A Django site.
May 22, 2008

Doran Barton
fozzmoo
Fozzolog
» Global growing

Do you remember when you were in elementary school and you learned that plants had some mysterious process that involved a substance called chlorophyll and energy from sunlight and it made them grow? Do you remember learning that plants emit oxygen and take in carbon dioxide, which is opposite of animal life like humans (we emit carbon dioxide and take in oxygen)?

photosynthesis.jpg

If carbon dioxide is fuel for plants, having an increase of it in the ecosystem could result in more plant growth, you might think. I'd never heard anything reported about that until a couple days ago. I was listening to Glenn Beck's radio show and was talking to a scientist named Arthur Robinson who said, yes, several studies have shown a correlation between increased carbon dioxide and increased plant growth.

In addition, the conversation between Beck and Robinson touched on the Oregon Petition, another thing I had never heard of. The Oregon Petition is a petition signed by over 30,000 scientists, 9,000 or so of which hold doctorate degrees, which says, in a nutshell, "Global warming is a myth, a fraud, a lie, etc. and should not be the basis for government policy."

Considering that all of the three frontrunning candidates for the US presidency are in favor of sweeping policy changes in the name of global warming, it would appear to be up to us, as citizens, to raise awareness of these issues. "Cap and trade" policy is nothing more than hefty taxes on businesses which do nothing but funnel money into the government. On a global scale, these policies will seriously stifle technological development in less-developed countries and could result in widespread preventable loss of life!


March 4, 2008

Phil Windley
pjw
Phil Windley's Technometria
» Your Carbon Footprint

Saul Griffith
Saul Griffith
(click to enlarge)

This morning's opening keynote at ETech was Saul Griffith who ran down the steps he used to calculate his own carbon footprint and then what he had to do to put himself on a "carbon diet." It's not pretty. Doing the calculation is relatively straightforward in terms of the math, but gathering the data isn't easy. I'm hoping that we can get his slides when we put the audio up on IT Conversations because there's some great data there.

Speaking of IT Conversations, a recent IEEE show has a section on home co-generation. You can buy a furnace for your home right now that generates electricity to create the heat. You get power and heat from the same plant, making it much more efficient than buying power separately. You're still burning a hydrocarbon, but you're essentially getting the electricity for (close to) free. Retrofitting an existing home isn't a problem.

On a similar topic, today I put up the latest Technometria show on green computing. The guest is Jeremy Faludi, an expert in green computing. We talk about the carbon footprint of various parts of the computing industry and also mention where computers can help by reducing carbon use.

Tags: itconversations etech etech08 energy environment

October 17, 2007

Phil Windley
pjw
Phil Windley's Technometria
» Amory Lovins on IT Conversations

Social Innovations is a sister channel to IT Conversations. They have a 10 part series of lectures by Amory Lovins, the Cofounder, Chairman, and Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute. The series is a from set of five lectures he delivered at Stanford earlier this year.

I'm cross posting the Lovins lectures on ITC. The first lecture (see part I and part II) is on energy efficiency for buildings. This lecture has been highly rated by SIC listeners and I think ITC listeners will enjoy it too.

The second lecture, on energy efficiency in buildings (see part I, part II, and part III), has also been well received.

Many people I talk to are put off my environmentalism because it seems to always be telling them that they should "suffer" for the earth's sake. People don't like that message. One of the refreshing things about Armory's message is that you can do the right thing by the earth and be better off--more from less. That's a refreshing message and accounts for a great deal of the appeal. If you're interested in how good, smart design can result in more comfort with significantly reduced energy footprints, then I think you'll like these lectures as well.

A few notes about listening:

Tags: itconversations energy conservation environment