Business & Politics

Less than a year ago Dell announced they were heading towards a carbon neutral future. Today this is a goal they claim to have achieved. Dell is buying wind and solar power where possible and they have bought carbon credit to make the difference. But most importantly they are cutting the amount of energy needed to power your computer at home.

It would be an even greater achievement if all their energy consumption would come from clean and renewable energy but it seems that they are heading in this direction. According to EcoGeek:

Dell already gets about 116 million kWh of their electricity from wind and solar. But they’re looking to increasing that number, with investments in the U.S., China and India, to over 600 million kWh. The press release, conveniently, doesn’t give any numbers for Dell’s global power consumption, but I expect that it’s more than 10 times this number.

Still, these kinds of massive investments in clean energy technology are just what power companies need to see in order to justify building them even before they reach grid parity.

This kind of dedication towards being a green business is great. More companies should take Dell as an example and consider going carbon neutral.

Founded in October 2007 on $200 million of venture capital, Better Place, in its first six months, announced cooperative agreements with Israel and Denmark to transform their transportation infrastructure from oil-based to renewable energy and significantly reduce harmful emissions. Doing so they have committed to deploying the world’s first electric car networks.
Realized by Shai Agassi, a social entrepreneur formally working for SAP, Project Better Place was created after Shai left SAP in 2007 to follow his vision to end our world’s dependence on oil. Thomas Friedman quoted Agassi this past Sunday in the New York Times writing,

“His goal is to make his electric car so cheap, so trivial, that you won’t even think of buying a gasoline car. ”

Partnering with Better Place, the Renault-Nissan Alliance is building zero-emission electric cars for its recharge grids. The car will be 100% electric and powered by a battery developed by Automotive Energy Supply Corp.

Better Place hopes to continue to be a leader in alternative forms of energy and to sustain the conversation about lessening the worldwide dependence on oil. In this spirit, Better Place has launched a “10 Words” Campaign, where individuals can submit 10 words explaining for what reasons they believe ending the world’s addiction to oil is important. Contributors to the campaign have included those leaders who have made alternative energy a priority, including, Gavin Newsom, Mayor of San Francisco, who wrote,

Oil is the past. Our future is green and renewable

and US Congressman (D-MA) Ed Markey,

Four dollar gas, climate change forecast, and Middle East morass.

Please feel free to check out the campaign at 10words.betterplace.com and make your own “minifesto.”

- Thank you very much Sydney for telling me about this.

Moblogic’s Lindsay Cambell chats with Shaun Chapman, East Coast Campaigns Director at The Vote Solar Initiative about the growing demand for solar power in the United-States. The problem with all this is that the US government isn’t doing anything to promote this clean and reliable power.

To overcome this problem, local communities are coming together and taking action. The city of New-York for example seems to be moving forward with solar power and even more so since the 2003 blackout.

Solar is looking like a good idea and I haven’t even talked about the need to reinvgorate the American economy with new, good paying, tech sector jobs. Or the immediate concerns of reducing our carbon emissions. Or the costs and dangers associated with mining coal and uranium. Or exactly what we should do with nuclear waste and coal slurry. Or …

This major event cost the city of New-York over 8 billion dollars (in numbers its $8,000,000,000 for those who wonder). In fact, just three-hundred million dollars (less zeros: $300,000,000) of solar investment in the northeast (about 500 MW of capacity) would have given coverage against this blackout.

If you’re from the US you can go to Vote Solar and cast your vote on solar power.

“We have to drill offshore. we have to do this. Oil executives say in a couple years we could be seeing results from it. So why not do it? We need to do it.”

Those are the words of a running candidate to the United-States presidential election. The only thing that came to my mind when I watched this video is: This guy is a f&$%ing mo&$%…

After all the big speeches about renewable and sustainable energy, John McCain talks about doing offshore drilling. He should be ashamed of himself for even bringing this up.

Please leave us a comment on this.

The green guru has spoken again. Yesterday, former Vice President Al Gore challenged the United-States.

America must commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and other clean sources within 10 years.

He tried to convince the American population that by making the right choices there will be benefits for the environment, national security, economy and energy bills.

We’re borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that’s got to change.

In the past months he’s been hosting a series of solutions summits with engineers, scientists, CEOs, and financiers. This speech pulled together some of the best thinking from those talks — and highlighted what we each can do to end our dangerous addiction to fossil fuels and solve the climate crisis.

Be among the first to take on this challenge.

Via: We Can Solve It

Mr. McGuinty`s Ontario government this week pledged to protect almost a quarter of a million square kilometers of Ontario`s northern boreal forest – an area which is equivalent in size to the U.K., or six Belgium’s.

In a move that has evoked praise from environmental groups, the Ontario government has now made good on promises made during their last campaign. They will implement a protection plan which involves some 225,000 square kilometers of Ontario’s beautiful northern boreal forest.

Source: ForestEthics.org

The plan aims not only to protect the forest itself, but the species that inhabit the area. Polar bears, caribou, wolverine, among many others, are all under threat from climate change and industrial development. The commitment by the government ostensibly bans any industrial development in the area, and will also seek to amend the outdated Mining Act.

As of January 2008, over five thousand mining claims had been made in the boreal forest area. Major conflict has arisen between the free entry mining system and the Aboriginal communities who lay claim to their traditional territory. It will be a requirement now for companies to consult with Aboriginal communities early before even beginning any projects in the area, as well as share revenues from any projects on their lands anywhere in Ontario.

A “wilderness treasure” according to some, the boreal forest is home to some 28 Aboriginal communities and is one of the world’s largest carbon storehouses. The region now under discussion absorbs over 12 million tonnes of carbon dioxide yearly .

Source: ForestEthics.org

Resistance to this move is scarce and predictable. Opposition parties argue that it will discourage investment in the forestry and mining industries. This concern is also echoed by the companies themselves, who will now have to navigate through a dense forest of red tape before beginning new projects in the area.

As for the precedent this will set for other issues of industrial development and land protection elsewhere in Canada has yet to be seen. It is anticipated that this development will further facilitate the push for wildlife protection, as well as alleviate the pressure on communities (particularly Aboriginal) who are fighting to keep their land free from industrial development.

A welcomed precedent? Or political insincerity?

A high school teacher I know showed “The Story of Stuff” to a group of students the other day. It’s nothing they probably didn’t already know (except maybe some scary statistics that are worse than most people realize), but the way it is presented really makes you want to stop shopping for anything that is not a necessity. My favorite part was about how women were once valued for how thrifty they were…

www.storyofstuff.com

For the last three years, the US Department of Interior has been dragging its feet when it comes to protecting the polar bear. It has now finally listed the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. This might seem like a victory but there are enough exemptions in this listing to leave the polar bear unprotected against its biggest threat, global warming.

What happened?

After months of calculated delays and several lawsuits against them, brought by Greenpeace, the Natural Resources Defence Council and the Center for Biological Diversity, the Bush administration has listed the polar bear as threatened under the United States Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Continue reading…