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Editor’s note: Today, we’re pleased to start a content partnership with GreenBuildingTalk, “the place to share, ask, and learn about green building products and methods.” The site’s forums are both active and informative, and they’ve now started blogging. Today’s post on solar hot water was originally published on May 5, 2008.
Each week, the Chicago Architecture Foundation and Chicago Green Technology Center graciously host “lunch time seminars,” inviting some of the leading industry professionals to discuss building issues they are involved with. On 5/1/08, they hosted Joe Gordon’s “Solar Hot Water and Heating- Is It Right for You?” presentation. The seminar provided the audience with information on how solar thermal works, how much space you’ll need, incentives, and how to determine cost benefits. Mr. Gordon also discussed how the cost of solar hot water and heating will likely keep increasing, due to the high cost of copper that is used in these systems.
Joe Gordon has worked for Solar Service, Inc. for over four years and has fielded thousands of inquires from developers, architects, owners and institutions about whether solar hot water and heating would work for them. Visit Solar Service’s gallery to see unique ways panels can be installed.
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I just stumbled across this video of the well-known author, activist, and environmental scholar Bill McKibben explaining that, while he has been actively supporting Barrack Obama as part of “environmentalists for Obama,” he thinks the most important task at hand is to elect a Democrat to the White House.
McKibben is a champion of the environmental movement and he made it clear that policy action on climate change will require broad-based and sustained political support for it. (Running time 4 mins.) […]
Electric and hybrid electric car manufacturer Aptera has been turning heads since the first announced their space-age looking Typ1 prototype. The sub $30,000 electric version of the Typ1 has a range of 120 miles and is expected to be ready for limited release later this year.
Take a look at the latest video from Aptera, a guided tour of their factory:
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You can also see pictures of the facility here.
Related […]
Did you know that over the course of a year, a microwave operating in standby mode will use about the same amount of electricity as it would if it ran on HIGH for 24 hours? Frightening, isn’t it? In fact, the average American home has 20-40 appliances plugged in at any given time, and in a year those appliances will together use what is equivalent to one month of electricity for the entire household - just sitting there. This great […]
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While we’re on the subject: good Stumbleupon friend HarleyJane18 sent this to me last week. Houston Chronicle cartoonist Nick Anderson does some great 3D animation videos with song parodies… this one is based on Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground” (specifically the Red Hot Chili Peppers cover of it).
See also:
Ecoscraps: Shades of Green — The Four Horsemen
sustainablog: Shades of Green and The Green House: by Brad Gilchrist and Peter Menice (interview)
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Musicians keep cranking out the eco-songs… and that’s a great way to bring the green message to a broader audience. Wirehead’s “Losing Ground” is a call to action that’s a little bit 80s pop-rock (they list Toto as an influence), a little bit jazz-rock fusion (think Steely Dan), and a whole lot of of environmental awareness. Thanks to Wirehead drummer Clive Edwards for sharing this…
By Max Lindberg •
April 29, 2008
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Cool replica of the Lotus 7 with plenty of horsepower and legendary performance.
Source:
As we previously reported, New York Times columnist and author Thomas Friedman was officially “pied” last week, while giving an Earth Day Lecture at Brown University. Friedman was ambushed just as he began his talk, entitled “Green is the new Red, White & Blue.” The group that claimed responsibility call themselves “The Greenwash Guerillas.” In a statement issued today, they said they targeted Friedman…
“Because of his support for U.S. military intervention in the Middle East, neo-liberal economic policies that harm the world’s poor, and especially for promoting bogus solutions to the global climate crisis.“
“We sought to expose the hypocrisy of allowing Friedman, who is known for his influential support of U.S. wars for oil in the Middle East, to call himself an environmentalist,” said Margaret Little, the Brown University student responsible for the creamy projectiles.
Short video and interview with Amory Lovins. I’m so jealous of that guy. He grows bananas…in Aspen! Running time: 2:46
Best quote:
“We do have a national energy policy - it’s basically to keep wasting lots of energy; import it at whatever price, by whatever means necessary; keep stealing from our kids and keep screwing up the climate.”
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See also:
“Can Low-Hanging Fruit Be Sexy? Two Energy Efficiency Stocks” :: CleanTechnica (4/2008)
I happened across this video on algae biofuel today: a company I’ve never heard of, Valcent Products, claims they can grow algae to produce oil yields of 100,000 gallons per acre. That’s the upper range of estimates I’ve seen for algae production—an absolutely phenomenal amount of oil—which Valcent attributes to their ‘high density vertical bioreactor’ system. Check it out (more video after the jump):
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An introduction to how Earth Day 1970 got its start, and the framework of environmental policy it left in its wake [courtesy of Project Butterfly - running time is 4:41].
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