Canoe Creek Photos

I have finally finished processing all the photos I shot at Canoe Creek State Park on July 12.



Some I am very proud of, some not so much.

How To Choose A Safe Reusable Water Bottle

How To Choose A Safe Reusable Water Bottle from The Good Human explains how to select a reusable water bottle and why that choice matters to you and the environment.

Penn & Teller Expose Bottled Water

Penn & Teller reveal the truth about bottled water. (Language Advisory)

Part 1


Part 2


Earlier post: Thirst for Bottled Water

Thanks to Tor Erling for pointing me to this video content.

Thirst for Bottled Water

This is an issue I've been concerned about for some time. I have gotten reusable bottles that I fill at home. I've tried to convince friends to do the same (success limited). After all, most bottled water is just somebody else's tap water, nothing special.

Thirst for bottled water unleashes flood of environmental concerns - USATODAY.com

Recycling Energy

Energy recycling is a relatively new process that recovers energy from heat that previously has just drifted away into the air such as the steam that escapes from the cooling towers at a generating station.

According to Tom Casten, who is chairman of Recycled Energy Development, a company that works to capture waste heat from industrial clients and uses it to produce electricity, two-thirds of the fuel burned to generate electricity is lost in the process, mostly as waste heat.

"Recent EPA and DOE studies suggest U.S. industries waste enough heat to generate an estimated 200,000 megawatts of power — nearly 20 percent of what this nation uses. That's enough electricity to replace up to 400 coal-fired power plants." (1)

At the big European-owned ArcelorMittal steel mill in East Chicago, IN, energy recycling creates about half of the electricity it uses each day.

In northern Europe energy recycling is much more common than it is here in the US with some countries generating 35% or more of their electricity this way. The US generates about 8% of it's power this way according to the DOE.

The EPA established the Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Partnership in 2001 to encourage cost-effective CHP projects in the United States. In the years since, the CHP Partnership has helped install more than 335 CHP projects, representing 4,450 megawatts (MW) of capacity resulting in emissions reductions equivalent to removing 2 million cars from the highways. (2)

Image details: Electrical Wires Stretching In Front Of Polluting Smoke Towers served by picapp.com
Sources:
(1) NPR: 'Recycling' Energy Seen Saving Companies Money
(2) EPA Combined Heat and Power Partnership
(3) US Department of Energy

100 Fuel Economy Tips from EcoModder.com

The spiraling cost of filling your tank busting your budget? EcoModder.com suggests more than a hundred ways to improve your fuel efficiency. Some examples ...

• Clean out your trunk
• Remove roof racks
• Check tire inflation
• Avoid drive-thrus
• Combine errands
• Close sunroof and windows
• Use cruise control appropriately

See more tips...
Hypermiling, Fuel Economy, EcoModding News and Forum - EcoModder.com

Get Rid Of Junk Mail With These Easy Steps

Link to a transcript of a report by Kelly Frey that first aired May 2, 2008, on WTAE Channel 4 (Pittsburgh) Action News at 5 p.m.

"... more than 100 billion pieces of junk mail are delivered each year. Junk mail in the U.S. accounts for one-third of all the mail delivered in the world. And 44 percent of that mail ends up in a landfill, unopened."

Hate Junk Mail? Get Rid Of It With These Easy Steps - WTAE Pittsburgh

Image details: Mailbox with mail served by picapp.com

Yale Ranks Countries on Environmental Performance

From Newsweek, Yale's environmental performance index of 149 countries. The US comes in at 39 behind such countries as Russia, Germany, Canada, UK, France, Japan, Italy, Spain, and Brazil. China is number 105.

See the complete ranking ...
The World's Greenest Countries | Newsweek Project Green | Newsweek.com

Freecycle Your Used Stuff

If you're like me, you have a lot of used stuff like computer parts, peripherals, PDAs, cell phones, books, CDs, etc., lying around your house stuffed in closets and cabinets taking up valuable space.

Stuff that's too good to trash, but which you no longer have any use for. What do you do with it?

The Freecycle Network™ is a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Membership is free.

The Freecycle Network

The new GM electric car

GM seeks a green jolt with a green Volt - MSNBC.com

"General Motors already has five hybrid vehicles on the road, but it is banking its future on a radical departure onto the green road: By 2010, the automaker hopes to have a plug-in electric passenger car in customers’ driveways."

See my earlier post about the film Who Killed the Electric Car?

Americans and Energy

A recent Gallup Poll showed energy as the fourth most-important priority for Americans , below Iraq, terrorism and national security, and the economy.

Americans prefer energy conservation over increased production, and a majority also favors tougher emissions standards and developing alternative energy sources.

I don't think anything clarifies the attitude of many Americans as much as the following statement --

"It's not that Americans don't want to be environmentally friendly, it's just that we don't have much of a choice," Cristian Crespo wrote. "As an SUV driver, telling me that my only alternative is a Toyota Prius or a Honda Civic is like telling me to eat beef jerky when I'm used to filet mignon."

Have we reached the energy tipping point? - CNN.com

Dutch city to implement geothermal heat

As long ago as 10,000 years, Native Americans used hot springs for cooking. However. it was in July 1904, that Italian Prince Piero Ginori Conti tested the first geothermal power plant using the earth's internal heat to generate electricity.

Hague to warm 4,000 homes with geothermal heat - USATODAY.com

More than 70 countries presently use geothermal energy commercially, accounting for about 0.42% of the world's energy supply. Over half of Iceland's energy is from geothermal sources, however the US produces the most geothermal energy from more than 40 power plants.

Learn more about geothermal energy ...
Wikipedia
RenewableEnergyAccess.com
Energy Kid's Page

Pennsylvania Wind Farm Goes Online

Rendell Dedicates Locust Ridge Wind Farm

Pennsylvania is already a leader in wind energy production on the East Coast with 179 megawatts of capacity, including Locust Ridge. Within the next 12 months, the commonwealth expects new wind farm projects will add another 214 MW of capacity and more than double the state’s current capacity.

From GantDaily.com

World's Largest Tidal Turbine

1.2 MegaWatts: World's Largest Tidal Turbine To Be Installed (TreeHugger)

This is an intriguing source of green energy. Maybe they could put wind turbines on top them and multiply the energy output.

The impact on sea life may be an issue that needs more investigation.

Note: The fabrication of these turbines is being done at the same facility that built the Titanic.

Texas Leads in Carbon Emissions

Texas leads in carbon emissions - MSNBC.com

Texas, the leader in emitting ... greenhouse gas, cranks out more than the next two biggest producers combined, California and Pennsylvania, which together have twice Texas’ population.

The largest portion of U.S. greenhouse gases are the result of emissions from generating electricity, almost 40 percent. Close behind are transportation emissions, source of about one-third of U.S. production of carbon dioxide.

On a per-person basis, Wyoming generates more carbon dioxide than any other state: 138 tons of it a year. Idaho emits the least carbon dioxide per person, less than 23,000 pounds a year.

A Good Idea But Not In My Backyard

Homeowners trying to harvest wind energy have been frustrated by zoning regulations across the country.

"Planning and zoning are the single biggest obstacle to wind energy in the United States," said Roy Butler, owner of Four Winds Renewable Energy in western New York, who often consults with local governments faced with turbine permit requests.

Local zoning stymies U.S. wind power - USATODAY.com

"Rhode Island Renewable Energy owner Dave Anderson said promoting turbines in some wind-fertile areas can be almost futile, since neighbors there 'want to be green, and they think it's a great idea and, you know, we've got to do something about the Middle East. But 'Just don't do it in my backyard.'"

Carbon Offsets

Carbon offset market raises questions - MSNBC.com

Carbon offsets are a way to counterbalance the use of traditional energy resources by paying money toward renewable, less- or non-polluting energy projects.

There is a growing retail market in carbon offsets both by for-profit and nonprofit providers. This market is largely unregulated and lacking in standards.

Environmentalists are quick to note that carbon offsets do have the potential to do good. Carlson said one major benefit of carbon offsets is that they often force people to evaluate how much carbon they actually are responsible for, hopefully spurning people to first make reductions and then buy offsets. It’s also seen as a practical way to fund renewable energy projects ranging from wind power to solar energy.

If you are considering carbon offsets there are a few things to look for including proof the project is having a positive impact, does the contribution prompt the provider to do something other than it would have anyway, and is the project independently verified.

Running Your Car on Water and Aluminum

Clean energy claim: Aluminum in car tanks - MSNBC.com

A Purdue University professor and engineer says he and students have invented a way to extract hydrogen "on demand" from water using an aluminum alloy.

The hydrogen would be generated in a tank (similar in size to a current gas tank) onbard the individual vehicle eliminating the need to transport or store the hydrogen.

"It's a simple matter to convert ordinary internal combustion engines to run on hydrogen," Woodall said. "All you have to do is replace the gasoline fuel injector with a hydrogen injector."

Basics about hydrogen

Yahoo! Green

Take action to fight global warming.

Yahoo! Green is a new place to join with a community of people concerned with reducing CO2 emissions, thus making a better planet.

Having Your Cake While Eating It

Coal plant loans offset carbon cuts - washingtonpost.com - MSNBC.com

A Depression-era program to bring electricity to rural areas is providing government support to the rush to coal plants by the nation's rural electric cooperatives who plan to spend $35 billion to build conventional coal plants over the next 10 years, enough to offset all state and federal efforts to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions over that time.

Rural co-ops rely on coal for 80 percent of their electricity, compared with 50 percent for the rest of the country, and electricity demand at rural co-ops is growing at twice the national rate.