“Railroads are the most environmentally friendly and energy efficient way to move goods on land.”

Freight trains have evolved over the years, carrying freight in a variety of ways, including taking semi-trailer rigs off the highways and shipping them on flat-cars. If you’re anywhere near a railroad track, you’ll see what are called intermodal trains carrying shipping containers stacked on top of one another, along with trailers and the usual box cars and other forms of equipment.

However, the physical infrastructure in some areas of the country creates a barrier for some railroads who want to stack shipping containers in order to carry more freight.

Such is the dilemma of mid-Atlantic coast rail line CSX, anticipating completion of the Panama Canal Upgrade project. When completed, ships with more than double the capacity of freight containers will be able to make the transition between the two oceans, increasing the amount of goods delivered to and shipped from mid-Atlantic ports.

CSX has launched it’s National Gateway program, a $700 million project to expands the railway’s freight carrying capacity.

I spoke with Mr. Robert Sullivan of CSX, about the project, what it will mean to the mid-Atlantic-Midwest shipping corridor, and to the environment.

I’ve posted a written version of the podcast on Gas2.0

I spoke with KU professor, ethnobotanist, and Medicinal Wild Plants of the Prairie author Kelly Kindscher about the sustainability of Echinacea.

Echinacea is a species native to Kansas that is used as a general cure all and as protection against the common cold. In the United States, herbal medicine has gone by the wayside and today the main importer of Echinacea is Europe. The demand has leveled off, but there are still people harvesting the species.

The plant was heavily harvested during the herbal products boom of the late nineties. Harvesters were using shovels and pick axes to dig up roots and capitalize on the rush. Kelly’s work focuses on the harvesting techniques associated with Echinacea. He’s found that Echinacea is a very resilient species and will re-sprout even after a great amount of harvest.

Kelly believes the preservation and respect for native prairie habitat is the primary means for maintaining the species. Kelly’s work stresses the resilience of nature. Even after heavy harvest, Echinacea stands strong.

Listen to podcast.

Read More about Endangered Plant Species:

• Herbs for Health: What’s the Cost to the Environment?
• Herbs for Health: Endangered Echinacea

Image credit: bcballard at Flickr under a Creative Commons license

As I stated in an earlier article, the Navajo Nation is challenging the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in a Federal appeals court, over proposed in situ leach uranium mining on tribal lands. It’s the first time in history that the NRC will be challenged in court for its approval of a source materials license for an in situ leach uranium mine.

The Navajo communities of Crownpoint and Church Rock are represented by the New Mexico Environmental Law Center (NMELC), Eastern Navajo Dine against Uranium Mining (ENDAUM) and Southwest Research and Information Center (SRIC). They are demanding that a New Mexico mining company, Hydro Resources, Inc., stay off tribal lands.

Eric Jantz, a lawyer with the NMELC, spent some time with me, explaining the lawsuit and that organization’s role in other uranium related issues. I asked him for a briefing on the litigation.

Image: World Nuclear Association

I spoke with Kenneth Bossong, co-director of UAEA, about the anniversary, and asked him to tell us more about his organization.

National Geographic Photo

MC is well-suited for this project, she spent 20 years in corporate marketing, working for Fortune 500 companies as well as start-ups. She’s taught marketing and public relations at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Hong Kong in China.

Here’s our interview:

Visit Ecopreneurist.

That would be me!  I had the honor of being featured on the Lindberg Report, a weekly podcast on Planetsave.  Of course I thought of many things to say after the interview was over, like how my class had raised steelhead in the classroom and then released them into the river, but Max is great interviewer and it was a great experience.

Jennifer Lance has done just that, and it was a pleasure talking with this school teacher-mother, who walks her talk. When she writes about family values in Eco Child’s Play, you can rest assured it comes from her own life experience.

So settle back, and have a listen:

Before going, I want to call your attention to an earlier podcast interview with the Sundance Channel’s Simran Sethi. She is documenting the rebuilding of Greensburg, Kansas, devastated by a massive tornado last May, and also promoting a fund raiser for the rebuilding project.

And while I’m on the subject, check out my podcast interview with Beth Bader, lead writer for Eat.Drink.Better, and contributor to Eco Child’s Play.

Simran Sethi, award-winning environmental journalist featured on the Sundance Channel and sundancechannel.com, is documenting Greensburg’s recovery as a “Green City” with her new series The Good Fight. She’s also promoting a fund-raising effort to help citizens rebuild their community.

I had the privilege of interviewing Simran about her series and the work going on in Greensburg. Here’s our talk…

Sethi mentioned the fund-raising efforts of a local group, and this is their website: Greensburg Greentown.

Here’s the Greensburg, Kansas Official Website.

Image Source:

Young people were busy then, ripe with lofty ideals about clean air, clean water, a cleaner environment and making the earth we live on a cleaner and safer place. They spoke out, paraded, chanted, ranted, raved and demonstrated, not all that bad, those efforts did indeed bring about some change.

If you’d rather hear the podcast, it’s here.

Sadly, many showed a total disregard for themselves and our national dignity. Drugs got in the way, with songs glamorizing getting loaded, smoking pot, taking a trip, zoning out, drinking, retreating from reality in hopes of finding nirvana in substance. For many, life went on without them. Unfortunately, some people, caught up in the drug culture, passed it on and we’re left with a national disgrace.

The reality of life finally prompted most to get their lives together, finish their education, find a job, raise a family and contribute to a society once so soundly denounced.

In the process, they succumbed to the siren’s call of big industry; cheap fuel, plastics, fast foods, larger, faster cars, labor-saving gadgets, technology on the fast track, make everything easier and more attractive. Bigger was better, keeping up with the Joneses while keeping their heads above water seemed to be the national challenge.

Culture, it seems, gave way to materialism and self-gratification.

A president was murdered, young men died in a useless war, racism was confronted and a minority leader was shot to death. We faced the threat of a nuclear holocaust, and a president resigned in disgrace. Those were tumultuous, sad and unsettling times.

The big “We”, became the big “ME”. Millions lost their way, the environment started to stink, and suddenly appear very tired of our self-serving excesses.

Today, we realize how easy it is to talk bringing about change, and so hard to get it done.

Dave Mills is right Baby Boomers, it’s time to put up or finally shut up, Put your money where your mouths were 40 years ago. You’ve ridden out the storm, paid your dues, crossed over into the second half of your personal century, and now it’s time to get busy.

You haven’t left much of a legacy for your descendants either, except to hand them a broom and mop, saying “sorry, we made a mess, but you can clean it up”.

In all fairness to Baby Boomers, my generation just got a head-start. We recovered from a depression, won a world war and then settled into the same lifestyle.

You have life experience, knowledge, and talent sharpened with hard work and determination.

I recall a TV ad that says, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” You aren’t old, you’ve ripened and matured, and you possess wisdom and the skills to give back to the community and society that helped you get this far.

True, as you approach retirement, you have the right to look forward to leisure times, give up that 9 to 5 mentality and make your own rules.

Health issues will always be there. Some of you will be more able financially and physically to volunteer at schools, and at an almost endless variety of non-profits and community programs that need you so desperately.

Joining the Green Options family a year ago, as we used to say, pulled my shorts up tight. Here I was, surrounded by intelligent youngsters alive with the flame of environmental activism, and I caught the fever.

Ok, so I call them youngsters, at 77 I can say that, most are young enough to be my grandchildren.

What a great place to be, among people who’ve accepted me and given me purpose again.

I talked a moment ago about seniors getting out of the 9 to 5 rat race and making their own rules. It sure felt good to me, for a few days at least, but there was this nagging feeling that I’m no longer useful, a left-over I suppose from my mid-western work ethic, work you S-O-B, work.

I’ve heard from other retirees who, suddenly faced with leisure time and in many cases a limited income, have experienced that same feeling of no longer being needed. I suspect many of you Boomers will experience those same feelings.

Here’s your way out, plan for your retirement, look at those opportunities to serve that offer you an outlet for that pent-up energy, and a feeling of accomplishment. Play golf, travel, have fun, enjoy the rewards you so richly deserve, but save some time for us.

There’s a lot to be done, the world needs you, we need you.

David Mills wrote a book about it, “10,000 Days, A Call To Arms for the Baby Boom Generation,” a challenge to the 78 million Baby Boomers to, as he puts it,

“Find the spirit that evoked thought and action 40 years ago. Rekindle the internal flame that is still burning like a tiny pilot light in many of us.”

Mills, Producer and Writer for CBS 5’s Weekend Early Edition on San Francisco’s KPIX-TV, states his case in an easy to read style, reviewing the events that shaped the last 7 decades, and how that affected the Boomer’s lives.

David asks,

“Our final chapter hasn’t been written, my fellow Boomers. What will our legacy be?”

“What we did when we were young…or what we did when we were old.”

David’s book is available on Amazon.com, and his website is named, not surprisingly, “10,000 Days.”

Oh, and that’s Dave in the picture, with his grandson, Shea.

Here’s our conversation:

Beth’s blog is The Expatriate’s Kitchen, “Musings on food and life, with my original recipes, and a cynical wit as sharp as my ten-inch French knife”.

Clayton has an Honors B.S. in Biology and a minor in Chemistry from the University of Utah. He most recently left a position at Oregon State University in the Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology.

Link to Gas2

My personal introduction to the growing menu of green business podcasts came while searching for strategies to make my commute time and gym visits more productive. Ranging from four minutes to forty-five minutes in length, these concise audio feeds speak directly to ecopreneurs through a mix of interviews, international news, trend analysis and expert commentary on the emerging green economy.

I’ve pre-screened the front runners and highly recommend these five favorites:

• The Global X Series on SocialEdge
• Ethical Corporation
• GreenBiz Radio
• Social Innovation Conversations at Stanford University’s Center for Social Innovation
• IdeaCast from the Harvard Business Review

(descriptions after the jump)

• Global X Series

Produced on a weekly basis by Social Edge, these brief interviews capture the international perspective on social entrepreneurship. Catch the video versions on the Social Edge website or subscribe to the audio podcasts via iTunes.

• Ethical Corporation

This London-based magazine tackles the question of what it means to be a responsible business through extensive online commentary and periodic podcasts from a European point of view.

• GreenBiz Radio

From greenwashing to greening your business from the ground up, the broadcasting arm of the GreenBiz media family offers a wealth of practical resources for ecopreneurs.

• Social Innovation Conversations

As one of the channels in the larger Conversations Network, Stanford’s Social Innovation Conversations podcast provides in-depth exposure to the challenges and successes encountered by leading social entrepreneurs.

• IdeaCast

While this podcast from the venerable Harvard Business Review covers the full spectrum of leading-edge business and management strategy, green business emerges as a frequent focus.

The next time you’re cleaning up around the office, sweating on the stairclimber, or stuck in traffic, turn up the volume on an eco-podcast and let the ideas flow.

Sarah spoke with us from her home in Chicago.

Here is the link to the anniversary podcast:
The Lindberg Report Podcast: Green Options Turns One: Looking Back… and Forward

While recording interviews for our Greening the Golden Years podcast series, I received an email from a senior, Mr. John Lane, who’s become very interested in a group called “PETH,” but he failed to say what it was all about. So, being the curious one, I called him and had the most “interesting” conversation. Look out, PETA — here comes the People for the Ethical Treatment of Hops.

Enjoy the day, and, have one for the hops.

More proof that individual effort, based on one’s skills and background, are empowering the groundswell of grassroots environmentalism around the world.

Gavin has majors in French, Italian, and Comparative Literature from the University of California, Davis. He currently teaches English language in Gangneung, South Korea.

Gavin’s favorite environmentally-minded work has included: co-founding the grassroots Nature Conservation Club at about age 8; interning for the Jane Goodall Institutes’s Roots & Shoots (R&S) program; representing R&S at the World Social Forum VI in Caracas, Venezuela; volunteering at the Marine Mammal Center of Sausalito; being a research assistant for a CAL lab studying climate change in Colorado; bicycling lots.

Join me as Gavin and I talk about his world, and Eco Worldly.

Link to Barefoot Solar Engineers mentioned in my summation.

Link to Eco Worldly

A very busy person, mother, geologist and author, Shirley Siluk Gregory is a prolific writer, passionate about the environment and life in general.

Her insightful articles appear in many of our Green Options Media blogs, including the newest, EcoLocalizer. Shirley also writes for several environmental sites, and is co-author of two books, Home Team: How to Live, Love & Work at Home, and Home Team: How Couples Can Make a Life and a Living by Working at Home, both available at Amazon Book Stores.

So, without further adieu, let’s say “hello” to Shirley…

The latest estimates are, that if Yucca Mountain isn’t finished until 2017, “we” will owe the utilities an estimated $7 billion in penalties, provided by law, because the repository isn’t finished. Bump completion time up another 3 years, and the bill goes up to about $11 billion.

When this repository thing started some 30 years ago, the feds agreed to dispose of spent fuel created by nuclear power stations. I’m sure there were some very good reasons for that decision, not the least of which retaining control over the stuff, which could fall into the wrong hands and become something very dangerous.

So the government and the nuclear industry agreed that if the repository wasn’t finished by a certain date, the government would pay the power stations for having to store their own waste until it was completed. Sweet deal, they create high-level, radioactive waste and taxpayers stand the expense of putting it away for millennia.

What that means Mr. and Mrs. taxpayer, and utility rate payer, is the federal government promised to have the Yucca Mountain repository finished ten years ago. Each day that goes by, the ante goes up for the utilities, and if the project is scrubbed, then what, will the settlement option still be on the table until a repository is completed? Another 20 years maybe?

Well shucks, why shouldn’t we help make the nuclear energy folks wealthy, after all, they’re providing a service we can’t do without. As a matter of fact, they want to build more facilities and create more waste. You know what that means, “we” get stuck with providing a “nuclear dump” and they get paid if it isn’t ready.

This is a ludicrous situation at best. Nevada doesn’t want the thing and I doubt any state would want it, but every thing’s gotta be somewhere, and since they’ve dug a five mile long hole in the mountain, they might as well fill it up with nuclear waste as planned. So every time Nevada Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) pressures Congress to dump Yucca, I wonder whose side he’s really on.

Ward Sproat, director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management for the DOE, told me in a podcast interview (Why Has It Taken So Long?) that nuclear utility rate payers are charged a fraction of a penny per kilowatt hour of electricity they use, to help fund construction of the Yucca Mountain repository.

That fund now stands at an estimated $21 billion, and Sproat told the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners that the project’s budget is $400 million a year. He is quoted as saying, “we are never, ever going to build this repository with that kind of cash flow funding; it just ain’t going to happen.” He believes that over time, construction costs will rise to about $1 billion a year until, and if the project is completed. Mr. Sproat also told me that he was required by law to send a report to Congress later this year, outlining the need for a second nuclear waste repository. That’s “second”, not a replacement for Yucca Mountain. He said the report will go to congress with a recommendation that another site be chosen and developed.

My cynical nature makes me wonder if that $21 billion is even there anymore, considering the way our representatives have been throwing money at the war in Iraq and God only knows what other excuses have been used to raid the fund. Could that be one of the reasons the budget is so low?

Face it, “we” (taxpayers and ratepayers) are subsidizing nuclear facilities, as well as paying the going rate for service, and will continue to do so until either a repository is completed, or there’s a major change in the law.

Of course proponents of nuclear power generation won’t have a problem with paying the extra dollars, after all, it’s a part of doing business.

I think it’s an abomination and it’s time to get off the pot, tell Congress to set the wheels in motion to finish the Yucca Mountain project as soon as possible and get that stuff out of backyards in 39 states.

Yes, this is a reversal of my earlier comments on Yucca Mountain. It took that interview with Mr. Sproat to wake me up to the reality of what’s happening to the “little guys and gals”, you and me.

What do you think?

Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal

The US Government’s ENERGY STAR program makes another move into online media with the launch of its first video podcast. Hosted by Tom Kraeutler of “The Money Pit” radio show, this cast walks viewers through the “ENERGY STAR @ Home” online tool, and provides tips for (you guessed it) saving energy… and money.