India Is Becoming One Of The Largest Polluters In The World

Posted on March 20, 2008 by Doug Nicodemus

But within India there are the seeds of a conservation movement that may yet save our one and only planet.

http://www.communityconservation.org/india.htm

The forests of the Manas Biosphere Reserve in western Assam, India have been threatened by illegal logging since the early 1990s. In the last 10 years approximately one third to one half of the three Reserve Forests, Ripu, Chirrang, and Manas, encompassing 350,000 acres, have been deforested. These Reserve Forests and the Royal Manas Sanctuary of Bhutan that borders to the north are the main range of the golden langur ( Trachypithecus geei ) , a leaf-eating primate species occurring only in Assam and Bhutan. In Assam, the species also inhabits a number of “island” fragments south of the main range such as the Kakoijana Reserve Forest (RF), Chakrashila Wildlife Sanctuary (WS) and Nadangiri Reserve Forest.

or this group:

http://www.massfoundation.org/

FUTURE PLANS

	MASS believes in our Founder Mr. Rajeev Kumar thoughts – “The Faith, Motto and the Strength of our MASS is to enhance and improve the quality of Human Development, Human Right, Human Values, Human Behavior and be the part of our Mother Nature, always………………………………..Forever” More….
	Movement and Action for Social Services (MASS ) will shortly open an Educational channel with International perspectives like Gyan Darshan and Gyan Vani. Also MASS have complete blueprint to print a Monthly, bilingual National news paper and Magazine.
	MASS 1^st Secondary School will Shortly be opened in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India.
	MASS is committed to run a Training centre for women (For Self employment like Computer, Sewing etc.) MASS will affiliate its centres to National Council for Technical Education (NCTE) or United Nations ( UN )
	Currently MASS is associated with many national and International, Governmental and Non-Governmental agencies and Organizations. MASS will present the real and right concept of One Earth-One Being without discriminate to caste, Religion, Sex, Race, Age, color etc.
	One award will be given by MASS to topper student in the name of Shri RAM DASS AWARD which will include one shawl, one certificate and Rs.11,000.

Above mentioned points are Future Plans of MASS , MASS will frame out these points after the approval of relevant agencies or organizations

And this organization too. But its slow work…will they get there in time?

http://www.indiatogether.org/2007/jun/env-ccas.htm

COMMUNITY ACTION
At last, some good news on conservation
India’s community conservation areas (CCAs) are nowhere near prosaic; they are instead heartening and remarkable pools of ecological and biodiversity rejuvenation in a country beset with environmental degradation in its bid to industrialise. Keya Acharya identifies the silver lining.

21 June 2007 – If you use the acronym ‘CCA’, it sounds like yet another dry file on a matter or discussion in, say a climate change conference or a development debate. But community conservation areas (CCAs) are nowhere near prosaic; they are instead heartening and remarkable pools of ecological and biodiversity rejuvenation in a country beset with environmental degradation in its bid to industrialise.

CCAs are forests, grasslands, wetlands or marine areas of various types, small and large, either specific ones set up for conservation, or for cultural and spiritual reasons with some having been around for centuries. They involve village-level efforts at conservation of a varied range of natural resources from wildlife nesting, feeding or roosting sites, threatened wildlife species to water catchment reservoirs and resource reserves.

“Even though some are disappearing and inspite of the difficulties involved in conservation of natural resources for a varied number of reasons, CCAs still remain in the hundreds of thousands countrywide,” says Ashish Kothari, founder-member of environmental NGO Kalpavriksh, who together with Neema Pathak and others at Kalpavriksh has spent years searching for and documenting some of these initiatives countrywide. Kalpavriksh is now in the process of publishing a directory of such community-conservation areas.

Is Springfield A Green City? Depends on how you define change

Posted on March 14, 2008 by Doug Nicodemus

Oh you thought I was going to say green didn’t you? Here’s how the story played out in an article by one of Springfield’s best writers:

http://www.sj-r.com

Springfield to use ‘green list’

ranking to attract visitors

By TIM LANDIS

BUSINESS EDITOR

tim.landis@sj-r.com

Springfield made a top 50 list of the nation’s greenest cities for the second year in a row in 2008 thanks partly to construction of a clean-coal power plant, plenty of trees and a smoking ban that took effect before a statewide prohibition. But will the No. 29 ranking by “PopSci” — an online edition of Popular Science magazine — bring the tourists in?

The state’s top tourism officials, and Mayor Tim Davlin, said Thursday they certainly plan to make the attempt. “We’re going to put on a campaign this year. We should be doing a lot better,” said Davlin, pointing out that Springfield ranked 12th when the city broke onto the PopSci list forthe first time in 2007. Davlin said he believes the city could have made it into the top 10 last year, but a citywide smoking ban did not take effect until September. A statewide ban took effect on Jan. 1 this year. PopSci uses data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Geographic Society’s Green Guide to award cities up to 10 points for green uses of electricity and transportation, and up to 5 points for green living (parks and preserves) and recycling.

And now, the Springfield results:

• Electricity: 5.3.

• Transportation: 3.0.

• Recycling: 4.2

.• Green living: 3.2.

• Total score: 15.7.•

No city earned a perfect 30. Portland, Ore., scored 23.1 to top the list, while Greensboro, N.C., came in at 50 with a score of 10. Joliet, 40, and Chicago, nine, also made the list.

While families aren’t likely to make a day of it at the City Water, Light and Power generation plant on Lake Springfield, Illinois deputy director of tourism Jan Kostner said “green travel” is one of the fastest-growing segments of the tourism industry.

But she said there also needs to be industry standards for awarding a “green” tourism designation.

“One of the problems we have is there’s no gold standard for the industry. You can say you’re green when maybe you’re not,” said Kostner, who was in Springfield for the annual Illinois Governor’s Conference on Tourism.

Tim Landis can be reached at 788-1536.

Tim writes more about the Environment and Energy Issues more better than anyone else in the area. But here is the actual lead on the story:

http://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2008-02/americas-50-greenest-cities

America’s 50 Greenest Cities

Want to see a model for successful and rapid environmental action? Don’t look to the federal government—check out your own town. Here, our list of the 50 communities that are leading the way. Does yours make the cut?

In the international alliance to fight climate change, the United States is considered the sullen loner. But in the seven years since we rejected Kyoto, changes have begun. Not at the federal level, however. It’s the locals who are making it happen.

Note the not so subtle difference in the leads. President Bush sucks on the environment. Everyone in the world including President-to-be Putin knows that. You’d think with a name like Bush (think: beer commercial Buusssssssh) he’d be better than that. But more than that – the question Tim asks is “how can we exploit this rating”? So what has to change? Well:

1. Springfield’s inability to criticize anybody degrading the environment (by the way according the Pope it’s now a sin).

2. Understanding that exploitation is at the heart of the problem.
< In everything from emissions control to environmental stewardship, cities across the country are far ahead of the federal government, and they’re achieving their successes with ready-made technology. Austin has pledged to meet 30 percent of its energy needs with renewable sources by 2020, aided by planned wind-power installations that will surpass their predecessors in efficiency. Seattle has retrofitted its municipal heavy-duty diesel vehicles with devices that will reduce particulate pollution by 50 percent. Boulder has enacted the country’s first electricity tax to pay for greenhouse-gas emission reductions. Something about the comparative speed of city government—a city-council member can greenlight a project and be cutting the ribbon a year later—leads to bold action, and as cities trade ideas, a very positive sort of mimicry is spreading.The 10 trailblazing civic projects profiled in our list of the top green cities in America are among the most impressive success stories to date—examples of what’s possible when elected officials and local business leaders back up their green visions with scientific know-how, clout and creative funding.

Nor does Tim’s article mention what a real green city would look like:

1. Portland, Ore. 23.1

Electricity: 7.1 Transportation: 6.4 Green Living: 4.8 Recycling/Perspective: 4.8

America’s top green city has it all: Half its power comes from renewable sources, a quarter of the workforce commutes by bike, carpool or public transportation, and it has 35 buildings certified by the U.S. Green Building Council.

2. San Francisco, Calif. 23.0

Electricity: 6.8 Transportation: 8.8 Green Living: 3.5 Recycling/Perspective: 3.9
See how San Francisco turns wasted roof space into power, here.

3. Boston, Mass. 22.7

Electricity: 5.7 Transportation: 8.7 Green Living: 3.4 Recycling/Perspective: 4.9
CASE STUDY: Grass Power
Boston has preliminary plans for a plant that would turn 50,000 tons of fall color into power and fertilizer. The facility would first separate yard clippings into grass and leaves. Anaerobic bacteria feeding on the grass would make enough methane to power at least 1.5 megawatts’ worth of generators, while heat and agitation would hasten the breakdown of leaves and twigs into compost.

The Pope Say That Pollution Is A Sin – What shall we call it? Degradation

Posted on March 10, 2008 by Doug Nicodemus

The Pope made it official, all Catholics must immendiately trade in their SUV’s for Hybrids.

http://green.yahoo.com/news/nm/20080310/hl_nm/pope_sins_dc.html

Vatican lists “new sins”,

including pollution

By Philip Pullella Posted Mon Mar 10, 2008 6:00am PDT

A faithful holds the cross during a mass at a Catholic church on the outskirts of Changzhi, Shanxi province December 23, 2007. The Vatican has told the faithful that they should be aware of ‘new’ sins such as causing environmental blight. (Stringer/Reuters)

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Thou shall not pollute the Earth. Thou shall beware genetic manipulation. Modern times bring with them modern sins. So the Vatican has told the faithful that they should be aware of “new” sins such as causing environmental blight.

The guidance came at the weekend when Archbishop Gianfranco Girotti, the Vatican’s number two man in the sometimes murky area of sins and penance, spoke of modern evils.

Girotti, in an interview headlined “New Forms of Social Sin,” also listed “ecological” offences as modern evils.

In recent months, Pope Benedict has made several strong appeals for the protection of the environment, saying issues such as climate change had become gravely important for the entire human race.

Under Benedict and his predecessor John Paul, the Vatican has become progressively “green.”

It has installed photovoltaic cells on buildings to produce electricity and hosted a scientific conference to discuss the ramifications of global warming and climate change, widely blamed on human use of fossil fuels

Lamborghini is probably not amused.

http://www.lamborghini.com/

But when you think about, how important is sinning anyway in the Judao/Christian/Muslim cacophony of what we must do and what we must not do? First their are the 10 COMANDMENTS (Think NRA President Chuck Heston):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Commandments

Text of the Ten Commandments

The lists which are commonly known as the Ten Commandments are given in passages in two books of the Bible: Exodus 20:2–17 and Deuteronomy 5:6–21. These passages are provided in English below, using the New Revised Standard Version translation and formatting. Various religions and denominations group the commandments differently; see the Division of the commandments section for a detailed accounting.

Exodus 20:2–17	Deuteronomy 5:6–21
2 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;3 Do not have any other gods before Me.4 You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me,6 but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.7 You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.8 Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.9 For six days you shall labour and do all your work.10 But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and consecrated it. 12 Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. 13 You shall not murder. 14 You shall not commit adultery. 15 You shall not steal. 16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour. 17 You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.	6 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;7 you shall have no other gods before me.8 You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.9 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me,10 but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.11 You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.12 Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you.13 For six days you shall labour and do all your work.14 But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. 15 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day. 16 Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, so that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. 17 You shall not murder. 18 Neither shall you commit adultery. 19 Neither shall you steal. 20 Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbour. 21 Neither shall you covet your neighbour’s wife. Neither shall you desire your neighbour’s house, or field, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.

OK so its more like 11 depending ON WHO YOU BELIEVE. No it can be…. And then there are the Seven Deadly Sins:

http://www.deadlysins.com/sins/index.htm

Yes its true, a topic so important it has its own website.

Pride is excessive belief in one’s own abilities, that interferes with the individual’s recognition of the grace of God. It has been called the sin from which all others arise. Pride is also known as Vanity.

Envy is the desire for others’ traits, status, abilities, or situation.

Gluttony is an inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires.

Lust is an inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body.

Anger is manifested in the individual who spurns love and opts instead for fury. It is also known as Wrath.

Greed is the desire for material wealth or gain, ignoring the realm of the spiritual. It is also called Avarice or Covetousness.

Sloth is the avoidance of physical or spiritual work.

MAN THAT’S A LOT OF WORK…..

MEMO to Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Spacey: You need to remake your own movie. But it would be called Eight. The plot would change slightly. hahahahaha Do you really think Brad would kill Kevin because he cut off the head of Franklin Thomas, the Leading Director of the Board of Directors for Alcoa, Inc. one of the leading polluters of the world.

http://www.alcoa.com/global/en/about_alcoa/corp_gov/directors/Thomas_FA.asp?leadDirect=true

Taylorville Energy Center Is A Really Bad Idea – Deep Well Injection (DWI) is not good in Illinois

Posted on March 5, 2008 by Doug Nicodemus

First a slight mea culpa. A gentleman from an Advance Gasification Publication emailed me and took me to task for being a “know nothing” blogger. Is that great or what! He pointed out that my description of Gasification was flawed. On each Blog I put up all kinds of site addresses like Wikipedia and others so that people can “click and read” about any subject I Blog about if they wanted to. I do not view myself as a babysitter. Google being what it is (or any other search engine for that matter) I don’t even really have to put up the links. A reader can just type in the subject and get a list sources for their own selves. I do it to make it easy for people to READ about what I am writing about and to show the sources I am using.

If you go to the site below you can see the gentleman in all his indignant fury:

http://gasification-igcc.blogspot.com/

For the record the hydrogen to run the plant come from electrolysis like catalytic effect from steam heated in part by the coal. Also for the record this is a dumb way to generate electricity, almost as dumb using coal to make steam. Solar is more direct and more efficient than this crap ever could be. Also for the record, I try to write for the normal Joes and Jackies in the world. The only thing they care about is that the “lights come on when they flip the switch” and the health of their children. It’s the health and welfare of their children and their grand children where this whole project falls apart.

Back to DWI. Illinois is a real bad place to put a Commercial Toxic Waste Deep Well Injection Site and that is what Tenaska is trying to do. The Energy Portion of the Project is In One Sense is a smokescreen. If they get their financial way and get around regulation of the site By the ICC By declaring it an Independent Power producer AND pass Legislation Mandating the Purchase of the Power by Illinois Utilities then they could make a fortune. More on that later. Trust me much more. But lets say, for the moment that RATE BASING a 2 Billion $$$ Power Plant ain’t happening and that a 2 Billion $$$ Power Plant will be “Too Expensive To Meter” What’s the game here?

There are only 5 Commercial Toxic Waste DWI’s in the nation:

http://www.ehso.com/cssepa/tsdfdeepwells.php

As you can see they all sit atop spent or partially spent rock trapped oil fields. Though there is no evidence that these sites are fool proof they at least have the intellectual possibility of succeeding. Most of the other Non-Commercial Toxic Waste DWI sites that are usually operated to get rid of human waste and wastewater have proved troublesome at best.

http://www.stopthetoxicwells.com/

http://eelink.net/EJ/well.html

Their failure rate for something that was supposed, “to solve the waste problems” in the US have not worked out so well.

When you look at Illinois, which has 3 major rivers the Mississippi, the Wabash and the Illinois, and a soft coal-filled Center:

then putting a Commercial Toxic DWI right in its center seems unjustified. But think about this for a moment once it is open who else might dump their Toxic stuff there as well? It is widely rumored in the Environmental and Energy communties that the only reason that Governor Jim Doyle of Wisconsin signed as a “supporting Governor” is that he believes he could ship some of his States sequestered carbon here. This is what a proper sequestration system in North Dakota looks like:

www.netl.doe.gov/…/core_rd/mmv/41149.html

Build a PIPELINE to the nearest stone encased oilfield. Hint: It’s not in Illinois.

FutureGen Is A Very Bad Idea – sounds like ideas from the past

Posted on February 28, 2008 by Doug Nicodemus

How have humans gotten rid of their nasty waste in the past? Well it has always been out of sight out of mind. In the early cities they threw stuff in the river and made piles of it “out in the country side”.

My 2 most favorite modern examples are: 1) the Steel Barrels of Radioactive waste tossed in the ocean off San Francisco. Barrels that would- get this – never rust.

http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/farallon/radwaste.html

Farallon Island Radioactive Waste Dump

“There is intense public and media interest in this issue, and we need to have the best information available when we respond to inquiries or participate in discussions on the issue of radioactive waste dumped near the Farallones.”–Barbara Boxer; United States Congress (D-California). June, 1990

Issue

More than 47,800 drums and other containers of low-level radioactive waste were dumped onto the ocean floor west of San Francisco between 1946 and 1970; many of these are in the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary.

and 2) The “reef” they tried to build out of used rubber automobile tires off the cost of Florida which has created a oceanic desert devoid of any life. It is now being cleaned up by volunteer divers.

Idea of making reef from tires

backfires

Four decades later, Florida now considers removing up to 2 million tires

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A mile offshore from this city’s high-rise condos and spring-break bars lie as many as 2 million old tires, strewn across the ocean floor — a white-walled, steel-belted monument to good intentions gone awry.The tires were unloaded there in 1972 to create an artificial reef that could attract a rich variety of marine life, and to free up space in clogged landfills. But decades later, the idea has proved a huge ecological blunder.Little sea life has formed on the tires. Some of the tires that were bundled together with nylon and steel have broken loose and are scouring the ocean floor across a swath the size of 31 football fields. Tires are washing up on beaches. Thousands have wedged up against a nearby natural reef, blocking coral growth and devastating marine life.

So what does that have to do with FutureGen?

Thursday, February 7, 2008

THE STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER

FutureGen developers

hope to revive plan

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS____________

MATTOON — Developers hoping to build an experimental central Illinois power plant

say they’ll try to work with the White House and the Department of Energy to get

the project back on track.

The power and coal companies known as the FutureGen Alliance also will work with Congress

to get money for the $1.8 billion project, said Paul Thompson, chairman of the developers’

group.‘We always want to keep the door open,” FutureGen chief executive officer Mike Mudd said

Wednesday after two days of alliance board meetings in Mattoon. “If that does not come to a

fruitful conclusion, we will work with Congress.”

Those talks aren’t happening

right now, Mudd and Thompson said. Thompson said he requested early in January to meet

with Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman but has gotten no response.

Bodman, meanwhile, faced questioning from Congress on Wednesday about the agency’s

decision last week to pull out of the project, taking with it its commitment to fund three-quarters

of the cost.

A DOE spokeswoman said the agency was willing to talk with the FutureGen Alliance about

its plan to restructure FutureGen, which it announced last week. The agency has so far asked

for industry feedback on what it says could be several power plants across the country.

‘While the department continues to maintain open lines of communication on this important

matter, we believe the decision to restructure

FutureGen is the best path forward to demonstrate and commercialize advanced carbon capture

and storage technology,” spokeswoman Julie Ruggiero said in an e-mail.

She did not address Thompson’s request for a meeting with Bodman.

FutureGen is intended to prove a power plant can use coal to generate electricity while

capturing the carbon dioxide in the fuel and storing it underground to keep it out of the

atmosphere.

Government and industry, until last week, had worked together, with the DOE covering 74 percent

of the cost and the FutureGen Alliance covering the other 26 percent and building the plant.

The alliance chose Mattoon in December over three other sites — Tuscola, just north of Mattoon,

andtwo sites in Texas. The project would create thousands of jobs during construction, and 150

once the plant opens.The DOE and the alliance say they talked about the project’s escalating costs

much of last year.

When announced by the government in 2003, FutureGen was billed as a $950 million project,

meaning the Energy Department obligation was $800 million.

The current price tag, the alliance says, is due to the rising cost of building materials. (emphasis added)

Well this is the ultimate out of sight out of mind solution. The form of carbon seqestration that they have proposed to use is dangerous. Deep Well Injection (DWI, all pun intended) may work in some instances. The best proof for DWI is when pumping the poisons into an already proven and toxic well like a deep and depleted oil field. Other than that DWI is a total crap shoot.

http://www.pollutionissues.com/Ho-Li/Injection-Well.html

Injection wells use high-pressure pumps to inject liquid wastes into under-ground geologic formations (e.g., sandstone or sedimentary rocks with high porosity). Many geologists believe that wastes may be isolated from drinking water aquifers when injected between impermeable rock strata. However, injection wells are still controversial and many scientists are concerned that leaks from these wells may contaminate groundwater. As of 1994, twenty-two out of 172 deep injection wells contaminated water supplies.

This applies to the Taylorville Energy Project as well, but more on that later. Shouldn’t we really be asking ourselves why we would be reverting to Gasification, an ancient and obsolete technique, instead of solar, wind, hydro and tidal power. Gasification presents a serious problem. But first what is in coal that makes it obsolete and then why gasification is dangerous.

State Journal Register Runs Fraudulent Energy Advertisement

Posted on February 25, 2008 by Doug Nicodemus

I have argued for years that De-Regulation was nothing but allowing fraud and crime back into the Corporate Capitalist System. That is that Snake Oil sales which is marginalized under strict regulation and policing, takes over under lax regulation and no policing. I need look no farther than the Criminal Debacle that was Enron and the failed Savings and Loans thefts to make my point. But now the Thieves can even run Advertising in CES’ local paper. I will not post the Ad here,

because it is obscene. But it is an 8th of a page ad on page 3 of todays paper. The headline is Device MAY Increase Gas Mileage by 22%. The device is called Platinum Gas Saver. According to Consumer’s Reports:

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/cars/tires-auto-parts/auto-parts/gassaving-devices-1105-fuel-efficiency-improve-gas-mileage-gas-prices/

their claims are simply lies and have been for 8 years.

Gas savers: Do they really help?With gas prices still high, readers have asked us to weigh in on products that promise better fuel economy. We tested three: Fuel Genie, Platinum Gas Saver, and Tornado. Our advice: Don’t waste your money. They don’t work. This isn’t news. We’ve tested such devices over the years and have not found any that improve fuel economy. The Environmental Protection Agency, whose Web site lists scores of devices that the agency has tested in the past 30 years, including the Platinum Gas Saver, has had similar results.

And then there is the EdenPURE space heater which ran a full page advertisement in the Weekend’s Parade Magazine. Any Electric Space heater takes electricity and converts it to heat. It doesn’t matter how efficiently you do that conversion you can only get a set amount of BTU’s from every watt of power. For a lot less money (say 30 $$$$) you can buy an electric resistance space heater. The other claims, that its totally safe and doesn’t reduce moisture are AGAINST the laws of physics. Any device that uses electricity can catch fire, modern heaters have shut-off valves, and won’t cause burns. Anything that heats air by definition reduces humidity.

Where is the AG’s Office When you need them? These are national advertising campaigns designed to rip off the Elderly and the Poor. But then in George Bush’s world this is just harmless hucksterism.

Pete Seeger Says It All – We just got one place to live

Posted on February 18, 2008 by Doug Nicodemus

We just keep screwing it up. Stop lighting things on fire. Stop burning things up. We don’t need to do that anymore.

http://www.climatecrisiscoalition.org/

Please see this new publication – as the heat turns up.

The Advanced Technology Environmental and Energy Center

Posted on February 7, 2008 by Doug Nicodemus

Folks that are trying to move the US into the future..And they are only 200 miles from the home of CES

http://www.ateec.org/aboutus/eec.htm

Advanced Technology Environmental AND ENERGY Center

Environmental Education Center

The Environmental Education Center is located on the campus of Scott Community College (Bettendorf, Iowa) and is part of the Eastern Iowa Community College District (EICCD). The Environmental Education Center is home to several initiatives, including:

Advanced Technology Environmental Education Center (ATEEC), a center funded in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF);
Environmental Safety and Health division of HMTRI, which includes HAZWOPER, Industrial Chemical Spill Response, and many other health, safety, and environmental compliance offerings; and
EICCD’s Health, Safety, and Environmental Technology distance learning program, which includes online and correspondence courses.

Environmental Resource Center

ATEEC was established in 1994 as an NSF Advanced Technology Education (ATE) Center of Excellence to advance environmental technology education through curriculum development, professional development, and program improvement in the nation’s community colleges and secondary schools. The activities of the Center were driven by the following goals.

Strengthen science, math, and technical curriculum and instructional materials supporting environmental technology education;

Strengthen the nation’s environmental technician programs by providing professional development opportunities for faculty of community colleges and high schools;
Strengthen advanced technology environmental education by providing support services for program improvement.

The Center’s vision is to create a national network of community colleges supported through public and private partnerships that prepares an environmental technology workforce to address industry’s needs and to promote the transfer of secondary students to higher education. Since its inception, ATEEC has formed partnerships with numerous organizations, including:

National Science Foundation
Environmental Protection Agency
Partnership for Environmental Technology Education
Department of Labor
University of Northern Iowa
University of Wisconsin
Department of Education
Institute for Museum and Library Services
U.S. Department of Energy
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Private sector companies
Local public libraries and museums

Throughout its history, ATEEC has sought to become a comprehensive national resource providing a range of enabling activities to high schools and community colleges.

More Local News That I was Too Busy To Cover

Posted on February 4, 2008 by Doug Nicodemus

If every house in the US was designed like this we would not have a problem. Man was destined to live in very modern and comfortable caves…Like Hobbits. And they are SAFE.

Underground house is cozy abode for family in DeKalb

By KATE WEBER

THE (DEKALB) DAILY CHRONICLE

DeKALB — It took a lot of convincing before Diane and Don Harvey’s daughter would bring friends to their rural DeKalb home.

“She was embarrassed because we lived in a basement,” Diane Harvey said. “All her friends liked to come here when it stormed, though, because they figured it was the safest place in town.”

Since moving into the single-floor underground building in 1989, Diane and Don Harvey have converted the Old Mayfield Grange Hall on Five Points Road into a comfortable, normal-looking house. What now holds childhood memories for the Har-veys’ kids once was a simple gathering space for an entire farming community.

“Basically, this was the only place in the area other than church basements and their own lawns to hold receptions in,” said Wilma Womack, Diane’s mother. “Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts had their meetings

here, wedding receptions and anniversary parties — it was a meeting hall for everybody out here.”

When the building first went on the market, it was a hot property for those looking for a blank canvas.

“There were a lot of people who were very upset that we managed to scoop it up quickly,” Diane Harvey said. “There was one real estate investor who wanted to turn it into apartments, but we got the bid because we didn’t want to change the structure of the building.”

When the Harveys moved into the building, the only amenities were the four outside walls and a wall down the center of the structure, which was immediately torn down.

“We didn’t even have hot water,” Diane Harvey said. “We boiled water on the stove to take showers. It felt like we were pioneers.”

The children hung curtains from the ceiling and placed furniture along the outside of each makeshift room to create their own walls.

“We had to make do,” Diane Harvey said. “With three kids in high school, where is all our money going to go? It wasn’t going to put walls up, that’s for sure.”

After nearly two decades, the underground building still contains possibilities for the Harvey family, including a potential second floor. Two staircases leading to the ceiling of the home are used as storage space, but serve as reminders of what was once destined for the building.

“They were originally going to build a second floor, and we wanted to build on top as well,” Don Harvey said. “The ceilings have 24-inch footers, so it was meant to be built on top.”

Despite no plans for expansion, the Harveys are glad to have purchased the four cement walls they have made into a home. The low nature of the underground home provides protection from sound as well as weather.

“A tornado wouldn’t move the place,” Don Harvey said. “It might take the roof off, but we aren’t going anywhere.”

If The University Of Illinois Can Do This For Itself Why Not The Rest Of Champaign

Posted on January 31, 2008 by Doug Nicodemus

‘Green’ residence

hall to be first for U of I

.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS____________

CHAMPAIGN — A $23 million residence hall under construction in Champaign will be the first at the University of Illinois to be certifi-ably “green.”

The eco-friendly features of the 262-bed Presby Hall include a geot-hermal system to heat rooms and water, water-saving plumbing, as well as environmentally friendly lighting and paint.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the building, expected to be the first U of I residence hall to receive certification from the U.S. Green

On the Net

Presby Hall: www.presbyhall.com

Building Council, is planned for this summer.

The Champaign-based McKinley Presbyterian Church and Foundation, which owns the property, took the initiative in pushing for a green hall, the private foundation’s director said.

“We wanted to be responsible. We wanted (the building) to be sustainable, and we wanted to give back to the world,” Heidi Weatherford told The (Cham-

paign) News-Gazette.

There are construction challenges.

One is the installation of the pricey, $650,000 heating system, which will use ground-source pumps to keep the building warm.

To install pumps and many miles of tubing, some old trees along a nearby street must come down, though new trees will be planted to replace them.

Weatherford said while the geot-hermal system is expensive, the costs will be recouped by the $40,000 in annual energy savings.

“The upfront costs are signifi-

cant,” she told The Associated Press on Saturday. “But the financial payback is almost immediate.” Factoring in the energy savings, Weatherford said, the heating system could pay for itself in about 10 years.

The Illinois Clean Energy Foundation recently awarded the foundation $100,000 to help pay for Presby Hall’s green features.

The university itself has said it plans a major renovation of a cluster of residence halls called Six Pack, saying it hopes that project also will get the green certification.

Community Energy Systems

Censys.org

Category Archives: energy conservation measures