters (including the singer-songwriter Jackson Browne) were arrested at the construction site. Ever since, the plant has faced opposition from environmental groups like the Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth. But now, the plant is attracting an unlikely wave of support from some of the country’s most prominent environmentalists and climate change scientists.

Last week, in an effort to ensure that Diablo Canyon isn’t shut down in the near future, this new coalition sent a letter to Gov. Jerry Brown (D); the CEO of Pacific Gas & Electric, the utility that owns the plant; and five state regulatory officials. The letter warned that “closing Diablo Canyon would make it far harder to meet the state’s climate goals.” The 61 signatories include Whole Earth Catalog founder Stewart Brand, climate scientists James Hansen of Columbia University and Kerry Emanuel of MIT, and the Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker.

Their concerns center around an upcoming-ish deadline for PG&E to renew the plant’s operating license. The current license is good through 2024 for one of the plant’s two units and 2025 for the other. If PG&E wants to keep the plant running after that, it will need to seek approval from Brown’s administration and possibly from local officials in San Luis Obispo County. In its letter, the group called for a renewed operating license that could keep the plant running into the 2040s.

But the utility is on the fence. “We have not made a decision to move forward with license renewal,” a spokesperson said, adding that the company is in the middle of a study on seismic activity in the area. (The plant is near a few major fault lines.) In a statement to the San Francisco Chronicle, Tony Earley, the utility’s CEO, was more blunt: “We’ve got a lot on our plates, and we just don’t need to take on another big public issue right now.” And while 2024 may seem like a long way off, the license renewal process can take a long time, and utility executives have been quietly mulling it since at least 2009.

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As the global campaign against climate change has gathered steam in recent years, old controversies surrounding nuclear energy have been re-ignited. For all its supposed faults—radioactive waste, links to the Cold War arms race, the specter of a catastrophic meltdown—nuclear plants have the benefit of producing huge amounts of electricity with zero greenhouse gas emissions. That may not have mattered much to Jackson Browne and his fellow activists in the ’80s, but it matters now. A recent analysis by the International Energy Agency found that in order for the world to meet the global warming limit enshrined in the Paris climate agreement in December, nuclear’s share of global energy production will need to grow from around 11 percent in 2013 to 16 percent by 2030. (The share from coal, meanwhile, needs to shrink from 41 percent to 19 percent, and wind needs to grow from 3 percent to 11 percent.)

In Paris, Hansen—probably the world’s most influential climate scientist since he first warned Congress about global warming back in 1988—gave a talk in which he said nuclear “has tremendous potential to be part of the solution to climate change.” It was a point Hansen and some of his allies have made repeatedly over the past year in talks and op-eds. That message has opened a rift in an otherwise cohesive bloc of climate hawks: Those who think a carbon-free energy future is impossible without nuclear are now squaring off against those who think the challenge can be met using only renewables like wind and solar.

Among the former group is Michael Shellenberger, who until recently was president of the Oakland-based environmental think tank Breakthrough Institute and now runs a new group, Environmental Progress. Shellenberger organized the Diablo Canyon campaign after he realized that the larger debate about nuclear could be crystallized around this one existing plant.

“I’m tired of arguing about the future,” he said. “Let’s decide what we’re going to do right now with the largest single source of clean energy in California.”

According to Shellenberger’s research, Diablo Canyon currently produces twice as much power as all the state’s solar panels (California is the nation’s No. 1 solar state). Closing it, he said, would not only shave off one-fifth of the state’s zero-carbon energy, but potentially increase the state’s emissions by an amount equivalent to putting 2 million cars on the road per year. That’s because the power gap left by the plant’s closure would likely be filled by new natural gas plants—which is what happened when San Onofre was shuttered.

“What’s powerful about Diablo is the sheer size of it,” he said. “If you flip it off, carbon emissions go up so much.”

That’s an important quandary for Gov. Brown, who has tried to position his state as a national leader on climate policy and clean energy. During his first term as governor in the mid-’70s, Brown opposed the plant. But in 2012 he said he had become more open to nuclear power because “it’s good for greenhouse gases.” Brown’s office declined to comment on Shellenberger’s letter.

Gov. Jerry Brown addresses an anti-nuclear rally near the Diablo Canyon power plant in 1979. At the time, he was opposed to nuclear power, but his views may have softened. Brich/AP

California played an outsize role at the Paris talks, with a bevy of the state’s political and business leaders, including Brown, touting the state’s ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets, its cap-and-trade program and clean-energy investment, and other successes. Still, the state’s rate of reducing carbon emissions is slower than the national average—a 7.5 percent reduction since 2000, compared with 9.6 percent nationwide. It will need to pick up the pace in order to meet its ultimate goal of bringing statewide greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

The problem, Shellenberger said, is that despite the plethora of solar panels on rooftops and electric vehicles on the roads, “people don’t understand how little that stuff is compared to a single nuclear plant.” Moreover, he added, a nuclear plant has the benefit of being consistent regardless of whether the wind is blowing or the sun is shining.

Other analysts have reached different conclusions less favorable to nuclear. A 2015 state-commissioned study by the private research firm Energy and Environmental Economics found that the state could meet its 2030 climate goals without nuclear by rapidly growing renewables and by investing in upgrades to energy efficiency and the electric grid.

Mark Jacobson—an engineering professor at Stanford University who has authored several prominent studies on how the United States could run on 100 percent renewable energy—added that he was confident California could meet its clean energy targets without nuclear. “Repairing Diablo Canyon will not only be costly, diverting funds from the development of more clean, renewable energy, but it will also result in down time, resulting in emissions from the background grid, which currently still emits pollution and carbon,” he said in an email. (“Background grid” refers to the normal electric grid, which would have to pick up the slack in Diablo Canyon’s absence.) According to Jacobs, “a more efficient solution would be to use those funds to grow clean, renewable energy further.”

For now, the fate of Diablo Canyon is unclear. But Steven Weissman, an environmental lawyer at the University of California-Berkeley who has watched Diablo Canyon from the beginning, said ultimately the state’s biggest problem isn’t its small share of power from nuclear—it’s the majority share coming from natural gas and coal.

“How are you going to deal with the power coming from fossil fuels?” he said. “If you don’t solve that, you won’t solve your climate goals.”

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Closing This Nuclear Plant Could Cause an Environmental Disaster

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There’s Only One Presidential Candidate Who Wants to Ban Fracking

by VicenteSommers Posted on January 29, 2016

Mother Jones

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This story originally appeared in The New Republic and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

There isn’t much daylight these days between the Democratic candidates on the environment. Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, and Martin O’Malley all agree that humans are responsible for climate change and that it’s one of the world’s most pressing problems. To that end, they support clean energy tax breaks, reject drilling offshore and in the Arctic, and oppose the (now-rejected) Keystone XL pipeline.

But there’s one environmental issue where Sanders truly stands apart: He wants to ban hydraulic fracturing outright. Clinton and O’Malley have proposed lesser measures, and show no sign of going further. That’s an indication of just how radical Sanders’s stance really is, but it also raises an important question: Is a fracking ban remotely plausible?

Read More: How Hillary Clinton’s State Department Sold Fracking to the World

There used to be more daylight between the candidates, especially Sanders and Clinton. The Vermont senator has long called for “a political revolution that takes on the fossil fuel billionaires, accelerates our transition to clean energy, and finally puts people before the profits of polluters”—and he’s taken early, decisive stances in support of many of the environmental movement’s top demands before he ever launched his presidential campaign.

Clinton has followed Sanders’ lead to the left. She came out against the Keystone XL pipeline just months before President Barack Obama rejected it. She knocked the dangers of Arctic drilling last August, as Shell faced increasing scrutiny and abandoned its exploratory drilling just one month later. And she opposed Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal on the grounds it would hurt American jobs and wages, but the move earned her points with green groups who opposed the deal for other reasons. That’s not an exhaustive list of every issue environmentalists care about, but it was enough to earn the Clinton campaign an endorsement from the League of Conservation Voters.

Sanders took these very same positions long before the launch of his campaign, a green radicalism that Clinton has somewhat diluted. But a fracking ban remains safely his issue. Whether that’s an advantage or disadvantage is another question entirely.

Fracking, in which a chemical cocktail is injected deep underground to extract oil and natural gas, is a controversial drilling method—and not just among environmentalists. A growing body of evidence links the process to contaminated water and earthquakes, and methane—which is leaked during natural gas extraction, shipment, and storage—is an even more potent greenhouse gas than carbon.

But fracking, which has been an economic boon and is considered by many to be a solution to America’s energy crisis, is one of the few areas of consensus among establishment Democrats and Republicans.

Sanders, meanwhile, wants to halt the practice nationwide, a stance he’s taken since at least 2014, when Vermont banned the approach. “I’m very proud that the state of Vermont banned fracking,” he said at the time. “I hope communities all over California, and all over America do the same.” He renewed his call for a ban after the recent methane leak at a natural gas storage facility in Porter Ranch, Los Angeles. It’s unclear just what role fracking itself played in the leak, but Sanders has said it “appears fracking of nearby wells could have contributed to this disaster. It is yet another reason why I have called for a ban on all fracking.” Sanders calls the leak “one more tragic cautionary tale in our dependence on oil and gas.”

Many in the Democratic Party, President Barack Obama included, support fracking nonetheless, saying it’s a cleaner-burning fuel than coal or oil, and that it’s possible to safely frack and control potent methane emissions. O’Malley, who contests he has the strongest climate change platform, affirmed his support for fracking in an Iowa campaign stop over the weekend. “Whether or not natural gas is a bridge to a cleaner energy future depends on whether or not we have a national policy to move us to that cleaner future,” O’Malley said. “And I think that a big part of it is having much higher standards in place for protecting the air and the land and the water in the course of the extraction that’s already going on in our country.”

Hillary Clinton’s policy on fracking is more complicated. According to a 2014 Mother Jones investigation, Clinton’s State Department helped “US firms clinch potentially lucrative shale concessions overseas” by encouraging developing nations to embrace fracking. Clinton has suggested looking at how much the government charges companies to drill on federal lands, and proposed in September to revise regulations on methane leaks with better safety precautions like improving leak detection standards and requiring automatic shut-off valves. But she hasn’t said much more than that. A spokesperson did not return a request for comment or clarification about her position.

Is it even possible to ban fracking nationwide? In short, no—not without Congress. The House and Senate would have to approve a tax on greenhouse gas emissions or to amend the “Halliburton loophole.” Passed in 2005 in the Energy Policy Act, the loophole exempted fracking fluids from the Safe Drinking Water Act, which otherwise would regulate how contaminants are injected underground. (In 2013, Sanders proposed a Climate Protection Act to repeal the loophole.)

However, the president has the power to set strict standards for leasing federal lands for fossil fuel development, and Sanders has proposed ending all federal leases to oil, gas, and coal companies. Still, federal lands produce just 11 percent of the country’s natural gas. Under Sanders, the Environmental Protection Agency could also exercise its regulatory authority against fracking companies. For instance, the Halliburton loophole does not cover the Clean Water Act, so companies could be fined if they’re found to be polluting drinking water.

Under President Barack Obama, the EPA has been slow to investigate fracking. An agency report last year found no “widespread, systemic impacts on drinking water resources in the United States,” a conclusion that was later criticized by the EPA’s independent Science Advisory Board panel as being inconsistent with the data. So, if nothing else, Sanders could push for a more thorough investigation of the drilling practice. But that’s a far cry from banning it entirely—and calling for “a bolder EPA” doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.

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There’s Only One Presidential Candidate Who Wants to Ban Fracking

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Global Health: Deforestation Threatens Pygmies, Study Finds

by Myrna Posted on January 25, 2016

The first scientific census of the African population finds that there are nearly one million in communities threatened by encroaching societies. Taken from:   Global Health: Deforestation Threatens Pygmies, Study Finds ; ; ;

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Global Health: Deforestation Threatens Pygmies, Study Finds

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3 Ways Climate Change Affects How We Spend Money

by TVEJarred6824744 Posted on January 20, 2016

Climate change is predicted to have a major impact on many aspects of our lives. Average global temperatures will increase, sea levels will rise, allergiesmay get worse (seriously, it’s likely that they will) theres little question that there will be many complicated biological ramifications.

But what about the cultural and economic changes that might accompany climate change? Some have argued that climate change may increase violence, and surely there will be other societal implications we cant yet predict. Experts do have ideas, though, for what a warmer planet might mean for our spending habits. Here are three trends you may see come to pass in the coming decades:

Fewer luxury goods

A recent study put forth by Swiss banking group UBS suggests that in cities where the threat of climate-related disasters looms large, middle-class families are spending less on luxury goods than they have in the past. They found that in climate-strapped cities such as Los Angeles, Taipei, Tokyo, Mumbai, Shanghai and New Orleans, families had to spend more of their income on housing and repairs, forcing them to scale back on expensive splurges in the realms of entertainment and luxuries.

“More fear, less fun is how we might sum it up,” said the authors of the study.

The study noted that 2015 was the most expensive year on record in terms of natural disasters; a whopping $32 billion were lost within the first half of 2015 alone due to instances of extreme weather.

More sharing

Though the rise of the sharing economy is no doubt attributable to a number of factors, its a huge trend thats expected to continue growing as temperatures rise. This may or may not be a good thing for the environment. While car ownership appears to be decreasing overall, primarily among millennials, the word is still out on whether or not this will actually lead to a reduction in transportation emissions.

There are two sides to the argument, according to environmental blog Grist. On the one hand, sure, ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft free people from needing to use cars to get around on a daily basis. On the other, theres some evidence that the popularity and convenience of these unconventional cab services has actually increased the number of cars on the roadsparticularly in dense cities like New York and Chicago, where residents might have previously been more inclined to use public transportation.

Nonetheless, the sharing economy continues to grow, and its not just about cars. The popularity of sites like Airbnb remains strong, and according to a reportby PwC, 72 percent of Americans say theyre likely to participate in a sharing service in the coming two years.

More renewable energy

Though the warming of the planet is ultimately bad news, theres still plenty of indication that the green energy economy will continue to improve, diversify and grow. According to Scientific American, the U.S. Energy Information Administration is expecting renewable energy to be the fastest-growing source of power in the coming years.

More and more consumers are switching to green power within their own homes, if they have the means to do so. The Solar Energies Industry Association reported that the second half of 2015 was the biggest quarter yet for solar power, with nearly 1,400 megawatts of power installed nationwide.

As both individuals and communities look to transition to renewable energy, it will undoubtedly change the energy landscape. Well have to see what other surprises global warming and climate change action will have on consumer behavior in the coming years.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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3 Ways Climate Change Affects How We Spend Money

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This “Peace Troubadour” Wanted to Perform in ISIS Territory

by VictoriGentile Posted on January 15, 2016

Mother Jones

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James Twyman wants you to know that he’s not going to just wander into ISIS-controlled territory with a guitar slung on his back for his upcoming “peace prayer concert” inside Syria. He isn’t crazy, he tells me over the phone from his houseboat in Oregon. “I have no intention of being a martyr.”

The 53-year-old “Peace Troubadour” first announced his plan to venture into Syria in a blog post last month:

Performing the peace prayers in ISIS Controlled Syria will be the most important and dangerous peace mission of my life…Every peace mission I’ve been on has been dangerous, but this journey is without question the most perilous, and in my opinion—the most important. People everywhere are concerned about the escalating violence in the Middle East, especially with the rise of ISIS, but they don’t feel empowered to be part of the solution. That is what we are about to change.

Twyman’s original idea was to enter Syria through Turkey, travel through Kurdish-controlled areas, and then into ISIS territory, where he would perform wherever he could get to. “But now things have really escalated,” he says. The State Department made it clear that it would have little ability to help him should anything go awry. “People have been writing me, begging me not to go. You know, just the most fearful things you could imagine.” Things like the kidnappings, beheadings, and the chaos that have become ISIS’ trademark. Twyman’s well aware of it all, but says, “I try not to put too much energy in it, but I do need to be responsible about it. I think the most important thing we all need today is courage.”

Now, his plan has changed—phew!—from a really horrible one to a less horrible one. Twyman leaves on the 20th for Italy, where he’ll spend a week preparing for the performance. Then he flies to Tel Aviv to meet with a collection of supporters and a group of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish leaders who will join him as he crosses the Israel-Syria border to Majdal Shams, an Israeli-occupied town in the Golan Heights that overlooks ISIS-held territory several miles away.

This isn’t Twyman’s first musical peace mission. He performed in the Balkans during the region’s wars in the ’90s and sang in Baghdad in 1998—at the behest of Saddam Hussein, he claims.

Twyman hopes that millions of people from around the world will join him in focused prayer as he leads a peace vigil near Majdal Shams and sings an Islamic prayer for peace on February 1. (Watch his rendition in English below.) “There is definitely a correlation between massive numbers of people focusing their energy on a situation, and then a shift in the energy—or a crisis being averted—because of it.” Each of the religious leaders will offer prayers of peace from their own tradition, what Twyman calls “The Great Abrahamic Pulse.”

Twyman says the decision to scale back his Syrian trip is due to the spiritual leaders who are now involved. “I feel that it’s more important that they be there” than to go closer to ISIS territory, he says. “So we’re going to be as close as possible while remaining as safe as possible.” Will he have a security detail? “No,” he tells me. “I’m someone who believes on the power of prayer and positive energy.”

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This “Peace Troubadour” Wanted to Perform in ISIS Territory

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Tips for Decorating an Eco-Home

by ElvinVerpmtaxda Posted on January 14, 2016

Usually I write about how to improve your health with good food, but today I’m going to write about another really important aspect of a healthier, greener lifehow to ensure you’re living in a healthy environment.

Sad to say, but we are exposed to toxins every day, many of which come from the home. Carpets, paints, furniture and other home products can off-gas and drastically decrease the health of indoor air. But there are ways to improve the health of your home and make your home life super green.

Choose Organics for Accessories

Choosing organic sheets, towels, pillows and other linens is good for reducing your exposure to chemicals like formaldehyde. Organic cottons do tend to be more expensive, but organic agriculture helps support sustainable farming methods and reduce the risk of chemical exposure to farmworkers. Choose GOTS certified textiles to ensure it meets standards for ecological and social responsibility. Organic textiles can be found at so many big stores now (like Target) that it makes it easier than ever to make a healthier choice.

An organic bed is a happy bed

Use Plants to Improve Indoor Air Quality

If you are in a situation where you cannot choose eco-friendly options, you can always mitigate the indoor air pollution with plants. Plants are surprisingly effective at reducing indoor air pollution, all while adding coziness and green energy to your home. Check out this list of the best plants to improve indoor air quality and learn how the many varieties of plants can help clean up your house.

Choose Healthier Paints

Always choose low or no-VOC paints for the home to ensure the paint doesn’t off-gas as it dries. Consumer Reports explains that “VOCs can cause acute symptoms, including headaches and dizziness. The long-term effects are less certain, but according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, some VOCs are suspected carcinogens.” VOCs are found in paint and other household items, so you should limit your exposure to reduce your risk of complications like eye, nose, throat irritation, asthma complications and dizziness. If you have to paint with regular paint, be sure to ventilate well and wear a mask while using it.

Low or no-VOC paints are better for the home.

Find Better Furniture

New furniture and furnishings can off-gas VOCs just like paint, so choosing secondhand furniture and accessories can help reduce your impact on the planet and improve your health. That ‘new furniture’ or ‘new car smell’ is often a mixture of Acetone, Benzene, Ethylene glycol, Formaldehyde, Methylene chloride, Perchloroethylene, Toluene, Xylene and 1,3-butadienewhich makes that new car smell a bit less appealing. One of the biggest sources of these chemicals is particle board or plywood, but it’s also found in upholstery fabric and electronics. If you can’t buy secondhand, then be sure to let your furniture and accessories off-gas for a few days before closing into a room. Keeping plants near the furniture can actually help absorb some of the chemicals too.

Related:

10 Easy Ways to Make Your Shower More Sustainable
10 Simple Things You Can Do to Save Money & Energy
8 Decor Ideas for an Organic Living Room
20 Houseplants to Clear Toxins From Your Home

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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Tips for Decorating an Eco-Home

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How to Drink Green Juice and Still Be “Green”

by FrancisBBLG Posted on December 31, 2015

Starting your day with a big glass of green juice is a hot health trend, as these emerald blends can give you a big boost of important nutrients. But juices and smoothies loaded with kale and spinach arent necessarily the other kind of greenthe eco-friendly kind.

Dont get me wrongI love juicing. It helps me get more servings of fruits and vegetables per day, and drinking it makes me feel virtuous. Below are some tips for making a juice that’s healthy for both you and the planet.

Make your own

Skip the store-bought juices with all their disposable packaging. Even if you put the bottles in recycling, it still requires a lot of energy and water for the recycling process. Instead, use a juicer or blender at home to not only have more control over your ingredients, but also to save money and cut down on trash.

Or if the prospect of washing and chopping all that produce is too much for you to bear, consider bringing your own reusable bottle to your local juice shop.

Be sparing with superfoods

Acai? Cacao? These exotic tropical species might be very nutritious, but so many superfood trends come from far away lands. These well-traveled ingredients have a bigger carbon footprint than produce thats grown closer to home.

Now, I know most people arent going to give up on chocolate, tea or coffee if its not produced in their region. However, it will still be friendlier to Mother Nature if you choose more of the nutrient-packed produce thats grown in your area. Here in New York, I love to make a seasonal juice with local winter vegetables, like carrots and beetsand naturally sweeten it with apple.

Go organic

Many juice experts recommend organic juice for health reasons, butorganic agriculture is arguably even more important for the health of the planet. When you buy organic fruits and veggies for your juice, youre supporting farmers who use fewer harmful pesticides and less synthetic fertilizer. If you care about avoiding genetically modified foods, buying organic also takes care of that.

Get ugly

Ugly produce that is! What matters here is the quality of the juicenot the physical beauty. Go ahead, buy that twisted carrot, that bulbous cucumber or the bruised apple. Some grocers are even offering discounts on their less beautiful produce. Looks wont matter once everything is blended into your smoothie, and youll be helping cut down on food waste.

Also, greens that are just a touch too wilted for salad are often still suitable for use in juice.

Compost

If you use a juicer like me, youre going to end up with a lot of pulpand even blender users will have their fair share of cores, peels and stems. Be sure tocompost these food trimmingsinstead of putting them in the garbage.

by Margaret Badore, from Treehugger

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

From:

How to Drink Green Juice and Still Be “Green”

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The Solar Industry’s Christmas Miracle

by LeeGetz986282874 Posted on December 24, 2015

Mother Jones

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This story was originally published by Slate and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

We all know the hallmarks of the classic business-themed Christmas movie. A good, well-meaning executive faces some tough business fundamentals as the holiday season approaches. Unexpected events deepen the gloom. But just in time for Christmas, a miracle arrives from on high, ensuring peace, prosperity, and happiness for years to come.

It’s a Wonderful Life? Yes. But it’s also the story of solar companies in the past few months. In November, things were looking bleak for the renewable energy sector at large and for solar companies in particular. The sector has been booming since 2009. The price of installing solar panels has come down sharply as scale has risen, new business models have hastened the spread of the technology, and giant companies are entering contracts to buy huge volumes of renewable energy. But none of that would have been possible without 1) the special federal tax breaks and credits for owners of solar panels, and 2) abundant capital seeking returns in a world of extraordinarily low interest rates. And in the second half of 2015, the investment thesis that kept solar stocks burning bright began to dim.

The solar investment tax credit—in which owners of solar-panel systems get a 30 percent tax credit—was always meant to be temporary and is set to expire next year. The Republicans in Congress generally favor fossil fuels over renewables, generally oppose anything President Obama is for, and deny the need to deal with climate change. So as fall settled in, investors began to focus on the fact that by the end of 2016, the solar investment tax credit of 30 percent would fall to 10 percent for commercial systems and disappear entirely for home-based systems.

Another problem: Renewable energy is as much about financial engineering as it is about electrical engineering. For solar to work, investors had to believe that the structures rigged up to build solar would stand up over time. In recent years, energy companies had hived off renewable energy projects into special, publicly traded vehicles—yieldcos—that were supposed to pay dividends. But many of them failed to deliver expected results. Worse, the attractiveness of such fixed-income investments stands in inverse relation to the interest rates available elsewhere. And with the Federal Reserve telegraphing an interest rate increase in December, investors began to flee yieldcos.

Finally, the entire renewable industry depends to a large degree on the zeitgeist. When the world is in a green mood, when it looks like there will be a widespread, coordinated effort to combat climate change, investors get psyched about solar. When it appears that the will for collective action is fading, investors get the blahs. And throughout October and November, it was common to hear observers argue that the much-bruited Paris conference was going to be a bust, that it would deadlock over conflicts between rich and poor nations.

There’s a cruelty and ruthlessness to the markets, which can provide a fire hose of capital on Monday only to shut it off entirely on Tuesday. And that’s what began to happen in November. Stock markets are famously futures markets, and forward-looking investors suddenly didn’t like what they were seeing in the future. The stock of SunEdison, the self-proclaimed “largest global renewable energy development company,” fell from a high of $31.50 in July to a low of $2.86 on Nov. 19—a loss of 91 percent. The stock helped sandbag the performance of well-known hedge fund manager David Einhorn, whose sale of a big chunk of SunEdison stock helped increase the melancholy. Analysts began to question the company’s liquidity, which is poison for a company with lots of debt. SolarCity, the giant rooftop-panel installer founded by Elon Musk and his cousins, saw its stock fall from $62 in May to $25 in early November, a decline of about 59 percent.

Like George Bailey, investors and executives at solar companies were essentially teetering on the bridge outside of town.

And then a series of miracles happened. On December 12, the Paris climate talks concluded with an unexpectedly strong agreement among countries to attempt to limit emissions. The US publicly recommitted to green policies, and a large number of giant, influential global companies signed on to an initiative to get 100 percent of their energy from renewable sources. Investors began to reconsider their pessimism.

Next, Washington delivered—defying the conventional wisdom. Newly installed House Speaker Paul Ryan realized that he’d have to negotiate with congressional Democrats if he wanted to get a budget and tax deal before the end of the year. And as they came to the table, another miracle happened: The Democrats held fast. On December 14, Democrats indicated they would be willing to support the Republican-backed effort to lift the ban on oil exports—but only if the Republicans would consent to measures including a multiyear extension of renewable energy credits. It worked. Last Friday, Congress voted to extend the 30 percent solar investment tax credit through 2019, and then to reduce it to 10 percent through 2022.

That move instantly made the US solar industry viable for another six years. Investors were elated. SolarCity’s stock popped as details of the budget agreement began to emerge and then soared on its announcement. By Friday, the stock was above $56, up about 117 percent from its November low. SunEdison’s stock closed on Friday at $6.51, up 127 percent in a month. The Guggenheim Solar ETF is up about 30 percent from Nov. 19 through last Friday.

God bless us, everyone.

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The Solar Industry’s Christmas Miracle

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