A New Way to Fuel Your Car

            
       According to the article, "Houston Getting Extensive EV Charging Network," the nation will finally be exposed to more eco-friendly ways to travel other than gasoline. If you are one who wants to purchase an electric car, however, aren't sure as to how you will charge it, New Jersey has the answer.
              NRG Energy, a New Jersey-based company, is building the nation's first privately funded network of charging stations. These electric vehicle charging stations will be found in Houston. Electrival vehicle drivers can subscribe to the service. By doing so, they will be able to access both private, home-based as well as public charging stations around the city. Megan Treacy from EcoGeek states that this new network is called evGo and by the end of 2011, everyone will be put within a five mile charging station.

              Subscriptions will vary. For $49 a month, customers will be provided their own charging station that looks like the one above. For $89 a month, customers will have access to a network up to 150 charging stations located in parking lots across the city including Best Buy, Walgreens, and other retail locations. These chargers will fully charge a battery in 25 minutes- just enough time to grab a bite to eat while charging your car!
             If the $10 million evGo network is successful in Houtston, then the company will expand the idea to other major cities such as New York and Dallas. Reason why they started it in Houston is because NRG is focusing on opening plants where the electricity industry is deregulated, like Texas. Also, electric vehicles have been released in Houston such as the Nissan LEAF, Chevy Volt, and the Ford Focus Electric.

Below is a map of all the EvGo stations where you will soon be able to find electric vehicle charging stations in the city of Houston.

This relates to class because it's another way to be eco-friendly. Previous blogs were viewed during class about energy efficient cars. Now, there are ways to re"fuel" the electric vehicles by creating charging stations throughout cities. 

Environmentally Friendly from Cradle to Cradle

         You may wonder how many diapers are being used a day. Of the millions of diapers being disposed, exactly where do they all go? I went out on a further search to find out.

         According to gDiapers (eco-friendly diaper company), "50 million diapers get tossed each day and each one takes up to 500 years to biodegrade. Ick. Home compost, toss, or flush the biodegradable gRefill for the smallest footprint on earth. gDiapers break down in 50-150 days."

       To reduce the statistics, gDiapers are being sold all across the country. These diapers are the most eco-friendly diaper available. No landfill is required for disposal. Simply, you flush the dirty diaper down the toilet. You can either purchase the disposable diaper with a 100% biodegradable gRefill or you have the opportunity to purchase the super-soft "trim fit" gCloth inserts. gDiapers are plastic-free, elemental chlorine free, latex free, and perfume free. Babies can also flaunt these style-icons by wearing an array of different colored gDiapers.

        gDiapers have a design that when the diaper gets soiled, you just snap off the dirty liner of the gPants and replace it with a new liner, and reuse the gPants over and over. Of course, these diapers don't have a nylon liner, therefore your baby's bottom won't get a diaper rash. Don't worry, you won't be replacing your baby's diaper every five minutes, either. One of the secrets to gDiapers is hemp. Believe it or not, hemp actually becomes more absorbant. The more you wash gCloth inserts, the more comfortable and softer they will be. Less cost, Less washing, and Less footprint!

                                      

   

Reason for disposal:

    By sending the biodegradable gRefill down the toilet, you are sending it somewhere where it can still do some good.  Once the contents of your diapers arrive at the wastewater treatment plant, valuable nutrients can be recovered and turned into biosolids, which are then used for fertilizer.

click here to get gCloth tricks and tidbits

Using Paper to Tell Time

  
     Emma Grady discovered the making of the first biodegradable watch on TreeHugger! How are these watches composed? These watches are similar to the material of the bands you receive at concerts; the fine paper material. Altanus Patch Timepiece has created the first biodegradable paper watch.
    The 11 gram (.3 oz) watches will definitely be the trend of the season. Each watch is unique in design and offered in neon colors of your choice. It's hard to imagine after viewing pictures of these watches how any two are alike! Yes, these watches are paper, but don't worry, they are waterproof!
               After seeing these watches, I wondered how these watches function by being composed of paper. So, I went on a greater search to find the answer. I went on Altanus website to see if they had any information as to how these watches work. The website is all in french, so i went on a further search to see how everything is done.
           What I found was that it uses a LED display and the watch is protected with a waterproof and tear coating. The design was influenced by papier-mâché  floats at the annual carnival festival in Viareggio, Tuscandy. To create these fashion watches, it took four years of research and development.
      Currently, these watches are sold in England, but it won't be long until they will soon be seen in the United States. To purchase one of these watches, it will cost you $33.50 in American currency. What cooler way to show off the latest eco friendly fashion trend than to support Altanus Patch Watch?

Should the White House be called the Green House?

  Ecogeek recently posted a blog titled "Solar Power Coming to the White House in 2011," talking about the White House installing solar panels. I find it ironic that a group of college students were turned down by the White House security, as they were insisting to put the Carter-era solar panels back onto the White House.  After discussion, the Obama administration decided to go back to using solar panels, but by installing new ones.
            
  Nancy Sutley, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, stated:
"President Obama has said the Federal Government has to lead by example in creating opportunity and jobs in clean energy.  By installing solar panels on arguably the most famous house in the country, his residence, the President is underscoring that commitment to lead and the promise and importance of renewable energy in the United States."

    Nancy has a good point when she says the Federal Government has to lead by example. Obama talks about the environmental issues and has ways to address them and fix them, however, he himself isn't doing anything about it. By installing solar panels, it will save a huge amount of energy--especially for the white house.Though, there is no exact number of kilowatts, but it is said to be a pretty good amount. Right now, the DOE is asking companies to submit proposals for the solar panel contract. No one is sure yet as to will be responsible for the installations, so we will have to wait a bit until further information is released.

   The White House will use the solar panels to generate a hot water system as well as home to a solar PV system. This will all take place by Spring 2011.

    Like Megan Treacy, author of this article, I too feel that installing solar panels in the white house is the best thing Obama can do at this point. His personal leadership may be able to spread across the nation and soon renewable energy will be used all throughout. Maybe Obama should have thought about the pro's of installing solar panels before he pushed away a crowd of college students protesting. 

    Solar panels can be a really good addition onto your home. You may ask yourself why would you even want to heat your house with solar panels, why not just flip a switch? Below are some pros:

• No pollution
• Saves you money (no gasoline expenses)
• Government offers Tax Breaks
• Silent (no noise)
• Maintenance free

Obviously, Obama didn't just come to the decision to install solar panels due to a group of college students. The students' ideas were an example of population pressures and consumption trends contributing to environmental problems. Obama formed curiosity to the rising problem of renewable energy, and was skeptical whether it will work or not. Since they were used in the past, Obama will use prior knowledge and hopefully this installation will be a success.

Ford Electric is the New Nissan Leaf

I'm sure everyone has heard of the new "green" cars. Most of them are produced by Nissan and GM. Ford is now getting its own electric vehicle. This new vehicle, Focus Electric, is said to be released in early 2011. The Focus Electric will run on a battery electric system in about a 100 mile range.
      Though Nissan has already come out with the Leaf, another battery run vehicle, the Focus Electric uses a liquid system for both cooling and heatinga the lithium-ion battery pack. The thermal regulation is important for both the performance and safety of the vehicle. Don't worry though, you won't have to calculate every 100 miles you drive until you need to recharge your car. One of the many cool factors of the Ford Electric is that its energy management will activate the system when a battery charge is needed. This thermal management system will cool the batteries to the correct temperature in order to charge them. Charging the batteries at an ideal temperature will ensure you a longer ride in your Ford Electric.
          You may be thinking that this vehicle can save the environment. However, Ford is also offering the same vehicle with a conventional gas engine. The new Ford Electric is actually the same vehcile as a Ford Focus, only the Electric uses an electric drive rather than a separate model of the car. Coming out with the same vehicle with an eco and not so eco friendly engine gives the manufactoring companies flexibility since they will have the same basic car parts for the Focus and the Electric.            
          This relates to our everyday commentary in environmental. Constantly, we are deciding in which ways we can go "green." Producing an electric car not only gets rid of the carbon dioxide/fossil fuel emissions, but also saves car parts. Car parts are being saved because Ford can use the same parts whether they are producing a Focus or the new 2011 Electric. What better way to be eco friendly than to purchase an electric car? If you want to read about it more, visit http://www.ecogeek.org/automobiles/3300-focus-electric-is-fords-ev-for-2011?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EcoGeek+%28EcoGeek%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Kindle Saving the Environment

As I was reading, "The Kindle and The Environment," on http://www.ecogeek.org/digitizing/3278-the-kindle-and-the-environment?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EcoGeek+%28EcoGeek%29&utm_content=Google+Reader my views towards the Kindle has changed greatly.

At first, I asked myself why someone would want to purchase books on a handheld devise. Why can't someone just be happy with buying a book rather than spending money to buy a Kindle, and then more books ontop of that?
By reading on a Kindle, you are saving 125 million trees a year. However, the Kindle does need electricity to run. The amount though, is very small; much smaller than the amount laptops and cell phones need to generate. If you do choose to purchase the Kindle, realize that you are replacing 20 books when upgrading. If you plan on using the Kindle as a reading device rather than wasting paper, make sure you are an avid reader that will actually purchase books. If you don't plan on having atleast 20 books on your Kindle, you're just hurting the environment.
According to Bill Web, some libraries lend out e-books similar to the Kindle. Imagine if libraries are using technologies like this to check out books to the public, think about how much paper is being saved. Let's take a look:

Paper Being Saved:

• 
  
  
  Rough draft paper
• 
  
  
  Completed draft
• 
  
  
  Final draft with revisions from publishing company
• 
  
  
   Final book that's completed
• 
  
  Millions of copies that are sold

All in all, the Kindle is saving the environment one book at a time. I'm not advertising or marketing the Kindle, however I am trying to get the point across that too much paper is being used. Technology is advancing, and if there are products like these, then take advantage and use them.

Updating post

I'm posting again, just to make sure it's working for once